The Kardashians Are American Icons (Whether You Like It or Not)
The Sam Sanders Show
KCRW & Sam Sanders
4.9 • 709 Ratings
🗓️ 22 May 2026
⏱️ 38 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
The Kardashians are one of the most famous families of our modern era.
Since their hit reality TV show first debuted in 2007, the family has become synonymous with American culture. Their celebrity has only grown with each new beauty and fashion enterprise.
Author MJ Corey analyzes the family’s staying power in her new book Dekonstructing the Kardashians: A New Media Manifesto. She talks to Sam about how the family built their media empire, how Kim Kardashian normalized selling her own image and what it says about our digital age, and how the family mirrors our deepest fears.
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The Sam Sanders Show is a production of KCRW and Sam Sanders Productions.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey y'all, Sam Sanders here. |
| 0:07.1 | Thanks so much for checking out my show with KCRW. |
| 0:10.7 | Question, how would you react if I told you about a celebrity whose resume includes the following? |
| 0:17.6 | A hit reality show, a hit clothing line, a starring role in a hit scripted TV show, a private equity firm, a makeup line, successful work on prison reform, a video game, and an emoji app. |
| 0:31.6 | Also, this celebrity became a billionaire in the process. Would you be impressed? Would you marvel at all of their accomplishments? |
| 0:40.3 | Would you ask how they did it? Now, what if I told you that that resume belongs to one Kim Kardashian? |
| 0:47.4 | How would your reaction change? I'm guessing it would. Kim Kardashian has become one of the most |
| 0:53.4 | famous and successful celebrities |
| 0:54.9 | of our time, while also becoming perhaps one of the most polarizing, most ridiculed, most |
| 1:01.6 | judged. My guest this week has spent years trying to figure out why. Her name is M.J. Corey, |
| 1:07.8 | and she's out with a new book called Deconstructing the Kardashians, a new media manifesto. |
| 1:14.1 | This book applies media theory to the Kardashians to figure out what makes them tick and what their continued success says about all of us. |
| 1:24.1 | Let's get into it. |
| 1:28.7 | You are a therapist by trade. |
| 1:31.7 | Yep. |
| 1:32.3 | What made you want to begin to examine the Kardashians so deeply? |
| 1:38.4 | Was there a certain instigating event? |
| 1:41.1 | Totally. |
| 1:41.9 | And I was late to the Kardashians. |
| 1:43.3 | Like I had always, you know, they, I was |
| 1:45.3 | inundated with their images like everyone else was from 2007 on, but 2018, a friend put on the show. |
| 1:52.6 | And it was the Bora Bora episode where Kim is acting like a diva all over the resort. |
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