Vibes Only
The polls are broken, the stakes are unprecedented, and vibes drive the future of American politics.
Every Thursday, political strategist Brian Derrick (founder of Oath) and new media strategist Glennis Meagher (co-founder of Generator Collective) break down the biggest stories in American politics, elections, and culture.
This isn't your standard cable news commentary. Get an insider's look at the US political machine, current news of the week, and the digital strategy shaping our world - delivered with the honesty, insight, and humor of two people who've actually worked in the trenches of US politics.
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Vibes Only
How 3 Creators Ended a Politician's Career (Mrs. Frazzled Full Interview)
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Mrs. Frazzled (Arielle Fodor) did not set out to end a congressman's career. In this full bonus interview, the TikTok creator sits down with Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher to walk through exactly how she and a coalition of independent creators surfaced the sexual misconduct allegations that ended Eric Swalwell's run for California governor and his time in Congress.
In this bonus episode of Vibes Only, Brian Derrick and Glennis Meagher chat with Arielle about the parts of the scandal nobody posts, like…
- buying an umbrella insurance policy on her house as protection for her family
- testing the Swalwell story on Threads before she ever made a video
- calling CNN herself because she could not carry the reporting alone
- And what it feels like to have an OPPO research binder written on you
Also: why she is done with investigative content for good, how broken disclosure laws turn every creator into a suspected paid operative, and her advice for anyone trying to build real trust in political media right now.
This is the full conversation behind Thursday's episode.
If Vibes Only makes your week make sense, follow the show and leave a rating and review. It genuinely moves us up the charts and helps more people find the vibes. And the receipts.
EPISODE LINKS
Arielle Fodor aka Mrs. Frazzled on TikTok
Cheyenne Hunt's Org "Reckoning Action"
Do you feel like our politicians act like eight-year-olds? Because I often do, and that is why I'm obsessed with Mrs. Frazzled, who literally talks to our politicians like they are kindergartners on her Instagram.… MRS. FRAZZLED: and it makes me so happy you have other things to be working on
GLENNIS:right now? Yes, we are thrilled to have Arielle Fodor here, AKA Mrs. Frazzled. Follow her on all platforms. And we are here today to talk about her unique positioning in the Eric Swalwell takedown.
BRIAN:Yeah, if you don't know, it was actually content creators who were the first people to really bring the story to light in the California gubernatorial primary that Eric Swalwell was a sex pest, and she was the leader of that entire effort. So we're excited to have her on today to talk not just about that, but what it means for the creator ecosystem that deeply influences our politics, our views on our political leaders, and, I mean, hey, that's how you all see us.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Hi,
GLENNIS:Brian.
MRS. FRAZZLED:I don't think I've, like, formally met Brian- I know What?… in actual, like… I know we haven't met in person, but I don't think we've, like, spoken. What? Have we ever had a meeting?
BRIAN:Is that true?
MRS. FRAZZLED:We meant to. Oh
BRIAN:my gosh, why do I feel like we, like, met at the DNC or something? That's crazy.
MRS. FRAZZLED:I wasn't there. I know. Everybody thinks I was at the DNC- Maybe- … which is honestly good for my brand, because I didn't have to go, but everybody's like, "Oh, she was there. She's, like-
BRIAN:Yeah… MRS. FRAZZLED: eating the chicken it was, you know…" It's crazy.
GLENNIS:Well, people probably thought you were there because you're so impactful.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Oh my God. Well, thank you. It's nice for people to think that you're impactful and then you don't actually have to get on the fricking plane. Life hack.
BRIAN:Wow, I can't believe that. I feel like I know you.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Oh my God, I know. Same. Your hair looks amazing, Glennis.
GLENNIS:Thank you. I'm trying to slowly go… This is, like, my natural color.
MRS. FRAZZLED:It looks lush. It's, like, moisturized to the gods.
