We Don’t Know w/ Sylvia

Our entire unedited conversation in Zoomland, for better or for worse. You're welcome. This week, I finally deliver on my promise to bring you a guest—and not just any guest. Amy Landecker is a force: actor, writer, director, and fierce advocate for the queer community and more. You’ve seen her in Transparent , Your Honor , and now as the writer/director/star of her feature debut For Worse (pr...

If you listen to only one episode, let it be this one. This conversation is the spine of the podcast—the one that retroactively reframes the entire season. Episode 10 is all about how we can unf*ck ourselves by uniting the personal and the political, the internal and the external, the somatic and the systemic. If you’ve been swimming in questions, navigating burnout, or feeling the ache of trying...

The vibe is: We’re not okay. But we’re not alone. And we’re not powerless. This week’s unfiltered dispatch comes to you from the horizontal position in my bed, right before I passed out for a much-needed nap. We go from despair to devotion—without ever bypassing reality. I get into the state of the world—climate collapse, creeping fascism, corporate rot—and why staying tender, politicized, and pre...

In this episode, I read and discuss with reverence the introduction from adrienne maree brown’s (she/they) book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. All credit for the words I read goes to adrienne maree brown. I’m sharing these excerpts for commentary and educational purposes, as a way of unpacking and engaging with her ideas. Side note: Dear adrienne (and/or her publishers), if for s...

Excavating The Porous Boundaries Between Art and Love. And How Aliveness is a Form of Resistance. This week, I take a walk through Eagle Rock, California, and reflect on what’s been surfacing—grief, impermanence, desire, and the wild fucking ride of trying to stay present when everything’s changing. I read a poem by the late queer poet and kindred Andrea Gibson, and share the ache of not just thei...

In this week’s episode, I sit down with my 83-year-old mom, Martha (who I bribed with a brownie) for a wide-ranging conversation that spans queerness, Catholicism, grid logic, Palestine, and Pac-Man. Well… this turned out to be more intense than I anticipated... what starts as a cozy chat between mother and daughter unspools into a much deeper exploration on how we inherit beliefs about gender, fa...

Burned out on my own obsession—but still showed up to talk ocean logic, grid logic, and why Alan Watts knows what the f*ck is up. My mind is toast after a week of spiraling (lovingly) on ocean and grid logic—mentally, emotionally, and in my Substack—while editing several projects. I basically burned out on my own obsession (very classic of me), and now I’m over it… for the moment 😅 But I practice...

Why owning your erotic power is actually one of the most radical and deeply important things you can do—for yourself and the world. After Dead Dad Week, I figured we could all use a palate cleanser—so Episode 4 is a sonic diary/love letter to Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power by Audre Lorde—poet, prophet, and a gift to this wild, unruly world. We read through her iconic 5-page (I think I acc...

Cheers to Death, Destruction, and the Gifts Hiding in Our Shady Shadow Shit. Episode 03 was recorded here in L.A. during what I call Dead Dad Week — Father’s Day, my dad’s birthday, and the anniversary of his death all rolled into one. I talk about what it means to feel my dad visit — in a real-ass, unmasked, sixth-sense kind of way (which, by the way, is a sense I believe we all have, if we nouri...

Fuck the buzzwords—in this second episode I talk about what I think presence actually costs, and what it can give, plus more... Episode 02 of this unhinged gospel to the unknown was recorded in the high desert of Arizona . It builds on last week’s intro—laying more foundation for the feral playground we’re creating here: one that embraces uncertainty, cultivates solidarity, and challenges the stat...

Episode 1: An introduction to what this unhinged gospel to the unknown will attempt to explore—and a little about your host, Sylvia Saether (queer, feral, tender, and definitely not an expert). This space is messy. It’s unscripted. It’s full of questions and cussing. Consider yourself warned. Some rules of engagement: ​ I’m not a therapist, coach, or authority on anything. ​ If you’re struggling,...