Molly Lambert is an American journalist, podcaster and social activist. She was born in

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

and grew up in the

San Fernando Valley The San Fernando Valley, known locally as the Valley, is an urbanized valley in Los Angeles County, Los Angeles County, California. Situated to the north of the Los Angeles Basin, it comprises a large portion of Los Angeles, the Municipal corpo ...

Career

From 2010 to 2012, Lambert wrote music reviews for

Pitchfork A pitchfork or hay fork is an agricultural tool used to pitch loose material, such as hay, straw, manure, or leaves. It has a long handle and usually two to five thin tines designed to efficiently move such materials. The term is also applie ...

. In 2014, she co-hosted the

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Grantland ''Grantland'' was a sports and pop-culture blog owned and operated by ESPN. The blog was started in 2011 by veteran writer and sports journalist Bill Simmons, who remained as editor-in-chief until May 2015. ''Grantland'' was named after famed ...

production ''Girls in Hoodies'' in which she discussed pop culture with Emily Yoshida and Tess Lynch. Lambert also co-hosted the

MTV Entertainment Group Paramount Media Networks is the division of Paramount Global that oversees the operations of its television channels and online brands. The division was originally founded as MTV Networks in 1984, named after MTV. It would be known under this ...

podcast ''North Mollywood'' with journalist Alex Pappademas in 2017. In 2016, she wrote an article for ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' about

glass brick Glass brick, also known as glass block, is an architectural element made from glass. The appearance of glass blocks can vary in color, size, texture and form. Glass bricks provide visual obscuration while admitting light. The modern glass block ...

s - a subject she has discussed extensively, including on the podcast ''Why Do You Know That?''. Lambert reunited with Yoshida and Lynch in 2018 to host the

iHeartRadio iHeartRadio (often shortened to just "iHeart") is an American freemium broadcast, podcast, radio streaming and Music Streaming platform owned by iHeartMedia. Founded in August 2008, iHeartRadio serves as the national umbrella brand for iHeart ...

call-in show '' Night Call'', which ran until 2020. Since February 2020 she has also hosted ''Deckheads'' with Anna Hossnieh, a former podcast and now Twitch stream centred on the reality show ''

Below Deck ''Below Deck'' is an American reality television series that premiered on Bravo on July 1, 2013. The show chronicles the lives of the crew members who work and reside aboard a superyacht during charter season. The series has a number of spin- ...

'' and other

Bravo Bravo(s) or The Bravo(s) may refer to: Arts and entertainment Music Groups and labels * Bravo (band), a Russian rock band * Bravo (Spanish group), represented Spain at Eurovision 1984 * Bravo Music, an American concert band music publishing compa ...

programming. Lambert also wrote the foreword for ''I Used to Be Charming'', a 2019 collection of the work of Eve Babitz. It was later published independently in ''

The Paris Review ''The Paris Review'' is a quarterly English-language literary magazine established in Paris in 1953 by Harold L. Humes, Peter Matthiessen, and George Plimpton. In its first five years, ''The Paris Review'' published new works by Jack Kerouac, ...

''. In 2022, she wrote, produced and hosted ''HeidiWorld: The Heidi Fleiss Story'', a limited series podcast about the life of Hollywood madam

Heidi Fleiss Heidi Lynne Fleiss (born December 30, 1965) is an American former madam. She ran an upscale prostitution ring based in Los Angeles and is often referred to as the "Hollywood Madam". Fleiss also formerly worked as a columnist and was a television ...

. The show featured an extensive voice cast playing various characters from Fleiss' life, including

Rian Johnson Rian Craig Johnson (born December 17, 1973) is an American filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with the neo-noir mystery film ''Brick (film), Brick'' (2005), which received positive reviews and grossed nearly $4 million on a $450,000 budget ...

, Karina Longworth,

Paul F. Tompkins Paul Francis Tompkins (born September 12, 1968) is an American comedian, actor, and writer. He worked in television on such programs as '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'', ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', and '' Best Week Ever'', later renamed ''Bes ...

and Karen Tongson. At the end of 2023, Lambert announced on her

Instagram Instagram is an American photo sharing, photo and Short-form content, short-form video sharing social networking service owned by Meta Platforms. It allows users to upload media that can be edited with Social media camera filter, filters, be ...

that she is currently working on ''JennaWorld'', a podcast about "the history of pornography and the San Fernando Valley and the last quarter century in media" centered on the life of

Jenna Jameson Jenna Marie Massoli (born April 9, 1974), known professionally as Jenna Jameson (), is an American businesswoman, writer, television personality, and former pornographic film actress. She has been named the world's most famous adult entertainm ...

. It was originally scheduled for a 2024 release, but Lambert's Instagram page now indicates 2025. In 2025, Lambert published ''Double Acts in Pop'', a book about duos in pop music. The book is a collaboration with

Commercial Type Commercial Type is a digital type foundry established in 2007 by type designers Paul Barnes and Christian Schwartz. Its work includes typefaces for ''The Guardian'', such as the Guardian Egyptian series, and other retail and commissioned typefa ...

and features their entire library of fonts.

Activism

Lambert is a member of the Los Angeles branch of the

Democratic Socialists of America The Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) is a political organization in the United States and the country's largest Socialism, socialist organization. Sitting on the Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left of the politic ...

. She is also one of the founders of NOlympics LA, a movement which opposes the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

and seeks to cancel the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles. She views the Olympics as "a scheme routinely carried out by a consortium of grotesquely wealthy oligarchs and war criminals (like

Henry Kissinger Henry Alfred Kissinger (May 27, 1923 – November 29, 2023) was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 56th United States secretary of state from 1973 to 1977 and the 7th National Security Advisor (United States), natio ...

), who use sports as a pretext to extract capital from poor communities around the world."

Personal life

Lambert has deep family connections to the

music industry The music industry are individuals and organizations that earn money by Songwriter, writing songs and musical compositions, creating and selling Sound recording and reproduction, recorded music and sheet music, presenting live music, concerts, ...

. She is the sister of Ben "Lambo" Lambert, an executive and manager for

Freddie Gibbs Fredrick Jamel Tipton (born June 14, 1982), better known by his stage name Freddie Gibbs, is an American rapper and songwriter. He signed with Interscope Records in 2006 and recorded his debut album for the label; however, its release was cance ...

, and the daughter and niece, respectively, of

Grateful Dead The Grateful Dead was an American rock music, rock band formed in Palo Alto, California, in 1965. Known for their eclectic style that fused elements of rock, blues, jazz, Folk music, folk, country music, country, bluegrass music, bluegrass, roc ...

associates Glenn and Gary Lambert. Lambert is the granddaughter of

German Jewish The history of the Jews in Germany goes back at least to the year 321 CE, and continued through the Early Middle Ages (5th to 10th centuries CE) and High Middle Ages (c. 1000–1299 CE) when Jewish immigrants founded the Ashkenazi Jewish commu ...

track and field Track and field (or athletics in British English) is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name used in North America is derived from where the sport takes place, a ru ...

athlete

Gretel Bergmann Gretel Lambert (born Margarethe Bergmann; April 12, 1914 – July 25, 2017)Year of birth missing (living people) Living people 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American women journalists 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American women writers American women non-fiction writers American women podcasters Jewish American journalists Jewish American non-fiction writers Jewish socialists Jewish women writers Members of the Democratic Socialists of America Members of the Democratic Socialists of America from California