This week on The Write Question, novelist and journalist (and gossip queen!) Kelsey McKinney, former host of the wildly popular podcast Normal Gossip, discusses her first book of non-fiction, You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip (Grand Central Publishing).
About the book:
As the pandemic forced us to socialize at a distance, Kelsey McKinney was mourning the juicy updates and jaw-dropping stories she’d typically collect over drinks with friends—and from her hunger, the blockbuster Normal Gossip podcast was born. With listenership in the millions, Kelsey found herself thinking more critically about gossip as a form, and wanting to better understand the role it plays in our culture.
In You Didn’t Hear This From Me, McKinney explores the murkiness of everyday storytelling. Why is gossip considered a sin, and how can we better recognize when it’s being weaponized? Why do we think we’re entitled to every detail of a celebrity’s personal life? And how do we define “gossip,” anyway? As much as the book aims to treat gossip as a subject worthy of rigor, it also hopes to capture the heart of gossiping: how enchanting and fun it can be to lean over and whisper something a little salacious into your friend’s ear.
This conversation has been edited for time.
About Kelsey:
Kelsey McKinney is a reporter and writer who lives in Philadelphia. She is the co-creator of Normal Gossip, as well as a co-owner and features writer at Defector.com. She has worked as a staff writer at Deadspin, Fusion, and Vox, and her reporting and essays have appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, GQ, Vogue, Cosmopolitan, Vanity Fair, and many others. Her first novel, God Spare the Girls, was published in the summer of 2021 by William Morrow.
Kelsey McKinney recommends:
How Far The Light Reaches: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler (Back Bay Books)
Beautyland by Marie-Helene Bertino (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
The Mill on the Floss by George Elliot (Penguin Classics; Penguin Random House)
The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Farewell, Ghosts by Nadia Terranova (Seven Stories Press)
Women Talking by Miriam Toewes (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin (Vintage Books)
Random Family: Love, Drugs, Trouble, and Coming of Age in the Bronx by Adrian Nicole LeBlanc (Scribner)
Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Matthew Desmond (Crown Publishing)
Housekeeping by Marilynne Robinson (Picador)
Lauren Korn recommends:
You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip by Kelsey McKinney (Grand Central Publishing)
Normal Gossip, the podcast (every episode, but dip your toes in with this episode, or this one, or this one)
Women Talking by Miriam Toewes (Bloomsbury Publishing)
Dead Girls: Essays on Surviving an American Obsession by Alice Bolin (Mariner Books)
Cultish: The Language of Fanaticism (HarperCollins) and The Age of Magical Overthinking: Notes on Modern Irrationality (Atria/One Signal Publishers) by Amanda Montell
Monsters: A Fan’s Dilemma by Clare Dederer (Alfred A. Knopf, Vintage Books)
Her Body and Other Parties and In the Dream House: A Memoir by Carmen Maria Machado (Graywolf Press)
No Archive Will Restore You by Julietta Singh (Punctum Books)
Ugly Feelings by Sianne Ngai (Harvard University Press)
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The Write Question team for this episode was Lauren Korn, host, co-producer, and editor; and Chris Moyles, co-producer, editor, and sound engineer. This episode is supported by Montana Book Co., located in downtown Helena, Montana, since 1978, offering new books for all ages, vinyl records, and community activism. For delivery in Helena and shipping online, visit mtbookco.com.
The Write Question logo and brand (2022) was designed by Molly Russell. You can see more of her work at iamthemollruss.com and on Instagram @iamthemollruss.
Funding for The Write Question comes from Humanities Montana; members of Montana Public Radio; and from the Greater Montana Foundation—encouraging communication on issues, trends, and values of importance to Montanans.
The Write Question is a production of Montana Public Radio.
