Mina Starsiak Hawk Started Her Candid Podcast to 'Weed Out the Karens' on Social Media (Exclusive)

"I tried to create this place that people have to seek out," the HGTV star tells PEOPLE

When Mina Starsiak Hawk launched her podcast, Mina AF, last December, she aimed to share the “non-pretty parts” of her life.

The star of HGTV’s Good Bones tells PEOPLE she wanted to have an outlet separate from her social media where she could dig deeper into the topics that are important to her. Past episodes have covered finances, friendship, infertility, mom guilt and setting healthy boundaries.

“The issue of my Instagram page is a lot of people are like, ‘My 15-year-old daughter follows you. I don't want you talking about plastic surgery, or I don't want you talking about fill-in-the-blank,” she explains. “So I tried to create this place that people have to seek out. You have to actively find my podcast to want to know more, and it kind of weeds out all the Karens that follow just because of the show, but don't necessarily want any of that other stuff.”

On one recent episode of Mina AF, Mina and husband Steve Hawk opened up about their decision to give up alcohol.

While they received an overwhelmingly positive response, with listeners thanking them for talking about the sensitive topic, there was one rude comment.

“Someone was like, ‘Oh, this makes so much sense why he's so weird in all the episodes, he had a drinking problem,” she says. “I'm like, ‘What the f--- is wrong with you?’ So there's definitely some dumb people like that, but the vast majority of the episodes, as well as that one, are just people saying, ‘Thank you for saying the thing. I experienced the thing and it made it easier for me to talk about the thing.' And the sobriety one, I think, really did that.”

Related: Mina Starsiak Hawk Says She and Mom Were in ‘Challenging Place’ Filming Last Season of ‘Good Bones’ (Exclusive)

On the Aug. 28 episode, Mina shared a dilemma over whether to address conflicts with her mom and Good Bones co-star, Karen E. Laine, and brothers, Tad and William, ahead of her 5-year-old son Jack’s birthday party. (She and Steve are also parents to a 2-year-old daughter, Charlie.)

“That was a tough episode, because I got so many comments back,” she says. The standard ‘You only have one mom. You only have one family. Figure it out, bury the hatchet.’”

She ultimately decided not to invite some family members.

Starsiak Hawk started her home renovation business, Two Chicks and a Hammer, with Laine in 2007. While Laine retired from the company in 2019, she still appears on the show alongside her daughter and their team.

The HGTV star also used her podcast to announce that Good Bones’ current eighth season, which premiered Aug. 15, would be its last.

Related: Mina Starsiak Hawk Reveals New Season of ‘Good Bones’ Will Be Its Last: ‘End of an Era’

“It’s the end of an era,” she said on the Aug. 7 episode of Mina AF. “I mean, I had to say goodbye to some people today that I have spent my last almost 10 years with.”

She went on to reflect on what the show has meant to her.

“Something I’m super, super proud of, and really grateful to the network for, is making a show for the last eight years that, for the huge majority of the time, has been super representative of who I am, who the boys are, what we’re doing, and it was really important to me from the beginning to do that.”

Mina AF is available to stream now. The final season of Good Bones airs Tuesdays at 8PM on HGTV.

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