Overthinking About Gossip

Magical Overthinkers

Amanda Montell & Studio71

Education, Science, Society & Culture

4.3 • 636 Ratings

🗓️ 5 February 2025

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Is gossip just a petty pastime, or a tool to empower the marginalized? Or both? From ancient hearsay to celebrity blind items to the group chat’s hottest tea, gossip has always been a part of how humans connect, but why does it carry such a negative (gendered) reputation? Host Amanda Montell (@amanda_montell) is joined by journalist, novelist, and Normal Gossip creator Kelsey McKinney (@mckinneykelsey) to unravel the fascinating etymology and moral gray areas of gossip in the digital age. Together, they explore if gossip can be an "addiction," how to get people to gossip with us *more*, if the internet has corrupted gossip's original aims, and whether it’s actually possible to be a good person and still enjoy a little harmless chatter. Further Reading: Kelsey McKinney’s You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip (out on February 11th, 2025). - Join the "Magical Overthinkers Club" by following the pod on Instagram @magicaloverthinkers. - To access early, ad-free episodes and more, subscribe to the Magical Overthinkers Substack. - Pick up a hard copy of Amanda's book The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality, or listen to the audiobook. Sign up for your one-dollar-per-month trial period at https://SHOPIFY.COM/magical Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to The Magical Overthinkers podcast, a show for thought spirallers, exploring the subjects we can't stop overthinking about, from people-pleasing to imposter syndrome.
0:17.3	If you ever get the feeling that despite living in the information age, life only seems to be making less sense, or if you sometimes suspect that there is something specially, differently challenging about existing in the world right now in the digital age, then you're in the right place.
0:36.0	This podcast exists to help make some sense of the senseless,
0:40.9	to help us quiet the cacophony in our minds for a little while, or even hear a melody in it.
0:47.8	And today, with the help of my friend Kelsey McKinney, co-creator of the Normal Gossip Podcast,
0:53.4	and author of the new book,
0:54.7	You Didn't Hear This From Me, we're overthinking about gossip.
1:03.0	It's kind of perfect timing, but I'm recording this episode in late January on the heels
1:08.2	of a piece of breaking news, that the world's smartest man, this guy who has
1:13.6	an IQ of 276, thinks that the smarter you are, the higher your craving will be for gossip.
1:22.3	This guy's name is Yang Hoon Kim. He's 35 from Korea. And specifically referring to celebrity gossip, he told Dan Wakeford,
1:30.7	who's Us Weekly's editor-in-chief, apropos, quote, I love news and stories from the celebrity
1:36.3	and entertainment worlds, because it helps a lot with my anxiety. I believe that celebrities
1:41.5	in the entertainment industry are harnessing our culture, and their
1:44.7	content is so intriguing to me.
1:46.9	It's an escape for me as well, but also a source of inspiration.
1:51.8	Gossip is innate to human beings as social creatures.
1:55.7	Since the advent of language, we've used it to exchange information in ways that are important not only to our social
2:02.4	standing, but our survival. And yet for decades, even centuries, gossip has been a villainized
2:08.1	practice. Let me be very clear at the start of this episode. I love gossip. In my immediate family,
2:16.4	I am our resident storymaker, tea spiller. I love to spin
2:22.0	observations from my real life into a sparkling tale. I love to read exposés about public figures
	...

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