Are the Kardashians America's family? Plus, our skincare desires and delusions

It's Been a Minute

NPR

News Commentary, Society & Culture, News, Spirituality, Religion & Spirituality

4.6 • 8.8K Ratings

🗓️ 4 November 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The Kardashians. Whether you're into them or not, one thing is true: You can't avoid them. When they're not releasing new episodes of their long-running reality TV show, they're making headlines about Halloween costume reveals or ex-husbands who go on anti-Semitic rants. Because somehow, over the past decade, the Kardashian family went from Hollywood D-listers to American institution.

Host Brittany Luse unpacks that journey with MJ Corey, known by her social handle Kardashian Kolloquium. Corey, who also runs a newsletter where she applies media theory to the Kardashians' antics, breaks down their rise to the heights of American society and power – and how they got there using beauty, traditional milestones and a media playbook that might look similar to another first family.

You can follow us on Twitter @npritsbeenamin and email us at [email protected].

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey y'all, you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR.
0:04.3	I'm Brittany Loose.
0:05.8	Okay, so I haven't kept up with the Kardashians in about 10 years.
0:10.2	But if you are plugged into culture in any way at all, they're unavoidable.
0:15.2	Not only have they launched themselves to the heights of American celebrity and society,
0:19.7	they've amassed an astounding amount of real power.
0:24.9	The Kardashian Enterprise makes just as many headlines for a Halloween costume reveal
0:30.3	as it does for famous ex-husband who go on anti-Semitic rants.
0:34.3	Kim Kardashian could just as easily find an audience on the Oval Office as she can convince
0:39.8	millions of people to buy into her product lines.
0:42.4	It's maybe wonder if the Kardashians are deserving of a title we usually reserve for folks
0:47.8	who live in the White House.
0:49.3	Would you say that the Kardashians are America's family?
0:52.6	I think they are.
0:53.6	I think that's MJ Cory.
0:55.4	On social media, she goes by the handle Kardashian Colloquium.
0:59.6	That's Colloquium with a K.
1:01.1	Their America's family in the same sense that the Kennedys were, which the Kardashians
1:04.5	really tried to situate themselves accordingly and the Trumps sense.
1:08.9	So in the most utopian idealized sense and in the most estopian sense.
1:14.1	MJ also runs a newsletter where she applies media theory to the antics of the Kardashian
1:18.7	family.
	...

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