When it comes to podcasting, Paris Hilton says definitively, “I was born to do this.” So it should come as little surprise that a few months after launching her first show, Hilton is returning to the podcast format with a docu-style podcast series that will examine the dark secrets and controversial practices of the “troubled teen industry.”
Hilton and her audio production company London Audio are again teaming up with iHeartMedia – which released her first show This Is Paris in March – as well as Warner Bros. Unscripted Television in association with Telepictures to produce the podcast titled Trapped In Treatment. Its creators plan to use each season of the podcast to focus their attention on a single youth treatment facility, through the experience and stories of young people who went there. The first season will explore what goes on at the Provo Canyon School in Utah. It is a facility that Hilton knows well.
“For 20 years, I lived silently with the memories, and the trauma, from my experience at Provo Canyon School,” says Hilton. “This past year, thousands of survivors like me have shared their stories, helping to bring into public view what so many of us have locked up. Provo Canyon School will not be able to hide behind the abuse they’ve caused survivors any longer.”
Unlike her This Is Paris series, Hilton will not host Trapped In Treatment. Instead, it will be hosted by Caroline Cole and Rebecca Mellinger. Cole is an activist and trauma-focused women’s transformation coach, who is also a survivor of a lock-down behavior modification facility. Mellinger is Hilton's Impact Producer, who is working alongside Hilton to reform the "Troubled Teen Industry" through policy change, public awareness and mental health support.
Hilton has long been a master of social media, but her reach has spread since the release of the acclaimed YouTube Originals documentary on Hilton’s life, which has garnered more than 20 million views to date. The documentary follows her success in business but takes an unexpected and highly personal turn as she reveals, for the first time, the abuses she suffered as a teenager.
Trapped In Treatment will debut in 2022.
Like many Americans, Hilton discovered podcasting during the pandemic when parties and nightlife that she is known for were off the calendar. “I never listened to a podcast in my life before and then during this time I started to listen to a lot of them, and enjoying them, because I’m always someone who is multitasking and doing a lot at once,” she said earlier this year during a presentation to ad buyers. “I love that you can just have it playing in the background.”
Under iHeartMedia’s alliance with Hilton’s London Audio the two companies will jointly produce at least a half dozen podcasts for the iHeartRadio Podcast Network over the next three years.
“I love being able to share my platform with others. There are so many people who deserve that attention,” Hilton said. She said a “huge focus” will be on women empowerment. “I really want to show those women entrepreneurs, I’m just all about girl power,” she added.
Comments