Hello, my beautiful flock of gossip birds. Welcome to a bonus episode of normal gossip. I'm your host, Rachel Hampton. In case you have somehow missed that news, check out the season finale of season seven for updates and a delightful

tale that takes place on the high seeds. We have got a little treat for you today because

let's be real here. It's a rough time. And you deserve a treat. But before I can serve your

little treat, we have got to get down to a little bit of business.

Some exciting news. We have officially started production on season eight of normal gossip, which will come out this spring.

We have picked a lot of the stories, but we still have a few spots left. So if you have gossip for us, now is the time.

Send all your mess to normal gossip at defector.com. As a reminder of some of the kinds of gossip

that I am absolutely desperate for, real estate gossip. Gossip that is secretly a romance novel, fandom gossip,

service industry or retail gossip, mega church gossip, Pokemon Go gossip, polychule gossip, roadchip gossip,

tabletop gaming gossip, and family lore gossip. If all of that sounds amazing and makes you think,

wow, and miss normal gossip so much, don't forget, we have a newsletter. It goes out every two

weeks and has blogs and recommendations from me and Kelsey, Alex, Sierra, and Jay, and a bunch

of our defector buddies. If you'd like to

sign up, the link is in the show notes. Okay, last bit of business, I promise. Kelsey's book is coming

out soon. Is that even business? That's also a treat. If you haven't pre-ordered it yet, that link is

also in the show notes. There are still tickets to see me and Kelsey

gabbing about her book on February 11th in New York at Town Hall. I'm just saying. I'm just saying.

Okay, that's it, I promise. On to your first of many little treats. I am thrilled to welcome

Normal Gossip's new lead producer, Sierra Spragley-Ricks, to the front of the microphone.

As some of you may know, Sierra and I work together on Slate's Internet Culture Podcasts in case you missed it, where we found out we're both March Pisces.

It shouldn't then be surprising that we fell in love immediately.

Sierra, hello. Welcome to the front of the mic. How are you feeling?

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