Why do humans in every known culture love juicy gossip? Some theorists say gossip evolved as the modern version of picking fleas off our friends, reassuring those around us of our shared social bonds. Others argue that it reinforces social norms by outlining what behaviors are bad, or even scandalous. In episode 49, Ellie and David gossip about gossip — when is it wrong to gossip, and when might it be the ethical choice? Many scholars throughout history have condemned gossip as idle chitchat that slanders others, but some feminist and decolonial thinkers have reclaimed its utility for fighting against systems of oppression that exclude them from formal modes of communication. Episode 49 spills the tea on gossip.

Works Discussed

Sipping with Socrates, “Socrates’ view of gossip”
Immanuel Kant, Anthropology
Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica
Soren Kierkegaard, The Present Age: On the Death of Rebellion
The Bible, 1 Timothy 5:13
Megan L. Robbins and Alexander Karan, “Who Gossips and How in Everyday Life?”
Robin Dunbar, Grooming, Gossip, and the Evolution of Language
Giambattista Vico, The New Science
Baumeister, Roy F., Liqing Zhang, and Kathleen D. Vohs, “Gossip as Cultural Learning”
Survivor
Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency in Colonial India
Sissela Bok, Secrets: On the Ethics of Concealment and Revelation

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