Not Gonna Lie with Kylie Kelce - Kylie & Astronaut Christina on Flying To The Moon, Life On Other Planets & Cat in Kelce House | Ep. 68

Episode Date: May 21, 2026

Kylie’s joined by ASTRONAUT CHRISTINA KOCH for a very special, very intergalactic episode of Not Gonna Lie brought to you by Pull Ups (24:03)! They talk about what it was like to fly around the moon, being the first woman to do it, life on other planets and their shared fandom of the Philadelphia Eagles. Kylie starts the show by sharing how she’s feeling with Wyatt’s kindergarten graduation coming up (1:07) and reacting to all the fan comments hoping she will consider being in the next issue of Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition (4:34). Kylie also talks about the best pregnancy announcement reaction she has ever seen (7:11). After that, she’s joined by two adorable dogs and one beautiful cat from the PSPCA in honor of National Rescue Dog Day (12:45). How will Jason react to a cat roaming the house? We’ll have to wait and see… Then, Kylie is joined by a national hero, the first woman to fly around the moon who also holds the record for longest spaceflight by a woman, NASA astronaut Christina Koch (24:03). Christina explains how she’s recovering since the Artemis II mission and how space F’s up the human body (27:10). Kylie and Christina also bond over their love for the Eagles and Christina’s incredible gesture of bringing Eagles Super Bowl confetti to the moon for her husband (33:09).  Kylie also asks Christina all the space questions she’s been thinking about since the mission highlighting the best foods to eat in space, if she was ever afraid, life on other planets and the next lunar mission (39:10). Christina also speaks to being a hero for young women everywhere and how parents can get their daughters interested in STEM fields (52:51). Christina gives Kylie some pointers on how to make some incredible toddler science fair projects (58:38) and answers some real questions from Kylie’s daughters about outer space (1:01:19). You can find even more clips from Kylie’s longer conversation with Astronaut Christina on our YouTube channel on More Sh*t Monday. . . . Purchase NGL Merch: https://www.nglkylie.com Support the show: Pull-Ups: Buy new Pull-Ups with Learning Layer now, designed to help kids learn wet from dry! https://pullups.com    DoorDash: When life gets crazy, DoorDash helps bring some order to it. Order Now. https://www.doordash.com/ Peloton: Let yourself run, lift, fail, try and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread+ at https://onepeloton.com  Toyota: Learn more at https://Toyota.com/Sienna Allstate: Check Allstate first for a quote that could save you hundreds. You’re in good hands with Allstate. Potential savings vary. Subject to terms, conditions, & availability. Allstate North American Ins. Co. & affiliates: Northbrook, IL. Sunglass Hut: Visit Sunglass Hut and find your perfect pair for Summer. Sunglass Hut – Own Your Moment. https://www.sunglasshut.com/us  Support the PSPCA: https://www.pspca.org/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Not going to lie, I'm currently holding a cat in my own home right now. Does Jason know about this? Absolutely not. Will he understand once I explain why? Honestly, who knows? He's about to find out. So are you. Now that's what I call it tease.

Let's get this podcast started. Welcome back to Not Gonna Lie, a Wave Original, brought to you by pull-ups. I'm your host, Kylie Kelsey. We've officially kicked off water table season in the Kelsey family. There was a moment in time where I used to fight them on putting their bathing suits on every single time we filled it up, but I have decided that I'm sick of having to pick up the slew of drenched clothing off of the front porch as they disrobe before they go in so they don't make the floor slippery. My all-time favorite Jersey shore food is probably

shore break for treats. For savory? I mean, I don't know, Hank sauce. You guys have heard me talk about them before. Slather Hank Akew sauce on a shoe and I'd eat it. And we're gearing up for our first? No. Oh, no. We're gearing up for our first kindergarten graduation. Guys, we literally just started the year. How did we get here?

Also, she's a mile high, which I'm pretty proud of. Pretty proud of that. And she looks old, which is dumb. I'm not feeling great about it. I'm feeling pretty sad. Super casual, but I'm going to get over it because next year, my second is going to mean. Guys, how do we pause time? Well, now that we've covered my fragile emotional state for this week, coming up, it's National Rescue Dog Day.

So in honor of that, I'm going to be joined by multiple adoptable dogs and maybe cats from the PSPCA right here in a matter of minutes. good luck everyone's staying i'm kidding i think we've also got a banger doom scroll the week featuring perhaps the best reaction to a pregnancy announcement i have ever seen after that i'm going to be joined by someone i have so little business speaking to the first woman to fly around the moon artemus two mission specialist and philadelphia sports fan astronaut christina cook that is silly that I get to say that out loud. She's going to talk to us. She is actually going to spend time talking to us, which is silly, but we're doing it

before she realizes how silly it is. Before we get to all of that, a few NGL announcements. First up, NGL will be off next week for Memorial Day because let's be honest, we all need a little vacation and kids. But don't worry, real ones. We wouldn't leave you hanging like that, even though there's a lot. no NGL, you are getting a brand new episode of FAAFO this Tuesday, May 26th. And it's a good one. I learned how to golf from the literal goat, Michelle Wee West, just in time for me to kick my

husband's ass at our charity golf tournament in June. I should say that with more confidence, but I'm a little worried. And by that I mean, I've never played more than eight holes of golf. Well, that's a lie because I played two more with Michelle. So, I've played 10 holes of golf. Also, not that any real ones would be surprised. There may or may not be puppies in that episode, too, because we found some. And by I found some, I mean, they were holding an event at the golf course we were at, and I'm not going to pass up an opportunity to pet that dog. Even more news, NGL will be back the first week of June with our official summer kickoff solo episode. You jerk.

What did Queen Emma bribe me with this time? What did you bribe me with? Nothing. She didn't bribe me with anything. And you know what that means? If we have to do a solo episode, she's not getting more than 60 minutes this week. Got her. Next, let's get to Real One Comment of the Week, brought to you by Peloton.

And our real one comment this week was shockingly common in the comment section of our Hillary Duff clip telling us about her SI swimsuit cover. The comment says at SI SwimSuit, get Kylie for next year. Guys, no thank you. Absolutely not. Yeah. I would, Queen Emma tried to ask if it was the top 10 place. I have no business being. I would almost say it's top three.

