Andy Dehnart / about

Andy Dehnart’s writing on television, culture, and media has appeared in Salon, Wired, The Advocate, and other publications, and he currently writes television criticism for MSNBC.com, where he’s the interim television editor. Andy publishes and writes reality blurred, an internationally acclaimed web site that “revels in the post-ironic pleasures of reality television,” as The New York Times said. For more than seven years, since the start of the new wave of reality television, reality blurred has offered impassioned analysis and original reporting on television’s newest genre.

Andy, 30, has an M.F.A. in nonfiction writing and literature from Bennington College. He teaches writing and journalism at Stetson University in Florida, comments regularly about popular culture on the radio and in the press, and is at work on a book of narrative nonfiction about reality television.

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Okay, now that we’ve gotten that referring-to-myself-in-the-third-person part out of the way, here’s the more human, less quantifiable description.

I write about—and am addicted to—reality TV and other forms of pop culture and media. When I’m not watching TV or writing about it, I’m probably teaching (writing and journalism) or doing something online. That said, I’d rather go running, travel somewhere I’ve never been, ride a roller coaster, or spend an evening engaged in stimulating conversation with friends over a chai latte or glass of wine while sitting on their back porch.

I value honesty, rationality, commitment, sarcasm, and people who can make me laugh until I can’t breathe. I’m a fan of Chipotle, interstate highway driving, and conversational FM talk radio like NPR’s weekend shows and the Philips Phile on Real Radio 104.1. I read Entertainment Weekly, Wired, The New Yorker, and far too many blogs.

I’m agnostic except when it comes to worshipping good graphic design, recognize that I’m slightly obsessive about cleaning and planning, and like Las Vegas and Walt Disney World in an entirely non-ironic way. Having never really run before in my life, I recently trained for and ran a marathon, and although those five hours and 10 minutes were the single greatest physical and emotional challenge of my life, I can’t wait to do it again.

In no particular order, here are some things that thrill and amuse me: roller coasters, newspapers and magazines, running, Target, Ikea, Calvin and Hobbes, reality TV, bike riding, craps, Jamba Juice, watching fireworks, running in races, NPR’s weekend shows, travel, discussion and debate, HBO, thunderstorms, Hampton Inn hotels, cold nights, good friends and decent wine.