Podcast Summary: New Books Network – Andrea Kitta, "The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore" (Utah State UP, 2019) Host: Tim Thurston
Guest: Andrea Kitta
Date: November 8, 2025

Overview

In this episode of New Books in Folklore, host Tim Thurston interviews Professor Andrea Kitta of East Carolina University about her book, The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore. Kitta's work explores how narratives about contagion and contamination shape our beliefs and behaviors around health, medicine, stigma, and otherness. The discussion traverses themes such as folklore’s intersections with public health, the significance of storytelling in influencing behaviors, the evolution of legends in digital spaces, and how social anxieties become encoded in tales about vampires, zombies, vaccines, and intimacy.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Andrea Kitta’s Personal and Academic Journey into Folklore

• Origin Story: Kitta began as a history major but was frustrated by how oral histories often simply reinforced established narratives.
• Shift to Folklore: Influenced by anthropology, she realized folklore let her explore the outliers–conspiracy, belief, and marginalized voices ignored elsewhere.
• Quote:

  "I have this interest in these other stories... conspiracy theories and belief...all of these other areas that folklorists love to talk about and they're really passionate about. But I felt like a lot of other disciplines just sort of ignored." (04:00–05:16)

2. Folklore, Health, and Decision-Making

• Focus on Health: Kitta’s passion lies in how people make health decisions, often contrary to scientific evidence.
• Authority and Folk Medicine: She critiques the paternalism of official medicine and the appeal of folk/alternative/vernacular medicine driven by trust, empathy, and narrative.
• Quote:

  "There's so much evidence ... you could tell someone the facts...and that didn't make a difference at all...what choices they would make." (06:14–07:00)

3. The Power and Challenge of Storytelling in Public Health

• Narrative vs. Data: Stories and narrative are more effective than facts in shaping behavior; the failure of public health often lies in poor storytelling rather than inaccurate data.
• Applied Example: The importance of emotional connection and narratives for patient trust in medical professionals.
• Quote:

  "The facts kind of don't matter. It's so funny because we are...talking about how to make facts matter more...they've never really mattered. It's been that the story...is what matters." (08:33–09:18)

4. Contagion and Contamination as Social Constructs

• Definitions and Implications: The lay public uses "contagion" and "contamination" differently than medicine; these concepts encode societal fears and boundaries.
• Medical Metaphors: Military metaphors for disease and disability are seen as problematic—implying that recovery or survival is a personal victory or defeat.
• Quote:

  "We use those words...differently than how medicine uses them...this underlying idea of contagion and contamination..." (10:54–13:07)

5. Tellability, Stigma, and Online Vernacular

• Internet as a Site of Destigmatization: The internet enables the sharing of previously "untellable" stories (e.g., mental illness, menopause), changing what is socially shareable and influencing medical recognition.
• Not All Stories Need Telling: Caution about costs to storytellers and the oversaturation of dominant narratives.
• Quote:

  "No one owes us their story. That's a big part of this as well...some stories, you know what, they don't need to be retold..." (19:50–21:04)

6. Patient Zero and Stigmatization

• Patient Zero as Folklore: The search for "patient zero" is more culturally motivated than scientific, often reinforcing stereotypes and stigmas against marginalized communities.
• Examples: HIV/AIDS ("Typhoid Mary"), measles, Ebola.
• Quote:

  "Patient Zero is this very vague concept that is very, very culturally motivated...It really does fit into people's stereotypes about who it should be instead of who it might actually be." (23:25–26:04)

7. Slender Man, Slender Sickness, and Bullying

• Internet Folklore: "Slender Sickness," associated symptoms mirror those of bullying, functioning as a coded way for young people to discuss victimization and community contagion.
• Cultural Bound Syndromes: Mapping fictional narratives onto real-life experiences, facilitating catharsis and discussion.
• Quote:

  "It was a way for the people who are experiencing bullying to talk about bullying without using the word bullying." (26:52–30:41)

8. Vampires, Zombies, and Moral/Social Contamination

• Enduring Metaphors: Vampires and zombies cyclically re-emerge as metaphors for contamination, otherness, and societal fears (immigration, moral decline, viral outbreaks).
• Shifting Narratives: Modern adaptations flip traditional roles—female protagonists as empowered "bridges" to the other.
• Quote:

  “They are one thing, but they’re not… They look like our loved one, but they’re a zombie.” (61:47–63:33)

• True Blood Example:

  "There's this beautiful moment...in the opening credits where they go past a sort of light up sign that says 'God hates Fang.' And that's just such an obvious callback..." (42:09–43:52)

9. HPV Vaccine Legends and Gendered Rumors

• Stigma: HPV vaccine narratives focus on promiscuity, especially for girls, and rumors that vaccinating boys is “linked to being gay.”
• Medical Response: Ironically, debunking these rumors generated peer-reviewed articles to counteract the myths online.
• Quote:

  “There’s nothing in the ingredients that causes promiscuity...But then I realized how useful it was...” (45:27–50:08)

• Tellability and Mockery: High-profile ridicule (e.g., Stephen Colbert) can further stigmatize non-mainstream beliefs, pushing them underground.
• Quote:

  “If you're going to be mocked for a vernacular belief, then it becomes sort of untellable.” (50:08–52:41)

10. Kissing, Intimacy, and the Monstrous Hybrid

• Urban Legends: Tales like the "necrophiliac’s kiss" focus on the dangers of intimacy, the "intimate other", and the terror of unknown contamination.
• Gender Focus: Historically targets female protagonists, though stories are shifting toward including male vulnerability.
• Broader Implications: These legends echo public health campaigns, like AIDS PSAs, emphasizing the unknown risk embodied in others.
• Quote:

  “If the kiss happens from someone that you love...you are definitely going to die from that kiss. So a lot of the other ones, you might survive, but if it’s a kiss from a loved one, you are dying like 100% of the time.” (55:40–59:05)

11. Monstrous Hybrids and Boundary Anxiety

• Concept: "Monstrous hybrid" denotes anxieties about mixed categories (people-who-aren’t, or are contaminated), mirroring deeper societal fears.
• Reflection of Society: These hybrids express concerns about globalization, interconnection, and loss of bodily or social boundaries.
• Quote:

  “We do tend to think of things instead of being greater because of their hybridity. They're somehow contaminated by their hybridity. And we tend to put that into the category of the monstrous.” (61:47–63:33)

12. Pedagogical Appendix and Future Directions

• Teaching Resource: Kitta fought to include a reading guide appendix, aiming for academic rigor + accessibility.
• Quote:

  “Why not both? I can write an academically rigorous book that can be understandable by other people, and hopefully they'll pick it up...” (64:07–65:51)

13. Upcoming Projects

• Ghosts and Racial Representation: Exploring the whiteness of ghost folklore in places like London and Appalachia.
• Opioid Crisis: Investigating folkviews and marginalized narratives left out of the dominant opioid epidemic discourse.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments (with Timestamps)

• "I started out as a history major...but I would always get sort of irritated of how oral history was often used..."
  — Andrea Kitta (04:00)

• "The facts kind of don't matter...It's been that the story...we tell about those facts is what matters."
  — Andrea Kitta (08:33)

• "Patient Zero is this very vague concept that is very, very culturally motivated...It really does fit into people's stereotypes..."
  — Andrea Kitta (23:25)

• "It was a way for the people who are experiencing bullying to talk about bullying without using the word bullying."
  — Andrea Kitta (26:52)

• "There's this beautiful moment in True Blood...a sign that says God hates Fang...such an incredible cultural moment..."
  — Andrea Kitta (42:09)

• "There's nothing in the ingredients that causes promiscuity. But then I realized how useful [the medical studies] was..."
  — Andrea Kitta (45:27)

• "No one owes us their story. Right. That's a big part of this as well, is thinking about, is it what's the cost? But also that some stories, you know what, they don't need to be retold..."
  — Andrea Kitta (19:50)

Timestamps for Important Segments

• 03:35 – Andrea Kitta’s folklore origin story
• 06:14 – Why health and belief are core to her work
• 08:33 – Power of storytelling over facts in health communication
• 13:53 – Defining 'contagion' and 'contamination' in social context
• 16:45 – Tellability, stigma, and the internet
• 23:25 – Patient Zero narratives and stigmatization
• 26:52 – Slender Man, Slender Sickness, and coded discussion of bullying
• 34:30 – Vampires, zombies as metaphors for social and moral contamination
• 41:56 – "True Blood" and stigma, narrative role reversals
• 45:27 – HPV vaccine rumors and gender/sexuality myths
• 50:08 – Colbert’s satire and the problem of mocking vernacular belief
• 53:21 – What makes a personal narrative effective in health discourse
• 55:06 – Urban legends about kissing and intimacy as metaphors for risk
• 61:47 – Monstrous hybrids: folklore, public health, and modern anxiety
• 64:07 – The importance of academic pedagogy and accessible writing
• 66:32 – Current and future research directions (race & ghosts, opioid crisis)

Conclusion

Andrea Kitta’s The Kiss of Death demonstrates how deeply health anxieties, stigma, and cultural boundaries are embedded in the folklore of contagion, contamination, and the "monstrous". The episode highlights the enduring relevance of folklore studies in addressing public health challenges and societal fears, emphasizing the need for empathy, narrative understanding, and reflexivity in both scholarship and public communication.