Hi, everyone. Welcome to GenXE. I'm Dana Dubois. I'm Lauren Swinerman.
And it is fabulous to be here as always. This is our second time recording the show today. We already recorded like literally the most brilliant podcast that ever was. It was perfection.
It was perfection. Like it would have completely dismantled the broligarchy. It would have returned order to the world, to the U.S. It would have probably solved global warming.
I mean, the icebergs would have come back. Yeah, I mean, there was that moment I came up with the Middle East peace plan that, you know, would have fixed everything, but I can't remember what it was. No, it wasn't even scripted. It wasn't even scripted, Lauren.
Yeah, just brilliant off the top of my head. Sorry, world. And sorry, us, because now here we are re-recording all of it, but it's all good. We have some exciting news to share at the top of this podcast.
My new favorite number is 97, Laurence. Do you know why? Taylor Swift doesn't have anything to do with Taylor Swift. Not to my knowledge.
This is not an Easter egg. But GenXE is at 97 subscribers. As of this recording, we have almost hit our first but not final milestone of 100 subscribers. We are especially excited because we have three paid subscribers, which is amazing.
Amazing. Thank you. Special thanks to Shannon, to Jane, and to Stuart. You have no idea how good it feels to have your support in that way.
It is amazing. It is amazing to have you all here, and we would love to get to that 100 number. So, you know, tell all your friends, tell them to sign up. It comes with a free set of Ginsu knives.
Right. It also comes with a free frugert. That's good. The frugert is cursed.
That's bad. But the frugert comes with free toppings. Oh, and that's good. The toppings contain potassium benzoate.
That's bad. Can I go home now? All right. We did it.
We did it. A Simpsons reference that nobody but us will get. So, thank you very much. Sound off in the comments if you remember our tariff race Simpsons reference.
I do also, in addition to the excitement of our 97, I have other exciting news, Laurence. Yes, tell people about your upcoming thing. I am going to be co-hosting a training with Christina Godd. Ooh, that's awesome.
Christina Godd, that's the class that you took a couple weeks ago, right? It is. The online writing club. Yeah.
Nice. Yes. Christina is a fantastic marketer. She has deep experience in both Medium and Substack.
And after taking this class with her, we were talking and kind of ruminating on the idea that it is hard to be new. And it is, right? We've talked about this. Well, yeah.
I'm definitely finding it hard to be new on Substack. Well, and Medium. Yes. On Medium, I have been there almost two years.
I have a community. And on Substack, it's hard to be new. Substack has so many robust tools. And without having the community that I've had on Medium, it is really, you know, hard to figure out how to get in and get going.
And so we are going to be offering a training together. How long did you take the training? Oh, yes. You are a required attendee, Lawrence.
Oh, excellent. That's great. You're not actually allowed to say no. But this one is, I'd like to think particularly for folks like me who are coming from Medium to Substack, but it's also for people who maybe are on Substack and want to learn how to ramp up on Medium.
Christina and I share the philosophy that it is not Medium or Substack. It is Medium and Substack. Yeah. Well, that's cool.
And I remember that you were excited about the people that you met in her class last time. And so hopefully we will meet lots of new exciting people in this class. It would be great. Yeah.
To feel like we have more of a network here at Substack. Because really, no matter how good you are as a writer, if you don't find your community, then you're kind of writing to a voider. It feels that way, right? So I would love to have you all there.
The link to register for the Zoom is in the comments of the article that contains this podcast. And it will be on April 2nd at 11 a.m. Pacific time. So 2 p.m.
your time, Lawrence, and the rest of you around the world, you can calculate back on that. One thing I will say, too, is Christina is just exuberant. She is inspiring as an educator and leader. Her enthusiasm is infectious.
She has so much knowledge of both platforms. She's so eager to share it. So I hope you'll join us. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
That is great news. Super exciting. And I will absolutely be there. Sound off in the comments if you're planning to be there as well so we get a heads up on that.
Right. So we can buy an appetizer tray or something. I need to know how much cheese and crackers we need. Maybe let me know if you're gluten-free.
Like I am. All the cheese. There's no such thing as too much cheese. Yes.
Agreed. As much as it hates me. I love it. Lawrence, I want to talk about one of the two stories that you posted to GenXC this week because it is on a subject near and dear to my heart, which is directly, it's trans rights.
