The Daily Whatever

I was delighted to welcome Walter Rhein and Nick Paro to The Daily Whatever this morning as the incomparable Dana DuBois continues her penguin-rescuing mission on the Western Antarctic Peninsula (WAP (What, you didn’t think it could mean two things?)) We kicked off the show with a show of love for our dear friend Füsun Aydın . Please, send her some love and show you care by signing up for her news...

Y’all! How lucky am I?! While Dana DuBois is away on another Top Secret mission hunting Nazis, I had the incredible, delightful Cat and Soso join me for today’s The Daily Whatever . Cat and Soso host their own show, called Connections with Cat and Soso , and it’s a DELIGHT. Check it out: Ostensibly, our topic was pets and support animals, and, indeed, for a good five minutes, we talked mostly abou...

What conversation about the way men treat women in our society wouldn’t be complete without a living example in real-time? Dana DuBois featured one of her most compelling—and popular—recent pieces about how grown men are treating her teenage daughter, only to have the Chat invaded by an asshole who has been stalking women in our community. After re-blocking the schmuck, we had a chance to dive dee...

Happy Monday! Today Lawrence Winnerman shared the latest chapters from his novel, The Shattered World Series . Or more accurately: we explored Chapter 2: Jake. And Lawrence read it aloud, and we all reverted to small children, utterly rapt by storytelling because his voice is so meliflous and the story is so compelling. Here’s the chapter. But definitely listen to the podcast because it’s soooo go...

It’s not easy to arrive anywhere in formalwear by 9am. But let this be known about Lawrence Winnerman and me: We don’t shy away from hard things. Including ties and sequin on a Saturday morning. A couple weeks back, we ask the “Whatevers”—our amazing Live audience members—what we should do to celebrate reaching milestones in our Summer Pledge Drive . The first suggestion was that we should show up...

Join us at noon ET/9am PT for a very formal The Daily Whatever, where Lawrence Winnerman and I will celebrate 40 paid subscribers to GenXy ! We’ll be joined by my bestie Sunny Hong , who was number 40. There may be champagne. There will most def be sequin, Hope to see you there! Get full access to The Daily Whatever Show at www.thedailywhatevershow.com/subscribe

TGIF! The great thing about Fridays is that here at The Daily Whatever , we use it as a time to process how unbelievably shitty our descent into authoritarianism has become. It’s a celebration of the worst of the worst news. Welcome to Fucked-Up Friday! Dana DuBois and I were thrilled to welcome Nick Paro to the show, and get to know him as a community member (and a poet!) Nick shared his Kum ‘n’...

The Opinionated Ogre stopped by The Daily Whatever this morning to chat with us about antisemitism, and y’all! It was a convo for the ages. Shockingly, Ogre has opinions about this topic, and we got an earful— in a good way ! ( Note : we started the hour with an update on our Summer Pledge Drive*, wherein we cheered that we hit 40 paid subscribers! Thank you! Come join us on Saturday, when we’ll b...

One of the things I have always loved about Dana DuBois , my friend, Anam Cara , and co-founder of GenXy is her love for music — her deep and abiding passion for it —and her ability to use music to build community. This passion for music is innate for Dana, something she remembers from her earliest years. In the early 2000s, Dana co-founded Three Imaginary Girls , a Seattle indie-pop review site t...

Greetings, Whatevers—and a happy Twat-tastic Tuesday* to all who celebrate! Today we welcomed author Diane Geurts to The Daily Whatever, to talk about her newly published novel, Still the Millers . We chatted about all the things: self- versus trad-publishing, inspiration and muses, horses and meth labs, and most of all, Diane’s sage advice for all of us multi-hyphenate busy writer Join utypes: wr...

Frederic Poag is one of the best humans we’ve had the pleasure to meet on Substack. And for good reason. Frederic has wise words about this political moment in time. He’s also a staunch feminist and ally, using his substantial online blast radius to champion for women and marginalized groups. Simply stated: Frederic is awesome. So when we saw him getting grief for a Note he posted about asking a w...

On Saturday’s show, we spoke about writing, worldbuilding, vexillology and focused on the latest chapter from my serialized novel, Light Shines Through. I read from the chapter, and was truly flattered by the great feedback. Check it out here: Thank you Beth Cruz , Brandon Ellrich , Callie🇺🇦🇨🇦🇬🇱🇲🇽 , Cheryl Chevalier , Dana DuBois , Debra Groves Harman , Diane Geurts , Daniel Paden , Elaine the Mea...