And I think it goes without saying that if I don't like having my photo taken, clothed, I'm probably not going to like my photo taken naked. You know what I mean? Queen Emma wants to know what magazine cover I would be into. She's providing some ideas like modern dog or modern cat. Yes. But I would be the stage mom behind the camera for Freddie or Patty. Or Freddie and Patty.

That'd be cute. Queen Emma also recommends ADHD magazine. Yes. Immediately yes. Also, food to love, simply bread issue. Yeah, also yes. I'd be on the cover. You want to fill a pool with loaves of bread and bread items. I'm talking anything that uses a yeast or a sourdough starter. You can catch me doing the backstroke through that pool. I will happily be photographed. Again, fully clothed in a pool of bread. How did we get here? That's it for real long comment of the week,

brought to you by Peloton, and just to make sure you heard me, I do not want to be in my bathing suit on S-I-swim suit edition. Big fan of the magazine. Big fan, though. I love that when I was younger. I got the magazine every year.

I loved it. So, big fan. Love it for other women. You guys are fucking crushing it. You guys look hot and powerful and strong and amazing. And I'm good. Don't call us. Don't email.

Don't inquire. Don't waste your time. Moving on, let's get to dooms crawl the week brought to you by pull-ups. Yeah, first up, hands down the best reaction I've seen to a pregnancy announcement. Queen Emma the clip, please. Coming soon? You're pregnant?

The most wonderful news that I can ever imagine. Do you get it? Me too. There's two of them. You're having two? You having twins? You're kidding, right? For our audio listeners, they pulled out a little t-shirt.

The mom is seated on the couch next to him, and proceeds to scream like she's having an exorcism with her whole body tensed, and then she starts sliding off the couch until she decides, I'm actually going to fall on the floor. It was a decision. I said decides for a reason. She was a decision to fall on the floor. One of the best comments is a thought that I also experienced, which was, mind you, she was sitting down and still fell twice. With three crying, laughing faces. Yes, she did. So Queen Emma wants to know what Big and Lil Lisa's reactions were when we told them. My mom found out the first time that we were pregnant pretty early on because I was

struggling. I was struggling. When we told my dad, we actually asked, I asked him by saying, are you ready to be a skater? Which, for those of you who don't know, Have we talked about this on the show? My dad's grandfather name is Skeeter. That was decided when we were, my sister and I were probably 10 and 12. We were reading books from a bookshelf in our house. One of them was a baby name book. And at the back of the book, it included grandparent names, which sent us down a spiral. And we determined at that age that we were going to call our dad, skeeter when we had kids because it's a slow burn. It's a slow burn that a six-foot-nine man has to introduce himself a skeeter and gets called it in public. We said, do you want, are you ready to be a

skeeter? And he had, he had big feelings about that. He was very excited. So yeah, that's how we told him. As we have announced our consecutive pregnancies, I think people are like less. They're like, oh, congratulations. By the fourth one, people are like, congrats. You know you guys don't have to touch each other, like that kind of thing, you know? You guys could like just not. You guys could, you guys could not, you know? Every so often when you say you have four kids, people look at you like, do you guys

know about contraceptive? Next, you know what's fucked up? This TikTok trend. Graduating seniors are trying to make us cry when we're just innocently doom-scrolling on a Tuesday night. It's time for your next adventure. For audio listeners, the student is in their cap and gown. They place down a toy that completes the lineup of toys. This one looks like those trains.

And then they walk away. Words and ideas. Out of focus. Rude. Immediately rude. It's disrespectful. You guys should cut the shit. Am I, is that Gene Wilder talking or is that Robin Williams? Because I'm going to be honest with you. I feel very strongly about the fact that if it is Robin Williams, I might have to hold down on TikTok and select not interested. Because my emotional state can't handle that. The fact that you have a voiceover of Robin

Williams with that music and it's with tiny little toys that my kids are the current ages that are appropriate to be playing with this suggesting that it'll just be tomorrow when they're in their cap and gown for their high school graduation is I literally can't come up with a better explanation other than it's disrespectful I feel personally attacked by this if my girls were going to do it, they would probably line up. Let's think. I think they just have very specific, like, Ellie would be a kid that would line up stuffies. There are specific stuffies. She rotates, but there's specific stuffies that I would line up. That makes me want to cry. The thought of that makes me want to cry. The idea that she won't always be a stuffy kid also makes me want to cry.

Raising kids is a trap. I'm going to move on before I actually start crying. That's it for Doomscroll the week, brought to you by pull-ups. Moving on, in honor of National Dog. Rescue Day. I have some very special visitors from the PSPCA. That's where we adopted Freddie. And they're here right now. This cuddly, furry, adoptable animal segment is brought, adoptable, emphasis on adoptable animal segment is brought to you today by our friends at DoorDash. Please take this as a hint also to make sure that you support your local rescues. These animals that I am about to introduce you to are available at the Pee's. PSPCA, if you're local to the Philadelphia area. You can also always support local rescues by donating

food, toys, betting, things like that. You can call your local rescues and ask how you can support. Sometimes I do understand that not everyone is in a place to adopt an animal, whether that be that you don't have a yard, that you're not financially ready, things like that that should be taken into consideration. I'm not telling you to go adopt an animal on a whim. But if you would still like to support your local rescues. There are plenty of ways to do that and you can call them and ask how. All right. I can't take it anymore. Bring them in, Queen Emma. Do it. Zoom out. Effie's been here for the last five minutes. Are you joking? Guys, have you seen your little thing? She's a good girl. Let me tell you the audio that just picked up in my headphones was so perfect. After hearing the way

she's sneaky snacked on her cheese, don't you want to bring Effie home to your house? Evie is available right now. We don't have an age on her. Because she's a young adult. She's a tiny black pity that came from a suspected dog fighting case. She's a little bit nervous. But who wouldn't be when you come into a weird ass back office that ends up being a podcast studio and ask to be well-behaved sitting on a random woman's lap? She has a white chest, big old white spot on our table.

chest. You know what else she has? White piggy toes. White pitty toes. Are you kidding? Guys, don't you want Effie to be part of your family? She doesn't want to be in a house with other animals. She wants to be, she wants to be the center of attention. She wants your focus and love to be on her. Guys, are you kidding me? Look at her. Maybe she wants to be a studio dog. You don't know. Do you have a podcast? Do you need a studio? Do you need a studio? dog, I have an Fee for you. Okay, but we do have another adoptable dog. So we're going to send Fee out. Someone great. I'll let you. You can have free rein. That's a fully fenced backyard, girl, go ahead. Oh my gosh. She's just perfect. Dog number two is named bright eyes. You heard

that right. My understanding is that bright eyes is not going to be a candidate for sitting in my lap because bright eyes is well fed. Is what I've been told. Hello. She says, hello. Oh, no. She said, I'm the perfect. I'm a take when I'm perfect.

