Kelsey McKinney

Last updated

Kelsey McKinney (born 1991or1992) [1] is an American journalist, podcaster, and author. She is a staff writer at Defector and the host of Normal Gossip. She previously wrote for Deadspin and Vox.

Contents

Early life and education

McKinney grew up in Flower Mound, Texas. [2] Her father is an Evangelical pastor. [1]

She attended the University of Texas at Austin, earning a bachelor's degree in 2014. While in college, she interned at Reader's Digest and the Harry Ransom Center and began writing freelance stories. She served as an editor for The Daily Texan. [3]

Career

McKinney previously wrote a newsletter, Written Out, about books written by women who had been marginalized in historical narratives. [4]

McKinney was hired at Deadspin in spring 2019. That October, she was one of 19 staffers at the publication who resigned in protest after editor Barry Petchesky was fired over a mandate to "stick to sports." [5] [6] Over the following year, she and her former colleagues discussed the idea of a media company that more effectively centered writers. They proceeded to found the sports and culture site Defector, which is owned collectively as a worker cooperative. [7]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, she felt nostalgic for the experience of gossiping with friends in person and tweeted about the idea of hosting a gossip-centric podcast, which would become Normal Gossip. [1] She began working on the first season of the show with producer Alex Sujong Laughlin in September 2021, and it premiered five months later to critical and popular acclaim. [6] [8] [9]

Books

McKinney's 2021 debut novel, God Spare the Girls, follows two daughters of a Texas megachurch pastor who is revealed to have had an affair. [4] Her first essay collection, You Didn’t Hear This From Me, is scheduled for a February 2025 release by Grand Central Publishing. [10]

Personal life

McKinney lives in the Queen Village neighborhood of Philadelphia with her husband and her dog, Georgia. [6] [1] She was raised Evangelical, but no longer considers herself a believer in Christianity. [6] [11]

Related Research Articles

Deadspin is a sports blog founded by Will Leitch in 2005 and based in Chicago. Previously owned by Gawker Media, Univision Communications and G/O Media, it was sold to Lineup Publishing in March 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christina Pazsitzky</span> Canadian-American stand-up comedian

Christina Pazsitzky, known by her stage name Christina P, is a Canadian-born American stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, host and TV personality. Pazsitzky co-hosts the Your Mom's House podcast with her husband, comedian Tom Segura, and also hosts the Where My Moms At? podcast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rachel Lindsay (television personality)</span> American media personality and attorney (born 1985)

Rachel Lynn Lindsay is an American media personality, attorney and podcaster. She is best known for her role as a contestant on the twenty-first season of ABC's The Bachelor and as the lead of its spinoff, The Bachelorette, in its thirteenth season. She was the first African-American lead in the Bachelor franchise. She was a correspondent for Extra from 2020 to 2023, and is a co-host of the Higher Learning podcast alongside Van Lathan on The Ringer platform. Lindsay was also a partial owner of the FCF Shoulda Been Stars Indoor Football Team.

<i>The Starters</i> Sports podcast and television series

The Starters was a podcast, blog, and television program that analyzed, and often satirized, the National Basketball Association (NBA). The show was written and hosted by Canadians Tas Melas and Phil Elder, Australian Leigh Ellis and American Trey Kerby. It was shot, edited, and produced by Canadians Jason Doyle and Matt Osten.

The Verge is an American technology news website headquartered in Lower Manhattan, New York City and operated by Vox Media. The website publishes news, feature stories, guidebooks, product reviews, consumer electronics news, and podcasts.

Andrew Schuyler Magary is an American journalist, humor columnist, podcast host, and novelist. He was a correspondent for GQ, has written three novels, and formerly was a long-time columnist for Deadspin. He currently writes for Defector Media and SFGate and is the author of The Night the Lights Went Out: A Memoir of Life with Brain Damage, a memoir chronicling his brain injury and subsequent recovery.

Bryony Naomi Gordon is an English journalist,author,broadcaster and podcaster. She is the author of the novels, Mad Girl, You Got This, and The Wrong Knickers which were all nominated for British Book Awards. She founded Mental Health Mates in 2016 and hosts the Mad World podcast.

Megaphone is a Software as a service (SaaS) business owned by Spotify. The company provides software for podcast hosting and monetization as well as an ad network to generate additional revenue for podcast publishers. It was formerly an audio content producer started by The Slate Group as Panoply Media, and later shifted to focusing solely on software for monetizing, measuring and distributing podcasts of media companies and independent producers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jen Hatmaker</span> American Christian author (born 1974)

Jennifer Lynn Hatmaker is an American author, speaker, blogger, and television presenter.

Political podcasts are podcasts that focus on contemporary politics and current events. Most political podcasts maintain a connection with an existing media source such as a newspaper or magazine. They aim to inform or entertain or advocate a cause, usually for progressive causes, although there are some conservative podcasts. They are often cost-effective to produce, requiring minimal computer technology to operate. Their audiences are generally persons in interested in current events, and programs usually have a duration of a half hour to an hour.

