At Cosmopolitan, we’re famous for keeping your secrets. And for getting to the bottom of your most burning questions. In a new podcast, we’re turning our notorious Cosmo Confessions into a safe space to talk out all the gory but helpful details of getting through life’s weirdest stuff.
Hi! I’m your host, Mia Lardiere, and each week on Confessions, a few special guests and I dig into an anonymous confession from a reader or listener. We’ll cover everything from dealing with toxic in-laws to friends with messy finances, and of course, really awkward sex.
Secrets carry so much shame. If we talked about them, we might realize that we’re not alone.
Get to know your host!
A little about me: I’m a Scorpio, Aries, Aries, so I love keeping secrets...and I love acting on them even more. 😈 I am the emerging platforms director at Cosmo, which means that I oversee content and strategy for the brand on TikTok (you follow us, right?) and for special projects, like this podcast!
If you listen to enough episodes of Confessions, you’ll understand that this show might be a ruse to get the love of my life, Patrick Dempsey, to see me and trust me with his soul. (ILU, Patty.) (Jon Hamm, if Patrick is not available to fall in love with me, I am also waiting for you.) (Sorry to my actual boyfriend who I actually love.)
Listen to Confessions wherever you get your podcasts:
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‘Confessions’ is made in collaboration with editaudio. Special thanks to Shark Beauty™ for keeping our hair looking gorgeous during these conversations with the Shark™ FlexStyle and to Cosmo Living for decorating our recording studio.
All the Episodes of Cosmo Confessions
Episode 1: “My In-Laws Hate Me and Think I Stole Their Son”
Here’s a word that might send a shiver down your spine depending on your luck in this lifetime: in-laws. Yeeeah. I’ll give you a minute to unclench. While your in-laws might make Thanksgiving a royal headache or send you unsolicited articles about your parenting choices, they probably haven’t launched a full-blown smear campaign against you…to your own husband. And if they have, well, you’ll relate to this listener.
Episode 2: “I Wish I Could Be a Dad”
Becoming a parent is a daunting adventure for many, and social media often magnifies its challenges. Our listener shares that after witnessing the primal scream of under-resourced parents (read: mostly mothers) on Instagram during the pandemic, she is more afraid than ever about becoming a mom. The stats validate her concerns: As of 2016, women spend about 4 hours a day on unpaid work, compared with about 2.5 hours for men according to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
Episode 3: “I’m Annoyed by My Friend’s Credit Card Debt”
Is it helpful or nosy to give your friends unsolicited financial advice? In this episode, our listener is sick of their friend borrowing money to pay their electric bill when Miu Miu shoes are sitting in their closet and their credit card is maxed out. All we know is that setting boundaries with your bestie gets sticky when money is involved.
Episode 4: “Opening Up My Marriage Sexually Nearly Ended in Divorce”
Opening up a relationship can be a very fulfilling and exciting choice for a couple. In this instance, our listener and their partner opened up their marriage sexually but agreed to draw a boundary: no catching feelings. Still, her spouse fell in love with someone else and it nearly ended in a divorce. How should they build their relationship back after major trust was lost?
Episode 5: “I’m Torn Between My Family and My Dream Job in the Big City”
Building your life after college is an emotional game of “choose your own adventure.” Our listener is just about to graduate, and while her dream has been to live in New York City and pursue a career in fashion journalism, her family just bought a home far away from Manhattan. She’s faced with a choice: Stay with her family and find a remote job or spread her wings and leave home to live the city life she’s always dreamed of.
Episode 6: “My Ex Told Me I Don’t Make Enough Money to Be With Him…but I Can’t Stop Thinking About Him”
There are bad exes...and then there are harmful exes. Unfortunately, this discussion is focused on the latter. Our listener was stuck in a relationship with a person who, along with his family, went out of their way to rob her of her self-worth. Now that she’s single and free, she’s having trouble picking up the pieces from her time with this man. All she wants is to be able to move on.
And heads-up: This episode contains discussion of abuse. The National Domestic Violence Hotline is available 24/7 at 800-799-7233 if you or a loved one are in need of help.