Oh, my God. I can't wait for you guys to see this. Stop. Stop it. Okay, guys, she was at the PSPCA two years ago. She was taken by the police. police force and brought into care of the PSPCA because she was emaciated and that, as we know, is neglect. You should feed your dogs, okay? Because they're sweet angel babies and they are hungry.

Okay. Now, oh gosh, she went out, lived with a family with kids. She was happy as a little clam. Oh my goodness. She has a pink nose like a little piggy. Oh no. You have a pink nose like a jipakey. And then she came back to the PSPCA because that family's situation changed. But now she's ready for a new family. Guys, first of all, let me tell you, for our audio listeners, a pity smile to end all pity smiles, okay? She is a stocky queen. She's got a chubby little stumpy tail.

Let me tell you. And she's a thick girl. And when I say thick, I mean thick with three Cs. And I mean that in the most, yeah, you get it in the most complimentary way. Hold that thought, everyone. Oh, no, thank you so much. She's just a baby. Hi, how old is she?

We think three to five. She was fairly young when she came in. Is it good girls? Okay. Can she be placed in a house with other. animals. She's also open to meeting other dogs if you already have a dog in your house. Oh, Bright Eyes, it was an absolute pleasure. And when her name is Bright Eyes for a reason, guys, she has like this little twinkle in her eyes and she's, oh, beautiful. Okay. I know it's rescue dog day,

but I couldn't pass up an opportunity to have a cat inside my home. You guys don't understand how rare this is. Let's see her. She's meowing. She's 17 years old. You stop it. I actually like didn't believe it when I saw, but we had her in 2000. Is she all black? Yeah. Jokes on you guys, I kind of love that. You guys would think that because I'm a superstitious lady that that would bother me, but it doesn't. Now, if she crossed the road, am I driving down it?

Absolutely not. I'm not an idiot. This is Star. This is Star. Star is, oh my God. Star is 17 years old. He has my sister's good. Hi.

Hello, Puddy Tat. She came back to us earlier this year. She was like, had some paralysis in her life. But she's walking around fine. She actually just wanted to go to a different house. She said, I'm 17. I'm tired of where I am and I'd like to explore somewhere else. Guys, look at how beautiful she is.

Are you kidding me? Where is she cleared to live, Sarah? Is she allowed to have roommates? Yep, she can live with pretty much anything. Of course she can because she's a well-adjusted lady. She's reasonable. Come on. Would she walk on this halter?

Is this just a safety precaution or she would walk? Yeah, she looks to walk. You're yoking. Do you want to take Star for a walk? You could do that. I'm going to let you down because I think you want to get down and explore and you're more than welcome to do that because you're in an enclosed room. And actually, if you look super comfy, I will let you stay here.

Jason probably wouldn't feel great about a cat being in here. But like I said, last week, we did get him with the AI cat picture. So we might need to take a picture of Star before she leaves this house so that we can get them with a real life picture. If any of my kids were home from school right now, I'm going to let it go just so she can leave me if she wants to. If any of my kids were home from school right now, I would get a video of them petting her so that he would believe it. I do think I should text in a picture. Let's see. Look at our newest addition. Listen to her little meows. Gosh, she's so pretty. Okay. That's it for our adoptable animal visit. brought to you by DoorDash.

Thank you, DoorDash, for giving me the excuse and thank you for the national adoptable pets. Rescue animals. What is it? I don't even care. I just am so. Rescue dogs. Guys, it's rescue dogs.

But any excuse, send in the days that we need to honor with dogs and we will keep bringing you adoptable pets. Coming up, I'm about to be joined by astronaut Christina Cook right after these messages. Being a person is tough enough these days, let alone being a parent. That's why I use DoorDash. Because when life gets crazy, DoorDash helps bring some order to it. Like last week, when you guessed it again, I ran out of milk. And Finn doesn't like when that happens.

So I had to DoorDash a gallon of milk. I'm pretty sure it was 9.30 at night. And it got there because there was no way in heck that I was going to experience the next morning without a bottle to greet her. She knows what she likes. So DoorDash came in clutch with that one. Real life needs real relief. That's why DoorDash is there for whatever you need. whenever you need it. Life with kids is wildly unpredictable. No matter how much parents try to plan,

there's always going to be chaos. Being able to offload a few to-dos and give a little more time to focus on yourself and your family is huge. We all know life gets crazy. DoorDash just helps bring a little order to it. Order now. As a mom of four toddlers, six and under, I've been deep in the potty training trenches. But luckily, I have learned a thing or two over the years. It is terrifying. It's so scary to have to potty train a child specifically because everyone's different. And honestly, the soundtrack of my life is, I'm all done pooping. We've all heard it. I've also learned my secret weapon is Pull-Up's training pants because they have my back and they also make sure that I don't have as many surprises because I don't like surprises. And now my secret weapon has its own secret

weapon. Pull-ups just introduced the new learning layer and I'm all about this. It's designed to help kids learn the difference between feeling wet and dry because they need to feel that an accident happened, you know? Plus, it gives my tiny humans big kid confidence while I get peace of mind of up to 100% leak-free protection. You can buy the new pull-ups with Learning Layer Now designed to help kids learn wet from dry. Buy one, get one 25% off, pull-ups training pants with new Learning Layer at Target now through May 23rd. As a busy mom taking care of everybody else's schedule, it's important to carve out time for yourself. That's what I like to call nobody needs me time. One way I use that very small window of time these days is by doing a workout right on the Peloton app.

