When my best friend told me about this podcast called Normal Gossip, I was very mildly interested, mostly saying I would listen because how else do you reply to a media recommendation?
Weeks came and went and this friend asked me a few times if I’d given it a listen yet, claiming that it would be just my kind of thing (unsure what this says about me, but anyway). After about the third occurrence, from a very not-pushy friend, I caved.
I figured that the podcast would be fine, that I would get a bit distracted while listening like all the ones before.
And, wow, was I wrong.
From the first few minutes, I was hooked. Catchy transition music, juicy hot takes, personal opinion and intimate details. It felt like sitting down at your shitty hometown diner and getting your high school friend’s college drama. Complete removal from all the bad parts of the drama, complete privy to the entire scoop with no need to hide details.
Normal Gossip is your gateway drug to laughs, storytelling, remembering old middle school drama that you swore you forgot, and an overall good time.
Before the life changing event that was Episode 1: Gossiptonin with Virgie Tovar, I thought this had the potential to be good background noise for homework, driving, showers and life in general. What I did not realize was that every episode has you hanging on a thread to hear the next word. I was salivating for the drama more than may have been healthy and audibly gasping on my walk – sorry to my neighbors for the freight.
I thought about including little tidbits of my favorite episodes, characters, asides and plotlines, but the truth is that every single episode would have at least one and what I don’t need is a 22-hour-long podcast binge in the middle of the week, so I have left you to find out all about knitting club, MBA, family vacation and large friend group drama by yourself.
If you hate podcasts, love them, need a new listening fix, or wherever you are – I recommend carving out approximately 3 hours for the hole you didn’t realize you held in your heart and binging until you feel like a 6-year-old in the hours after the Halloween trek.
This podcast has made such an impact on my life that for my most recent birthday, I asked for some merch from their store, both because it is very cute (I got the tank top if you want to twin!) and to support all the joy that this podcast brings to my life.