logo
episode-header-image
Nov 2023
44m 7s

What Reality TV Says About Us

Marshall Poe
About this episode

Reality TV shapes and reflects how we see ourselves, and what we regard as normal. Professor Danielle J. Lindemann watched thousands of hours of reality tv to decode its influence on society. She joins us to discuss her book True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us (FSG, 2022).

 Danielle J. Lindemann is an Associate Professor of Sociology at Lehigh University interested in gender, sexuality, the family, and culture. She is the author of Commuter Spouses: New Families in a Changing World and Dominatrix: Gender, Eroticism and Control in the Dungeon. Her research has been featured in media outlets such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Atlantic, The Washington Post, Rolling Stone, Billboard, and The Chronicle of Higher Education. She has spoken about her work on National Public Radio and has written op-eds for CNN, Newsweek, Salon, Fortune, and Quartz.

The UConn PopCast is proud to be sponsored by the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute. Learn about our MA Program.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/communications

Up next
Oct 6
Digital Expressions of the Self(ie): The Social Life of Selfies in India
Selfies are more than fleeting images—across India, they shape how people imagine themselves, connect with others, and inhabit spaces. In this episode of the Nordic Asia Podcast, Prof. Xenia Zeiler from the University of Helsinki talks to Prof. Avishek Ray about his co-authored b ... Show More
25m 30s
Oct 5
Amanda Belantara and Emily Drabinski, "Ways of Knowing: Oral Histories on the Worlds Words Create" (Litwin Books, 2024)
Ways of Knowing: Oral Histories on the Worlds Words Create (Litwin Books, 2025) sits at the heart of the library project, shaping how materials are described and organized and how they can be retrieved. The field has long understood that normative systems like Dewey Decimal and L ... Show More
36m 15s
Oct 5
Carlotta Daro, "The Architecture of the Wire: Infrastructures of Telecommunication" (MIT Press, 2025)
The Architecture of the Wire explores the development of telecommunications infrastructure and its impact on the architectural and urban culture of the modern age—from poles, wires, and cables, to “micro-architectures,” such as the théâtrophone and the telephone booth. Starting w ... Show More
37m 23s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2022
Reality TV
In this episode of High Theory, Olivia Stowell speaks with Saronik about Reality TV.In the episode she talks about the genesis of the genre in Candid Camera, An American Family, COPS and America’s Most Wanted, before the watershed moment of The Real World in the 1990s. She refere ... Show More
16m 59s
Jan 2023
Sociology Ruins Reality TV
What if I told you reality TV says a lot about the world around us? I'm sure you're skeptical, but hopefully, this episode will convince you that reality TV is worth paying attention to, especially for social scientists. Joining me are Danielle Lindemann, Associate Professor of S ... Show More
31m 35s
Apr 2017
Democracy and Social Media with Michael Lynch
Social Media rewards snap judgments and blind conviction. Michael Lynch finds this troubling. Michael P. Lynch is Professor of Philosophy and Director of the Humanities Institute a University of Connecticut. His research concerns truth, public discourse, and the impact of technol ... Show More
26m 44s
Mar 2023
How Have You Changed Reality TV As We Know It? with Fenton Bailey
This week, we’re celebrating the small screen with a TV legend: World of Wonder’s Fenton Bailey! Fenton is one of the creative forces behind RuPaul’s Drag Race and other groundbreaking TV shows and films.    Fenton and Jonathan discuss how infomercials, public access stations, te ... Show More
1h 3m
Sep 2022
What is a Tomboy?: A Discussion with Lisa Selin Davis
Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: How journalist Lisa Selin Davis became interested in tomboys. The questions that arise when we say the word “gender.” The supposed freedoms and limits of being a tomboy. Why manufacturers insist that clothing and to ... Show More
1h 8m
Jan 2024
Black and Queer on Campus
Today’s book is: Black and Queer on Campus (NYU Press, 2023) by Michael P. Jeffries, which offers an inside look at what life is like for LGBTQ college students on campuses across the United States. Dr. Jeffries shows that Black and queer college students often struggle to find s ... Show More
49m 55s
Dec 2023
This is the Best Statement of the Simulation Hypothesis We've Seen
It’s the UConn PopCast, and in this episode we discuss Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s 1973 movie World on a Wire, shown on West German television over two nights, and then lost for decades. When it was restored and re-released nearly 40 years later, the movie quickly gained acclaim a ... Show More
1h 28m
Nov 2020
What If "Among Us" Was Real Life? - Liana Ruppert
Everyone once in awhile a game comes along that transcends genre, subjective preferences or styles and just blows us up in a way that takes it from "game" to "cultural phenomenon". "Among Us" is that game. What about this relatively simple, low fi looking game has captured the he ... Show More
41m 32s
Aug 2022
Story Collider En Español: Historias científicas en español
En el episodio de esta semana, nuestros dos narradores comparten historias reales y personales sobre la ciencia en español. Parte 1: Ro Moran nos cuenta de un tiempo cuando él se hizo cargo de la vida de un animal y los corazones de sus compañeros de clase. Parte 2: En su primer ... Show More
35m 19s
Jan 2017
64: The Power of Meaning
On this episode of The Psychology Podcast, friend of the show Emily Esfahani Smith sheds light on how we can craft a life that truly matters. Finding meaning in life is a crtitical existential good, and with today’s discussion we take a science backed look at how we can achieve t ... Show More
48m 38s