Hello hello, Whatevers! This week in news—like every single week living under this regime—has been fucked up. The deadly July 4th floods in Kerr County, Texas made this week particularly bleak. As of this writing, 129 have died, with 170 people still unaccounted for. It’s extra fucked-up , as we know natural disasters like this are becoming more common due to climate change, and that we’re living...

Sometimes you don’t realize how a song from childhood resonates until someone points it out years later. Joe Guay joined Dana DuBois and me this morning on The Daily Whatever to talk about the burden of surnames, the rise of AI, and the power of “ The Rainbow Connection ” from The Muppet Movie . We recently published Joe’s story about his connection to the song: As usual, the chat was off the hook...

Thank you Robin Wilding , Polly Walker Blakemore , thepoetmiranda , Ashley Schmitt , John Pearce , and many others for tuning into my live video with Walter Rhein ! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to The Daily Whatever Show at www.thedailywhatevershow.com/subscribe

Whenever Frederic Poag invites you to join his Lives, you join his Lives! This one was SUCH a blast. I don’t join till well into the episode, but I’m certain everything Frederic says it’s worth a listen. Enjoy! Thank you Lisa , Nick P , Jeanne Elbe , Soso , John saxon , and many others for tuning into my live video with Frederic Poag ! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to...

Today I intended to dedicate the hour to talking GenX gay anthems with Brandon Ellrich . Then last night, Untrickled by Michelle Teheux brought a story by MAGA incel Rohan Ghostwind to my attention. In it, he denigrates a cluster of women writers on Substack as “ degenerates ” and provides screenshot after screenshot to substantiate his claim that we made him say “what the fuck.” I am featured as...

Poor Lawrence Winnerman ! He made it home from Seattle safe and sound—but sadly, with a stomach flu*. So today, I had to host it alone. But thankfully I had two amazing guests: first the incomparable Füsun Aydın shared how her brother’s wedding went, when she reunited with the family she hadn’t seen in 15 years, since she came out as trans. (Spoiler alert: it went really well, other than being mos...

Thank you Polly Walker Blakemore , The Bathrobe Guy 👘 , Nick P , Steve Uppendahl , Noble Blend , and many others for tuning into my live video with Melissa Corrigan, she/her and Dana DuBois ! Join me for my next live video in the app. Get full access to The Daily Whatever Show at www.thedailywhatevershow.com/subscribe

We had the best time chatting with our college roommate Lisa today! Thank you, Chat, for being amazing as always! We can’t wait to see you tomorrow! Thank you Beth Cruz , BiffBiff , Bryan Hagerla , Brandon Ellrich , Carol Helbing , Cat , OldHenCharlie , Dana DuBois , Eileen Dougharty , Elaine the Mean Old Feminist , Füsun Aydın , Jeanne Elbe , JOHN ONEIL , John Pearce , Janet Scott , Karen Marie S...

Hello, Whatevers! Today Lawrence Winnerman and I dove into the news, and in typical fashion, our conversation wandered to more philosophical hot takes as we pondered the Overton Window and its steady slide into fascism. But one news story in particular has stuck with me. And that’s a story about British grime-punk band Bob Vylan. At the Glastonbury Music Festival this weekend, the duo caused a sti...

There are days that we speak eloquently about many things, and days like today where nothing seems to go quite right. Thanks for putting up with the craziness today, friends! We appreciate you, and always look forward to having a conversation with you—even when everything seems to be going wrong. Thank you Char Sundust , Peter William Murphy , Margaret Williams, MS, ACC , Cat , John Pearce , and m...

It’s so good to be home! I returned to Seattle late Saturday night, to the best treat ever—Lawrence is in Seattle! Yesterday we celebrated our reunion by purchasing a shit-ton of olives and devouring them Live, alongside a bottle of delicious pale French rose. The resulting “ Olivepolooza ” was an outrageously delicious good time. We can’t believe Ben Ulansey and Brandon Ellrich haven’t weighed in...

We had the best time eating FIVE types of olives and drinking rosé, y’all! Take a gander as we ranked Collossal Greek olives, Turkish Grilled olives, Castelvetrano olives, Morroccan Dry Cured olives, and Pepper Stuffed Green olives. Thank you tecolote42 , Rachel Hendricks , The One Minute Daily Boost , Karen Marie Shelton , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live vi...

Sorry for the short wrapup, but I’m not even sure I could capture the full range of our convo. Huge thanks and love to Walter Rhein and Wendy🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈🌈 who were absolutely incredible on today’s show. We’re back on Monday, June 30th! Dana DuBois will be home, and I’ll get my first taste of a 7am broadcast time. Yikes! Our theme will be Reunited, and it Feels So Good. Thank you Polly Walker Blakem...