I want to start off with like some free association.

Okay.

When Americans broadly think of the Kardashian-Gener family, what words do you think come to mind?

Cultural appropriation, smart business women, the devil works hard, Christianer works harder.

Means, internet culture, beauty culture.

They are a multi-genre, multi-industry family, full of associations.

And I think that's by design.

I wonder, what words come to mind do you think when many Americans think about the Kennedy family?

Democratic, glamorous, Camelot, conspiracy theory, Marilyn Monroe, and Dynasty.

Mm-hmm, mm-hmm, mm-hmm, dynasty, beauty, and drama. Oh, my. I've been thinking a lot

about the overlap between the Kardashians and the Kennedys, their ambition, their media savvy,

and their power. And before you get up in arms about comparing the Kardashians to the closest

thing we've ever had to an American royal family, I've invited MJ Corey, author of deconstructing

the Kardashians, onto the show to get into what the surprising and kind of

shocking similarities between these two American dynasties say about what it means to be an American.

MJ, welcome back to It's Been a Minute. Thank you so much for having me again. You believed in me from

the beginning. You had me on in the early days of this project. I remember, like, asking if you were going to do a book and you were like, watch this space.

And now here we are. And I have like a galley of the book in my hand. And I'm so glad to have you here.

Hello, hello. I'm Brittany loose. And you're listening to It's Been a Minute from NPR, a show about

what's going on in culture and why it doesn't happen by accident.

I think a lot of people think of the Kardashians as kind of like, you know, possibly kind of tacky, new money group of people with a completely fabricated appeal.

People also, like, I mean, conversely consider like the Kennedy family, like as American royalty, like, whose influence was earned organically

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