Welcome to Is This Real Life, a Bravo podcast that relates our favorite shows to our own lives in the world around us.

I'm your host, Mandy Sleutzer. Let's get to it.

Hi, everyone. I hope you're having a good week. I know this time of year can be difficult for a lot of

people. The holidays, while lovely and happy, some of the time can also be sort of melancholy,

especially if you're missing a loved one. And I've shared with you guys that I lost my mom seven years ago in December.

So it can be a tough time for me too. But it also had me reflecting on this podcast and how it got

started. I'm coming up on five years of podcasting, which is absolutely mind-blowing.

I never thought I would still be doing this. I started it kind of as a hobby of something to do

to take my mind off of everything that was happening in D.C. that I was, you know, in work and everything

and something that brought me joy.

And the housewives and these shows on Bravo, I got really into after my mother's death.

I'd watched them before and always enjoyed them, but I was more of a casual fan.

I mean, I'd watch the shows, but I wasn't like deep into it.

And then, you know, my mom died and my apartment burned down. It was just a rough, rough time. And

there was almost no show that I could watch because I felt like things would come up, like with between a mom

and a daughter or a death or something and it would make me emotional and I wouldn't want to

watch it anymore. But I found the housewives. And at the time, I'd only been watching the

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, I think, and maybe the OC, but it was winter. it was dark, I was depressed, and I decided,

okay, I'm going to start the Real Housewives of Atlanta. And these women made me howl with

laughter. I mean, I don't know if I was laughing out loud because I was so depressed at the time,

but I mean, they put a smile on my face

when nothing else could. And the craziness of Vanderpump Rules brought me, you know, some joy.

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