The Waves: What Reality TV Says About Us

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Slate Podcasts

Tv & Film, Tv Reviews, Film Reviews

3.6 • 724 Ratings

🗓️ 20 May 2022

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this week’s episode of The Waves, historian and original Waves host, Marcia Chatelain is joined by sociologist Danielle Lindemann to talk all things reality TV. They discuss Danielle’s new book, True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us and why we don’t take reality television as seriously as we should. Later in the show they talk about why women are more successful at monetizing their reality TV brand and how the genre takes us on a tour of the class system. In Slate Plus: Is The Bachelorette feminist? Recommendations Marcia: The True Crime Obsessed podcast, Let the Women Do the Work Danielle: The Netflix series Selling SunsetPodcast production by Cheyna Roth with editorial oversight by Shannon Palus and Alicia Montgomery. Send your comments and recommendations on what to cover to [email protected] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, spoiler listeners. It's Marcia Chatlin, and I'm one of the hosts of The Waves, Slate's podcast on gender and feminism.
0:07.5	I have a special treat for you in the feed this week. I did an interview with Danielle Lindemann that I think you'll enjoy. It's all about reality TV.
0:16.2	We talk about the greats of the genre like Snooki and Honey Boo Boo, how reality TV has shifted our cultural
0:21.9	sensibilities, and how shows like The Real World have been an education for us all. I hope you
0:27.8	enjoy, and if you do, be sure to make friends.
0:55.6	Every episode, you get a new pair of feminists to talk about the thing we can't get off our
0:59.7	minds. And today you've got me, a former waiver, Marcia Chalyn. I'm a historian of African-American
1:05.6	life and culture, and author of the book, Franchise, The Golden Arches in Black America.
1:10.6	And I'm here today with fellow writer and academic, Danielle Lindemann, author of the book, Franchise, The Golden Arches in Black America. And I'm here today with fellow writer and academic, Danielle Lindemann, author of the new book,
1:16.2	True Story, What Reality TV says about us.
1:20.1	Thanks so much for having me.
1:22.9	Professor Lindemann, if I may, throughout the book, you introduce readers to the heavy hitters of sociology.
1:29.8	You've got Dirkheim, you've got Foucault, you've got Mills, and the heavy hitters of reality TV.
1:35.4	We've got Kim, we've got Snooky, we've got Honey Boo Boo. What sparked your interest in connecting,
1:41.3	what I imagine are your two great intellectual loves.
1:45.0	Well, you imagine correctly. So I've been teaching a course at Lehigh University called
1:50.5	Sociology of Reality TV for a few years now in which we pair episodes of reality TV with,
1:57.5	you know, these heavy hitters in sociology. It's a pretty popular course, obviously,
2:02.2	because it's reality TV. A lot of students want to take it. And I always thought that I could,
2:06.2	you know, turn it into a pretty interesting book. So that was sort of the seed of the idea for the book.
2:11.6	So as a sociologist, you have written about a number of topics, including commuter marriages,
2:19.9	the sexual practices of American people. What is it about reality TV that you think is such a helpful lens for
	...

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