As someone who's running a publication about parenting trans and non-binary kids, obviously that's there. But more deeply, it's just on the idea of what happens to the most marginalized of us impacts all of us. Right? Yeah.
Can you share about your story? Yeah. It was inspired because this past week I got a poll, an online poll through my phone. And I figured I'd answer it to see kind of what they were talking about.
I thought it was maybe a push poll for the Democrats. Maybe it's a push poll for the Republicans. A push poll is when they're kind of giving you pieces of information to try to change your mind and then keep re-asking you, you know, does this make you support this more or less? And it was about trans issues.
And the way that they were running things was just so bad. It was like, you know, do you think it's right that trans people can use private health care or federally funded? It was just, no. Like, I just, no.
It was the wrong frame for everything. Like, we just can't leave anybody behind. Right. Yeah.
Quivocating is not where we need to be right now. It reminded me of, it reminded me of this thing that I learned actually with Peter Murphy, who you've heard me talk about before. He was really supportive of Jesse Jackson, Reverend Jesse Jackson, when he ran for president in 1984 and 1988. And Jesse Jackson talked about the Rainbow Coalition, the idea that, you know, it was the gay community, the lesbian community, the, you know, farmers and machinists, and the black community, the Latino community, everybody, you know, Native Americans, Asian folks, just all the people basically working together in coalition.
And it upsets me that, you know, we're even having conversations about leaving people behind. So it resonated with me. It's like I commented on your story on Substack, first they came for the trans folks, dot, dot, dot. Like, we all know that poem, and we know where it ends.
And we don't want to be reciting that poem again. This is a history-runnings moment, you know. In the 20s and 30s, Jews worldwide were, you know, persecuted and disliked, and nobody wanted them in their country. And, you know, this time they're coming for our most marginalized community in the United States, which is trans folks.
It doesn't mean that they're not going to come for you and me next. It certainly doesn't. And what I really loved was what you, when you posted about this on Facebook, and hold on, interstitial comment, because this is how I roll. This is all within for the Caesar M-dashes right now.
Lawrence took down his Facebook and Instagram after the election, because fuck Mark Zuckerberg! Mark Zuckerberg. But didn't actually kill the accounts, and so when we launched GeneXE, he came back. Hey, I'm here again to be able to post about this publication.
Yes, I believe I said, if Mark Zuckerberg can commodify people for money, then so can I. Well said. And he does this, and suddenly, like, flies to the light, Lawrence is just inundated with friend requests from all of these very thirsty, bare men, right? I mean, which, cool, I guess, but that's not why I'm on Facebook.
There are other apps for that. So, anyhow, did you say, what, you have like a thousand new followers or something? Yeah, I've got about a thousand new followers on Facebook, and they're all gay dudes. Yeah.
So Lawrence posts about this story, and then he posted again really quickly, because nobody hardly commented on your first story. I mean, like, I'm going to end my parenthetical here, actually, ended maybe a clause ago. You take the lead here. What happened when you, how did you feel when you posted the story to these flocks of new gay male friends, and it was almost crickets?
Well, you just told the whole story, haven't you? You haven't done anything for me. How did you feel, though? I was sad.
Yeah, so I posted the story on Facebook, and, you know, I, not immediately, it was a day, basically a half a day, something like that. I came back, and I thought, you know, I have this audience, maybe, and other people, I hope, feel like me. Other, I hope other men in the gay community feel like we can't abandon our trans siblings, that, you know, we are all stronger together, and, like, three people had replied in total, and I, you know, don't know everybody's sexuality, but I was disappointed, to say the least, that there were more people kind of fist-pumping and saying, you know, yeah, I really should have said fist-pumping there. No, you're probably not, but carry on.
Yeah. Anyway, yeah, I was sad that there were more people who were kind of jumping in and commenting enthusiastically, and so I kind of read people for filth a little bit, and I said, you know, it's disgusting that there are a thousand gay dudes who are following me who, you know, have potentially seen this post, and nobody comments, you know. I think one of the things I have identified that is maybe a weakness to be worked upon in the gay community is this sense that, you know, when gay men are feeling comfortable and have enough and, you know, achieve marriage equality, that there's not really any reaching back to help others who might still be struggling. It's like they pull the ladder up after them.
