The Work of Fame (w/ Susie Meister)

Oliver and Susie, 2009

I don’t talk to old friends as much or as often as I should¹, so this conversation with Susie Meister about fame was one of the highlights of my 2022 podcasting season. If you haven’t heard it yet, I’m sharing it again on Substack. The degree to which the world of 1994-2008 has changed, in terms of our understanding of “fame” or “notoriety,” is considerable. Despite having lived through it, there are times when it feels as if it never happened at all — with the change having been so gradual and insidious as it unfolded, and so rapid when viewed in retrospect, that mere language fails to convey its extent.²

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Oliver talks to long-time friend and veteran Brain Candy Podcast host Susie Meister about life twenty years after her MTV debut on Road Rules in 1998. How has the nature of fame changed? Would she have approached fame differently had social media platforms such as IG, TikTok, and the like existed? And most importantly, why do people keep telling Oliver to read his own articles and listen to this podcast?

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Suggested reading/viewing

Meister, "What I Learned From Fight Club-Style Brawling on 'The Challenge,'" https://observer.com/2018/07/fight-club-prize-fighting-mtv-the-challenge/ 

"My Reality Is Our Tragedy," https://www.salon.com/2017/11/28/tv-star-susie-meister-my-reality-is-our-tragedy/

"I Almost Became a Conservative Pundit," https://www.vox.com/first-person/2018/4/17/17247314/conservative-pundit-reality-tv-tomi-lahren-ann-coulter

"Susie vs. Kimberly on The Challenge: Ruins"

"Road Rules: Piggy's Accident"

I have no idea why YouTuber “Ronald Acton” saved these old conversations (among many others!) from digital extinction, yet here they are:

1. All the usual excuses apply. I’m a father now, I work the equivalent of 3-4 jobs, it “gets late early out there,” &c.

2. Besides: “Don't tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”