Episode 7: “The Sex Confessions Episode”
We’re switching up the format in this episode and hearing confessions from SEVERAL listeners related to a topic that we probably (unfortunately) all know something about—bad, weird, and awkward sex. At Cosmo, we’re all about having good sex, but sometimes, things just go awry. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ You live and you learn from those experiences, but you sure never forget them.
Episode 8: “I Can’t Travel in Peace While Being Black”
Our listener caught the travel bug from influencers on Instagram, but she’s afraid that she will have a different experience than them in the same beautiful, dazzling locations across the globe because she’s Black. Her family members and friends have shared their tales of racism while traveling abroad—being mistaken for a sex worker in Italy or being treated like a zoo animal in China. Is it worth spending a bucket of money on a trip that will make her feel violated?
Episode 9: “I Have a Huge Crush on a Coworker…and I’m Married”
It’s just nature that we want what we can’t have. 🎻 In this confession, our listener is struggling with an office crush that’s been haunting her for 18 months. “It’s so painful as nothing will ever happen between us, but the infatuation is so persistent,” she says. Oh, and she’s married, which makes matters worse. How can she get this man out of her head without finding a new job?
Episode 10: “I H-A-T-E My Best Friend’s New Partner”
Sometimes, telling your best friend the truth means that feelings might get hurt. In these situations, you have to ask yourself, Am I willing to risk a friendship to do what I believe is the right thing? Our listener is not a fan of her best friend’s girlfriend and things are moving quickly—like, moving in together after six months quickly. Should she tell her how she feels or let the train wreck keep rolling by?
Episode 11: “I Don’t Want to Live in Reality—I Want to Be Delusional”
The world sucks. Your imagination is probably a nicer, safer place. The listener in this episode is writing in to ask if it’s irresponsible to give herself permission to be delusional. If everyone else on TikTok can be delulu, why can’t she?
Episode 12: “I Had a Sex Dream About My Best Friend’s Boyfriend”
Our listener had a sex dream about her best friend’s boyfriend. 😟 She’s never really been into him, so now she feels super awkward. What does this kind of dream mean? Does she secretly like her best friend’s boo??
Episode 13: “I Can’t Find Closure After My Friend Broke Up With Me”
A friendship breakup can hurt more than a romantic breakup, especially when you don’t see it coming. This listener’s friend of over a decade suddenly lost her dad by suicide. She supported her through this grieving process—her friend even shared sensitive details about her dad’s death that she likely didn’t tell anyone else. One day, our listener’s friend stopped answering her text messages and their 10-years-plus friendship was over. How is our listener just supposed to move on without a goodbye?
Heads-up: This episode contains discussion of suicide. If you or a loved one are struggling, the Suicide & Crisis lifeline is 988.
Episode 14: “I Love My Relationship, but I Want to Go to Couples Therapy”
This confession gets into a topic that carries a lot of stigma: couples therapy. Most people think that if you’re in counseling, your marriage, relationship, whatever, is about to be kaput. Not so! People seek out therapy together for a number of reasons other than hating each other’s guts, like our listener on this episode, who wants to go to couples therapy with her partner to talk through the next big stages of life together. Her partner thinks this is a waste of money because their relationship is “great as is.” Should she push him to go to therapy, or are there other, less expensive ways that they can work on their relationship together?
Episode 15: "I Blame My Sex Life at 60 on My Childhood"
If you’re having sex in your 20s, you probably can’t imagine your sex life any other way. You’re trying new things, wearing cute lingerie, ready to go at a moment’s notice, and, hopefully, feeling pretty good about how you look naked (because you do). So what happens after you turn 60 and things are, well, different? Maybe you can’t stretch into that position you used to love. Maybe your lifelong partner in being naughty isn’t with us anymore and you’re forced to figure out how to hook up with strangers all over again. Our listener this week is struggling with finding the fun in sex after she turned 60 and feels that growing up during a time when women were discouraged from exploring their sexuality is to blame for her shame around sex. She wants to know how to rid herself of anxiety and find the fun in the bedroom again.
Got a secret to share? Leave us a voicemail.
