February 11, 2025
Provided images/Lavender Public Relations/ASHLEY GELLMAN
'You Didn't Hear This From Me,' a new book released Tuesday, is a collection of essays from Kelsey McKinney, the creator and former host of 'Normal Gossip.'
As Kelsey McKinney tells it, the first draft of her new book was not very good, but the former host of the podcast "Normal Gossip" was able to identify the problem.
"I was writing to a specific audience, the listeners of the podcast, instead of writing the thing that I wanted to write," said McKinney, who lives in Philadelphia. "That is a really nice revelation because then you get to be a little selfish, you get to write up the things you care about."
On the podcast, which McKinney left in December after seven seasons, anonymized stories are submitted by a friend or one of its millions of listeners, and hosts and guests discuss the juicy details. But the book "You Didn't Hear This From Me," released Tuesday, goes deeper in exploring the role of gossip in society, with essays on whether art really can be separated from the artist, parasocial relationships and protective whisper networks.
"Gossip is much bigger and broader than you think it is," McKinney said. "When most people use the word gossip, they're talking about you and I sitting at a bar talking about our co-worker. I think gossip is much more complicated than that, I think it's much larger than that, and I hope people get that out of the book."
The book largely relies on outside research, but it also dips into McKinney's own experiences to add a personal touch to her dissertation. (And yes, it was created using her writing method that's fueled by Buc-ee's sour strips and the "Gone Girl" soundtrack, although she also dabbled in the "Challengers" film album, too). Philadelphia doesn't have too many mentions — though local readers can catch a reference to Palizzi Social Club in the final chapter.
Instead, the book dissects gossip's role in everything from ancient Babylonian poem "The Epic of Gilgamesh" to 2004 comedy "Mean Girls." One essay unpacks the tale of West Elm Caleb, a furniture designer who was mistaken for a different Caleb. Both had their history on the dating apps of New York City dissected on TikTok.
McKinney is a self-proclaimed gossip lover, and she spends the first half of the book showing its power. But by the time she gets to West Elm Caleb, she explores a different narrative, wondering if gossip can be used for good or if it's just another form of entertainment, especially when things go viral.
"I love the West Elm Caleb story because I think it's a really great example of how gossip can do harm and how it can still feel fun, which I think is a really complicated space to exist in," McKinney said. "Because it's really fun to watch those videos and debate that and it feels really good, and also it's maybe not morally sound."
With that in mind, McKinney said she hopes readers start to question the real purpose of gossip and how it functions in everyday life. Even the book's title, "You Didn't Hear This From Me," is an intentional lie.
"Gossip's real purpose is not in the story at all, I think it's about showing you other things. It's about showing you your own biases," McKinney said. "It's about showing you the biases of the world that you live in. It's about figuring out what the person in front of you believes, and I think that's much more interesting than looking at gossip and saying: 'Which parts of this are true?'"
McKinney is heading on a multi-city book tour, which stops at Fillmore Philadelphia on Feb. 27. She's unsure of what she'll be working on after that, but she's confident she won't leave gossip behind completely.
"The things that I'm interested in, I've always been interested in," McKinney said. "I'm interested in stories and the way we tell them."
