Rachel Bilson Shares the Biggest Reason Why She’s Not Afraid to Speak Her Mind on Her Podcast

Whether it’s for getting too salacious with her steamy confessions, or for being too open about her dating life, Rachel Bilson has been both applauded and criticized over her podcast, Broad Ideas. Talking to the O.C. star herself, however, she revealed there’s one reason – rather, one person – who motivates her to be as open and tune out the noise: her nine-year-old daughter Briar Rose.

“When she’s of age and much, much older she can maybe see ‘Oh, my mom had the confidence to stand up for what she believes in,'” Bilson, who recently joined Rachael Ray’s Nutrish at the Pasadena Humane Society for a “Dog Day of Service” where they donated 30,000 pounds of food and $10,000 to animals in need, tells SheKnows. “Everything is for her,” she adds, “my life is her.”

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In addition to her daughter, whom she shares with ex Hayden Christensen, Bilson hopes to help everyone who decides to tune in. “I feel very fortunate that anyone might listen to anything I have to say,” she says, adding that her latest partnership is the perfect example of that. She loves pet adoption, so she raises awareness for it. Simple, right?

Broad Ideas, which began in May of 2022, is co-hosted by Bilson and her “best friend” Olivia Allen. “I think every time we get together, and we have these conversations, and we’re meeting such amazing people who have so many different stories and journeys and getting to experience that and learn from it,” she says of the experience. “It’s been so amazing to enter this space.”

“There’s a lot of times we walk away, and we’re like, ‘That was an incredible conversation,'” she recalls. “I feel like I am taking away something knowledgeable, and I also laugh my ass off. We have these situations that we’re creating that we just walk away from like, ‘That was really cool.'”

If you’re intrigued about tuning in to an episode yourself, there’s a wide variety of special guests, from Seth Meyers and Zooey Deschannel to Hannah Brown and Gigi Goode. “Our first episode ever on the show with Kristen Bell, who’s a good friend of mine,” she says, adding that they talked about the reality of parenting “right out the gate.”

“There’s so much [to choose from,] it’s so colorful, because there’s so many different things,” Bilson says. Among her favorite episodes are the ones with chef Roy Choi, director Nadine Crocker, and comedians and Whitney Cummings and Tiffany Haddish. “It’s hard to pick one,” she says. “Listen to ’em all!” We will indeed!

Before you go, click here to see our favorite movies and TV shows about imperfect, complicated women. 

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