Introducing: Curse of Miss America

A new season of Curse Of is out now! The team investigates the unraveling of the Miss America pageant. We follow the ongoing legal battle over the pageant’s ownership, and the scandals that have been plaguing the pageant for decades. New episodes drop every Tuesday. You can reach out to the Curse of Miss America team at [email protected] mailto:[email protected]. For more Curse of Miss America, follow us on Instagram @glasspodcasts https://www.instagram.com/glasspodcasts/?hl=en. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

• 0:05Speaker 00

  For more than a century, Miss America sold the country a fantasy, and we loved it.

• 0:19Speaker 00

  Miss America herself was a celebrity. She was the image of an ideal woman. And behind her, an organization that promoted women's empowerment. When I was a kid, I watched Miss America every year. The pageant was primetime TV, as big as the Super Bowl.

• 0:34Speaker 01

  There was a time when Miss America got 80 million viewers, and they have all these advertisers, all these sponsors.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  And being Miss America brought fame and opportunity.

• 0:43Speaker 02

  It made a lot of money for a 21-year-old girl. It was nice. That was a real prize.

• 0:48Speaker 00

  But over the past decade, the crown's been slipping.

• 0:51Speaker 03

  They said, "Goodbye to swimsuits, now hello to lawsuits." Leaked emails. Writing, quote, "OMG, she is huge and gross. Other exchanges are too vulgar to broadcast." After she says she was controlled, manipulated, and bullied by the new Miss America leadership.

• 1:06Speaker 00

  When I took on this project, I thought I'd be talking about crowns and gowns. But what I uncovered was something much darker. Today, the Miss America organization is at the center of an extraordinary battle. Two people are claiming to be the rightful owner, and it's getting ugly.

• 1:23Speaker 04

  How could that vicious woman, how did she turn this around?

• 1:30Speaker 00

  I'm Bridget Armstrong. Last season, we took you into the world of America's Next Top Model, a show that defined a generation. I'm back with Curse of Season Two, all about the rise, fall, and uncertain future of an American institution: the Miss America pageant. We'll hear directly from former Miss America winners, participants, and whistleblowers. I never received scholarship money to pay for my student loans. He looks at me and goes, "You don't look like you suffered an eating disorder."

• 2:01Speaker 00

  She's great, but looks too ethnic. Even with insiders sounding the alarm, thousands of young women continue to dedicate their life to the pageant. Now, they're standing on the sidelines, watching it implode. I actually did very much enjoy it. And it just seems like so much has clouded that enjoyment.

• 2:24Speaker 00

  I don't want to bring any harm to Miss America because of the sisterhood of it all, you don't want to damage. But there was also this grave injustice, and so it's so disappointing. This is a story the Miss America organization really doesn't want us to tell. And we know that because they've tried their best to interfere with our production.

• 2:44Speaker 05

  An exploitation of our Miss Americas is treated by the Miss America organization as an attack on Miss America itself.

• 2:54Speaker 00

  It's the story of how the crown became a curse, an investigation into the legal battle playing out in real time, and maybe a final reckoning for Miss America.

• 3:05Speaker 02

  It's all just a game. It's all just a joke. What is the value of these women? Maybe this is the meta-question for the podcast. What is Miss America at this point?

• 3:19Speaker 00

  Listen to The Curse of Miss America on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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