Gail Rudnick isn’t one to hold back.
I’d been sitting with the glamorous grandma for less than two minutes when she leaned forward, held my gaze, and gave me her signature brand of straight-to-the-point — and very unfiltered — advice.
“Move where you can afford!” the 83-year-old bluntly declared after I started to complain about having a roommate. “You have to live on your income, you can’t live on your aspirations!”
Touché indeed.
But also, hearing the hard truth was wildly refreshing, and I suddenly felt compelled to ask Rudnick — or Grandma Gail as she is more affectionately known by over a million social media fans — for feedback on everything, from the length of my beard to the size of my sweater.
This was a woman who could help sort my entire life out.
Now, she can help sort yours out, too.
Along with her granddaughter, Kimberly Murstein, 29, who is the more mellow counterpart to her gregarious grandma, Rudnick will provide her no-nonsense insights to readers and viewers every Tuesday in an exclusive new column for The Post titled “Excuse My Advice.”
“The worst piece of advice is that everything’s going to be perfect,” Rudnick declared, saying life and love are rarely easy and often messy.
Far from offering up simple, syrupy solutions, the native New Yorkers will hash out each issue from their differing perspectives to tell the tough-love truth — and you’ll thank them for it.
From family feuds to friendship fallouts, money, marriage and sex, there’s no topic too taboo to tackle. They’ll give you their advice on everything.
A dynamic duo
For the past five years, Rudnick and Murstein have been dishing out opinions on their wildly popular podcast “Excuse My Grandma.”
Murstein started the podcast after moving in with her grandmother during the COVID pandemic, realizing that their comic disagreements caused by generational differences would resonate with a wide audience.
“When we first started, Grandma was like, ‘Nobody knows what an influencer is. Nobody cares about a podcast. ‘ I’m like, ‘Trust me, they do,’” Murstein recalled.
It turns out she was correct.
Their associated TikTok and Instagram channels, which collectively boast more than one million followers, have turned the two into bona fide social media celebrities.
Now, with their new Post column, they’re catapulting into a new stratosphere.
“I’ve never been busier,” Rudnick, who is better known as Grandma Gail, told The Post. “Who would have thought that, at my age, I’d be so busy? But I love it, I really do. It’s fabulous.”
Less agony aunt and more glam gran, Rudnick is often a foil for her granddaughter on the podcast and in their viral videos.
The octogenarian is a straight-talking pragmatist who abides by old-school rules and values. Murstein, meanwhile, is a Gen Z romantic idealist who grew up in a world where everything — from careers to relationships — was far more flexible and less defined.
“You have to be practical,” Rudnick implored. “Unfortunately, relationships are based on money, sex and family. All these wonderful things that you see on a rom-com, that’s ridiculous because you only have one date or two dates, and then that’s over.”
Rudnick sees her granddaughter as “an idealist” with “her head in the clouds.”
“And I love it,” Murstein clapped back. “I’m an optimist, I’m a romantic. I believe you have to have chemistry, and I think that never dies.”
“Well, it does get a little dim,” Rudnick retorted,
Despite the duo’s differing perspectives, the pair often end up reaching mutual ground when it comes to giving advice.
Therefore, they’re providing feedback that’s not only complementary and common sense, but relevant for readers and viewers of all ages and backgrounds.
Family first
Rudnick, who was raised in Westchester, moved to Manhattan after getting married in the mid-1960s. She spent decades on the Upper East Side, with her extended family all living close by.
At one point, her own mother lived across the street, while her grown-up daughter (Murstein’s mom) moved to another apartment around the corner.
“We had three corners of the block,” Rudnick told The Post. “We would raise the curtain in the morning and wave and everybody knew when everybody else was up.”
Murstein was born in 1996 and joined her mom, grandma and great-grandma for adventures on the Upper East Side.
“It was definitely the four of us for a bit,” Murstein recalled, saying she has clear memories of her great-grandma, who died just before her bat mitzvah in 2009.