GLENNIS:I sh- I started using milk, Davines, like, milk something. I was over-conditioning in the shower. I don't know. I was a little insecure about slowly going back to my natural color, so. It
MRS. FRAZZLED:looks so good.
GLENNIS:Thank you. I was also, like, running numbers on my life, and I was like, "You spend a lot of money- I know … on your hair It's
MRS. FRAZZLED:hard though
GLENNIS:It's really hard 'cause it's- Yes … one of your most, like, valuable assets, right? Yes. Like your hair, and it's, like, technically easy upkeep. When I was spending upwards of $1,000 every, you know… Men go and they sit down, and they're just like-
MRS. FRAZZLED:It's so… It's, like, 60 bucks sometimes. My husband gets, like, a haircut, and I'm like, "I couldn't even imagine."
GLENNIS:Okay, great. I just clo- I just… If you heard that signal, I just shut down my signal. Chaos. We are absolutely thrilled to have Arielle with us here today on Vibes Only. How are you doing?
MRS. FRAZZLED:I'm doing good. I'm so happy to be here. Thank you so much for having me. This is such a wonderful opportunity to yap with you, which is a dream of mine, so perfect.
GLENNIS:We're yappers, and we're thrilled to yap with you because we have a lot to talk to you about. You have been hard at work using your platform, your trust with your audience to help better the Democratic Party. For those who don't know, although I guess everyone knows at this point, but if you don't, Arielle, with two other women, was it with Cheyenne Hunt from- Mm-hmm … Gen Z for Change Change and Meg at Pretty Informed Girls, you guys worked as a coalition to help voice what was the open secret of Eric Swalwell, uh, the former congressman, and former candidate for governor, and you ended his career because he is a bad, bad man.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yes. He's a bad, bad man, and you know what, it's so funny that you mention that everybody knows by now. Thousands of people voted for him in the election, and I was like, "Huh. Is that an education gap we must address or, or…" Like, 27,988 people voted for him in the
GLENNIS:election here. Yeah. It's something that Brian and I have been talking about on this pod. We had Eliza Orlins on a couple weeks ago because she's really, really, really hammering on the Epstein class and continuing that drumbeat to talk about it and talk about who is protecting the Epstein class class. And last week we're talking about Graham Platner and how Mainers did in fact vote for him when we do know that he has severe, severe judgment issues. But it's a very valid point that, yeah, people then continued to vote for him when it was clearly adjudicated that he is a criminal
BRIAN:a sex pest.
GLENNIS:Yeah, allegedly a criminal. Yeah.
BRIAN:I feel like you can kind of get 20,000 votes in California behind a bag of dog shit. You know what I mean? Like, you- Yeah … I think that once your name's on the ballot, if, if everyone in the state has heard your name in any context, you're gonna get some votes just 'cause people have no idea what the fuck is happening in this crazy world that we live in. Any is too many for him, for sure. Can you tell us a little bit about, like, how you came to be in that position?'Cause I think that for a lot of people, if they didn't follow it closely, they might not understand how you as an incredible creator I, don't know if you consider yourself independent media, I would probably call you thatrobably call you that-
MRS. FRAZZLED:Thank you
BRIAN:sort of ended up in, in that position to hold these really important truths and this mirror up for, uh, people in California.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yeah, I mean, to your point, the candidate that is called Living For God & Country & Country, they got 2,000 votes in California. Like, you're so right. Like, it's just like people are just vibing, which is kind of nice 'cause it's freeing to be like, "You know what? This is what the internet is. It's okay. These people exist." I don't know. I think part of, like, what I'm grappling with, even the question of, like, do you consider yourself an independent media company? These are things that have come to the forefront after this experience, which this all went public April 10th. So we are here in June recording this, and with distance from it, I don't know how it came to be. I just got so tired of hearing about this and feeling like a lot of my really close friends who are amazing were just like, "This is just what it is." This is what it is in Washington, D.C. These men are sex pests a lot of the times, harassment runs rampant. I couldn't accept it. I mean, I was going to these meetings with other lawmakers and thinking to myself, "Am I going to show up to these gubernatorial events and hobnob with this man who I know what he did?" And then when I posted online, I was like, "You know what, y'all? I have had enough." I was in Signal with all the other creators being like, "You're going to think I lost my mind," and I, uh, frankly, I have. I, I can't do it. And I think there's a disconnect between being in California and being in D.C. There's a lot of young people in D.C. who these politicians hold their career in their palm of their hand. You know? They have such power socially as well, because you're gonna show up to these events, whatever. In California, in LA where I am, I don't have that. I have the freedom to be able to like… This is just a dude who's doing bad shit, you know? So I have that ability, so I just posted. And then once I posted, it got obviously very, very much worse.
