Last year, we chose a new translation of Gilgamesh to read for DRAB. I hadn't read it since high school, and I was surprised to find myself laughing aloud while reading this centuries-old tale. It was so fun, so modern, so ... gossipy?
I'm not saying that this story about two best bros who think they are enemies and then go on a quest to try and kill god is gossip, exactly. What I'm trying to say is what if it were gossip at one point—and it just ballooned out of control. What if they were two biggish men, instead of two giants, but every time the story was told they got a little bit bigger? What if, instead of a plant that made you immortal, they really found some kind of plant that was essentially amoxicillin? It doesn't feel impossible to me to imagine a world in which the root version of our myths was just ... some guy.
But because I am not an expert on myths, in fact I know very little about them, I asked Liv Albert to join me for this week's episode. Albert is the host of the podcast Let's Talk About Myths, Baby, so she was perfectly qualified to help me sort through this weird instinct.
We talked about ancient Greece, the infinite rumor mill of history, and whether or not it is possible that someone actually had sex with a bull!!!! If that's not an appealing teaser, I don't know what is. Then we dove into this week's story about an archive, a path out, and a job that never quite feels like you hoped it would.
You can subscribe to Normal Gossip on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever else you listen! You can follow Normal Gossip on Instagram here.
(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, the email for that is normalgossip@defector.com, or phone it in to 2-6-7-9-GOSSIP.
Also in this episode is a special announcement: We are going on tour this summer!! Tickets are available now, and we have added an extra show in both Boston and NYC!
