The episode opens with three back-to-back sponsor reads before any guest content. Alex pitches Sephora as the destination for the hottest new beauty products including the Kayali Eden Plush Pear fragrance, then moves to Sour Patch Kids as her go-to candy for its sour-then-sweet experience, and closes with Macy's as a one-stop shop for end-of-summer and back-to-school essentials. The segments are upbeat and personal, with Alex weaving in her own enthusiasm to keep things warm ahead of the main interview.

Alex kicks off the interview effusively, telling Riley she binged all of Daisy Jones and the Six while her husband begged her to stop. Riley is gracious and reflective, describing how the role required her to fully learn both singing and guitar — a genuine new skill set unlike anything she had undertaken before. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Band practice daily for ~1 year for Daisy Jones: The cast of Daisy Jones and the Six had band practice every day for approximately a year t…" 02:51 Play} The cast had band practice every single day for close to a year, because several of them had never picked up an instrument. The production had even discussed using vocal stunt doubles, which lit a fire under Riley and made her determined to pull it off herself. She's honest about the limits of her ability — she knows she's not a great singer — but takes genuine pride in making it work, particularly on the song 'Fly Away.'

Alex brings up what she found in her research: a band Riley and Dakota Johnson allegedly formed together in New York City. Riley laughs and contextualizes it — no stage, no instruments, just the two of them (and Dakota's brother) sitting around a kitchen table in her New York apartment doing covers via Photo Booth. The name was Folkie Porn. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Folkie Porn band lasted ~3 days: Riley Keough and Dakota Johnson's informal band, Folkie Porn, lasted only about three days before breaking…" 06:17 Play} Because neither of them was a confident singer, they solved the problem by making everyone the lead vocalist at once. Alex bonds over her own terrible basement band experience — The Aliens, later renamed Green Jelly — before Riley lands the punchline: Folkie Porn lasted exactly three days before the band broke up. The exchange is loose, funny, and establishes an immediate rapport between guest and host.

When Alex asks how Riley and Dakota became friends, Riley traces it back to an In-N-Out parking lot in Los Angeles and overlapping social circles as teenagers. She describes Dakota as 'the coolest girl' and says their friendship simply grew organically over years of shared parties and phone calls. Alex leans into the public fascination with celebrity friendships, and Riley plays along, agreeing to call a friend live on air to describe her. She tries Dakota first — no answer — and then settles on Zoë Kravitz, noting there's no publicist to stop her from saying what she wants, which she frames as a feature, not a bug.

Alex pauses the interview for two sponsor segments. The Revolve read frames the brand as the solution when you want to look powerful and polished — Alex walks through how the app helps build complete outfits by showing similar items to whatever you're browsing, and offers 15% off at revolve.com/chd with code CHD. The Ritual read is more personal and humor-forward — Alex describes dreading summer dinners because of bloating fears, then positions Ritual's Symbiotic+ as the one-capsule-a-day gut solution combining clinically studied pre-, pro-, and postbiotics at 25% off the first month at ritual.com/callherdaddy.

Zoë Kravitz answers despite eating cinnamon raisin toast, and Riley quickly explains the premise: she's on a podcast and needs Zoë to describe her as a friend. Zoë doesn't miss a beat — ride or die, always shows up, consistent, doesn't talk for six months but picks right up where they left off, great at keeping secrets, loyal, funny, and honest. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "On air, Riley calls Zoë Kravitz to ask how she'd describe Riley as a friend. Zoë calls her a ride-or-die, says she's consistent, loyal, gre…" 09:28 Play} Riley nervously steers Zoë away from anything too revealing, prompting Zoë to add one final zinger — 'you're such a bitch sometimes' — before laughing it off. After hanging up, Alex and Riley dissect the call, with Alex noting the 'bitch' description is the complete opposite of the gentle soul she's sitting across from. The moment is warm, genuine, and a perfect midpoint pivot from celebrity surface to something more real.

