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As a society, we surround ourselves with imitations of real-life, whether it's fake color in our hair, fake wood on our desks, or fake tortoise shell in our glasses. Tonight on the Front Porch, we're taking a peek at our faux realities.

Just about every society has tried to simulate real leather -- there’s Naughahyde, Ultrasuede, Fabrikoid and many, many others. We'll look at efforts to replicate leather's classiness and sophistication, and we'll try to find out what the search for the perfect faux leather says about our cultures and our economies. Our guest is Robert Kanigel, author of Faux Real: Genuine Leather and 200 Years of Inspired Fakes. He's also a Professor of Science Writing at MIT.

Later in the show, we'll find out how the synthesizer has changed the work of a Hollywood composer and musician. We'll meet award-winning composer David Vanacore, who scores many of the popular reality shows on TV. (This story comes to us from the Public Radio Exchange. You can listen and comment on it by clicking here.