Shereen Marisol Meraji is an American journalist, podcaster and educator. She is an assistant professor of race in journalism at the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism, and is an alum of the Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University. She was the founding co-host and senior producer of Code Switch, a critically acclaimed podcast covering race, culture and identity, one of NPR's highest charting podcasts in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelsey Wingert</span> American journalist (born 1992)

Kelsey Wingert covers the Colorado Rockies for MLB.tv during the baseball season. Prior to working for the Rockies, she reported on the Atlanta Braves and other teams covered by Bally Sports South and did studio cut-ins for NBA and NHL games as well as sideline reporting for Atlantic Coast Conference football games during the baseball offseason.

Bim Adewunmi is a British writer and journalist. She is a producer for This American Life and previously worked as a culture writer at BuzzFeed and The Guardian. She co-hosted the podcast Thirst Aid Kit with writer Nichole Perkins (2017-2020). Her debut play, Hoard, premiered at Arcola Theatre in May 2019.

David Roth is an American journalist, essayist, podcast host and editor. He has written about sports, politics, and culture in Deadspin, The New Republic, SB Nation, New York Magazine, New York Daily News, and other publications. Roth was a senior editor for Deadspin prior to his October 31, 2019 resignation. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and has written about the organization extensively.

Defector Media is a subscription-based sports and culture blog and media company founded in September 2020 and based in Manhattan.

Mallory Rubin is an American editor and podcaster. She is most well-known for her work at The Ringer, and for the Binge Mode pop culture podcast which she co-hosted with Jason Concepcion. She is one of the founding editors of The Ringer and currently serves as Editor-In-Chief.

<i>Call Her Daddy</i> Sex advice and comedy podcast

Call Her Daddy is an advice and comedy podcast created by Alexandra Cooper and Sofia Franklyn in 2018. The podcast was formerly owned and distributed by Barstool Sports until June 2021, when it was announced that Cooper had signed an exclusive deal with Spotify worth $60 million. In the late spring of 2020, Cooper and Franklyn were engaged in a publicized dispute with Barstool founder David Portnoy, which resulted in Franklyn leaving the show. Cooper reached an agreement with Barstool and continued hosting the podcast on her own.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kelsey Piper</span> American journalist and effective altruist

Kelsey Piper is an American journalist who is a staff writer at Vox, where she writes for the column Future Perfect, which covers a variety of topics from an effective altruism perspective. While attending Stanford University, she founded and ran the Stanford Effective Altruism student organization. Piper blogs at The Unit of Caring.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lex Fridman</span> Russian-American scientist and podcast host (born 1983)

Lex Fridman is a Russian-American computer scientist and podcaster. Since 2018 he has hosted the Lex Fridman Podcast, where he interviews notable figures from various fields such as science, technology, sports, and politics.

<i>Normal Gossip</i> Podcast launched in 2022

Normal Gossip is a podcast produced by Defector Media and Radiotopia. Created by Kelsey McKinney and Alex Sujong Laughlin, the program features listener-contributed gossip stories that are anonymized and narrated alongside a guest, usually a comedian or journalist.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Greenberg, Zoe (May 30, 2023). "Kelsey McKinney is building a (socialist) gossip empire from Queen Village". Philadelphia Inquirer. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  2. ↑ Rosenthal, Abigail (August 10, 2023). "How Texas Tall Tales Became 'Normal Gossip,' the Favorite Podcast of Snoops and Blabbermouths". Texas Monthly. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  3. ↑ "Rising Senior Kelsey McKinney puts her literary knowledge to work". College of Liberal Arts. The University of Texas at Austin. June 21, 2013. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  4. 1 2 Sone, Sunny (June 22, 2021). "A Feminist Rewrite of Lot". The Texas Observer. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  5. ↑ Tracy, Marc (October 30, 2019). "Stick to Sports? No Way. Deadspin Journalists Quit en Masse". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Cohen, Danielle (December 11, 2023). "Podcaster Kelsey McKinney Gets Paid to Gossip". The Cut. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  7. ↑ Hickey, Walt (September 10, 2020). "Defector's Kelsey McKinney on how 2020 destroyed the concept of "sticking to sports"". Nieman Lab. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  8. ↑ Bryant, Kenzie (February 10, 2022). "Finally, an Antidote for the Lack of Low-Stakes Gossip in Our Lives". Vanity Fair. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  9. ↑ Scire, Sarah (June 8, 2022). "You didn't hear this from me, but Defector is getting a subscriber boost from its podcast Normal Gossip". Nieman Lab. Retrieved June 23, 2024. Three months after launching, Normal Gossip reached 500,000 listens. Six months in, the podcast sees around 100,000 downloads per episode. Tickets for the first live show — held last week — sold out in 48 hours.
  10. ↑ Puckett-Pope, Lauren (May 1, 2024). "Kelsey McKinney, Host of Hit Podcast 'Normal Gossip,' Has a Juicy New Book on the Way". ELLE. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
  11. ↑ Salamon, Jeff (June 22, 2021). "Debut Novelist Kelsey McKinney on Losing Her Religion and Leaving Texas". Texas Monthly. Retrieved June 23, 2024.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.