The conversation turns serious as Alex asks about Riley's book, From Here to the Great Unknown. Riley explains the origin with quiet simplicity: her mother had been working on her autobiography, hit a wall because she hated talking about herself, and asked Riley for help. One month later, Lisa Marie was gone. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Lisa Marie Presley came to Riley in December asking for help with her autobiography, then died a month later. Riley, three to four months i…" 15:03 Play} Riley was three to four months into raw grief when she began working on it, feeling deeply resistant — not just because of the pain but because she had been raised in a family where discretion was paramount. Everything in the Presley household was private, a security issue, and never to be discussed with outsiders. Writing a detailed memoir felt like a violation of that code. Yet Riley pushed through because she knew exactly who her mother was: someone uncomfortably honest, who wanted people to understand her and relate to her experiences with grief and addiction. The book took roughly a year from start to finish.

Alex flags that Riley's baby photo sold for $300,000 on the cover of People — a figure Riley corrects, saying in 1989 dollars that was closer to a million. ^{[1] — Alex Cooper "Riley's baby photo sold for $300K: Riley Keough's baby photo sold for $300,000 on the cover of People magazine, illustrating the extraordin…" 18:51 Play} Riley then paints a picture of what it meant to grow up Presley: high security at all times, a press presence everywhere she went, and a family culture of total discretion where even mundane things were treated as sensitive. She describes herself as a very quiet, internal child — not shy, she insists, but someone who simply didn't have a lot to say. She only began pushing herself to be more outwardly communicative when she realized people were interpreting her silence as rudeness. The episode briefly notes the sharp contrast between the extraordinary world she grew up in and her instinct, as a parent herself now, to give her own daughter something more grounded.

In what becomes one of the episode's most memorable moments, Riley casually drops that she was arrested as a teenager — and notes she has never said this publicly before. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Riley went to what she thought was a friend's party — but the house was actually for sale. The police showed up, most people fled, and ten …" 22:37 Play} The details are vivid: she went to what she believed was a friend's house party, didn't know the house was for sale, and when the police arrived, most kids escaped. About ten, including Riley, did not. She never saw her mugshot because she was a minor. She had to call her mother, who was in Las Vegas at the time and flatly refused to make the drive, sending Riley's aunt instead. The punishment was three months of grounding, which happened to fall on Riley's 15th or 16th birthday. Alex's delight is palpable — she's charmed by the revelation and immediately starts talking about t-shirt opportunities. The segment lands as a rare, genuinely spontaneous celebrity confession.

Alex circles back to the Michael Jackson chapter of Riley's childhood, asking how the world got even more intense when he entered the picture. Riley's answer is nuanced: the press frenzy and security apparatus were already there before Michael — that was just the Presley baseline. What changed was the lifestyle. Seeing Michael's world gave Lisa Marie a new frame of reference and ambitions she hadn't previously had: a plane, more staff, a grander operation. For Riley, the tangible memories involve spaces cleared for their privacy — entire stores shut down so the family could move freely. Her most vivid example is a London toy store, where she and her brother were given free run of every floor to fill their baskets with whatever they wanted. She's thoughtful enough to note it wasn't necessarily a gift for them personally; it was just the only way their family could function in public.

Riley was five when Lisa Marie told her she and Danny Keough were getting divorced. She remembers sitting on her mother's lap in Florida and interpreting the news as 'he's not my dad anymore' — a child's catastrophizing of a word she didn't understand. But the follow-through was unlike almost anything she had seen in her world: Danny moved into the guest house. He was there through Michael Jackson, through the subsequent marriages and boyfriends, a constant presence. What was modeled to Riley was that when a relationship ends, you keep the person in your life. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "When Riley's parents Danny and Lisa Marie divorced in the '90s, Danny moved into the guest house — even when Lisa Marie had other partners.…" 25:20 Play} She applied this to her own relationships — almost all her exes became friends — not consciously, she says, but organically, because it's the only model she ever had. She reflects on the through line with Lisa Marie: through all the famous relationships, Danny was always there, was there at the end. Riley draws the quiet conclusion that they probably shouldn't have been married — but they should have been in each other's lives.

