Normal Gossip
Bonus Episode: Life as a New York Times Bestselling Author with Kelsey McKinney
Wed, 26 Feb 2025
Popping into your feeds with a little treat! In today’s bonus episode, Kelsey joins Rachelle to answer all of our burning questions about her new book, You Didn’t Hear This From Me: Mostly True Notes on Gossip, reality TV, victorian marriages, and, you guessed it, gossip!Order Kelsey's book, YOU DIDN'T HEAR THIS FROM ME, here!Subscribe to our newsletter for writing from Rachelle, Se'era, Jae, Alex, and Kelsey, plus blog recommendations and secrets!You can support Normal Gossip directly by buying merch or becoming a Friend or a Friend-of-Friend at supportnormalgossip.com.Our merch shop is run by Dan McQuade. You can also find all kinds of info about us and how to submit gossip on our Komi page: https://normalgossip.komi.io/Episode transcript here.Follow the show on Instagram @normalgossip, and if you have gossip, email us at [email protected] or leave us a voicemail at 26-79-GOSSIP.Normal Gossip is hosted by Rachelle Hampton (@heyydnae) and produced by Se'era Spragley Ricks (@seera_sharae) and Jae Towle Vieira (@jaetowlevieira). Alex Sujong Laughlin (@alexlaughs) is our Supervising Producer. Justin Ellis is Defector's projects editor. Show art by Tara Jacoby.Normal Gossip is a proud member of Radiotopia. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Chapter 1: What is the bonus episode about?
Hello, my gorgeous gossipy darlings. Welcome to another bonus episode of Normal Gossip. I'm your host, Rachel Hampton, and we've got a super special show planned for you today. But first, we have to do a little housekeeping. You know, who doesn't love a freshly vacuumed rug?
The first bit of housekeeping, in case it's not totally clear from what I just said or the title of this episode, this is a bonus episode. We are living in some dark times, and we here at the Normal Gossip team thought y'all deserved... Some little between season treats to tide you over. But soon, normal, normal gospel return. We're in the middle of production. We're going to start recording soon.
And we've got some incredible stories that I cannot wait for y'all to hear. To that end. Second bit of housekeeping, we have a season eight premiere day. The next season of Normal Gossip will premiere on Wednesday, April 9th, 2025. Mark your calendars, babes, with a big fat star. And last bit of housekeeping, I promise this area rug, she's really big.
Chapter 2: Who is Kelsey McKinney and what is her book about?
Dowager Queen of Gossip, Kelsey McKinney, is currently on book tour. By the time this episode drops, you'll still be able to see her in Chicago or Toronto. If you're in the Midwest or in Canada, you're so lucky. And no matter where you live, you'll be able to buy Kelsey's incredible book, You Didn't Hear This From Me, Mostly True Notes on Gossip.
And that perfectly segues into today's special guest here to talk all about her book, her tour, and you guessed it, gossip. We've got the one, the only, Kelsey McKinney in the house. Kelsey, hello.
Hello, Rachel. Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be back.
I'm so happy you're here.
I miss you. I miss you too. We haven't been on Zoom together in like at least a week, which is just insufferable and impossible. We cannot be expected to do that again.
No, that is truly a crime. And there are many crimes being done, but that is certainly one of them. It's hurtful. It's really hurtful. Yes. I miss you. Your loyal legion of gossip mongers miss you. I miss all of you so much. How has life on the other side been?
It's been crazy. I've been doing so much promotion. I've been so busy. I don't sleep anymore. So that's exciting. But I'm hopeful that very soon I will hibernate. And that's going to be really nice for me to be asleep for a very long time.
Wow. That's going to be beautiful.
Where are you going to come out of hibernation as?
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Chapter 3: How does gossip serve as a tool for self-understanding?
Oh, wow. Okay. Can't wait to get into this. Yeah.
I know. But I found myself really turned off by some of the things that Miranda does. And I said this to my roommate and she said, that's really funny because I kind of consider you Miranda in some regards, a mixture of Miranda and Charlotte.
Uh-huh. I can see that. Yeah.
And I feel like some of the things that we find most distasteful in other people are often the things that are true about ourselves. And so I've wondered if you found that as you have been really doing this inquiry into gossip, where there are things, kind of first instinct reactions that you're like, oh, this actually says a lot about me and my personality. Yeah.
Absolutely. I think something I'm always getting mad at people for is I'm like, why are you working all the time? Stop working all the time. I literally am constantly saying this. It's so funny that you say that. And all of my friends are like, you dumbass. You work more than anyone we know. And I'm like, I know, but I don't like that about myself. And so I want to enforce it in other people.
And also, I think it's like a lack of self-awareness, right? Where I'm like, I'm built different. It's different when I do it, right? And it absolutely is not. Yeah. Yeah. Sweetie. Look in the mirror. Have you seen this? It's your front facing camera on your iPhone.
So would you say that that has made you more either like empathetic towards other people or sympathetic towards yourself? Like, do you feel like you offer yourself more grace?
Definitely not. No way. I don't offer myself like any ounce of grace that exists in the world. I would love to come on here and lie and be like, yes, I've become very good at giving myself rain. No, I have infinite amounts of empathy for other people. For myself, nada, nothing. And that's beautiful. It's beautiful that you know that.
I don't know that it is. It's not beautiful that it happens.
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Chapter 4: What insights does Kelsey offer about reality TV?
Chapter 5: How does gossip function in social contexts?
Chapter 6: What role does gossip play in personal relationships?
Chapter 7: What can we learn from gossip in Victorian marriages?
So this book rules. It absolutely slaps. It's so old. It's like decades old. And all it is is Phyllis Rose took like literally five Victorian marriages that were all like, you know, when we think of the Victorians, we think of like prudes. Yes. Like they hate sex. They're having no fun. They're losers, right? Cholera. Cholera. Cholera, exactly.
And Phyllis Rose writes about five alternative Victorian marriages. So people who were like living with someone when they were technically married to someone else, people who had three wives, right? All of this stuff. And it is such a like gossipy, prying book. And I think it just like, it does a great job talking about like why we care about other people's marriages.
But it also is so interesting because it's like, oh, we've always been like this. Yeah. Like everyone has always been like this, which is really fun.
It's really nice to know that my interest in other people's marriages is just simply a human trait that I will not be trying to eradicate anymore.
No, you can't get out of it. It's evolutionary.
It's designed to keep me safe. Yeah. That's what this is for. But I wanted to talk about the idea of gossip as a tool for self-understanding. And I wanted to know if you feel like there's something about yourself that you have understood better through gossip.
Oh, my God. Yeah. When I was reporting this book and researching it, I was reading a lot of studies by sociologists. And one thing that they talk about a lot is that we use gossip as a tool not only to understand our society, but to understand ourselves.
So it's like when I'm talking to you about something, I might surprise myself by like an instinct that I have or someone I think is a villain in your story and realize, oh, this is a like –
underlying bias that i have in my life right so i think a bias that i know i have that comes up all the time when i'm gossiping is like i don't trust any managers like none of them and sometimes like people will be telling me a story and i'm immediately like well clearly your boss is like the one who did this and they're like no my boss is like really good and i'm like well Not according to me.
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