House-sitting for a wealthy cousin has the potential to be dreamy, right? Malia and Irma are public servants with a baby; they need and deserve a cheap vacation, so they agree to take care of a decadent coastal house full of plants for a week. But “vacation” is not the right word to describe what happens next.
The chair saga has haunted all of us ever since it arrived in our inbox in January. We’ve been dying to pass along this tale, à la The Ring—not quite to the point of coughing up hair, but close. At last, the day of transmission has come, and this story is yours to carry now. Our condolences and/or congratulations!
Kelsey’s guest this week was Hannah Giorgis! Fans who attended night one of our Washington, D.C., shows last year already know and love Hannah, and now she has returned for a new gossip story. Hannah is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Her criticism and reporting have appeared in publications including The New York Times Magazine, The Guardian, Travel + Leisure, Taste, Cooking, and Pitchfork. She also co-wrote Ida B. the Queen, the Extraordinary Life and Legacy of Ida B. Wells, a dedication to the pioneering American journalist and advocate, with Wells's great granddaughter Michelle Duster.
This week, Hannah and Kelsey discussed the relationship between gossip and parable, the myriad mysteries of Facebook Marketplace, and daydreamed about what the contemporary incarnation of a “gossip bench” might look like. Then they ventured out to the sunny shores of southern California for a harrowing tale of house- and plant-sitting gone awry.
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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, reach out to normalgossip@defector.com, or phone it in to 2-6-7-9-GOSSIP.
We also have a tour update for our Boston shows: Josh Gondelman will be the guest for our sold-out show on June 20, and Emma Eun-joo Choi will be the guest for June 21. Snap those tickets up!
