Only once in my medium-length life thus far have I typed a shit-talking text, smugly sent it off into the ether, and looked down to realize that I had in fact sent it to the person I was talking about. It was as if my phone had become a block of dry ice, and the chill it sent up my arm could have stopped my heart if there had not been one million atoms of adrenaline pumping through my bloodstream.
I wiggled my way out of it, so I cannot tell you more about this event without the risk of outing myself, but I can tell you that I was very, very careful thereafter to make sure that the voice memos and texts I'm sending are going to the right place.
This tight spot is the premise of the second episode of this season of Normal Gossip. The episode is somehow also about having a big family, Disney World, and cousins who want to have your back, but actually don't.
Joining me this week is Blythe Roberson. Blythe is a comedian, humor writer, and the author of How to Date Men When You Hate Men and the forthcoming America The Beautiful?. She has written for the New Yorker, New York Magazine, Esquire, and for the NPR quiz show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!
We discussed how gossip can inform non-fiction writing, and how to protect the privacy of the people you write about. Blythe shared some of her own family's Disney dramas and adventures which turned out to be terrifyingly relevant to this week's episode, and then we dove right in!
The only other moral this episode could have, besides to watch who you text, is that you should always, always, beware of the characters.
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(The transcript for this week’s episode can be found here.)
And if you do have some good goss that you want us to hear, the email for that is normalgossip@defector.com, or phone it in to 2-6-7-9-GOSSIP.
Also in this episode is a special announcement: We are going on tour this summer!! Tickets will be available tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. local time!