“She passed away when I was 13, so I have a lot of memories of her,” she stated.
“We used to go down the street all together,” Rudnick recalled. “It was amazing. Everybody in the neighborhood knew us, and Kim went to school a couple of blocks from where she grew up. New York has been the center of our lives.”
While she’s since relocated to Palm Beach, Florida, the glam gran has kept her glitzy Upper East Side style.
At a recent photoshoot for the new column, the former Park Avenue resident rocked a chic sweater from Dior and shoes from Chanel. She lugged an alternative outfit in her hefty Hermes Birkin bag, which also has a starring role in the “Excuse My Advice” videos.
Grandma Gail and Kim go global
In 2020, Murstein, who graduated from Cornell, was working as a producer and on-air reporter for streaming network Cheddar TV.
Amid the COVID pandemic, she decided to escape New York City to stay with Rudnick in Palm Beach. There, the idea of “Excuse My Grandma” was born.
While Grandma Gail had always been in Murstein’s business, giving her advice on what to wear and who to date, their closeness reached a whole new level.
“I was an adult going on dates and meeting up with friends and coming back late and all the things that she has never really been involved in before,” Murstein explained. “So we had that new experience, and especially with dating, she was giving her two cents whether I wanted it or not. So I decided we should start a podcast together and have these conversations.”
“Excuse My Grandma” debuted in 2021 and became an instant hit, buoyed by the pair’s playful ribbing of each other on social media.
“I never, never looked back,” Murstein says of entering public life with her grandma by her side. ”I was so happy that I made that decision.”
While Rudnick spent years advising her granddaughter about her various romances, Murstein is now in a happy relationship and will soon move in with her beau.
But Rudnick has some blunt advice for the young lovebirds.
“Now you’re going to have to take out the garbage, make a plan financially, and do all that [unromantic] stuff that couples do,” she deadpanned. “So nothing is set in stone. You have to see how it works out.”
Rudnick says Murstein should know sooner rather than later whether her boyfriend is compatible for the long-term, saying there’s no point in waiting years to either tie the knot or inevitably call it quits.
“My advice for sharing a space? Make it quick and get married,” she quipped.
For her part, Grandma Gail has been married to her husband for 62 years, with the secret to a happy relationship surprisingly simple.
“Family is the core,” she declared.
New gig, New York Post
Get ready to read and watch Rudnick and Murstein’s takes every Tuesday in “Excuse My Advice” — online, and on The New York Post’s social media channels.
In the videos and column, the duo will debate their differing opinions before coming to the best conclusion.
We posed some hypothetical questions to the twosome to warm them up ahead of Tuesday’s debut.
First up: What’s the best way to meet a romantic interest?
“I think I still like the fix-ups,” Rudnick stated. “Family and friend fix-ups. I’m still nervous with who you’re meeting on these apps.”
Murstein clapped back, saying swiping is simply the reality for many singles in 2026.
“I was such an apps person,” she explained. “I know there’s like a stigma, but it’s totally fine. This is the way things are.”
Rudnick conceded that the internet, when used judiciously, could work. Murstein, who was fixed up by friends with her current boyfriend, also agreed that meeting through mutuals has its value.
Secondly: Who should split the bill on a date?
“Whoever makes more money should pay,” Rudnick declared, saying gender shouldn’t come into the equation.
Murstein wasn’t so sure. “Why should someone get penalized for making more money?” she retorted.
After back and forth, the two concluded that communication was key and that each couple should make relationship rules that work for them.
But Rudnick couldn’t resist a gentle dig at her granddaughter before moving on to the next question.
“If we kept buying those lottery tickets and you won $1 billion, you should pay for me,” she quipped.
Have romantic issues? Roommate issues? Money issues? Grandma Gail Rudnick and her granddaughter, Kim Murstein, are here to fix your mess — with a loving but no-nonsense touch! Head to nypost.com/ema and drop them a note about what you need sorted.
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