Alex pushes into more serious territory, noting that the abuse allegations against Michael Jackson existed before Lisa Marie married him and asking whether any adult — particularly Riley's father Danny — expressed concern about the children spending time at Neverland. Riley's response is honest and somewhat striking: she was never told anything, and as an adult she has never brought herself to ask. The question simply never came to mind, she says. Her best imagining is that Danny was deeply heartbroken reading the news and surely said things to Lisa Marie privately, but the fundamental rule of their co-parenting was that no fights, no difficult information, nothing was ever shared in front of the children. As adults, they simply didn't know. Alex gently presses on what Riley thinks now, and Riley lands on the one thing she does know for certain: their love for each other was genuine. Everything else she acknowledges she can't speak to.

Alex shifts to parenting, noting Riley now has a daughter herself, and asks how she thinks about raising her differently than she was raised. Riley's answer is reflective and specific: Lisa Marie's instinct, like Elvis's before her, was to give her children extraordinary experiences all the time. But the unintended consequence was that ordinary life felt inadequate by comparison. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Every dinner Riley Keough grew up with involved 50 people and high-intensity moments. So in her 20s, when life got quieter, she didn't feel…" 32:05 Play} In her 20s, when Riley's life contracted — fewer people around, smaller moments — she didn't feel peaceful. She felt lonely. Everything growing up had been enormous: even a dinner out was a 50-person production. When that disappeared, the quiet felt like absence rather than peace. Riley says what she wants for her own daughter is the ability to find joy in a backyard, not need a circus. She doesn't cast judgment on Lisa Marie's choices — the intention was love — but she is clear-eyed about the effect.

Alex asks whether Riley was ever nervous to get married, given Lisa Marie's pattern of moving on when things got difficult. Riley's answer is breezy and a little surprising: she felt no nerves whatsoever. She was 25, she knew he was the right person, and neither of them has ever applied pressure or made grandiose promises about staying together forever. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Married at 25, no nerves: Riley got married at 25 and felt no nervousness — she simply knew her husband was the person she was meant to hav…" 37:45 Play} Their shared ethos is realist: they are together because they want to be, and if they were ever genuinely unhappy, divorce would be on the table. Riley laughs at herself in retrospect — she calls herself 'a little girl' at 25 who didn't fully understand what marriage was — but the decision didn't feel impulsive. It felt like recognition. She knew he was the person she was meant to have children with, and she didn't overthink it.

Riley describes the shift as gradual but total. Lisa Marie had always been the family leader — the strong center around whom everything organized. When she fell into opioid addiction, that changed, and Riley stepped into a caretaker role she hadn't chosen. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "In her mid-20s, Riley's mother Lisa Marie Presley fell into opioid addiction, and the mother-daughter dynamic quietly but entirely flipped …" 39:33 Play} The strangest part, Riley says, is that her mother didn't realize it was happening. And you can't say 'I don't want to be your parent' — the whole dynamic is unsaid. Alex relates, describing her own therapy work around a similar dynamic with her mother and how difficult it is even in relatively mild forms. Riley and Alex agree that this is a nearly universal experience — the parent who used to be the person you called with problems gradually becomes someone who calls you with theirs — but it doesn't make it less disorienting when it happens. Riley says her response to all of it, as a parent now herself, is a firm intention: she will not make her children feel that her happiness is their responsibility.

Alex asks whether Lisa Marie ever talked to Riley about the grief of losing her father and how she dealt with it, connecting it to the book's depictions of Lisa Marie crying and drinking in quiet moments. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Lisa Marie Presley never talked about her grief after Elvis died — only about Elvis himself. Because her grief was so public, she kept her …" 44:00 Play} Riley's answer is direct: her mother never talked about her grief. She would talk about Elvis — his life, his music, his personality — but the feelings that his loss produced in her were too personal, too much her own in a world where everything about her grief was public property. The result, Riley thinks, was a decades-long deferral. Lisa Marie never processed it in her younger years the way she needed to, and it wasn't until her late 40s and into her 50s that she began to reckon with it. Riley frames this as partly generational — older generations simply didn't talk about their feelings, didn't have the vocabulary or the permission structures that younger people now do.