GLENNIS:Right. And once you posted, correct me if I'm wrong, your followers or people in your network reached out to you, and I think that speaks to you as a creator and as a human being that you have such strong parasocial but trusting relationships with the people who follow you and watch your content. So I applaud you for that because you've created a safe environment for your audience to feel like they can a- approach you with this information. I'm curious, what was your personal fact-checking journey? I've seen in interviews you talk about how anyone in the United States of America can come after you for anything and sue your ass. So what was that thought process like, and how did you kind of get your ducks in a row b- before you kind of started talking about it? Because, you know, to Brian's independent media point, you don't have a newsroom behind you. You don't have fact-checkers. You don't have people on the phone calling to corroborate. So what was that like for you?
MRS. FRAZZLED:It was wild. I mean, I was telling independent journalists and investigative journalists how much I am in awe of what they do because not only is it, like, a lot of work, but it's also very emotionally trying work, especially given the stuff that was coming forward and coming out. My process, it started the same as it does for all of my content. I take fact-checking and research extremely, extremely seriously. I don't know if I've got a know-it-all bone that just will not quit, but it's something that I find to be a central responsibility in what I do, that if I'm gonna talk on something, I better be correct, especially if it's an accusation. I'm not somebody who makes call-out content. I'm not somebody who makes content exposing things. Um, some people do. I don't. So I, I s- started from the same place I start from everything is, like, I had receipts. I had personal friends. I had independently corroborated things where I've watched a couple true crime documentaries, and you know, l- but he- hear me out. You know how- I'm sat … there's an investigation happening, and the cops are like, "We didn't tell you everything we knew because we wanted to know that if people were coming to us, they would- Mm-hmm … say a certain thing, and then that would clue us in, like, this could be a very credible allegation." It was the Snapchat. It was like I wouldn't tell anybody- Hmm … about the Snapchat, and there was other things that, like, that I wouldn't say, too, that- Right … I still, like, whatever. I'm holding onto certain little details. So with the receipts that I saw independently corroborating these stories, talking to personal friends, talking to lawmakers, talking to people that work on the Hill, I just felt like it got to a place where it was true. And my, the madness of it was I took out an umbrella insurance policy on my house because somebody said- Hmm … if they sue you, you can, like, use this to not maybe lose your house. And as you guys know, I am sole breadwinner right now. I have three kids. At the time they were all under four, so I'm like, we have to, like, buckle in. But I just, I, I was compelled to do it. And then as I started getting more and more tips, it became very important that I was working with a newsroom, with investigators, and the first person that came forward was Cheyenne Hunt, because one of her very good friends had seen my Threads post. And I do a lot of, like, test posting on Threads. Hmm. I don't always post stuff direct to video because I wanna see what the temperature is. I wanna see what questions people have. So I was, you know, shaking the tree, acting insane on Threads.
