Olivia Plath joins to talk about leaving Welcome to Plathville and leaving behind the fundamentalist Christian community in which she was raised. She shares what it’s like to leave a marriage that began on television when she was very young, why as a teen she felt she needed a gun to protect against a Hillary Clinton victory, and why she decided to talk more about the anger and abusive aspects of her relationship that did not end up on TLC. Olivia has been on a journey, much of it for the world to see, and it’s given her a fascinating perspective on reality TV, on what happens to kids when their parents seek fame, and what it’s been like to grow up in one world and then choose to live in another.

In this special limited series, Lovett sits down with reality icons who helped lead a hostile takeover not just of television, but of our culture. In intimate and revealing conversations, Lovett and his guests explore the ways these shows blur the line between authenticity and performance, the compromises of putting your life on television, the reality-TV-ification of our politics, and the secrets that don't make it on screen. What have reality stars learned about themselves, about television, and about America? And what happens to a society when the only thing worse than being hated is being boring? These are the questions we are trying to answer - either here, or at the reunion.

For a closed-captioned version of this episode, click here. For a transcript of this episode, please email [email protected] and include the name of the podcast.

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