Right Answers Mostly

Before she was a pop girl, a tabloid headline, or the blueprint for millennial style, Hilary Duff was just a kid from Texas with a big dream and a head voice that would become weirdly controversial.

This week on Right Answers Mostly, we’re diving into the full Hilary Duff story: from early auditions to becoming Disney Channel’s most relatable star on Lizzie McGuire. We talk about the cultural earthquake of Metamorphosis, the chaos of early 2000s tabloid culture, public breakups, and why she was constantly compared to women she was never trying to be.

But more than that, we explore why Hilary always felt different. She wasn’t the strongest singer. She wasn’t the most provocative. She didn’t reinvent pop music. And yet...she endured.

From A Cinderella Story to her pop reinventions, to quietly building a stable career in shows like Younger, Hilary carved out something radical: longevity without spectacle. While other young women were chewed up by fame, she chose steadiness.

We unpack the sexism around her voice, the pressure on teen girls to be “effortlessly exceptional,” and why Hilary Duff’s greatest strength might be that she always let us see her trying. Not perfect, but just trying.

Created and produced by Tess Bellomo & Claire Donald

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Sources include: The Twisted World of Hilary Duff Deep Dive, Wikipedia & People



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We are kicking off Women's History Month with the one and only, Joan Didion.

Before she became one of the most iconic writers of the 20th century, Joan Didion was just a quiet, observant girl from Sacramento who would go on to capture the myth and emotional reality of American life.

From her early days at Vogue to her life in Hollywood and her marriage to fellow writer John Gregory Dunne, Joan Didion wasn’t just participating in the culture. She was observing and documenting it.

In this episode, we explore how Joan Didion became a literary icon, how she cultivated the persona of the ultimate cool girl, and why her writing captured the emotional reality behind America’s myths.

Welcome to Women's History Month!

Created and produced by Claire Donald and Tess Bellomo

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SOURCES: Joan Didion: The Center Will Not Hold, The Guardian , Vanity Fair, What She Means, Vogue, Wikipedia
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John and Jackie Kennedy weren’t just a couple, they were a brand. In this episode, we break down their upbringings, the expectations that shaped their marriage, and why Jackie Kennedy became the emotional and public backbone of Camelot. From JFK’s affairs to the carefully curated image America consumed, we explore how Jackie wasn’t living a fairytale, she was performing one.

TW: Birthing trauma and child loss

Produced and created by Tess Bellomo & Claire Donald

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Main feed gets a preview but our premium subscribers get a full 90 minute episode which goes more into the affairs, Marilyn Monroe, and the end of Jackie's life. Please consider supporting our show here and purchasing for $7.99/month or save 13% when purchased annually! You get THREE bonus episodes, one of them being a full history.

Sources include the following: Even the Rich Podcast, Vanity Fair, Wikipedia Town & Country, People Magazine.
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If you love history and gossip, this one's for you! All February we're covering all things Kennedy- the making of the dynasty, the curse that followed them, and the romances, affairs, and scandals behind the scenes...we're mentioning it all, because history is just gossip!

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“I’ve come to believe that it’s not what has happened to our family that has been cursed—it’s the fact that we’ve never been able to deal with it privately.” — Eunice Kennedy Shriver

The idea of the “Kennedy Curse” has followed this family for generations, often explained away as bad luck or fate. But the truth is more complicated.
In this episode, we explore how constant public scrutiny, enormous expectations, and a deep resistance to vulnerability shaped the Kennedy family’s most painful moments, especially in the case of Rosemary Kennedy, whose lobotomy reflects how fear, misunderstanding, and the pressure to protect an image could lead to irreversible decisions.

Rather than a story about a doomed bloodline, this episode looks at how power, silence, and the denial of privacy shaped one of America’s most famous families, and why those choices continued to ripple outward long after they were made. This is The Kennedy Curse.

Created and produced by Claire Donald and Tess Bellomo

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Sources: American Dynasties: The Kennedys, People, Historyextra.com, Rosemary's Wiki, NPS.Gov, Kathleen's Wiki, Historytoday.com, Chappaquiddick Wiki, People article #2

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