GLENNIS:Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:And then-
GLENNIS:Testing the waters. Exactly … seeing how
MRS. FRAZZLED:Threads
GLENNIS:community would react. Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Literally, I don't know if you guys know Randi Weingarten. At one point she calls me- Yeah, of course … AFT calls me and goes, "Hey, how are you doing?" Hmm. And I was like, "Uh, not well, Randi." And she was like, "I just, it's, I'm seeing a different Mrs. Frazzled on Threads than I usually do." And I was like- Right … "Correct. Right."
GLENNIS:Out of, out of character for what, what kind of content you typically produce.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yes. Yeah. But, like, I think you hear certain horrible things, and I feel like if it doesn't make you lose your mind, maybe we've lost a little bit of our, like, humanity in a way. So I'm like- Mm-hmm … whatever. So one of Cheyenne's really good friends DM'd her, texted her and said, "This is true. This happened to me. Please make a video." So Cheyenne did, and then I had heard about it, and I was like,"I'm not alone anymore." I was so excited. She had made a video. So we have this, like- trifecta of like victim, her, me, and every day just doing this in the group chat. And we had a lot of reporters that were interested, but I was very interested in CNN because they had the historical knowledge. They had been working on this story before 2016, 2019, and now. They had huge resources behind them. I mean, reading the article, I just got shivers at how many things, point, point, point. I mean, like sh- they were fact-checking the shit out of this, as they should, obviously. You can't just like willy-nilly say it. Had to. Yeah. Yes. They didn't ask me for the exclusive. I called them. I called Allison Gordon and I was like,"Listen, I need you to take all of the stories that we're getting because you are like kind and patient and smart, and you have this behind you, and I can't handle it." And then we had lawyers as well that were really helpful volunteering their time and their expertise because everybody knew. I mean, a lot of these people had known about this. Yeah,
GLENNIS:everyone, yeah. You alluded to this, but just to like affirm for the Vibes Only audience, this was a very open secret in Washington, D.C. circles that Swalwell was a sex pest. With DMs and to your comment on the Snapchat, he would add people to Snapchat, which is very strange for a sitting member of Congress to do at a fundraising event. To be like, "Hey, let me get your Snapchat." It's like, "No, bro, I'm good." Brian, go ahead.
BRIAN:Well, I know that you were pretty much immediately accused of being like paid political operatives, and I think we're seeing that trend across the board, whenever people are seeing content from creators that they don't like or that disagree with them or are supporting one of their opponents, now it's just universal to call that person a paid operative, particularly because our laws around it are not modernized to account for content creators, and there are huge gaps in any sort of lawrt of law currently that requires disclosure. How do you respond to that? It's hard to prove a negative. And how should we be thinking about creators getting paid, which needs to happen for us to have the types of creators that, that you are, where you can bring this information and we have this really important resource in the ecosystem, but also in a way that people can have and maintain trust.
MRS. FRAZZLED:I'm so glad you brought that up. Since this has happened, I have noticed that some people are tr- a, trying to go vigilante. I've noticed that there's an uptick in people trying to do this investigative stuff on their own. And it makes me nervous because it is always so nuanced, and there is so much going into everything all the time that it's not always clear. And for the disclosure stuff, it is so clutch. And like you said, how do we prove a negative? But it's almost a witch hunt all the time of you're paid. I saw Goody Proctor at a chorus meeting. I have never taken campaign money. I won't, because just the nature of what it is, whatever. It doesn't matter. Yeah. Like, I just, I know I'm not gonna show up on those disclosures because I didn't take the freaking money. So I don't really worry about it for me. But if we are going to have a world in which we are paying creators, which we should, like you said, TV ads, maybe not the most impactful if we look at who spent that where in the California gubernatorial. But we should be thinking about this, and we need to modernize the laws so that there isn't this doubt and this distrust. Because if you're trying to utilize a creator's platform, which that's of course what they're doing, they're trying to buy a spot on our platforms when they use us for advertising. You're actually buying the trust of our audience, which is meticulously created. I have always said if we don't have the trust of our audience, we actually are completely worthless. We have nothing. Mm-hmm.
