The HoneyDew with Ryan Sickler #372

Guest: Katherine Blanford

Release Date: February 9, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features comedian Katherine Blanford sharing the "lowlights" and wild stories that have shaped her journey. The conversation ranges from her Kentucky upbringing, the impact of losing her mother young, the ways she coped (and didn't), and an uproarious telling of heartbreak, grief, and truly absurd moments—true to The HoneyDew's focus on finding humor in hardship. Katherine and Ryan riff with warmth, irreverence, and rare honesty.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

Katherine's Kentucky Roots and Family Background

• Raised in Louisville, Kentucky to a large Catholic family, Katherine shares the blue-collar, rural foundation of her parents and their “city” migration.
  • "Our cousins were like, I see y' all went to the big city." (06:11)
• Her parents were the first of their generation to pursue higher education and move off the tobacco farm.
• Unique family dynamic: Katherine is the middle child of three (“Oldest kids raise youngest kids kinda thing.” 05:25).

Early Loss of Her Mother

• Katherine lost her mother, Rita, to lung cancer at age 22 (07:03).
• Illuminating the dissonance between small-town stoicism and personal trauma:
  • "They never wanted to tell us that it was bad. They never wanted to say it was terminal. So it was always just like, well, you know, we just got to go get some medicine for your mom. Go on and live your lives." (12:09)
• Discusses the surreal way others interact with grief when she returns home:
  • “You're like a walking grief billboard... they see you and they go, ‘Rita,’ and it's just—you know what I mean? And you're like, hey... you're the reminder that your mother's dead.” (08:07)
• Candid about delayed grief and the misdirection of both family and self.

"Hospice Confessionals," Family Secrets & Kentucky Folklore

• Katherine describes the period before her mother’s death as a time when relatives felt compelled to confess old scandals and family secrets:
  • “It was like confessional time for people. Like, they came in like my mother was the priest.” (17:42)
• Explains the “Cornbread Mafia” (Kentucky’s rural drug-running ring) as a thread in her family's past (16:31).

A Raunchy, Loving Relationship With Mom

• Rita was both sincere and riotously funny—sometimes in a hilariously inappropriate Southern nurse way.
• Memorable moment:
  • Quote: “I called her and I was like, my vagina's on fire... My mom was a nurse, but she’s still hillbilly. She’s like, ‘You want to take a round brush up there?’” (21:04)
• Katherine carries a tattoo of a round brush in Rita’s memory (21:56).

Processing Grief: Performative, Delayed, and Messy

• Katherine admits she got “obsessed with the attention” post-loss, milking social media sympathy.
  • "I could post anything, and if it was about my mom, it would get so many likes." (30:53)
• Realizes later that none of this was real grieving.
  • "I didn’t grieve for the first six months because I was in my prime... I was peaking." (31:18)
• True emotional reckoning hits months later, triggered by Derby Day and missing her mother’s encouragement. (37:14)

Career Detours & Mothering as a Nanny

• After her mother’s death and brief stints with “hell gigs” in event management, Katherine becomes a nanny for 8 years for the same Atlanta family.
• She grapples with shame around being a nanny while her sorority peers pursued traditional corporate success:
  • "Do you ever have a job where you hope your friends don't see you at it?" (46:10)
• Finds unexpected insight:
  • "I'm so glad I saw what it takes...because now I don't want kids." (49:50)
• The experience ultimately leads her to the best of both worlds: caretaking and the freedom to pursue comedy.

Turbulent Romantic Life & Comedy Beginnings

• Katherine details a disastrous relationship with a fellow comic, supporting him financially and emotionally—he cheats, she finds evidence in her car.
• Another relationship ends epically: after a confrontation over flirty texts, her boyfriend drives off with her phone and she jumps on the side of his moving Tahoe in pajamas. Police become involved.
  • "I have a picture of the bruise on the side of my hand." (65:16)
  • "There was, like, a spark of joy. Like, I was so excited to have an excuse to do that." (70:49)
• Humor filters the chaos, and the pair agree to break up after the Tahoe incident.
• Ryan notes: "We all grieve in different ways." (35:01)

Humor as Survival & Comedy as Healing

• Eventually, Katherine leaves her “old life” behind and throws herself into the standup scene, making new friends, dating “freaks,” and finally, finding her form of healing through comedy.
• She never grew up on standup but instead discovered her love for it directly through performing.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• On Kentucky and early crushes:
  • "My first three crushes: Tubby Smith, George W. Bush, and Bob Baffert. So listen, I know how to pick them." (03:47)
• On grief culture:
  • "You're like a walking grief billboard...you walk in the room and they’re like, ‘How are you?’" (08:07)
• On family secrets before her mom's passing:
  • “We’re talking about casserole recipes while the men are in the room next door talking about what they’re going to do with the body.” (17:34)
• On her own performative grief:
  • "I didn’t grieve for the first six months because I was in my prime...I had so many hospice bits. We were in there for, like, four days." (31:14)
• On being an awkward public mourner:
  • "The merch line, it's like I'm back at the funeral home." (09:52)
• On realizing she hadn't really grieved:
  • “When does it dawn on you that you haven't grieved at all?” “It’s bad. I know.” (37:03)
• On being motherly as a nanny after losing her own mom:
  • "It's also interesting to me that you take on a motherly role after you lose yours...I don't know that you'd have liked any job you were doing right after your mother died." (47:41)
• On why she doesn't want kids:
  • "I'm so glad I saw what it takes to, to like, what commitment it takes for...to raise a kid early on. Because now I'm not. I don't want kids." (49:50)
• On comedy and shifting social circles:
  • "I was bridesmaid 14 times...I haven’t talked to [most] of those girls in five years...I just, like, switched over into this freak life where I had a job everybody else had at 12 as a babysitter and was going into gross basements and making no money..." (55:20)
• On the infamous Tahoe breakup:
  • "One hand on the thing...makeup, Zoom top, sweatpants, house slippers...Driving down his residence." (64:01)
  • "We get pulled over by the cops...I could take this down, right? But I didn’t." (68:08)
  • "You get pulled over, and...they're like, what do you do if there's a human on your feet?" (69:51)
• Advice to her 16-year-old self:
  • “Fuck it all up as early as you possibly can. Do the dumb ugly shit early so it’s out of your system.” (74:17)

Important Segment Timestamps

• [03:03] – Katherine's Kentucky roots and early crushes
• [07:03] – Mother's illness and family dynamic
• [12:09] – The family's avoidance and hiding the terminal diagnosis
• [17:42] – Family secrets and the cornbread mafia
• [21:04] – Hilarious, irreverent advice and memories from her mom
• [30:53] – Social media “performative grief”
• [37:14] – Realization of not grieving, triggered by Derby Day
• [47:41] – Transition from event work to nannying
• [55:20] – Leaving her old life and switching to standup comedy
• [64:01] – The dramatic "Tahoe incident" breakup story
• [74:17] – Katherine’s advice to her younger self

Tone and Style

The episode is raw, candid, and frequently outrageous—balancing the dark with the absurd. Katherine is disarmingly forthright about her failures, grief, and the hilarity in life’s worst moments. Both she and Ryan keep things light, self-deprecating, and supportive, finding laughter and self-acceptance in what could otherwise be heavy material.

Final Takeaway

Katherine Blanford’s story is emblematic of The HoneyDew’s ethos—finding humor and meaning in our lowest moments, and sharing the messy, unglamorous, human side of growth. Listeners will be left laughing, moved, and oddly reassured that “fucking it all up” is all part of the journey.