Reality Life with Kate Casey
Daily podcast about unscripted television. Kate Casey interviews the talent, producers, and directors of reality shows, documentaries, and docuseries. Saturday episodes tell incredible person stories.
Latest Episodes
Zach Heinzerling, the Emmy-winning, Oscar-nominated director behind Netflix's new four-part documentary series Rafa. The series follows Rafael Nadal across the final year of his career, from his 2024 return through his retirement, while reaching back across two decades to tell the fuller story of one of the most decorated and most physically punished athletes in the history of tennis. The series goes beyond the 22 Grand Slams and 14 French Open titles to reveal what it cost to win them: a rare, incurable foot condition called Müller-Weiss syndrome, diagnosed when Rafa was just nineteen; years of aggressive medical intervention that left him with perforated intestines; and a 2022 Roland Garros run played on a foot deadened by nerve-blocking injections. For the first time on camera, Rafa removes his sock and shows the foot itself — an image he had guarded from the public for twenty years.
The series also explores the formative role of his uncle and longtime coach Toni Nadal, whose tough-love methods shaped Rafa from the age of three; the anxiety and ritual beneath the on-court persona; and the rivalries with Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic that defined a generation, including the now-famous Laver Cup farewell where Rafa and Federer sat side by side and wept.
Featuring testimony from Federer, Djokovic, John McEnroe, and the family, coaches, and inner circle who have stood beside Nadal his entire career, Rafa is less a highlight reel than a portrait of a champion in negotiation with his own body — and an answer, or an attempt at one, to the question of why he kept playing long after that body told him to stop.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
The Story Behind My Podcast: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/i-was-the-narrator-of-my-own-family
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Kate unpacks the Summer House on Bravo, and Sarah Fraser of The Sarah Fraser Show joins to catch up on the Duggar family issues.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
The Story Behind My Podcast: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/i-was-the-narrator-of-my-own-family
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey
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Executive producer Mark Infante and pro pickleball star Anna Bright join Kate to talk about PARTNERS, the six-part Prime Video documentary series following the meteoric rise of the Professional Pickleball Association (PPA), the league that, in less than five years, has gone from scrappy upstart to the center of an international phenomenon.
Anna Bright is a former Division I tennis standout at UC Berkeley turned top-ranked PPA and MLP pro, known for her aggressive style, lethal two-handed backhand, and high-profile partnership with world No. 1 Anna Leigh Waters. She gives a rare inside look at life on tour: how the sport actually works, what sets it apart, the wild financial transformation of pro pickleball, and the rivalries and romances that make the league must-watch TV.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
The Story Behind My Podcast: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/i-was-the-narrator-of-my-own-family
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Brian Moylan is back to help Kate break down The Valley, Summer House, and Real Housewives of Rhode Island on Bravo.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
The Story Behind My Podcast: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/i-was-the-narrator-of-my-own-family
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
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Kate discusses what to watch this week including Calabasas Confidential (Netflix), The Many Lives of Benjaman Kyle (ID Discovery/HBO Max), Summer House Reunion (Bravo), and World War II With Tom Hanks (History Channel).
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Melissa and Kate first met when their sons played flag football together as kids. In this sobering episode, Melissa shares the terrifying story of how her 14-year-old son was approached by an older man on a public dock in Newport Beach in the middle of the day. Claiming he was suicidal, the man drew the teenager into an increasingly personal conversation, asked for his phone number, and later attempted to contact him again through text messages.
After investigating with the help of a local Nextdoor post and Megan’s Law records, Melissa discovered the man is a convicted violent sexual predator with a history involving kidnapping, lewd acts with a minor, and a stabbing that led to prison time. Melissa explains how she uncovered the truth, the emotional toll on her family, and why she wants other parents to understand how predators can manipulate young people through fear, sympathy, and emotional pressure—even in seemingly safe public places.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Shannon and Eric Evangelista, and retired FBI Special Agent Ken Maxwell, discuss the two-night docuseries about a man found naked and injured behind a rural Georgia Burger King in August 2004, a man who couldn't remember his own name, and called himself "Benjaman Kyle."
What began as a mission to help Benjaman recover his identity became something far darker. Over more than a decade of reporting, filmmakers Shannon and Eric Evangelista watched the cracks in his story widen into a true crime labyrinth, three unsolved cold cases, a possible connection to a powerful Midwestern crime family, and escalating threats that ultimately put one of their own in danger.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
The Story Behind My Podcast: https://katecasey.substack.com/p/i-was-the-narrator-of-my-own-family
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
In the summer of 2023, two Utah teenagers barricaded themselves in an upstairs bedroom and livestreamed the standoff on TikTok for fifty-four days. Ty and Brynlee Larson were refusing a family court order that would have placed them in a reunification program with their father, Brent Larson, whom they had accused of sexual and emotional abuse, allegations he has consistently denied and was never criminally charged for. Three years later, their case is the subject of a four-part Hulu and Disney+ docuseries. Kate spoke with the director Caitlin Keating to talk about how she reported the story, what the court record could and couldn't show, and why this particular custody case became a national flashpoint.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Patrick Hickey, co-host of the Bad TV podcast, joins Kate to give his review of The Crash on Netflix, discuss the cast dynamics of The Real Housewives of Rhode Island, and explain what Dorit needs to do before she starts filming another season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/katecaseyca
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itskatecasey?lang=en
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245
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See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
A grown man in a swimming pool, fully clothed, hiding under a deck. That's the scene that opens Anna Peele's new book, and, depending on who you ask, the moment Love Island became one of the biggest shows in the world. Author Anna Peele joins Kaate to talk about Enter the Villa: The (Unauthorized) Reality Behind Love Island, her two-year investigation into how a canceled 2005 disaster became a cultural juggernaut, what nearly a hundred interviews taught her about why the show works on us, and what it costs the people who make it.
Reality Life with Kate Casey
What to Watch List: https://katecasey.substack.com
Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/katecasey
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katecasey
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/katecaseyca
Tik Tok: https://www.tiktok.com/@itskatecasey?lang=en
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/113157919338245
Amazon List: https://www.amazon.com/shop/katecasey
Like it to Know It: https://www.shopltk.com/explore/katecasey
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.