Kelsey McKinney on Why We Love to Gossip

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KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 5 March 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Gossip can be “juicy, strange, funny and utterly banal” and we love to hear it, whether we identify as gossips or not. Kelsey McKinney, host and creator of the podcast Normal Gossip, has perfected the art of relaying other people’s business, and she thinks that gossip has been unfairly maligned. In her book “You Didn’t Hear This From Me,” McKinney reflects on the multitude of petty and profound ways we use gossip: to entertain, admonish, bond and teach communal values – even to protect one another from harm. Whether you love, hate, or elevate gossip to an art form, we want to hear from you: How do you share and use gossip in your life? Guests: Kelsey McKinney, author, "You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip"; host and creator of the podcast Normal Gossip Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:43.7	From KQED. From Gake UED in San Francisco, I'm Mina Kim.
1:03.4	Coming up on forum, gossip.
1:05.4	We love to hear it, whether we're willing to admit it or not, or whether we identify as gossips or not, Kelsey McKinney,
1:12.4	host and creator of the podcast Normal Gossip, thinks Gossip has been unfairly maligned. And in her
1:18.6	new book, You Didn't Hear This From Me, McKinney reflects on both the profound and petty ways we use
1:24.9	gossip to entertain, admonish, bond, even to protect one another from harm.
1:30.9	As McKinney likes to ask, what's your relationship to gossip? Join us after this news. Welcome to Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
1:49.6	Gossiping is at its most basic, talking about someone who isn't present, says Kelsey McKinney,
1:55.7	creator of the hit podcast, Normal Gossip. But it's also so much more than that.
	...

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