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Outside/In

The reality of History’s “Alone”

Outside/In

NHPR

Society & Culture, Documentary, Natural Sciences, Nature, Science

4.71.5K Ratings

🗓️ 17 November 2022

⏱️ 33 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The premise of History’s reality TV show Alone is about as straightforward as it gets. Ten people are dropped into the remote wilderness with nothing but a handful of tools, a supply of GoPro cameras, and instructions to document their entire experience.  As contestants put their wilderness skills to the test, they face some of reality television’s most intense physical and emotional stakes; struggling with isolation, cold, wild animals, and even starvation. The last person standing wins the grand prize: half a million dollars.  But while the contestants must leave the comforts of home behind, the show still carries societal baggage.  In this episode, two critics explore the subtext of History’s Alone, and the messages it might be sending about class, gender, entertainment, and human relationships with the natural world.  Featuring Eric Martin and Tracy Clark-Flory.   SUPPORT Outside/In is made possible with listener support. Click here to become a sustaining member of Outside/In.  Subscribe to our free newsletter. Follow Outside/In on Instagram or Twitter, or join our private discussion group on Facebook   LINKS Check our Eric Martin’s article: ALONE — What is this reality tv show really about? And Tracy Clark-Flory’s piece for Jezebel: A Woman Alone: On History’s Survival Show, There’s No Escaping Gender, Not Even In The Woods.    CREDITS Host: Nate Hegyi Reported and produced by Taylor Quimby and Nate Hegyi Mixed by Taylor Quimby Edited by Rebecca Lavoie and Nate Hegyi, with help from Justine Paradis, Felix Poon, and Jessica Hunt.  Rebecca Lavoie is our Executive Producer Music for this episode by Blue Dot Sessions, The New Fools, Guy Trevino and Friends, Ambientalism, 91 nova, and Sarah the Illstrumentalist.  Our theme music is by Breakmaster Cylinder. Outside/In is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Commence obligatory introduction in three, two, one, go.

0:06.0

Hello, and welcome to Outside In. I'm Nate Hegey.

0:09.0

I'm Taylor Crimby.

0:10.0

And today we are starting the show with a little bit of history, sort of.

0:15.0

The History Channel. Call your cable operator today and begin your historic journey.

0:25.0

When it launched in 1995, the History Channel was ostensibly about history.

0:31.0

They had features on the Titanic, the Hindenburg disaster, lots of stuff about World War II.

0:37.0

On April the 20th, the front had reached the outskirts of Berlin.

0:41.0

So much in fact that early critics called it the Hitler Channel?

0:45.0

Broadly speaking, the audience, this type of content attracted skewed older, white, and male.

0:50.0

People who often share a narrow interpretation of history and what some might call a traditional set of values around masculinity,

0:57.0

national identity, family.

1:00.0

The pioneers face incredible hardship, but their battles forge the American character and build the new American nation.

1:11.0

Over the years, the History Channel, now just called history, has continued courting that same core demographic.

1:18.0

Even as they produce fewer and fewer Ken Burns style documentaries and more and more reality TV.

1:25.0

Shows like Axeman about loggers, forged in fire, which is a competition show about blacksmiths,

1:34.0

and ice road truckers, a show about, you guessed it, ice road truckers.

1:41.0

Getting started again on this hill, could send Alex sliding backwards down the mountainside.

1:47.0

At first blush, the hit TV show alone seemed a lot like history's other offerings.

1:53.0

The premise is incredibly straightforward.

1:56.0

Ten participants will fight to survive the art dad for longer than anyone in a lone history.

2:03.0

A group of ten men, and at first it was only men, are dropped into a remote wilderness.

...

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