This episode is juicy, and it does have gossip — but I admit that it's actually less about specific juicy gossip and more about why we love juicy gossip... gossip about celebrities, gossip about extended family, gossip about our coworkers and frenemies and reality stars and even random people involved in high drama. We love reading gossip, whispering gossip, talking shit about people who gossip too much (or not enough)... gossip is a primary means of making sense of the world, and we should all talk (and think) about it more. Nichole Hill, host of the fantastic podcast Our Ancestors Were Messy, joins me to do just that.

Thanks to the sponsors of today's episode!

Get 40% off select Lola Blankets products at Lolablankets.com by using code CULTURE at checkout. Experience the world’s #1 blanket with Lola Blankets.
Thanks to Article for sponsoring this podcast! If you’re in the market for a beautiful new sofa, dining table or bed, head over to https://www.article.com/
Get 15% off OneSkin with the code CULTURE at https://www.oneskin.co/CULTURE
Ready to upgrade your eyewear to something functional, fashionable, fun, and affordable? Head to goodr.com/CULTURE to claim $10 off your first order.

Show Notes:

Listen to Our Ancestors Were Messy!
Learn more about Nichole's work
Nicole references the episode on Paul Robeson, which you can find here
My chapter on Dorothy Dandridge is in my book Scandals of Classic Hollywood
Dandridge on the cover of Life Magazine:

We also reference the episode on Oscar Micheaux, which is so wild
Nichole's co-host on that episode = Dr. Ray Christian

We're currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:

WOMEN'S FITNESS INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX. As our co-host Zoe Rom puts it: "Women are told they need to do fasting, creatine, lifting, fueling, and recovery differently than men. Sometimes the science backs it. More often the "different" is a marketing mechanism: invent a gendered problem, sell a gendered protocol, collect the markup." What's going on here? Where have you seen it, what pisses you off about it... take this wherever you'd like.

WHITE LADY HAIR! Cultural critic Sarah Mesle will be joining us to talk about her new book Tangled: Seven Iconic Moments in White Women's Hair and What They Tell Us About Power, Pleasure, and Complicity. If there's a white lady whose hair interests you, I guarantee you it interests Sarah, too. We can talk about specific celebrity/actress haircuts but also specific styles/trends. I cannot wait for this one.

INTERGENERATIONAL FRIENDSHIP with Andrew Sean Greer, author of Less (and Villa Coco, a new book with an intergenerational friendship at its center). You can ask questions about how to find intergenerational friends, how to sustain those friendships, what people seem to love so much about them, wherever your heart takes you.

Anything you need advice for/want musings about for the AAA segment. You can ask about anything, it’s literally the name of the segment.

Join the ranks of paid subscribers and get bonus content, access to the discussion threads, ad-free episodes, and the knowledge that you're supporting an indie pod trying to make its way in the world.
Got a question to submit, a prompt for Ask Anne Anything, or an idea for a future episode? Tell us here.
Catch up on everything else happening in the Culture Study universe here.
Transcripts will be available here within 24 hours of publishing.

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.