It makes it so that I can go on, decide how much time I have, and pick the classes that fit perfectly in that window. I really need to get my body moving to make sure that I feel like I can have a productive day and really be in a better mood. Peloton helps you unlock that joy through movement with their new car. Training Tread Plus powered by Peloton IQ. It provides intelligent strength coaching so you can stay in the moment. And it builds a workout roadmap that's completely yours so you can stop overthinking and just move. Plus, when you're racing against the nap time clock, you can get in your Hot Girl Walk and Strength Training with one smooth spin of the swivel screen. My favorite instructors, guys, I say it every time. It's Robin. It's Alex Toussaint and it's Ellie Love. They're my favorites. I take other classes and they're

outstanding, but those three are my tops. Let yourself run, lift, sculpt, push, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.com. I will tell you day one back on Earth, this was my husband's biggest concern. He was like, we need to start pitching practice. I was like, what are you talking about? Hi, welcome back to Earth. I don't, what are we talking about here? Welcome back. And that's when he revealed that his biggest fear is me having to throw the first pitch. And I was like, wow. Honestly, first of all, it's actually really sweet. We love a supportive King. That's very kind of him to think ahead. Also, he was really planning. Great point. We do. Is it really, would it really be that bad? It's okay if it is. I think so. I do.

Could we maybe place blame on the fact that you've been in space for an extended period of time? I have evaluated how long I can rely on that as an excuse. And it's dwindling. It is dwindling on this nine-day mission. be i'm going to need you guys to uh gear up i mean need someone to invite christina to do a first pitch asap so that we with some practice time with a little a little practice time uh so that we still have an explanation i'm not going to say an excuse it's an explanation that is a great call okay thank you you're welcome we're on a team now this might actually be the most badass intro i've done on this show. So I'm going to try not to nerd out, but the real ones know that's inevitable. So here we go. She's the first ever woman in the history of time to fly around the moon.

She holds the record for longest single spaceflight by a woman with a total of 328 days. She served as mission specialist, one of NASA's Artemis II mission that took her and the crew the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from earth and perhaps of nearly equal importance. She's a diehard Philadelphia sports fan. It's astronaut Christina Cook. Christina, welcome to the show. Goberts. Thank you. It's great to be here. Gobirds. I have been, first of all, we've been talking about you in our house because we had to talk about the first woman to do it. You know, we have to. As a house of four girls, we have to chit-chat about it.

We were obviously dialed in, as was everybody else. The girls are fascinated. And it's exciting that we get to have these conversations, that you are sparking these conversations with the incredible work that you're doing, and that it gets to spark sort of that curiosity. And then we get to talk about it. And that, I cannot thank you enough for that. I'm here for all of it.

First and foremost, how are you doing and how is the recovery process going? Oh, thank you. It's going pretty well. Like I said, I wish I could maybe rely on it a little bit more for not excuses but explanations of things like just general brain fog, clutziness, et cetera. But honestly, we're doing pretty well. After my really long mission, I had one mission that was 328 days. This one was nine.

my recovery was much longer after that one. This one, we felt fairly normal after about two weeks. And we looked really normal as long as our eyes were open, walking around and doing normal things, almost right away, which was a great, you know, a great blessing. And there were some other things that maybe we were managing that weren't as a parent. But even all of that is really back to normal a lot. And didn't have quite the same shell shock with, I guess, socialization as after my first mission as well. My first mission I went for almost 11 months, only seeing 11 other humans. And so, of course, landing and seeing lots of humans was definitely a shocker. But this one, you know, short and sweet.

I was just so happy to see everyone on that ship out in the Pacific when we landed. And it's just been up from there. No, what's the toughest adjustment coming back? For this mission, I would say adjusting to maybe. the way the world reacted to it. That would be on the like psychological side. On the physical side, just the, the dizziness, learning to walk. And I feel like for a while, like an extended period of time, I felt a little bit buzzed

like all the time. It was how I would explain it to my doctors was it felt like maybe you had gone to a work lunch and had a drink. Maybe you shouldn't have. And then you go back to work and you're like, no one knows that the room is moving a little bit. And that's how I felt all the time for, let's say, the second week I was back. So that was a challenge to manage, not a big deal. And it's gone away. And in some ways, it's sort of sad to have all your space adaptations gone, because for a while it's kind of a link

reminding you that your body went through something and you went through something. Now, what's something that we are all taking for granted here on Earth? Something that you might have missed? Well, I'll go with the obvious one is your family. I mean, just to be surrounded by loved ones is so special. And it's special to every single person that goes to space. Whatever that means for you, loved ones are 1,000% the most important thing to every human being. And then if I would just think about something else on Earth, you know, it's not to me like the creature comforts like a latte or something like that.

It's maybe, here's a good one for you, blue sky. Because when you go to space, you actually don't see a blue sky. This thing that just feels like it's the background of everything, like this inevitable something you look up and see. I mean, on my long mission, I didn't see a blue sky for almost 11 months. And that is something beautiful. That is such a, you, oh, that is crazy to think about. I mean, that and how dark is.

Is it? It's 1,000% dark. It is so dark. In fact, well, on the space station, you go around the earth every hour and a half. So you have 17 sunrises and sunsets every single day. On our mission, we were just flying through blackness the entire time. And the way that they had to point our spaceship, like the spaceship isn't just kind of tumbling or through space on its way. It's in a very specific orientation.

It's called the attitude. And our attitude was such that the sun was always on the tail end of the spacecraft. for like thermal balance reasons. So we very rarely actually saw the sun. We would literally for three days, other than maybe seeing the sunlight glint off of the moon or the earth when it happened to be in the window, we didn't really see the sun.

So I was just thinking about how on the mission, everything feels like it happened at night to me because out the window was complete darkness. And so I'm like, oh yeah, that, no, that was first thing in the morning. It was dark out the windows, but it was definitely like, or midday. Now, for anyone who doesn't know, you kind of touched on this, but I'm going to put this as bluntly as possible. How does being in space fuck up the human body, scientifically speaking? So many things.

