Irene McGee (born 1976)
is a podcaster and television personality who created and hosted ''No One's Listening'', a
podcast
A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. For example, an episodic series of digital audio or video files that a user can download to a personal device to listen to at a time of their choosin ...
about the mass media.
[Fong-Torres, Ben]
"Radio Waves"
''San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...
''. December 4, 2005.
She came to public attention in 1998 as a cast member of the
MTV reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early ...
series, ''
The Real World: Seattle''.
[Mcfarland, Melanie Mcfarland]
"Mtv's Series Appears 'Real' In Name Only"
''The Seattle Times'', June 12, 1998. McGee left the show during filming due to ethical objections of the production. In late 2013, she wrote an article for ''
Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
'' explaining her early departure titled "Slaps, Lies and Video Tape".
["Slaps, Lies and Video Tape"]
irenemcgee.com, accessed June 14, 2010. McGee has since performed a stand-up routine explaining her life since the show's filming.
Early life
McGee is originally from
Pleasant Valley, New York
Pleasant Valley is a town in Dutchess County, within the Hudson Valley of New York, United States. The population was 9,799 at the 2020 census. The town is centrally located in the county, northeast of the city of Poughkeepsie. U.S. Route 44 pa ...
.
She graduated from
Georgetown University
Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...
with a degree in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and went on to receive her master's degree in broadcast electronic communication arts from
San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
.
Career
''The Real World: Seattle''
McGee appeared on the show's seventh season, ''
The Real World: Seattle'', in 1998, during which she was described by ''The Seattle Times'' as "the cynical girl from New York state".
[ During filming, she appeared sick and was suffering from headaches, and during the 14th episode, she told the others that she had ]Lyme disease
Lyme disease, also known as Lyme borreliosis, is a vector-borne disease caused by the ''Borrelia'' bacterium, which is spread by ticks in the genus ''Ixodes''. The most common sign of infection is an expanding red rash, known as erythema migran ...
, then left during the next episode. As she was leaving, a heated exchange with another housemate, Stephen Williams, ended with him opening the passenger door of her car and slapping her. The producers gave the cast the decision as to whether to evict Williams, and they decided to let him stay if he would attend anger-management therapy. Activist Jello Biafra
Eric Reed Boucher (born June 17, 1958), known professionally as Jello Biafra, is an American singer, spoken word artist and politician. He is the former lead singer and songwriter for the San Francisco punk rock band Dead Kennedys.
Initially ac ...
discussed the event:
We know ''Real World'' is not the real world. I recently met a woman named Irene McGee who quit this show and said not even the house was real. The fridges were all filled to the brim with Vlasic pickles delivered daily by the crate load along with gallons of Nantucket Nectar. If she drank anything else, the crew took it from her hand and made sure the Nantucket Nectar label was facing the camera instead. When she walked out, another guy in the cast of ''Real World'' hit her and the camera guy did nothing ... When she spoke out, MTV sued her. And ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cu ...
'' rated Irene getting smash mouthed the 47th most interesting event on TV that whole year ... Can't you MTV think of a better way to raise audience awareness of domestic violence than to make it look cool?
VH1 ranked the slapping incident as the 9th most shocking reality TV moment. In 2014, MTV included the slapping incident in a list of "The Most Iconic Moments From 'Real World's First 10 Seasons".
Despite the show's portrayal of her having Lyme disease as the reason for her departure from filming, she later claimed in a taped interview aired during the 2000 reunion show, ''The Real World Reunion 2000'', that the true reason was her ethical objections to aspects of the show's production. She has since lectured at numerous colleges and conferences nationwide about media manipulation and media literacy.
Other work
While earning a master's degree in Broadcast and Electronic Communication Arts from San Francisco State University
San Francisco State University (commonly referred to as San Francisco State, SF State and SFSU) is a public research university in San Francisco. As part of the 23-campus California State University system, the university offers 118 different ...
,["'The Real World' Stars: Where Are They Now?"]
. The Huffington Post
''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...
/AOL TV
AOL TV was the name of both a thin client which uses a television for display (rather than a monitor), and the online service that supports it, both of which were launched in June 2000 to compete with WebTV.
The product and service were develo ...
. March 4, 2008. McGee began a youth-oriented radio show/podcast, ''No One's Listening'', broadcast out of the university.[ The show included interviews with ]Noam Chomsky
Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky i ...
,[ ]Lawrence Lessig
Lester Lawrence Lessig III (born June 3, 1961) is an American academic, attorney, and political activist. He is the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law at Harvard Law School and the former director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard ...
, Brewster Kahle, Violet Blue
Violet Blue is an American journalist, author, editor, advisor, and educator. Blue wrote a weekly sex column for the ''San Francisco Chronicle'' until 2010. In her podcast, Open Source Sex, she reads erotica and discusses topics such as feti ...
, and Jimmy Wales,[''No One's Listening'' website](_blank)
and won the 2006 ''Pubbie Award'' as Best Bay Area Podcast by the San Francisco Bay Area Publicity Club. It ran from 2005 to 2014. She has spoken to colleges about media manipulation and reality television, and has appeared on VH1 and E! Entertainment Television
E! (an initialism for Entertainment Television) is an American basic cable channel which primarily focuses on pop culture, celebrity focused reality shows, and movies, owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUnivers ...
.[ She hosted a talk radio show on KIFR a CBS station called "The Irene McGee Show". In 2008, she hosted a ]Revision3
Revision3 was a San Francisco-based multi-channel television network that created, produced and distributed streaming television shows on niche topics. Founded in 2005, it operated as a subsidiary of Discovery Digital Networks since 2012.
The ...
show, Social Brew.
McGee has also been involved with a documentary about Lyme Disease, ''Under Our Skin: The Untold Story of Lyme Disease''. In May 2018, she started a nonprofi
Nap4Lyme
to raise awareness and money for the Disease.
McGee was the co-founder and editor of a health education sit
FYILiving.com
, which was acquired b
Action Factory
.
McGee wrote and starred in a one-person comedic storytelling show about her life called "Me, Myself, and Irene."
References
External links
*
No One's Listening Podcast site
''The Washington Post'', November 4, 1999.
*McGee, Irene
''Vulture
A vulture is a bird of prey that scavenges on carrion. There are 23 extant species of vulture (including Condors). Old World vultures include 16 living species native to Europe, Africa, and Asia; New World vultures are restricted to North and ...
''. November 23, 2013.
{{DEFAULTSORT:McGee, Irene
Living people
American women podcasters
American podcasters
People from Pleasant Valley, New York
The Real World (TV series) cast members
1976 births
San Francisco State University alumni
21st-century American women