Do you loves it? 2003 was a monumental and genre-defining year for reality television, but there was one show that stood out from the rest: The Simple Life, starring Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. The two socialites lived in Altus, Arkansas for a month and worked (and got fired from) odd jobs to experience "real life." The show made Paris and Nicole household names, and solidified Paris's status as the It Girl of the early aughts. Helen and writer Kirsten King discuss the best moments from The Simple Life Season 1 (all of which, unsurprisingly, are Nicole moments), what The Simple Life would look like today, Paris's outfits on the show, and more.

LINKS

Princess Paris by Vanessa Grigoriadis Rolling Stone 2003 (http://www.vanessagrigoriadis.com/paris.html)

Paris Hilton Nostalgia by Rachel R. White Thought Catalogue 2013 (https://thoughtcatalog.com/rachel-r-white/2013/01/paris-hilton-nostalgia)

Song of the Week - CRAZY IN LOVE! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ViwtNLUqkMY)

Kirsten's social:

Instagram: @kirstenlking

Twitter: @kirstenking_

Website: https://www.kirstenkingsays.com/about

Watch her movie CRUSH on Hulu!

Is it a coincidence that in the fall/winter of 2003 two shows aired about pairs of wealthy heiress best friends? In our first episode of the two part series on Eat The Rich television, Helen and guest Hannah Becker discuss MTV's Rich Girls, a reality television show starring Ally Hilfiger (daughter of designer Tommy Hilfiger) and Jamie Gleicher (daughter of a different rich guy). The show is perhaps best remembered today for its depiction of the New York City blackout in August '03 — much less impressive upon rewatch sadly — but it's a time capsule show about friendships, early reality programming, and caprese salad. Unlike The Simple Life, which starred fellow heiresses Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie, Rich Girls didn't have a format, but what it lacked in structure it made up for in heart.

LINKS

Song of the Week: Dandy Warhols We Used To Be Friends

Income Inequality in the United States 1913-1998 (Quarterly Journal of Economics, Feb 2003)

One of the TOP 8 inventions of 2003 was undoubtedly Myspace, which launched in August of ’03 and quickly became one of the most important social networking and music discovery platforms of the aughts. Helen speaks with Tiffany Kwak aka Lawrence, Kansas’s “that girl from Myspace” about her Myspace era and what we lost when we ditched Myspace for Facebook.

LINKS !!

Tangled Up In Spam by James Gleik - NYT Magazine

Oral History of Myspace Music - Stereogum

Song of the Week: Transatlanticism by Deathcab for Cutie

Twenty years ago this week, the Supreme Court released their landmark decision Lawrence v. Texas, which declared sodomy laws unconstitutional. Professor Wes Phelps of University of Northern Texas joins to discuss the Texas sodomy statute, who is affected, and the decades of efforts before Lawrence to invalidate it.

Read Before Lawrence: The Making of a Queer Social Movement
Listen to Professor Phelps's podcast Queering the Lone Star State!
Professor Phelps's bio / faculty page at UNT and follow him on Twitter @wesleyphelps20

Song Of The Week: I Believe In A Thing Called Love - The Darkness (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKjZuykKY1I)

Class of '03 is an independent production hosted, written, and edited by Helen Grossman.

If you have a memory or an idea for the show, please call in at 724-CLASS-03 and leave a voicemail or send an email to [email protected].

Follow Class of '03 on Instagram @classof03pod or visit our website classof03podcast.com.

Our logo is by Maddie Herbert of @dame.studio and theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth.

WANNA BE ON TOP? Helen and guest Zoë Klar discuss Cycle 1 of one of the most important, genre-defining shows in reality television: America's Next Top Model. 

LINKS!
Song of the week: In Da Club by 50 Cent https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qm8PH4xAss
Prometea the cloned horse: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prometea
Robyn reading the bible instead of charming men in Paris: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4tFEMOpt5SU

Class of '03 is an independent production hosted, written, and edited by Helen Grossman.

