Kelsey McKinney

There is nothing I find more annoying than the fact that exercise makes your brain feel better. Every time I am grumpy and miserable and depressed but still drag my ass off the couch and to the gym, I am filled with annoyance after I’m done. Why does picking up a few heavy things and […]

I was in Chicago for a book event this weekend with some time on my hands in the space between doing some publicity things and preparing for an event. After stopping for Cuban sandwiches with my publicist Brittani, we decided to pop into the Art Institute of Chicago for a hot second. Most museums are […]

Welcome to the Scorebug Snuggery, that place we all know of and recognize, where we discuss the artistic merit of scorebugs on sports television broadcasts. Today, we look at NBC Sports Philadelphia’s new Phillies scorebug. Baseball is still waking up. The players at spring training do not even have names on the backs of their […]

The following is adapted from You Didn’t Hear This From Me: (Mostly) True Notes on Gossip, by Kelsey McKinney, published on February 11, 2025. The robots are always on the brink of destroying every creative career. Right now, the evil robot du jour is artificial intelligence. You can have AI write you a play, or […]

The government is keeping more than secrets at Area 51 and basic healthcare from us. They are also withholding a beautiful book of botanical paintings by Deborah Griscom Passmore. I first became acquainted with Passmore’s work via the Bluesky account Old Fruit Pictures, which was built by Parker Higgins. The account draws on the thousands […]

It’s easy to hate Blake Lively. She’s beautiful. She’s tall. Her hair is so lush. Her skin is so smooth. She’s married to a damn Marvel actor, and they have beautiful children. Her best friend is Taylor Swift. In a world of demure, close-lipped smirks, Lively has a megawatt full-teeth smile. She was born in Los […]

Books take a long time. Writing, editing, and publishing one is slow, laborious work. A book that is sold today probably won’t come out until 2027 at the earliest. So it makes sense that money-grubbing innovator boys have taken aim at book publishing, which is an industry full of words, and decided that the way […]

It’s a pretty big day for Normal Gossip and Defector! We know everyone loves treats, and today you’re getting three big ones: unhinged cruise ship gossip, our own Kelsey McKinney in the role of guest, and Rachelle Hampton as your brand-new host! What does this all mean? What exactly is changing? Well, you should probably […]

Welcome back to The Not-So-Great Defector Bake Off, where Kelsey and Chris attempt to complete the technical challenges from the newest season of The Great British Bake Off in their own home kitchens, with the same time parameters as the professional-grade bakers competing on the show. One of the most pernicious lies about baking is […]

The week before the election, for two nights in a row, I dreamt about the moon. The dreams were in sequence: two parts of a single story that were braided together. A single day of my life became the intermission. Everyone thinks their dreams are interesting. We are self-involved creatures, infatuated with the shiny pictures […]