Alex acknowledges the compounded weight of what Riley has carried — losing both her brother and her mother within approximately two years — and asks how she has thought about processing that grief, both for herself and in how she might eventually explain it to her daughter. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "The only like step that I've actively taken is to like feel my feelings. Which is a lot harder than it sounds." 46:31 Play} Riley's answer is quiet and honest: the only active step she has taken is to feel her feelings. Not to manage them, not to channel them productively, not to make them useful — just to actually let them exist. She acknowledges that sounds simple and is not. Some of the feelings have been unbearable. When her brother died, she describes not being able to see how she could survive it. Her response was to seek out people who had lost siblings, who had lost people to suicide, who had experienced the specific shape of her loss — to hear from them that she was going to be okay. She went on Reddit forums, DM'd strangers on Instagram, read blogs. Anyone who had been where she was.

Alex opens the conversation about addiction support by noting how many of her listeners are in families touched by it, and Riley engages with unusual depth and specificity. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "Riley spent years trying to drag her mother into rehab and keep all the plates spinning, only to watch addiction ultimately claim two famil…" 47:28 Play} She says she has had multiple family members — not just her mother — deal with addiction, though she declines to name others out of respect for their privacy. She has spent years trying: dragging Lisa Marie toward rehab, making plans, spinning plates. The hardest realization was that the person across from her was not participating in her plan. She was making enormous effort toward someone who was not present to receive it. Eventually, addiction took two of her family members, and she was forced into the surrender she had resisted. She shares her mother's conviction that tough love doesn't work — a view Riley fully endorses — and explains that she never withdrew love during even the hardest moments of her family members' addiction, always operating from empathy. She wouldn't take back the effort. But the lesson, she says slowly, is one she's still not sure she knows how to articulate.

The conversation arrives at one of the episode's most surprising facts: Riley is a certified death doula. She explains the path there begins with her brother's death and the total isolation she felt, which drove her to Reddit and Instagram DMs with strangers. ^{[1] — Riley Keough "After losing her brother, Riley found no resources — just Reddit forums and Instagram DMs with strangers. That led her to the death doula c…" 54:43 Play} Through that search for connection, she discovered that an entire professional community existed around supporting people through death — and that she hadn't known it. A friend of hers was a death doula, and Riley, wanting to make herself useful to anyone going through what she had been through, decided to get trained and certified. She explains the role simply: it's what a birth doula does, but for dying. You're trained to be present with and for the dying person. Alex asks whether working with grieving people triggers Riley's own grief, and Riley's answer is precise: not triggered, but very emotionally present. Because she has lived it, she is genuinely with the people she supports in a way that someone who hasn't can't quite be.

Alex asks how it felt to be at the center of press coverage during the estate disputes after Lisa Marie's death — the first time Riley, rather than her family, was the subject of the attention. Riley observes that she's been doing press for years as an actor and it's typically pleasant, but the experience promoting this book was different: interviewers were more aggressive, pushing her for specific answers, putting her on the hot seat in a way she hadn't experienced before. It made her understand viscerally what Lisa Marie had lived with — that specific sense of entitlement from certain journalists who feel they deserve answers. She notes the contrast with how celebrity press culture has evolved, saying that dynamic — the belief that the media has the right to know — has largely faded, but certain corners of the press still carry it. Riley then reveals that this is likely her final podcast interview for the press tour, going out with a bang on Call Her Daddy. She and Alex have an easy, warm exchange about whether the episode went too deep into trauma or not deep enough, with Riley saying she had no expectations going in.

The final minutes are a run of sponsor segments. Alex pitches Häagen-Dazs's new Cherry Dark Chocolate Bar — rich cherry ice cream, tart cherry ribbons, coated in dark chocolate — and frames it as a slow, intentional indulgence. A second Sephora read repeats the Kayali Eden Plush Pear fragrance pitch. Scotch-Brite's Bright line gets a fun domestic angle, with Alex running through the Palm Scrubber, Dish Wand, and Scrub and Wipe products. The episode ends with a Fourth of July-themed Hidden Valley Ranch read, with Alex declaring it America's number one ranch and joking she carries it in her purse and boot, available in a limited edition bottle at walmart.com.