One of the big things, well, you know, I like to remember that they're actually all adaptations to being in space. So the human body is just like, oh, cool, I don't have to pump the blood as hard to make it all go to the brain. so I'm going to work a little bit less hard because I'm a heart and I'm just, you know, trying to take as much as little energy as I can. And or like, oh, all the fluid is rising up in your body because you're not on earth where the gravity pulls it down. So all of your like body sensors are like, whoa, we have too much blood volume. Let's shed that. And the other one for long duration is muscle and bone atrophy, meaning it just all goes away because you don't even have to lift your arm. Like everything you do, zero effort.

So your body's like, sweet, I'm not going to build muscles. I'm going to, you know, not do that because I'm a body trying to conserve energy. And so the muscles and bones can atrophy. That's why we have to exercise so, so much. Another very regimented thing in space, lots of exercise every single day. And that sort of counteracts that. I think the other things are more internal medicine type of things. Our immune systems kind of start operating funny.

latent viruses might come out. Rashes might happen because of all the stress that your body is under in terms of your immune response. And then there's some other organs that just do a little bit of weirdo things after a lot of time. But yeah, for the most part, the blood volume changes are the big one. That's so crazy. I can't imagine coming back and feeling like you're a little drunk, just a little. Just a little.

Yep. That's the best way that I can characterize it. Yikes. Well, I'm glad that even amidst recovery, you do have your priorities in order because everyone got to see you at the Flyers game a couple weeks ago. That was so awesome that they let me come early. Yes. I mean, incredible. The best. We had so much fun. It was amazing. The welcoming. People were so welcoming. People were so stoked. People brought by their kiddos to the suite. All the adjacent suites were like, what's up? And we were doing photos. It was so. fun. I got to like meet the people that are on the radio in my house all the time. And

oh, that's so great. So yeah. Now, you also sent us this amazing photo. It's Grady on top of your luggage, which is perfect way to do that. I love that you just are representing. Well, he had to come home with me and I had a pretty full bag. And also he needs to breathe. That was this really cool gift, the best gift ever. I love that. He is, I will say the second best mascot in Philadelphia. Oh my God. tell swoop because I'm definitely referring to the Philly fanatic as the top one. Nobody tell swoop. This is going to be bad. Speaking of favorites, which is your favorite Philly team?

Is it the Flyers? Well, I have to go with the Eagles. It's just like football was the number one for us. The Flyers are coming in, though. They're kind of rising because my husband has started to play Men's League hockey again. So now I'm a hockey wife and it just the whole thing elevates. and I know the rules a little bit better now, but the OG was definitely the Eagles.

That's where, that's where, you know, I feel like that's where he started me. And that's where the main, like, family memories that were bringing into our family really come from him and his dad and him and his friends watching all the games. And so I've been watching Eagles games the longest, I would say. And so if the Eagles are your favorite team, who's your least favorite team and why is it the Dallas Cowboys?

Correct. Thank you. The Cowboys. Do you run into a lot of Dallas fans living in Houston? There are. They are everywhere here. In fact, I have a couple going, like text rivalries with a few people. There was a pilot instructor.

We fly these high-speed supersonic jets and one of the instructors as a Cowboys fan. So we have a text war all the time. And then he recently retired. And I gave him a signed picture of me watching the Eagles Cowboys. game and space for him to take with him as a memory. That's so perfect. You know, smart man, right? Obviously doing the job that he was doing, but everybody has their flaws.

And that's what I tell every single Cowboys fan I meet. I didn't hold it against him, but it didn't. It was a little questionable. Yeah. You're like, I can't fully trust your opinion now, but I still love you. You know, that's kind of where we have to be. Totally. Speaking of the birds, your post about bringing.

bringing the Super Bowl confetti to the moon. Insane. Well done. Yeah. Oh, thank you. I wasn't sure if I should, you know, reveal that because it was a surprise for my husband. And so I talked to him beforehand and told him the surprise. I might have accidentally ruined it as well prior to the mission.

So, but he was really sweet. He pretended it wasn't ruined and acted surprise. And then I was like, and by the way, I'm thinking about like telling the world when I respond to Julian Hurts. and he said, sure, you have my, you have my blessing. I actually brought the confetti. I have it if you want to see it. Do you really? We would love to see it.

Well, this will show you like how not fancy I am because it's actually, it came. So we tried to go get confetti because we did go to the game and we could not find any. We went down because we weren't in Gracie's. We went down to where it all was. And we were like, where is it? Like, did it get vacuumed up? Like there was none. So I had to order it on eBay.

And it came as this huge like envelope. So I had to repackage it for space so it would have minimal weight. So it's in a reused credit card payment envelope that I found. And I made sure I wrote surprise for Bob on it like an official label. That's outstanding. This is it. This is it. And, you know, of course, the Philadelphia and me is like, is it real Super Bowl confetti?

But it has shapes. So I feel that if it's not, it's very. much it's a good approximation it's believable um i don't even know that we i don't think we have confetti from that one so i couldn't even help you by comparing oh well you know now you know someone who does so we get excited about that now how does how does the feeling of winning a super bowl compared to flying to the moon i am prepared for you to you to to like one more than the other. I'm okay with that.

I will say that going to the Super Bowl with Bob was incredible. We had such a fun time. We rode our bikes there through New Orleans. And just the whole energy walking up the street to the Superdome was absolutely the time of my life. So, you know, they're different. Like I said, families are the most important things. So that kind of elevates it even up until the moon situation. And like, it was.

It was pretty close. Like if you, okay, fair. If you had to ask me, like, which one to have to, like, wipe from the record, I would probably keep the moon, to be honest with you. That's fair. But it's real close. That's totally fine. The good news is I'm never going to ask you to wipe it.

