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In most of my PLA blog posts, I at least try a little bit to sound intellectual and have valuable insights to share about whatever topic we are discussing in class, or I try to be genuine and express whatever existential crisis I’m going through that week. Yet this doesn’t really give me a chance to express how trashy I am. I am a sucker for reality television (True Confession: I watched every episode of Here Comes Honey Boo when it was airing on TLC). I like to think of myself as a erudite, accomplished college student, but I’m also the kid who watched way too much Dog the Bounty Hunter and Big Brother in high school. I have a weakness for sensationalist pop culture. So let me share with you my two most recent kind-of-trashy obsessions…

First, over Winter Break, I watched all of A&E’s Leah Remini: Scientology and the Aftermath. To put it bluntly, I am utterly fascinated by the Church of Scientology. In 8th grade, I did a world religion report on it, and for my Rhetoric and Civic Life class last fall, I made an 8-minute video about the controversy surrounding the Church. In her show, Leah Remini talks about her own public break from Scientology and all the inner workings of the church, alongside former “face of Scientology” Mike Rinder. The two of them travel across the country interviewing families who had their lives broken up by Scientology. I won’t get into the depths of Scientology’s abuses, because I kind of think I might be on a Scientology watchlist after posting my RCL video on Youtube… Anyway, after watching the whole series, I came back to school, went to the library to find a book to read, and stumbled upon Going Clear: Scientology, Hollywood, and the Prison of Belief by Lawrence Wright; within a week, I had read all 448 pages and started having dreams that I was being tailed by Scientology operatives. Nonetheless, I can’t explain my fascination with Scientology, a religion where the head of the church hangs out with Tom Cruise on the regular.

My other new thing is a podcast called Missing Richard Simmons, which I downloaded and started to listen to on the flight to Seattle. You know Richard Simmons, the exercise guru that goes on TV and yells about fitness? Yeah, he’s been missing for 3 years. Not officially, of course – both his publicist and the LAPD say that he’s fine. But many of his close friends and regulars to his exercise class “Slimmons” haven’t heard from him since February 2014. So Richard’s friend Dan Taberski took it upon himself to create a 6-episode investigative podcast to uncover where he is. Theories for Richard’s disappearance include: recovering from a knee-injury, grieving the death of his dog, and being held hostage by his housekeeper/friend/alleged-witch Theresa. There has been some pushback surrounding this podcast by critics who think that Taberski is invading Richard’s privacy. People are allowed to disappear and stop talking to people; there’s nothing illegal about that. But to the people that knew Richard, he would never do that. He was incredibly friendly, caring, and empathetic who genuinely valued his friends and their lives. So for him to disappear suddenly doesn’t seem natural. I’ve been listening to this podcast since Seattle and have told way too many people about it. 10/10 would recommend – the final episode comes out on Wednesday.

In short, if you have any trashy reality TV shows or sensationalist guilty-pleasures, hit me up.