The Daily Whatever

What a blast we had, hosting the delightful Walter Rhein and nerding out about all things writing. I’m going to keep this one short and sweet so we can send the video live straight away. Have a listen to learn about our respective writing styles. The TL;DR is: * Walter favors a rapid-fire write and publish approach. * Dana favors a “stew for hours in memoir dust” approach. * Lawrence has a nonbina...

Thank you Karen Marie Shelton , techwriter35 , Sarah , Obladioblada , and many others for tuning into my live video with Dana DuBois ! Join us tomorrow for “Writers on Writing with Walter Rhein” for The Daily Whatever ! Get full access to The Daily Whatever Show at www.thedailywhatevershow.com/subscribe

First of all, CONGRATS to Canada and the Liberals and Mark Carney! The liberals will form a minority government (meaning they don’t outright have 172 seats to form a majority government; they’ll need a junior party to team up with.) AND, Pierre Poilievre has lost his seat. The power of Trump—to kill everything he touches, again! Brace yourselves, word on the street is that Carney has a bigger tari...

Today was a groggy Monday morning Live, but we still had a blast. Why were we groggy? Well, I am trying to adjust my circadian rhythms to adjust to this daily 7am podcast. Good thing I love it so much, it’s like a jolt of energy that sustains me through my day. Lawrence? He was up half the night battling with Descript, trying to make our pre-recorded podcast with Jonathan Small work. It appears De...

Figuring out job/work/career these days during the Great Career Meltdown feels a little like trying to find a clean bathroom at a music festival — chaotic, unpredictable, and occasionally miraculous. Gen X sits right in the middle of it all, caught between the Boomers' "stay at one job forever" mindset and the Millennials and Gen Z who basically invented side hustles as a lifestyle. Listen as Lawr...

Now this was a lively Live, wasn’t it? Lawrence Winnerman and I hosted Jonathan Small on the weekly GenXy recorded podcast (going live tomorrow), and we had so much fun, we decided to continue to conversation Live. We were joined by about 30 of our favorite Substack pals as we explored the quintessential GenX anthems. Some songs and artists we discussed: the Beastie Boys (“Fight for Your Right” ve...

Yesterday’s Fucked-up Friday podcast was a bit grim. So today we wanted to talk uplifting news—and Substack’s own Jennie Young and her Burned Haystack Dating Method delivered that with a massive #Bumblegate win. The Burned Haystack Dating Method (BHDM) is a feminist dating methodology that teaches women to recognize harmful rhetorical patterns —things like “ disciplinary/directive ,” “ I’m the pri...

Today was the debut of “Fucked-up Friday,” where we discuss the most fucked-up news of the week in friendly competition. We were joined by the incredible Walter Rhein for an engaging, earnest conversation about the reality that we’re facing down is ethnic cleansing—or more simply put, genocide— Walter’s suggestion as the most fucked-up news of the week. And really, all the fucked-up news really ro...

Thank you to everyone who tuned into for our debut The Daily Whatever live podcast, and especially our real-life pals Craig Weissman , Sunny Hong , and Diane Wilder as well as Medium friend Walter Rhein ! Today we discussed how suddenly, the news is like, paying attention to GenX? We’re not totally sure why. And sometimes, we hate it (hello, the whole “career meltdown” NYT story, bleh ). But some...

Huge thanks to everyone who tuned in to our short but sweet Live, including Bob Daniel , Kassandra Ignored 🤓 , and Grey Galaxie (over whom I had a ridiculous but sincere fanboi moment. LOL Sorry, Grey!) We kicked off talking about my desperate search for a remote job in the wilds of Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the piece of flash fiction I wrote yesterday for Earth Day, The Last Bloom . Please check...

Thank you Cat , NOT A FASCIST! , Stan Mroczek , Irish clover☘️ , Susan Genser , and many others for tuning into my live video with Cat , Susan Genser , and Frederic Poag ! We talked about damn near everything under the sun, from us both battling depression, to The Citizen’s Oath (https://thecitizensoath.org) to the nature of the fight ahead of us, to dating. Thanks to everyone who joined, and a hu...

A few weeks back, I noticed Facebook Dating launched a “Dating AI” bot. Fine. I know this is the future of online dating, so I decided to test it. If nothing else, I figured it would be fodder for a story, something like, “I tried out the new Facebook Dating AI bot so you don’t have to.” For a few weeks, it suggested profiles to me, all pretty innocuous stuff. Then today—as I strolled around lovel...