So we can just say apples and oranges, both are very exciting. One was slightly more exciting. Fair. By slightly, I mean, probably a substantial amount, but we're going to say slightly right now, because go birds. It's our relative. Now, I said it earlier, but I've been known. to nerd out on this show and I'm about to do it again because I'd love to ask you all the questions

I've been thinking since the mission. I'm going to try and do it rapid fire style though since we're talking space. We're calling it the speed of light round. I'm sitting up. Okay. Is astronaut ice cream a real thing? Oh, it is, but believe it or not, it's not part of our standard menu. So I have never eaten in space. Well, that feels wrong. What was your favorite thing to eat up there? There are so many good foods. I love vegetables. So I was eating we have these spicy green beans. We have broccoli out groton. I know this sounds bad. But in a pinch, if I need a comfort food, it was. Mac and cheese. I mean, comfort food. We still have that. What's the best part about wearing a space suit? Pockets. Lots of pockets. I was hoping you were going to say that. I love pockets. Do you think there will be an all female NASA crew that goes to space one day? It could definitely happen. There's, you know, a lot of women in the Corps.

There's a lot of women who have been commanders. So because, you know, we made these decisions decades ago that we would welcome anyone to the table that has talent and abilities and is willing to work hard. And we've, as a result, have this incredible diverse office full of just complete, you know, really good people. I'm trying not to say bad words here. And they're all ready to go. So I wouldn't be surprised.

If it happens, it will happen organically. I don't think NASA's ever been in the business of kind of, you know, doing something just for the sake of it because we're very mission oriented. But that is exactly why it could happen because we are mission oriented. Now, what's the biggest misconception about human space travel? That, it is glamorous. It is whatever the opposite of glamorous is. There's a lot of non-glamour happening. What does it like to splash down into the ocean?

It is amazing. You, we, wow, we were happy. It feels, it was less dramatic than landing on land. It's kind of like you just get cradled by the water and you're so happy and you're thinking we're alive. It's just the best feeling. Now, when did you first get to communicate with your families again? I got to communicate with my family when I was in the med bay of the Navy ship that we recovered to after getting on the helicopters. And someone showed up with my cell phone and they were like, here you go. I'm dialing Bob's number. And there he was. So that was awesome. They knew what was most important to us as soon as we sort of got into a stable spot. Were you ever afraid at any point in the mission?

You know, fear is an interesting thing. I wouldn't say that I was afraid in the sense of having physiological effects or having it be a large part of my brain capacity. but I was very aware of risks and really that just kind of put me into a place of focus and vigilance. But I never, and I want to emphasize, it is okay to be afraid. It is okay to be nervous. It's okay to have anxiety. I've experienced all of those things throughout my career. But there's something about fulfilling the mission that you've trained for that for me put me in a state of calm and focus. And those anxieties weren't necessarily a part of it.

And what is your absolute favorite memory of being with your crew? Yes. Just so many. Probably on the far side of the moon when we were experiencing the eclipse, which if your listeners, viewers haven't seen what we described the photos or how we described it, there was a hole in the universe outside the window, apparently. It was actually just the moon with the sun behind it. but it was the most ominous thing I've ever seen in my life. And we were all experiencing it in the exact same way. It was almost like you couldn't look at it for too long. Unlike seeing the Earth of the Moon where you're like, I can't stare at this for long enough. It's so beautiful. I'd never want to take my eyes off this.

You would look at this crazy thing out the window and you'd be like, and the fact that we all had that opinion about it and felt the same way was really wild. That is weird. Now, I know that you guys just got back from the literal moon, but I have to ask, are you already thinking about the next mission? Well, I'm thinking about other people doing the next mission for sure. We are really stoked. Our friends are going to be on Orion. Then some more friends of us are going to be landing on the moon, walking on the moon. And I could not be more excited. I actually think I would be just as excited for this mission if it had been my friends and not me. I am just pumped that we're doing it. And we're doing it. We're lighting rockets. We're going. We're keeping a the cadence and we're making it happen. That is, I can't stop thinking about it. Now, I don't know if you can answer this, but I'm not an actual journalist. So I'll ask anyway, do you believe there's life on other planets? Oh, well, I don't necessarily believe differently because of anything I've seen or not seen in space. Got it. But I believe in the strong possibility. I am not really

swayed by the fact that we haven't either detected it yet or been contacted. yet because I think, you know, all the infinities that are part of the equation were just not sure which one wins out in the end. But it would seem very strange to me if in this big universe there was just only one place where it all came together and it was only here. That would be surprising to me. So you're saying that you haven't seen anything necessarily. And I can, I can definitely tell you, well, we're not that far away, like in the grand scheme of things. Like, you know, the space station is 250 miles up. It's basically just at Earth. And Orion, kind of in the Earth moon system, it's not like we're going to a distant galaxy or even

a distant solar system within our own galaxy. So I wasn't expecting to like pop out, look out the window and be like, what's that blinking thing? You know, who are you? Yeah, exactly. Hi, I'm ready to speak to you in your language of music. No, I wasn't. expecting that. Now, last question is someone who would know, what is the most realistic space movie? Great question. I, this is a tough one. I always go back to the Martian and a couple reasons why. One is that it depicted the teamwork and kind of the problem solving really well. There were obviously some pretty fantastical things that happened in it. The one thing it did not get right, though, and I just have to tell you, this is kind of funny.

We actually got to all watch it, all the employees of the Johnson Space Center here at NASA where we work, and they showed the entrance to our space center in the movie. And in the movie version, it was the super futuristic. There were like fancy lights and signs. and if you knew the real government facility that we drive into every day, heavy on the cinder block situation, the entire theater laughed. Yes, at that part. So that was the unrealistic part. That's so good to know.

It's nice to know that it's just the movie optics of the building that really went awry. Yeah, I mean, exactly. It's, again, not glamorous. Yeah. All right. That does it for our speed of light round. One of my favorite parts of the summer is going down the shore, parking myself at the beach and staying out there for hours in the sun.

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We love that the Sienna can fit all six Kelsey family members at once. But my girl's favorite feature, that would be the screen in the back. And it's perfect to get a little peace and quiet going to the shore. But they think it only works on long car rides, and we're going to keep it that way. We have repeatedly watched Aquamarine over and over and over again. It's one of the only ones that I can consistently get all three girls to agree on. I also literally can't lie. I love the Sienna's features.

The vacuum? Well, that's because on long car rides, you know what you have? Snacks. And you know what you have on short car rides? Also snacks. And snacks come with crumbs. And that's why we love the vacuum. If you're looking not only for a great car to get you from point A to point B, but a car the entire family will love.

