High Low Brow

In the second full-length episode of season two, Ama & Ameema invite the iconic writer/director of LGBTQ+ reality shows such as Hot Haus and Slag Wars, our favourite sex-positive daddy (and soon to be yours!) Topher Cusumano.
The three of us chat with Topher about why queer reality TV sucks so much and why mainstream media struggles with queer representation. We also dive deep into what it means to produce queer media and talk about what pleasure and desire look like. Because heh, who doesn't read a little erotica on their days off. So cozy up, and get ready to laugh because this episode is a journey from start to finish!
Throughout the next hour, you'll hear the following:

• Topher tells us why it's harmful to pigeonhole marginalized creators
• OK, but why is queer reality TV so bad?
• What exactly goes into creating a reality TV show and how hard is it to make GOOD queer reality TV?
• Representation is a nuanced topic, so what exactly does it look like?
• In our first segment, Ama sits down with Kiara from Canada's Drag Race season one to discuss what it's like to appear on a reality TV and how the fandom can be (answer: not great, bob!)
• Then we wrap it all up by playing a game of #HeatOrTrash with Topher, where he ranks some of the top queer reality television shows in the last decade from god-tier to homophobic.

If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show! Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.
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Further Reading on this Topic!
Queer representation in media: the good, the bad, and the ugly - Heckin' Unicorn
Queer Baiting: What is it and Why is it harmful for the LGBTQ+ Community - HYPEBAE
Why Can’t Every Reality Show Be Season 8 of Are You the One? - VOGUE
'Top Chef' Gave Queer Women a Platform Before It Was Cool - Shondaland
Is Slag Wars TV's most inclusive reality show yet? - iD
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Happy Halloween to our ghouls & gals!
To end the first season, Ama & Danita chat all things spooky, from Kyle Richards in Halloween Kills to their very own childhood ghost stories. Plus, horror movie recos and a tangent about television psychic & expert grifter Sylvia Browne.
If you enjoyed listening over the past several months, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page.
Stay tuned for Season 2, coming in 2022!

We're back for our fourth full-length episode of S2! For this week's episode, we get into one of the hottest trends of 2021: parasocial relationships. No matter where you go on the Internet, it's all everyone is talking about. From the social and entertainment-kind, intense-personal, and borderline-pathological.
Between us and our special guest for the week, Toronto-based arts and culture writer and editor Sadaf Ahsan, Ameema, and Ama analyze everything to do with parasocial relationships and even make a case for why some might even be healthy! So many people, from influencers to celebs, broadcast all the mundane aspects of their lives. From their new outfits to the latest restaurants they've tried and even the packages they open, practically nothing is off-limits. So we explore:

• What exactly is a parasocial relationship?
• The power dynamics in fandom culture
• How we grew up in fandoms ourselves and participated in fan culture
• Why do fans have such high expectations of the people they are in relationships with
• Whose boundaries and mental health matter here?
• Finally, Sadaf names our official podcast fandom
• Finally, all three of us play a game where Sadaf and Ameema try to guess the names of certain fandoms. Shout out to our listeners in the Navy ;)

If you liked what you heard, maybe think about rating us! You can also find all our social links by visiting our Lnk.Bio page. Heck, if you want - leave us a voicemail. We love to answer questions from our listeners or take suggestions about what you'd like us to cover. Maybe we'll even feature it in a future show! Hell, if you even want to support us (we're a small team and a lot of work goes into what you hear today) then we would love it if you send us a few bucks via our Ko-Fi! All the money helps us with production costs and creating the podcast you hear today.
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Further Reading on this Topic!

1. YouTubers Are Not Your Friends - The Verge
2. Too close for comfort: the pitfalls of parasocial relationships - The Guardian
3. Meet the stans who DM their faves about their day - Mashable
4. When Grown-Ups Have Imaginary Friends - The New York Times
5. Bo Burnham’s Inside begs for our parasocial awareness - Polygon

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Support the show (https://ko-fi.com/highlowbrowpod)

Not only has another two weeks gone by (so quick!) but we're happy to be celebrating our 1 year anniversary of podcasting! 🥳 For our sixth episode of the season (and our mid-way point of season two), we're happy to bring on two guests we've been looking forward to all season: Natalie Franklin of everyone's favourite Instagram parody account, Nori's Black Book. But if we were getting into who is behind the curtain of these parody accounts and making a living from living and having a blast living the life of these "celebs", we had to ask the one and only Jordan Ross Meyers behind the Twitter handles of Donn Gunvalson and Lee Radziwill and co-host of the Pretty Corrupt podcast.
To take us through all the twists and turns and social media wizardry of being a parody account, both Natalie and Jordan walk Ameema and Ama through the good, bad, and ugly of parody life. Throughout the episode we also discuss:

• What research and time go into maintaining their accounts?
• How often do people confuse their accounts with real individuals?
• Are there any risks involved when portraying celebs or have they had any celebrity encounters?
• Do they have to step back to realize how powerful their voice can be sometimes - why or why not?
• Then during our very first segment, Ama took a minute to interview Jill Krajewski, a freelance journalist based out of Toronto, who started the Kids in the Hall No Context Twitter account during the pandemic. The account just recently hit 12k followers, and Jill talks to us about how the show has found a new audience via the No Context account, how KITH is super queer and why accounts like these matter!
• Then Jordan and Natalie give us their tales of legal woes, celebrity encounters, and what boundaries they've had to make while maintaining these accounts.
• We then wrap the episode up to where Ama, Ameema, Natalie, and Jordan play a game discussing what parody accounts they would have loved to make.

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Further Reading on this Topic!
Nori’s Black Book creator opens up about Kim Kardashian sliding into her DMs and getting blocked by KUWTK stars - Metro
The parody accounts that make Twitter bearable in the era of Trump - Mashable
Why Twitter parody accounts should stay anonymous - The New Yorker
Spoofs, lies, and re-tweets: is it safe to make parodies online? - BBC
Parody accounts cause laughs but have a shady side - Desert News

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Support the show

This is High Low Brow, the podcast with high brow takes about low brow culture, a power hour of dissociation for the Extremely Online.
Join us - Ama Scriver and Danita Steinberg, your trusty co-hosts - and some of our friends for thoughtful analysis of all things pop culture and the Internet, from social and political moments to memes and the best notes app apologies.
Subscribe now so you don’t miss our mini-episode, dropping May 23. From there, we'll show up in your feed bi-weekly.
We are ready to - in the words of Satan herself, Vicki Gunvalson - WHOOP IT UP!