Nude strangers. Icy roads. Brain rot. True love. Class warfare. Queer visibility. Scripted ad libs. Sociologist, professor, author of the book “True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us,” and straight up Reality TV Sociologist, Dr. Danielle Lindemann studies human behavior through the lens of pop culture and reality TV. Dr. Lindemann lays out the history of the medium, the complexities of why we watch, the effect on society at large, who signs up to be on these shows, how our reactions change to it over time, political consequences of reality TV, and what these shows can teach us about ourselves and each other. Also: the Jackie & Shadow show. Visit Dr. Lindemann’s website and follow her on BlueskyBuy her books including True Story: What Reality TV Says About Us on Bookshop.org or AmazonA donation went to the Pedro Zamora ScholarshipMore episode sources and linksThe Jackie & Shadow ShowSmologies (short, classroom-safe) episodesOther episodes you may enjoy: FIELD TRIP: A Hollywood Visit to the Writers Guild Strike Line, Phonology (LINGUISTICS), Kalology (BEAUTY STANDARDS), Matrimoniology (MARRIAGE), Ethnocynology (HUMANS & DOGS THROUGH TIME), Fanthropology (FANDOMS)Sponsors of OlogiesTranscripts and bleeped episodesBecome a patron of Ologies for as little as a buck a monthOlogiesMerch.com has hats, shirts, hoodies, totes!Follow Ologies on Instagram and BlueskyFollow Alie Ward on Instagram and TikTokEditing by Mercedes Maitland of Maitland Audio Productions and Jake ChaffeeManaging Director: Susan HaleScheduling Producer: Noel DilworthTranscripts by Aveline Malek Website by Kelly R. DwyerTheme song by Nick Thorburn
Full Episode
Oh, hey, it's the new leaf on your what you thought was a dying houseplant. Allie Ward, this is Ologies. We're going to get real about sociology. It's everywhere humans are, including in your television. And by that, I mean probably your laptop in bed or your phone on the toilet. Now, reality TV sociology, it's a real thing.
And as proof, we're going to meet a professor of sociology at Lehigh University, who is part of the core faculty of women, gender and sexuality studies, who's also an author of the books, Dominatrix, Gender, Eroticism and Control in the Dungeon. and her highly lauded 2022 release, True Story, What Reality TV Says About Us.
And she studied creative writing at Princeton and then got a PhD in sociology from Columbia and has spent her career analyzing and writing about non-normative or deviant behaviors and how they shed light on how we relate to each other. Now, months back, a tweet of hers went viral, and it was a snapshot of the list of presentations some of her students were giving.
And among them were the sociology of body image and self-worth in The Biggest Loser, the sociology of work and inequality in Below Deck, the sociology of lesbian relationships in The Ultimatum, Queer Love, the sociology of perfectionism in Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. So we will dive into a lot of that and more in a sec.
But first, thank you to patrons at patreon.com slash ologies for supporting the show for a dollar a month or more. and submitting questions before we record. Thanks to everyone out there in Ologies merch from ologiesmerch.com. Thank you to everyone who leaves reviews, which help the show so much. I read them all and I read you one.
So thank you to Sarsi Gray who wrote, in the world of severance, Allie Ward is the Audi Helly R deserves. Swarzy Gray, thank you for that. I hope I wouldn't do that to myself. You know what? Either way, cut banks. Don't sever your crush. Also, thank you Teaspoon32 for saying all the right things. Okay, so reality TV sociology, off we go. Stay tuned for queer culture, making it to the mainstream.
What is real in reality TV? Who signs up to be on reality TV? What effect could it have on young brains? Primetime catfights, class warfare, passive aggression.
what reality can teach us about ourselves, eating hamburgers with a camera in your face, good examples, bad examples, race, wealth, and so much more with sociologist, author, professor, and straight-up professional reality TV sociologist, Dr. Danielle Lineman. So many people were like, get her on now. And I was like, I didn't know this was an ology. My name is Danielle Lindeman. She, her, hers.
Great. Reality TV. Did you start off watching it or did you start out so interested in sociology that you realized this was like the perfect cauldron of places to find interesting things about humanity?
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