Hey, fam, it's Amara. You know I love telling you about other great podcasts to check out,

and today I've got another one for you. In the 2004 reality TV show, there's something about

Miriam. Six very attractive guys compete for a cash prize and for the love of the beautiful

and mysterious Miriam Rivera,

a Mexican trans woman. It's supposed to be her big break, the moment she becomes the superstar

she's always wanted to be. But this is the era of cruel reality TV. The show's producers have a

different goal. They want to pull off the biggest shock in reality TV

history. During the show's finale, the on-screen drama sparked an international uproar about

gender, sexuality, and whether reality television had finally gone too far. The new podcast

mini-series, harsh reality is a story about love, lies, reality TV, and a woman ahead of her time.

I'm about to play you a preview of Harse Reality, but while you're listening, be sure to follow

Harsh Reality, the story of Miriam Rivera on Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, Wondry Plus, the Wondry app, or wherever you get your podcast.

Nowadays, if you go to Times Square right in the heart of Manhattan,

you go to see the bright lights and to get your picture taken with Spider-Man.

You go for the Lion King or celebrity wax figures or Ripley's Believe It or Not.

But this is 1999, and New York is practically a different city.

Times Square is still flashing with light, but it's full of strip clubs and adult movie theaters.

You can hire someone to go back to your hotel room with you as long as you pay cash in advance.

You can score some heroin,

or you can get mugged. It's edgy. It's dangerous, but girl, it's definitely exciting.

New York City nightlife was amazing. Forty Second Street was alive with strip clubs and go-go dancing. They had the trans working at show center,

the men dancers working at show palace, the females working at show world. In 1999,

...