Podcast Corner: Normal Gossip is both juicy and entertaining
The Normal Gossip podcast.
Questionable boyfriends, pickpocket girlfriends, nosy grandmothers, cheating parents - Normal Gossip has all this and more.
A US show hosted by Kelsey McKinney, it began right at the start of 2022 with nearly 30 episodes released across three seasons to date, on top of a ‘Close Friends Circle’ subscription offering where you can get bonus episodes.
The premise is simple: Listen to this juicy bit of gossip involving people you don’t know. But McKinney spins a great yarn and the episodes regularly top the hour mark.
She says she got the idea during the pandemic, when her mother cut through banal conversations about Covid with a story about a hen party that saw one of the women flip over the handlebars of a quad bike and lose her thumb. McKinney says she told that story 500 times over the course of two weeks.
“I realised that the thing I really needed was gossip.”
The podcast setup is familiar, McKinney going through the story point by point and a second person, usually in this case a comedian and/or a fellow podcast host, reacting, putting themselves into the story and pondering what they would do.
The best moments, however, are when we reach a part of the story that leaves them speechless, where all they can say is: “Wait, what? WHAT!?”
The first few episodes feature stories from friends, but they now get hundreds of listener-submitted gossip and tales. Are they all true though?
Producer Alex Sujong Laughlin told Vulture: “Gossip serves many functions, obviously, but in the world we’re creating with the show — one of entertainment — our core goal is to simply have fun."
She added that they were not doing journalism. And really, the stories are so entertaining, it doesn’t matter if they’re true.
There’s the knitting circle/acrylic wool furore of episode three and the far-too-long relationship of ‘Dishing in the Confessional’, involving a bad filmmaker with a rich family, whose father, as part of the divorce settlement with his wife, didn’t want her dating someone for 15 years.
But what about Jesse, her supposedly gay friend who hasn’t come out publicly yet?
The holiday that kicks off season two, ‘Grandma’s Best Friend Dot’, sees a family trip descend into accusations of robbery. The very first episode, about a camping trip with overheard sex noises and a dog named Pancake, is as enjoyable as any that follow.
With so many podcasts nowadays featuring big celebrity names and/or true crime stories, Normal Gossip feels like the most fun you can have - apart from gossiping with your own friends.
