How Pedro Zamora used TV to fight AIDS

It’s the mid 90s and reality TV is in its infancy with The Real World. At first, many critics dismiss the show as trash — along with everything else about MTV. But one young man has a crazy dream … of getting on the show so he can use it for something nobody had ever tried. Saving lives. There’s just one problem — he might have a very limited time to do it. And when he DOES get on the show, he realizes his mission is even harder than he thought. This is the story of Pedro Zamora ... and the year that transformed reality TV, and an epidemic.

The Pedro Zamora Scholarship: https://www.aidsmemorial.org/pedro-za...
Donate to the National AIDS Memorial and the scholarship: https://www.aidsmemorial.org/donate-now

Huge thanks to everyone who spoke to me for this video! Watch our full interviews here:
Judd Winick from The Real World: San Francisco:    • Full interview with Judd Winick about The ...  
Danny Roberts from The Real World: New Orleans:    • Full interview with Danny Roberts about Th...  
Jonathan Holmes from Road Rules:    • Full interview with Jonathan Holmes about ...  
Scott Flanary from The Amazing Race:    • Full interview with Scott Flanary about Th...  

And you can find all of those folks through their various projects:

Judd Winick:
Pedro & Me: https://us.macmillan.com/books/978080...
HiLo Book 11: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/bo...

Danny Roberts:
History Unerased: https://unerased.org/

Jonathan Holmes:
BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/tronknotts.b...
Nintendo Force: https://www.nintendoforcemagazine.com/
Maximum Utmost: https://maxutmost.com/
Talking to Women About Video Games: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/show...

Scott Flanary:
Instagram:   / scottflanary  

Join me on Patreon for lots more bonus videos about MTV & The Real World:   / mattbaume