What happens when you get a podcast, YouTube channel, and two young, successful women who are deeply immersed in the digital age of dating and relationships? REALITY BYTES, the new free podcast/web show on YouTube hosted by Stephanie Beatriz (Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s “Rosa Diaz”) & Courtney Kocak (writer on Amazon’s Danger & Eggs).
I didn’t realize how important the women in my life would be until I was about 16. All of a sudden, I had about 15,000 questions and concerns about my thoughts and feelings with absolutely no idea how to go about finding the answers. Having REALITY BYTES back then could have saved me from wasting my time on some losers, that’s for sure. It’s like having a little BFF squad in your pocket. Even now as a 31 year old woman in a long term relationship, at the end of each episode I feel a little bit more badass.
Stephanie Beatriz and Courtney Kocak are best friends. It’s kind of the entire premise of their show. They discuss all of the good, juicy, save-it-for-your-BFF dramatic life stuff every week and leave nothing off-limits. Well, except maybe names and addresses, but they definitely Google image search a guest’s husband on their phones during an episode. Absolutely no love, sex, or relationship stone will be left unturned!
You’ll hear about weird Tinder dates, delicate long distance relationships, hilarious and embarrassing stories, essential advice about self-care in relationships, incredible tales from the world of online dating, and who knows what else. These girls and their guests are open books, ready to dish the most hilarious and insightful relationship advice ever.
Each Tuesday, a new episode is uploaded as a talk-show style webisode or audio podcast. For the last half of each episode, after about 20 minutes of random chit-chat, they bring on an awesome guest like Emily V. Gordon, Whitney Bell, and Allison Rankin. Most of the guests are ladies, but they sneak a few cool dudes in there, too, like Joe lo Truglio!
Aside from the weekly posting schedule, there’s very little structure to this podcast – in a good way. Usually, that would bother me, but it really does just feel like you’re eavesdropping a group of close friends talking about how f@#%ing wacky it is to try to find love in the digital age. I get all of the benefits of an afternoon with girlfriends without the emotional or physical investments – an introvert’s dream!
Favorite REALITY BYTES Episodes
This podcast-web-series-talk-show started in September 2016, but they came out of the gates running. (Is that a phrase?) In combination with the JASH network, which hosts several of my favorite internet treasures such as Getting Doug with High and support funny, talented people like Sarah Silverman, Tim & Eric, and Michael Cera.
There are nearly twenty episodes total already, and there’s no point in stopping now! Here are my favorite episodes of the ones I’ve seen:
Hopefully, there will be many more episodes to come, but in the meantime, they have 17 excellent episodes to occupy nearly a full day of your time.