I highly recommend the Toyota Sienna and going for a test drive at your local Toyota dealership. You can learn more at Toyota.com slash Sienna. And remember, it's not the places we go, but the people we go with that matter. Now, something else that's extremely important to me and this podcast is women supporting women. And you're living that every single day. Each time you break a record or make history for women, are you able to grasp the same? significance of that? That is a big challenge for me. And I do consider it to be one of the biggest responsibilities that I have and privileges. I mean, what a privilege. Like, you've met your heroes.

I'm sure you've been a hero and an inspiration. And to imagine how you looked up to people and then try to translate other people's thoughts about you and that that might be how they're thinking is very, it's very hard to do. But I'll say it's actually the only way that I can start to understand it because I don't see myself that way. So I have to actually imagine how I saw my heroes. How did I feel the day I met Sally Ride? And to be honest, that has helped me so much because I feel like I can't be enough for

everyone. And when I remember meeting her specifically, I was one of like a long line of people. people shaking her hand and moving on, shaking your hand, moving on. And yet, I have the most crystal memory of her looking into my eyes when she shook my hand. And I realized, that's all I have to do. I just have to say with my eyes to every young person that I meet, I see you, I know what this means to you, and your dreams are valid. And that's all I have to do. And honestly, I do. And don't think about the records. All I think about them is I hope they're surpassed as soon as possible. I hope the superlatives are beat as soon as possible. I hope all of the onlys turn into

many's. But if I can just do that for every person like she did for me, that's what I'm trying to do. It's so great to hear, especially when you talk about like supporting the people around you, the way that you spoke about like your crew members, the people who are also training for missions, the people around you, your team members that might not have been on this specific mission with you, but that you train with on a regular basis. It's so special to hear the way you speak about them and the way you speak about your relationship with them because the idea of saying in response to do you understand the gravity of, pun intended, the gravity of what you are doing and how you are breaking barriers, it is to hear you say that you,

hope that one becomes many, to hope that people break that through that very quickly, that the quicker they do it, the more success you can sort of summarize it as, right? That it's more successful that way. That is so impressive, that that is such a cool thought process that you are thinking like rising tides, raise all ships in this specific as a whole, right? like as NASA as a whole, that if we can just continue to have more women, to have, and because you're saying that it's mission driven, they are going to be the most qualified people in those positions. Exactly. And as someone with four daughters and a podcast where we have a lot of parents listening,

how would you encourage us to get our girls interested in STEM fields? Well, I, you know, I am not a mom. I'm an ally. And I would say that talking, I've so many siblings with kids, so many friends with young kids. And I feel like the important thing is just seeing what they're into and pumping them up about that. And if there's a way to sort of bring in STEM, not as a way of saying this is what you should be doing, but just bringing it into their awareness by maybe questioning little things. maybe that's a sound that you hear when something happens. Maybe that's watching the water come out of the faucet and narrow into a smaller stream.

Just all these little examples of science, biology, nature, physics in our life. I would say just bring them up and get them to question things. Like, huh, why does it do that? I wonder. And maybe then they will start to bring that online in their own lives. and those little curiosities and not taking things for granted and sort of practicing that, that questioning, I think is something really neat that we can do with our young ones. Well, like I said earlier, you are helping to spark those conversations because in our own house,

we very much had the, no, you could also go to space. And it was a very exciting realization. Speaking of parents, though, you just referenced that you are an ally to moms, even though you don't personally have children. You said one thing I hear from a lot of my mom friends that I can relate to as an astronaut who lived on board the space station for almost 11 months is isolation. Can you share a little bit more about that? Yes, for sure.

That is something that I've thought a lot about, loneliness and isolation, and the sense that you're going through something where you feel invisible when you go maybe out into the world. No one knows what you just overcame in your own home trying to get. out the door even or what mess you just cleaned up before you have to turn the other way and suddenly try to present like everything's fine or just your day-to-day struggle like how tired you are and I think as an astronaut I was doing that thing where I felt like I couldn't talk to people about my day-to-day struggles like I wasn't trusting even my close friend group to be able to support me or understand or be interested in my day-to-day struggles.

And I realized at one point this was not sustainable, that I could not keep going through this alone and not feeling like I could talk to my friends about my job. And so I just tried it out once. I was like, man, it was such a rough week. I had to fit in flying the supersonic jet, and I got schooled doing my spacewalk training in the giant pool, the neutral buoyancy lab.

And they got it. Like, they understood. And they were right there for it. And they were listening. And it just reminds me of all the silent things that moms have to go through sometimes when we feel like the world isn't ready to hear what we're actually, what moms are going through. And it was just a little bit of an analogy.

I don't think what I do is nearly as hard as being a mom. But it was a reminder to me, maybe to be on the other side of that friendship, to like ask my mom friends how it was going and get specific. with them. So they knew that this was a space where they could talk about the struggles that maybe weren't necessarily feeling like they were okay to just bring up on the fly. And so I think that isolation can be a way that we connect. I think it's so special to, I think it's so special to have that level of awareness because even just you saying like that you don't think that what you do is as hard as what moms do is I think that even you feeling like you have to say that,

but knowing that like your friends didn't hesitate, that the moms in your life wouldn't hesitate to tell you things so that you felt like you could do the same in your, the challenges that you were having at work or feelings that you had about work, that it is really, like, it's just they're not necessary, like we don't have to compare the two, both are extremely, they're extremely difficult. And it's so amazing for you to see that in the women around you and your friends and family. And to be able to acknowledge that and then find common ground on it is like the most beautiful thing. And well done. That's very impressive. The honor is all mine. And I reach out to the moms. And I make sure they know that even though my day job is to go do,

you know, crazy astronaut things. I will babysit for you if you need it. I actually babysat recently for a good friend of mine going through a divorce at like 4.45 in the morning so she could go to the gym. And it was, it meant so much to me that she accepted that help and that she was like, you know what? Yeah. I know you're launching to the moon in a month. Please, please come over and build, you know, build forts with my four-year-old while I'm at the gym. I will, I will, I will let you do that. And that was the most connected I have felt in so long. It was, it was beautiful. Well, it's so special because in both situations, you're preparing to go to the moon. She's mothering a child. In both situations, life is still happening. Like the world is still spinning, right? So it just,

