Holland Darcy, if you were watching MTV as incessantly as I was in the late-90s and early-2000s, you might remember better as Holly Shand. She was a cast member on Road Rules: Latin America, and later came back to compete on three separate challenges. She (and her team) destroyed the Real World team on Real World/Road Rules Challenge 2000; she and her partner Josh just missed out on the final mission on Battle of the Seasons; and she wrapped her reality TV career in The Inferno where she decisively (and entertainingly) destroyed Trishelle in the one of the Inferno challenges on the way to winning the final mission.

I positively adored these shows and watched the holy hell out of all of them, so it was an immense pleasure getting to sit down with Holland and dig into some of the minutia of what the experience was like. Ever wondered what it’s like being on a reality show? Well, here’s your chance to find out. Here’s some of what we cover on this week’s show:

• What’s the casting process like?
• How many people are actually in that Road Rules Winnebago? (Hint: It’s way more than the 6 cast members.)
• Is the narrative crafted on the show reflective of the cast members’ experience?
• What’s life like after the show?
• How do you handle people in real life who recognize you?
• How much of what goes on is actually filmed?
• Outside of the prize money awarded during Challenges, what do they actually get paid?

We also touch on what has probably become Holland’s signature moment on any of these shows, which, believe me, was a weird thing to ask about. If you look for clips of Holland (Holly) on YouTube, the first one you’ll likely find is this one: Holly’s Heartbreak. As a microcosm of how a story gets told on a reality TV show, this part of the conversation is incredibly enlightening. Holland knows this clip, and gives us all the back story of hers and Dan’s relationship, how the producers actually helped mold this narrative, and the fallout from the portrayal. It’s fascinating.

Reality TV has become ubiquitous in our culture. If you’ve ever wondered on any level how the sausage gets made, there’s no better way to learn more than from someone who lived it.

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