The shows we refer to as guilty pleasures may be more insightful than we think. Danielle J. Lindemann, author of True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us, takes us on a journey into ourselves.

A few curiosities you’ll uncover in this episode:

• The character archetypes that make for compelling reality TV
• Do people care that reality TV isn’t real?
• The very first reality TV show (it’s almost 50 years old)
• How reality TV builds community

Did You Know?

For the season one finale of Survivor in 2000—guess how many people tuned in. Upwards of 51 million. That’s the combined population of Georgia, Ohio, Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska, North and South Dakota, Delaware, Montana, Maine, Michigan, and Illinois.

Credits

Curious State is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast hosted and produced by Doug Fraser.

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Podcast Manager - Adam Cecil 
Podcast and Advertising Operations Specialist - Morgan Christianson
Digital Operations Specialist - Holly Hutchings
Marketing and Publicity Assistant - Davina Tomlin
Intern - Brendan Picha 

The Quick and Dirty Tips network is a division of Macmillan Publishers in partnership with Mignon Fogarty, Inc.

Have a question? Or a topic you’d like covered on the show? Maybe you just love sending emails? Whichever shoe fits, tie it on and send me a message at [email protected].