that's amazing. Um, yep. Since I have you, uh, next school year, I will have a first grader and a kindergartner. So the science projects are bound to pick up some steam. So I was, wondering if you could coach me up a little bit. If you were to come up with a science fair project for a younger kid, do you have any ideas that you could maybe recommend that I could keep in my back pocket for later? So good. By the way, I think this is the most unsung hero moment of parenting. When my friends tell me the science projects they did with their kids, I was like, I don't think I could do that. Like, how did you even come up with that idea? It's amazing. When of my friends just did this thing with, I live at the beach, like how waves can create energy

and I was blown away. So thinking about space things that are simple to grasp, something that comes to mind might be things like the speed of light and how there is a delay when you talk to people on the moon and maybe what that delay would be for if they were on Mars versus the moon. So that's kind of a simple one that can be fun. Another one could just be parts of a rocket, like how much, you know, how, what happens to the rocket after it goes into space and drops off the space capsule and just kind of the mechanics of that because even I fully didn't grasp like how that all happens. It's a very, it's a very wild thing when you find out how rocketry actually works. So looking into that could be fun. And then, you know, there's always the good old-fashioned planets. And

I will say, like, on this mission, when I was looking out and I would see Earth, it looked like it was in like a kid's book or something. It was just way out there, you know, blackness of space behind it, just like in all the books. And in my mind, I'm like, what, am I going to see Neptune out this window? Like, what is going on here? This planet's out there. And so, you know, that's always a good one. Like, what sports could you do on a given planet? Could you rock climb on Mars or, or, or Jupiter or not. So maybe these are very good suggestions. And honestly, I would just like to point out the lack of delay in your answer was wildly

impressive. I would have been sitting for a while with that one. Did you hear the delay talking about the wave thing? That was the buying time. Yes. I like it. It was very good. Now, last thing I have for you, Christina, we've been talking a little bit more, like I said,

about my daughters and us talking about your mission and your team's mission. We actually have a segment on here called Tiny Human Question of the Week, where I talk about real questions my kids have asked. Usually stuff I cannot answer. And we have had to go to search engines to figure out what the answer is. We did search where do butterflies live, because we did. we needed to know a little bit more about their migration. We did ask, what is time? There was a moment in time where I was asked, why is my butt so big? It's a whole thing. Yep. They humble you. But I thought it would actually be perfect to have you respond to some of the questions my girls asked me about space since I told them about you.

I have, I might need Google, but I am ready to attend. We can do that. Okay. How do you go potty in space? Oh, that's easy. Luckily, there, you know, obviously no gravity. The stuff does not go down into any kind of toilet like it needs to. So we create something so that it goes where it needs to with a little bit of suction, kind of like a light vacuum cleaner, not like a really high vacuum cleaner, but just a light vacuum cleaner. There's a funnel on the end of it.

So you just, you know, you go number one in the funnel. the same light section is kind of put into this a canister with a seat on it. Like you might think of like a camping toilet but with a little bit of suction. So, you know, there's some practice involved. But if you, you know, figure it out and you're careful, everything for number two

goes where it should as well. And actually, we also just spray like the number one out into space on this particular mission. On the space station, it gets recycled into your drinking water. that is something I will not be telling them because they will make that into a whole thing at the dinner table. You're right.

And everybody knows no potty talk at the dinner table. So I'm sorry, I will be keeping that to myself. But I will tell them the first part. So thank you for that. The other thing they wanted to know is did you see any shooting stars? Oh, amazing. We would have had to look back at Earth to see shooting stars. because the shooting part that you see is an actual meteor kind of burning up in the atmosphere.

So I think on this particular mission, we might have seen one or two at most because we had one instance where we were looking back at like a fully darkened earth. But for the most part, we were not looking back at Earth. And what it would look like if you can imagine like dark Earth would just be like a little white line, just shrew. just going across. I did see some on my first space mission when we were in the atmosphere of Earth or just above it. I also have to ask the follow-up question, which is, did you wish on it? Very important. Always. I saw one the other day. I saw one over the weekend and I wished on it for sure. Oh, good. Okay. They would feel very confused had you not taken advantage of that opportunity. Totally. Definitely. I mean, I've been wishing on stars since, like,

like five. So I'm not going to stop. And look at how far you've come with claims of no talent. Truth. Now, this last question is from specifically my three-year-old. What is it like living in outer space with three stinky boys? Okay. Yes. They were very considerate. So, yes. It wasn't, it was not so bad. It was not so. We all had to accept. each other's humanness in every way on this mission because we were like in one tiny room the whole time. Yeah. My, our three-year-old believes that girls smell like flowers and boys are stinky. Now, she lives with mostly girls and is only conditioned in that way because of my husband. So there's that. Amazing. But she did, she did want to know if the stinky boys what it was like

living with them. Yeah. I mean, in general, would I love to have had, girlfriend up there in addition sure but i couldn't ask more of my crewmates they were absolutely phenomenal and um they they they didn't stink too bad less stinky boys good uh that's it for tiny human questions thank you for that and um i think they're going to be very excited with your answers especially the wishing on a star that's important um i cannot thank you enough for coming on it has been you. We really wanted to make sure that we got you on here, that we were able to chat, not only about your incredible accomplishments, but obviously all things facing tiny questions. And most importantly, go birds. We wanted to make sure we were able to say that together.

I cannot thank you enough. Thank you. Thank you so, so much for doing this. It was such a pleasure. The pleasure's been mine. Thank you for having me. It's been a lot of fun. And that's it for another episode of Not Gonna Lie. You can find even more clips for my longer conversation with astronaut Christina on my YouTube channel on Moorship Monday. I'll be back in two weeks with a brand new summer kickoff solo episode. But make sure to tune into FAAFO this upcoming Tuesday and see if I fall into a water feature on the golf course or not. Follow us on social media at NGL with Kylie for clips throughout the week. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcast, Not Gonna Lie, as a Wave Original, brought to you by pull-ups.

Thanks again to the real ones for tuning in. Wave.