GLENNIS:Yeah, yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:And I, I've said this to newer creators who are tempted to take the money for candidates. I'm like, "You need to think about how much is your platform worth?
GLENNIS:Hmm.
MRS. FRAZZLED:If this tanks your credibility, are you going to lose more money than you're going to make from this one-time candidate? Because that is, that's what we're working with. If that's the case, we need to have laws that foster that trust, and I think there's an inclination sometimes for orgs or politiciansorgs or politicians or political parties to think, "We just, we don't want anybody to say anything because it looks a certain way." It looks worse if you, if you aren't fostering that trust. Like, get on board or with that need or go away.
GLENNIS:We talked about this a lot with mom Donny, like if you actually have policies that people wanna talk about and celebrate, you're not gonna need to pay them to do it.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Right.
BRIAN:Can you say a little bit more about the vigilante sort of trend that you're seeing? Yeah. Are you thinking like Nick Shirley type shit, where people are, are f- just in totally-
MRS. FRAZZLED:a little bit column A, a little bit column B. So I do think the Nick Shirley of it all is worth noting. That, in my opinion, resulted in Rene Good's death. I think that that- Hmm … was just egregious. The gasoline that was poured on it by the Trump administration was just amoral and wrong.
GLENNIS:The Nick Shirley example is kind of a marquee example of a right-wing agitator taking a small fraction of a truth around a fraud case in MinnesotaMinnesotaMinnesota and essentially catalyzing the governor, Tim Walz, from running for re-election. And to your point, added a lot of fuel to what was happening in Minnesota.
MRS. FRAZZLED:It's horrible the way that they take, like, these grains. Over and over again, we see these right-wing agitators who will take a moment of truth or a story that's negative, and then they blow it up in a way that really confuses their base, where it's like, "Oh, well, I can point to this. This happened here, so maybe-
GLENNIS:Yeah this happened here." To your point on vigilantes, as Brian mentioned with Swalwell, people were like, "You're working. You're a right-wing agitator. You're doing this to help, uh, the right."
MRS. FRAZZLED:Can you imagine?
GLENNIS:Uh, like literally, like, oh, you've been a, you've been an op this whole time- This whole time … and all of it was just to do this one thing about an open secret of a man who, like, aft- there was an entire Greek choir saying he's a bad guy. I know. It's, it's crazy. But you're talking more about the, I don't wanna say infighting, but the finger-pointing and the investigative, I'm using air quotes, "investigative journalism"- Yeah … around how content creators oftentimes make their money, which is by- Yeah … advocating for issues and candidates that they care about.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yeah, because it, it does, in my opinion, extend into the candidates. When people talk about these things that content creators are doing wrong, or their lack of disclosure, or this or that or the other thing, it does extend into like, well, this is being done by a candidate and they're bad because they're breaking the law, or they're doing this or they're doing that. I suspect I'm not the only content creator, that I'm not afraid to admit this. I didn't know what the hell oppo research was until somebody called me- Mm … on the phone and was like… Well, f- the first thing that happened was CNN was doing an On the Record with me, and they kept asking me, they were like, "Hey, so do people, like, tell you information a lot, like negative things about w- candidates?" And I was like, "What? No." I was so offended. And they were like- Right … "Well, it happens to us all the time. They call us, they tell us stories. You have to, like, parse what's real and what's not real." I was like, "Why would they ever do that?" And then I got And then I got a call from the chief dark arts person, and I'm like"You really do this for a living? Like, you like…" And he was like,"Oh, yeah." I'm like, "This is crazy."
GLENNIS:Yeah, there's binders, binders for oppo. Binders.
MRS. FRAZZLED:I have a binder now, Glennis. Mm-hmm. Did you know? I have a binder. They did oppo on me.
