Lori Barghini and Julia Cobbs, the talkative, ever-opinionated sisters-in-law, are returning to the Minnesota media world.

“Lori & Julia Still Loud!” is the twice-weekly podcast they’ll launch Oct. 1 through Hubbard Radio’s Gamut Podcast Network.

In announcing the new podcast, the network said Tuesday the two women will be “bold, brash, and unfiltered.” That’s the reputation that they built on the “Lori & Julia Show” over a 22-year run.

“People wanted us to be People magazine for their ears,” Barghini said in a Tuesday interview with Twin Cities Business. Barghini and Cobbs fed their radio listeners a steady diet of celebrity and pop culture news and weighed in with their strong opinions. Their content provided listeners with an escape from the pressures of their jobs and family responsibilities. Barghini said that Dan Buettner, a recurring guest and wellness book author, told her that the “Lori & Julia Show” helped many people feel less lonely on weekday afternoons.

Their one-hour podcasts will provide similar content, which includes an ample serving of talk about Hollywood celebrities and the latest cultural trends. Even after she stepped away from the daily radio show, Barghini said she’s been tuning in to shows hosted by entertainers Drew Barrymore, Jennifer Hudson, and Kelly Clarkson.

They’ll also talk about “what we’re obsessed with watching on TV and what books that we’ve read that we think that people would really want to read,” Barghini said. They’ll also talk about sex, which is a carryover of a weekly segment that Barghini did on the radio show. “We’re going to be fearless [in talking about] perimenopause and menopause,” she said.

Barghini and Cobbs are in their 60s, however, they aren’t targeting their podcast to a particular age demographic. Cobbs is the person who came up with the podcast name “Lori & Julia Still Loud!” and the hosts will record the podcasts in the Woodbury home of Cobbs.

“We don’t come from a radio background,” Barghini said. “We come from a corporate America background.” But they got their start on myTalk 107.1 FM after persuading Ginny Hubbard, Hubbard Radio CEO, to take a chance on them.

Barghini and Cobbs, who worked together at the Carlson Companies, couldn’t conceive of running out of things to say on the air. In the early months, they learned what it’s like to do hours of live radio five days a week. They gained their footing and allowed their personalities and humor to define the show, which attracted loyal listeners and long-term advertisers. It was second nature for them to gab about actors and other celebrities. “I have loved watching celebrities talk about their projects since I was a little girl and my grandma got all these movie magazines,” Barghini said.

But the radio show also was a platform for interviewing book authors, music and film critics, and newsmakers. The hosts supported women in numerous ways and didn’t shy away from difficult topics, including suicide, divorce, and domestic violence

They weren’t afraid to sound or appear silly, if it would produce good radio. Barghini and Cobbs don’t have good singing voices, but that didn’t stop them from singing with gusto on the air. If the pair got into a lengthy disagreement or wandered way off topic, their even keeled and always reliable producer Don Michaels, known as Donny Love, would intervene to get the trains back on the track.

They also were happy to welcome others willing to engage in some high jinks on live radio. That included Patrick Reusse, who was a fellow Hubbard Radio host and is a Minnesota Star Tribune sports columnist. Reusse once filled in for Barghini, sitting alongside Cobbs, while wearing a women’s fascinator headpiece—attire favored by the British Royal Family. “We had some epic times with him, we absolutely adored him, and saw him [Monday] at Hubbard,” Barghini said.

Cobbs and Barghini don’t plan to have guests in the first few months of their podcast as they adjust to the new rhythms of the show, which already has attracted several sponsors. But Barghini said they want Reusse to be an early guest.

When Barghini told Ginny Hubbard in 2024 that she wanted to end the “Lori & Julia Show,” she also said that she wanted to do a podcast after taking a long break.

On Tuesday, Ginny Hubbard commented on reintroducing Barghini and Cobbs to the Twin Cities community, which will access the women’s entertainment through a new delivery system. “They defined ‘talk radio for women’ in the Twin Cities and will bring their totally unique, authentic, and often downright hilarious perspective of pop news and culture and human relationships to the podcast universe,” she said in a written statement.

Barghini and Cobbs have had plenty of time to travel during their hiatus of more than a year. Earlier this month, they took a trip to Paris. Barghini said she also took an “eye-opening” and “life-changing” trip to Vietnam and Cambodia. During her three-week trip, she said she made friends with three women whose bond will last “until we’re gone.”

At its core, Barghini said the “Lori & Julia Show” was successful because she and Cobbs “have a chemistry that you can’t make.” The women have different personalities and talents, and they sometimes got into spirited arguments on air. But any disagreements never led to an end to their personal and professional relationships.

“What we have is an authenticity and a real, genuine friendship,” Barghini said. “We get each other. We complement each other in all the right ways when it comes to whatever we decide is our next adventure.”