Savannah James Says New Podcast with April McDaniel Feels ‘Freeing’: ‘More Personal Side of Me’ (Exclusive)

The longtime friends open up about privacy, the inspiration for their podcast "Everybody's Crazy" and why they're "scared as hell" for its release

Savannah James and April McDaniel are getting ready to show the world their personalities in their new podcast, Everybody's Crazy, launching April 30.

In an exclusive interview with PEOPLE, the longtime friends and self-proclaimed "private" women detail their 15-year friendship and the decision to launch the new series, which implores listeners to call in with their craziest stories.

Savannah, 37, whose husband is NBA superstar LeBron James, "vividly" remembers meeting McDaniel at an NBA event in Las Vegas.

"I was very pregnant and I remember she was like, 'Girl, what are you doing? Come over here and sit down,' so she was taking care of me," Savannah recalls.

"The funny part is we've never talked about doing a podcast together," says McDaniel. "Never. We are very private in our own respected natures. Savannah's always been very private with her life and so have I."

McDaniel, the founder of Crown & Conquer, the creative agency behind events like Drake's epic 30th birthday bash and the 2019 immersive exhibit for Rihanna's Savage x Fenty at New York Fashion Week, met Savannah through working with LeBron, 39.

"I've been working with LeBron and Maverick and that whole team for over 20 years," McDaniel explains. "So really I'd seen Savannah in passing and we kind of built a friendship."

The co-hosts bonded over the years, especially through relocating from Miami to Cleveland, and then to Los Angeles in 2018 as LeBron moved NBA teams. "We connected when we were in Miami and started to cultivate our relationship and learn a little bit more about each other. But LA is where we really spent more time together," says Savannah.

NBA fans who have followed LeBron and Savannah through the years know that the mother-of-three rarely engages in the celebrity status her family holds. In a 2017 interview with Cleveland Magazine, Savannah admitted she gets "a little clammy" when asked to walk a red carpet or appear on television.

But now with her son Bronny James, 19, playing basketball at USC and eligible for the NBA Draft, her younger son Bryce James, 16, graduating high school in 2025 and daughter Zhuri Nova James, 9, beginning to model herself after her mom, Savannah says she's "excited" to embrace her new opportunity to share "a more personal side" of herself with the public.

"I started my family pretty young and I was just in a space of trying to navigate who I was at the time or who I am," Savannah explains, "And I feel like I've grown so much from playing the background, taking care of the kids, supporting my husband."

Related: LeBron James' 3 Kids: All About Bronny, Bryce and Zhuri

"Now I'm just kind of like, my kids are growing, basically out of the house. My daughter is now there with me and she's watching me and she's already expressed to me, 'Mom, I want to be like you.'"

As she and McDaniel enter a "new phases of our lives," Savannah says she's excited to "just be putting myself out there more and doing something I really enjoy with my friend."

The Women of Our Future mentorship program founder notes, "This is kind of my first venture of people seeing a more personal side of me and I think that from the outside looking in it's giving like, 'Oh, Savannah wants to talk, that's crazy.' But for me, it's like, 'so did y'all think I sat in the house and didn't talk?' It's crazy."

"So I think personally, as it pertains to the outside world, seeing me kind of doing something, especially first in the form of a podcast, they're like, what is about to happen, this is crazy."

And now that Everybody's Crazy is set to launch, Savannah admits she's "scared as hell" about opening up to the world, but calls the experience simultaneously "freeing" for her.

"I think that for me, it's freeing because it allows me to show a side of my personality. We are both very private and I've been very private and kind of played the background this far in my husband's career. But I am excited to venture off into new things, we're going into new phases of our lives," she adds.

"And as nerve-racking and anxiety-ridden as it is to do something new, I'm really excited."

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McDaniel, who describes herself as "a little old-school" and "detail-oriented," teases that the show will include "all types of calls" showcasing relatable craziness in everyone's lives.

"Everybody has certain challenges, and people are dealing with a lot of things in life, so we really wanted to use the podcast to debunk the feeling, bring everybody into the fold, is that everyone has challenges. So I think that was really where the title also came from. It was really an organic way of thinking about how we can all feel a bit more human," the Crown & Conquer founder tells PEOPLE.

Related: LeBron James on His Enduring Relationship with His Wife: 'She Was There with Me' Before Anything

The co-hosts describe their dynamic as a "yin and yang" rapport, which McDaniel says is what makes their friendship so strong.

"It really is why I feel like our friendship is so flourishing. I think in friendship it is best to have somebody that constantly challenges your thought process and allows you to feel comfortable to grow, and I feel like that is what our friendship does for both of us," McDaniel explains.

Savannah adds, "It's coming from a real position of wanting to see you do better for yourself and I think it's a perfect yin and yang because it's a good balance of straight no chaser, and at the same time, I'm going to be there rubbing your back. It's okay, you can take it."

And beyond their podcast, the duo has more in store for fans that they're excited to share this summer.

"We're working on some other things that we are really excited to talk about come June that are inspired by our friendship, and how women can truly and genuinely support each other and not feel like there's these categories or these tiers or this clickiness that exist," says McDaniel. "And I think social media has amplified that in a lot of ways, and we're just trying to bring back the human connection of how people spend time and talk."

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