Hello friends! This is just a quick live to say hello from my hotel room in Galway, Ireland, where I’m lowkey jet-lagged and feeling super light be outside the United States this week. I also wanted to say a huge thank you to the thousands of you who’ve visited/read/restacked/commented on my silly Hello, I Have Amazing Boobs story. I’ll likely write or podcast about the responses I’ve gotten in mo...

Thank you P. J. Schuster , Daniel Williams , techwriter35 , Catherine Grassel , and many others for tuning into the genXy live video with Lawrence Winnerman , Dana DuBois , and Frederic Poag ! Y’all we had a rollicking conversation, and Frederic illuminated his thinking behind oaths in general, and what something like an oath from regular Americans could mean, about us, each other, and our commitm...

Here’s what you do: * Feel inspired, or get a challenge request from a friend! * Grab anything with a camera—your phone, computer, your iPad—whatever. * Start recording, and tell folks why you’re doing this, if you want to. * Recite the oath, or have someone prompt you! The Citizen’s Oath "I ______name________ do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the Uni...

Anyone go to one of the thousands of April 5th “Hands Off” protests yesterday? Lawrence attended in Fort Wayne, Indiana—and of course, we had to talk about it. We discuss Lawrence’s inspiring experiences at the protest, our disappointment in the lackluster pre- and post-event mainstream news coverage, and the overall impact. Early reports indicate thousands of protests around the US and the world,...

Thanks to everyone who joined me for this vent! Man, I’m fired up. China struck back last night in our new Forever Trade War ™, and they weren’t coming to play. Not only did they reflect the 34% across-the-board tariff, but they also got SMART and targeted the heart of US tech, manufacturing, and agriculture. Goldman Sachs upgrades recession risk from 20 to 35% . JP Morgan thinks the chance is clo...

Y’all! We just had the best time going Live! Thank you Earl Brownlee , Lynn , Noel , and many others for tuning into my live video with Dana DuBois and Frederic Poag ! We talked about—well, what didn’t we talk about: the economy, the history of migration in the USA, Frederic’s colorful past, tariffs are taxes y’all!, the onsetting brain drain for the US in the face of a crashing economy, and ever...

Steven Kurutz ’s March 28, 2025 article in The New York Times, “ The GenX Career Meltdown ” is so on-topic and on-brand for genXy that we couldn’t let it go by without commentary. To say that it inspired a wide range of feelings in us would be…accurate. Then our podcasting tool told us we were cut off for the month, so we decided to try our weekly podcast Live. And it was fun . When GenXers face a...

Greetings, genXy peeps! Spring has sprung, and we’re back with another episode in which—strangely, in the midst of all the awful news—we’re seeing signs of hope. Firstly, Dana will be hosting a Masterclass with the amazing Kristina God . Are you an experienced Medium writer who’s trying to find their way in the wild world of Substack? Hello, you’re not alone! Please join us on April 2nd at 11am PT...

This week we have crazy, good fun talking about the stories that got us each started down our writing paths, and we ask the inherently unanswerable question of: “ What is the single definitive song of Generation X ?” Dana interviews Lawrence about his debut science fiction short story, “ I Love You, Dieter Murphy ”. We laugh, we cry, we cry laughing, and Peter Murphy makes an unexpected nominal ap...

Hubris will be the thing that kills our American Democracy. Other people wiser than me have articulated this concept, but I don’t think we’ve had a better example of how pride and inflated self-importance are destroying our ability to respond to the unprecedented times we live in. Chuck Schumer is so convinced that only he can lead the Senate Democrats that we are now beholden to him and dying bec...

I am so livid that my Bell’s palsy eye is all squinty. Fuck you, Chuck. And fuck all the Democrats who voted with, and all the Democrats who are INCAPABLE of rising to meet this moment. We need a new PARTY and I am not even kidding. Get full access to The Daily Whatever Show at www.thedailywhatevershow.com/subscribe

Dana DuBois and Lawrence Winnerman talk about who they are, how they know each other, what “genXy” means, and what to expect from the show (and as we learn how to use our cool, new podcast tool.) Get full access to The Daily Whatever Show at www.thedailywhatevershow.com/subscribe