‘One To Watch’ Corrects A Reality TV Blind Spot

Nerdette Recaps With Peter Sagal

WBEZ

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4.6 • 924 Ratings

🗓️ 14 July 2020

⏱️ 24 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Kate Stayman-London loves reality TV. But even though shows like The Bachelorette and Love Island bring her joy, “we should also hold those things accountable to our values,” she said.

Stayman-London’s debut novel, One To Watch, puts a plus-size woman as the star of a Bachelorette-style reality TV show. It’s both a lovely summer read and also a critical assessment of reality TV tropes.

Greta talks with Kate about the impetus for the novel, what it means to see stories about large women, and whether or not any reality TV shows might take her lead.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm Natalie Moore. I fell in love with soap operas when I was just five years old, and I still
0:06.1	watch them. Their television's longest scripted series and have zero reruns. Now let me tell you,
0:12.7	soap operas aren't just some silly art form. They are significant. In this season of making,
0:18.0	Stories Without End from WBEZ Chicago.
0:25.7	Join me as I share how the genre began, their social impact, and why these stories endure.
0:28.3	Listen wherever you get your podcast.
0:35.3	From WBEZ Chicago, this is Nerdette.
0:36.1	I'm Greta Johnson.
0:40.5	And today I am so excited to introduce you to the debut author responsible for a fantastic summer read that I love. Her name is Kate Stamen, London.
0:49.6	And she was actually a guest on Nerdat approximately one million years ago. She's an author and a
0:55.4	screenwriter and a former writer for Hillary Clinton's 2016 digital campaign. Her book is called
1:02.4	One to Watch. It's about a plus-sized fashion blogger named B. Shoemaker. And one day, B. writes
1:09.3	this like Twitter takedown of a Bachelorette style reality TV show. And then,
1:14.7	in a delightful twist, B herself is invited to be the next contestant on this show. I don't want to
1:22.8	spoil the story any more than that, but this is one of those just like delicious, plotty, propulsive, addictive
1:29.0	books. And that's not just because full disclosure, it does have an oblique reference to
1:36.5	nerd ad in it. I feel like I should just drop the mic and walk away right there. It's very oblique.
1:42.8	The people in this, anyway, just, you just got to read it to
1:46.3	believe it. So I'm going to talk with Kate about the book and about what it means to see stories
1:51.6	about women of size and about whether or not the real Bachelorette TV show might follow in this
1:58.2	book's footsteps. Kate, welcome to Nurdat.
2:01.3	Welcome back.
	...

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