GLENNIS:e-Swalwell, you did one-- You did a specific type of content that you continue- Yeah to do quite effectively. Do you feel like your position in this space has changed? Do you feel that because of this really strong parasocial relationship that you have with your community, and because these victims of Swalwell and people who had direct experience with him came to you to tell you their stories, like how do you view yourself now in the content creator independent media infrastructure? Do you wanna take that on, or do you wanna just keep doing what you were doing before?
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yeah, I adamantly do not wanna take that on. Mm. I, when this all broke, tons of people started, like, sending me information about so many people. And I was like-
GLENNIS:Mm… " MRS. FRAZZLED: Mama's investigative I cannot live like this." It was so stressful. My mental health is- Mm … like through the roof. We have a mutual friend who was like, "I think the OCD is really OCDing right now. Like, I think we're mentally illy Billy," she says. And I'm like, "You are so correct." She every day would be like, "Are we done? Are we done?" I'd be like, "No, I'm done." I was never done. I just couldn't stop, and I don't wanna do that. I, I don't like how how it goes.
MRS. FRAZZLED:But the good news is Cheyenne Hunt does wanna keep going. Yeah. She founded a nonprofit called The Reckoning. She is, like, collecting all of this information, all of this stuff for survivors. She's compiling resources. Like, there is a hub for that, and I am so- Yeah … grateful for her because it's just not something that I can do. I love my content as it is. So yeah.
GLENNIS:Well, everyone should follow you.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Thanks.
GLENNIS:Um, my last question for you is do you have any advice for anyone who wants to start doing content creation in the culture/political arena?
MRS. FRAZZLED:Yes And
GLENNIS:it can't be, "Don't do it."
MRS. FRAZZLED:I've been doing this for six years, and I feel like an old lady on the porch like, "My God, these freaking kids with the da, da, da." Like, I'm just, like, so whatever. I think, A, the thing to remember is that at the end of the day, no one will have your back the way other creators have your back. This is, these are your colleagues. Go into this space knowing that. The community aspect will carry you through when stuff like this happens, because it will happen. Also, everybody that gets into this space, know that you don't have to emulate anybody else. You have something about you that is special, knowledge that you have, experience that you have, a worldview that you have that nobody else has, and I really believe that you are going to make such stronger content if you are thinking about you instead of trying to copy what has been successful for others. Because it's, at the end of the day, you're alone in your house doing your content, so you have to be completely authentic to, like, what works for you. And also know that you do have a responsibility. The algorithm is asynchronous and creepy and brutal, and, like, your video from November could get pushed out in February, and if it's a breaking news from November, there could be a War of the Worlds moment in February where they're like, "Oh my God, the aliens are here." You know? Like, you just have to know- Hmm … that you do have a very unique responsibility. And suddenly Democrats are paying attention and they're putting money into it. Mm-hmm. And we're modernizing these laws. So much is moving at the same time, that at the very, very least, make sure that you are well-researched and accurate and honest, because it helps the whole ecosystem when we do that, in my opinion.
GLENNIS:Period. Period. Thank you so much. I mean, you with the coalition of women that you worked with on this, you were able to do something that many, many people did not have the bravery to do for many years. So thank you so much for your leadership in this moment and for everything that you've done so far as a content creator in the last six years. I can't believe it's only been six years. I feel like I've seen you on my screen forever, but maybe we've really only been- 'Cause we,
MRS. FRAZZLED:it was through the lockdown. I mean, that's dog years. Mm.
GLENNIS:Yeah.
MRS. FRAZZLED:We were
GLENNIS:in it. My goodness.
MRS. FRAZZLED:I know.
GLENNIS:Uh, well, thank you so much.
MRS. FRAZZLED:Thanks, Glennis. Thanks, Brian.
GLENNIS:That's it for Vibes Only this week. Follow the podcast and leave a comment on this episode!
BRIAN:It just takes a few seconds, but it makes a real difference for us trying to find our audience.
GLENNIS:And we'll see you to read the vibes of the week first thing next Thursday.
BRIAN:Bye.
