Socialites: From Mrs. Astor to Paris Hilton

What does a socialite actually do? The job title sounds absurd — "professional party-goer" — but beneath the surface lies a centuries-old role with real economic and cultural power. This episode traces the socialite from Aspasia of Miletus and Madame Geoffrin's Enlightenment salons to Mrs. Astor's Four Hundred in Gilded Age New York, then to the modern celebutante. We explore how Paris Hilton turned visibility into a $2.5 billion fragrance empire, and why the socialite's true function — converting social presence into influence — has remained remarkably consistent across millennia, even as the architecture changed from private ballrooms to global media platforms.