Life as Entertainment Nick Hitchon is one of the first reality TV stars.
Emily Gould’s life went public on her blog.
Tom Bollestorff describes the reality of having a “Second Life” online.
Laurie Oullette studies reality TV.
Bill Wasik created ‘flash mobs.’
Nick Hitchon is one of the participants in Michael Apted's Seven Up series of documentaries that checks in on the lives of ordinary people every seven years. Hitchon is now a 49 year old engineering professor at the University of Wisconsin. He talks with Anne Strainchamps about the project and the effect it has had on his life. We also hear clips from the Apted series.
Emily Gould became an Internet celebrity for her writing on Gawker, a popular New York City blog. She talks with Anne Strainchamps about the far more revealing writing she did about her personal life at another site, her personal blog - Heartbreak Soup. Gould has written about her blog experience for the New York Times Magazine.
Tom Bollestorff is an anthropologist at UC Irvine and author of "Coming of Age in Second Life." He describes what virtual on-line worlds like "Second Life" are and how they work.
Laurie Oullette is a media scholar at the University of Minnesota and co-author of "Better Living through Reality TV." She tells Steve Paulson how reality TV manipulates the lives of its participants. But we watch it anyway: she got hooked on reality TV the first season it started.
Bill Wasik is a senior editor at Harper's magazine. He tells Jim Fleming about the craze he started – flash mobs – seemingly random gatherings of complete strangers doing something out of the ordinary.
To the Best of Our Knowledge is an audio magazine of ideas - two hours of smart, entertaining radio for people with curious minds.
