Reality TV, PhD

Em finally convinced Christina to watch Love Island USA, and life is officially complete. We discuss all the OG cast members, the three new bombshells (as of episode 10), the Carmen/Victor drama, the Bergie of it all, and oh so much more. But of course that’s not the entire Reality TV landscape this episode covers! We also dig into The Great Food Truck Race, Project Runway, Temptation Island, Love...

Woowwweeee. We had SO much fun chatting with this week’s guest Julie Cachia—a PhD candidate at Stanford University studying cross-cultural romantic relationships. She offers cross-cultural psychology explanations for why LIB US is so starkly different from LIB Japan, and truly delights us all with her love of love. But first, in homeroom, we go on a little Too Hot to Handle detour, and also cover...

This episode is a new kind of meandering chaos. In today’s Seminar, we cover the first three episodes of this season of The Bachelorette (spoiler: we love Charity). But before we get there, we unintentionally snuck in a second Seminar about HBO Max’s Swiping America. We had to! Other shows covered include The Big D, Alone, and Love Island UK (kind of). Christina closes the episode out with a thoro...

Somehow, against all odds, we managed to have a LENGTHY discussion about a show (Alone) in which no one interacts with other humans and contestants are only ever doing one of three things (sleeping, finding food, building shelter). But don’t think that’s all this episode is about—-we also have a packed homeroom where we cover BDSY, Stars on Mars, Love Island UK, The Big “D”, and more. Then, it’s E...

This week, we discuss Temptation Island, aka what Em is officially calling “The Show of the Summer.” A perfect serving of trash where somehow every single contestant is giving Messy Main Character Energy juxtaposed against a host who is truly an Enlightened Being—what more could we possibly ask for? Em also makes yet another (bad) pitch for why listeners should check out Love Island UK, and we wea...

This week’s seminar is all things Ultimatum: Queer Love. Christina rants, Em cries, what’s new? We unpack our journeys with each contestant from Episode one through the Reunion, and boy did our impressions change over the course of this season!!! Em caps the episode off with an office hours segment that sheds light on why some people seemed to feel more sympathy for Rachel/Raquel after the VPR reu...

Buckle up, students, as (our arbitrarily decided upon) “Season 2” of the podcast has officially launched! A little structure shake up, a lot of rambling. We high-level cover Stars on Mars; The Ultimatum: Queer Love; Barbecue Showdown Season 2; Race to Survive Alaska; Queer Eye Season 7; Below Deck Sailing Yacht Season 4; and Top Chef Season 20 Finale. Seminar this week is a deep dive into the trul...

The good vibes are back this week, baby! Chrishell’s journey on Selling Sunset! Let’s let people be both emotional and strategic! Watching people be mentally tortured in physical competitions is not it! The complexities of deciding who to bring to Final Tribal in Survivor! To cap it off, Em hosts an office hour session where she goes deep on the social psychology of emotions in order to unpack why...

Why are emotions so gosh darn hard!? What’s up with the reverence for ship Captains? In what ways are news headlines misleading? Could we love the Fab Five (Queer Eye) and Carolyn (Survivor US) any more? We maybe took a lot of tangents in this one, but we think the journey was worth it—and hope you agree! Episode Bibliography: Em’s high: Queer Eye, Season 7, Episode 1 at 38:01  ⁠Lavanya Ramanathan...

For the second time ever, Em and Christina were in the same city this weekend. So we recorded the podcast together, in real life! Join us for this scintillating episode where we discuss a wide range of topics, such as, how do we feel about live eels and Gary, respectively, on Below Deck Sailing Yacht? In what ways is Jewish Matchmaking sparking memories of our own dating experiences? What is the b...

If you’re not watching Jury Duty, what are you even doing? Does Christina come up with the most insightful metaphor that aptly summarizes Survivor 44? (spoiler: yes, yes she does) But mostly, this episode is all about Top Chef, with esteemed guest Kendra Vaculin. What would she value most if she were to be a judge on the show? Who are her winner picks? What meal would she spend all her Survivor au...

Can we get behind any of Netflix’s production decisions (spoiler: no, we cannot). What’s the casting process like for the Farmers who want wives?  In what way is Survivor like baseball? Can you ever benefit from being strategically prosocial? What did theater people ever do to Christina? Brace yourselves: this is Em’s favorite episode, to date. Episode Bibliography: ⁠Samantha Irby’s essay “My Tast...

Will we ever be able to trust Netflix again? Which men disappointed Christina this week? How might the concept of false positives vs. false negatives help Love is Blind contestants make optimal decisions? Who broke the cry count record this week, and why? Tune in to this week’s ep to find out, and apologies in advance for how upset Em is, throughout, on the Live Reunion failure. Episode Bibliograp...

Are we too nice to reality TV contestants? Was Jackie (LIB) legally allowed to keep her engagement ring? How confident would you be in running up a wooden half-pipe wall? When is keeping something a secret (i.e., a lie of omission) the best choice? Is there such a thing as “lawlessness” in the Alaska wilderness? Tune in for our most chaotic episode yet (by a long shot, tbh). Episode Bibliography:...

What is the difference between falling in love and being in love? What is more important to us: The Jedi or food? How would we redesign the “Is Love Blind?” experiment to make it more scientifically sound? What is Ed’s core thesis about LIB (hint: it involves the concept of “transference”)? This episode was truly a blast, and we hope you agree! Episode Bibliography: ⁠Liz Parnov’s husband/boyfriend...

Christina and Em dissect all your reality TV faves with a critical (and sometimes even academic) lens. But despite how long we spent in school, nothing–and we mean NOTHING–is too low brow for us. Join us for weekly episodes where we catch up on all the reality TV happenings that week, hear from guest lecturers, and hold back none of our hot takes!

How much should we trust the medical teams on Reality TV shows? Will Christina ever stop talking about Captain Lee? Why are we still talking about “sex week” on the Bachelor? But mostly, have you ever met someone more expert on anything than Jen D’Angelo, this week’s guest lecturer, is in the world of VPR? You do NOT want to miss this episode, trust us. Episode Bibliography: ⁠Netflix’s instagram p...

Will production-enabled fake idols ruin all idols forever? Can we please stop voting women out on the early season episodes of Survivor? How can we, in one moment, despise someone for being cruel to another group, but in the next moment feel tenderness towards them? If you’re friends with Christina in real life, will she have your back on Reality TV shows? (Spoiler alert: Absolutely not). Oh, have...

Is Survivor US too self-aware? Is there an Oscar nominated film that all Below Deck lovers should see (at least the first 45 minutes of?) Why aren’t they talking about the important topics on Farmer Wants a Wife (and why isn’t it called Farmers Want Wives?) Tune into this week’s episode for a discussion about these pressing questions and more! Episode Bibliography: ⁠Julian Zlatev’s article: I May...