If you have a memory or an idea for the show, please call in at 724-CLASS-03 and leave a voicemail or send an email to [email protected].

Follow Class of '03 on Instagram @classof03pod or visit our website classof03podcast.com.

Our logo is by Maddie Herbert of @dame.studio and theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth.

During the summer and fall of '03, leading up to the 2004 presidential race, there was one candidate who emerged as the unlikely frontrunner: Vermont governor Howard Dean. Dean is remembered today for an unfortunate audio gaffe we now know as the "Dean Scream," but before that fateful night in Iowa, he was the One To Beat because his campaign harnessed the power of the early Internet to out-fundraise his opponents and organize all over the country. Helen speaks with Heath Eiden, a documentary director whose film Dean and Me: Lessons From An American Primary is a fascinating time-capsule into 2003 politics, the Dean campaign, and Heath's own endeavor to enmesh himself within the Dean political machine.

 Watch Dean and Me: Lessons from an American Primary on Vimeo

Song of the week: Year 3000 by Busted

Class of '03 is an independent production hosted, written, and edited by Helen Grossman.

If you have a memory or an idea for the show, please call in at 724-CLASS-03 and leave a voicemail or send an email to [email protected].

Follow Class of '03 on Instagram @classof03pod or visit our website classof03podcast.com.

Our logo is by Maddie Herbert of @dame.studio and theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth.

Helen and guest RJ Aguiar discuss one of the most influential films from the early 2000s: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. But Jack Sparrow wasn't the only pirate who made headlines in 2003.

NOTE: Discussion of the Johnny Depp/Amber Heard trial and abuse allegations begin at approx 37 minutes. Please take care while listening.

Follow RJ on Instagram or Twitter.

Class of '03 is an independent production hosted, written, and edited by Helen Grossman.

If you have a memory or an idea for the show, please call in at 724-CLASS-03 and leave a voicemail or send an email to [email protected].

Follow Class of '03 on Instagram @classof03pod or visit our website classof03podcast.com.

Our logo is by Maddie Herbert of @dame.studio and theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth.

 July 2003. Vanity Fair releases an issue with ten shimmery starlets on its cover and declares "It's Totally Raining Teens!" Inside, 28 of Hollywood's youngest up and comers are each given a pop quiz, subjected to the gaze of boomer culture critic James Wolcott, and photographed in a variety of extremely awkward and uncomfortable poses. Our first episode goes into what this issue tells us about what the world thought of millennials as we came of age and who, as teenagers, we were expected to be.

View the Vanity Fair It's Raining Teens Issue here. 

Aliza Kelly is a New York-based professional astrologer and bestselling author. Follow her on Instagram and buy her book!

Class of '03 is an independent production hosted, written, and edited by Helen Grossman.

If you have a memory or an idea for the show, please call in at 724-CLASS-03 and leave a voicemail or send an email to [email protected].

Follow Class of '03 on Instagram @classof03pod or visit our website classof03podcast.com.

Our logo is by Maddie Herbert of @dame.studio and theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth.

Welcome to the Class of '03 Podcast, a show about the year 2003 and the ways it still affects us today, 20 years later. Each week on the show, we discuss one or more subjects from that year — anything from politics to pop culture, fashion trends, films, science, diet fats, legal cases, and tech. Every year has major headlines but 2003 was exceptional in its output, and this show looks at personal and collective memory to look back and remember a year that's not so far away as it feels. Like and SUBSCRIBE wherever you get your podcast to start listening to the show when it launches JUNE 1, 2023!

Class of '03 is an independent production hosted, written, and edited by Helen Grossman.

If you have a memory or an idea for the show, please call in at 724-CLASS-03 and leave a voicemail or send an email to [email protected].

Follow Class of '03 on Instagram @classof03pod or visit our website classof03podcast.com.

Our logo is by Maddie Herbert of @dame.studio and theme song is by Luke Schwartz and Evan Joseph of Sawtooth.