Yeah, 100%, Lawrence, and in talking about this, it's reminding me of something I heard during the election cycle when folks were saying how the Latino vote was breaking heavily in the wrong direction. I don't like to say his name, and I was like, well, how can that be? He said the most horrific things about that community, and what I was told, you know, as an outsider, was the community is not just one singular community, but folks who are from different places or who arrive at different times identify very differently than others, and it seemed like there was a sense of, like, I got here the right way, or I got here, and I'm here, and I'm safe, and you all aren't, and that lifeboat phenomenon of, like, there are only so many in the lifeboat, and if I try to pull you up, it's going to sink us all. Do you feel like there's an element of that in the LGBTQ, or specifically in the gay population, when you were speaking of this?
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, I think most of the people who are following me on Facebook are probably of my generation. You know, they're probably Gen X, and, you know, may feel like, oh, hey, like, we struggled when we were young, and now we have marriage, we have lives, we've built lives, we're retiring or getting ready to retire, and, like, it's okay to tune out, maybe, and not want to stand up, and I just think that's kind of reprehensible. The only way that we're going to get through this time in American history is by all of us standing up together, and I just think it's kind of gross that people would look at our trans siblings and think that that is a community that, you know, we don't have to worry about, but they just kind of pry the T off of the end of the LGBT and give up on that community, so you mentioned that.
Right, it's such a false illusion of safety to think that anyone is safe, right? First they came for the trans people, Lawrence? Yeah, well, not this time. Yes, they're coming, and, yeah, to think that gay people are safe, to think that Jewish people like us are safe, to think that women are safe is, I get a false sense of security.
Black people, Latino people, nobody is safe. This is absolutely fascism on the march, and all of us need to link arms and oppose it together. Right, okay. Well, Lawrence, in spite of the frustrations with your thirsty bears, I think each week has kind of a flavor, and it either veers hopey or it veers doomy, and I'm feeling like...
Doom! Doom! Oh, no, oh, oh, were you going to say hope? Okay, no, I want to hear your thing.
I feel like a slice of hope. There's three things that, well, there are more than three, I'm just in general seeing some hopeful news, but the first one that gave me hope is the story about Elon Musk's daughter, Vivian, who is trans, and I can't fathom the weight that this very young woman, I think she's 20, is carrying, not only having to come out and be trans herself, and knowing her father vehemently disapproves, but also knowing that because of that disapproval, that's why a lot of this is happening, right? Like, she has to know that she's carrying that weight, but this week, she is on the cover of Teen Vogue, and I've seen her all over Instagram doing these silly lip syncs and dances and just looking fabulous and gorgeous, and she said something really funny, like, I'm paraphrasing her, but I want to beat Kendall Jenner as the top nepo baby model, and I just have... Goals.
Yeah, goals to beat those people. We should all be as brash and in the camera and unabashed as Vivian is. That was my first kind of small moment of, like, yes, hope. The much bigger story this week, though, Lawrence, we all know what this is, right?
Yeah, it's absolutely AOC and Bernie and Tim Walz getting out there and actually going to red districts or to places where the battle is often contested, so 34,000 people in Denver, 23,000 people in Tucson, Arizona, 11,000 people in Tempe, Arizona. Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing, and, you know, we need leadership. I think one of the things that this shows us is Americans are dying for somebody to stand up and just call us fake a spade and actually point us in a direction.
Yes, we want fighters, like, or desperately need a fighter, so it's been so heartening to see... That's true. Yeah, Carolyn Beckia, I hope I've pronounced your name right, you're one of my favorite writers, wrote this week that there have been over 12,000 protests all, you know, dispersed around the country, and that's so heartening. Oh, hey, that reminds me.
Oh? That website, protest.photos, I don't know who's doing this. Oh, yes, yes. The website actually launched, and they've already got a couple hundred photos, I think, up there, and it's absolutely amazing to see people across the country out and protesting in a place where everyone can see it, where the media isn't going to censor away from us.
Oh, my God, I love it. And that's just protest.photos? It is. Okay, love that.
The third thing that is making me feel... Which is a good segue, because a lot of these protest photos are at... Tesla dealerships? That's right.
I love that we are hitting the bologarchy in their wallet, or at least the main bologarchy in his wallet, and glue, Lawrence. Glue. Like, the person who is pulling apart the nuts and bolts of our country used glue to try to glue the trucks together. Did you have to recall every single cyber truck on the road outside for you?
I know. And, you know, I realized in thinking about the story, Lawrence, that I wrote a story, remember we went to go see the magnetic fields last year in San Francisco? It was awesome. That was late April, and I ended up with a whole day to myself on the final Sunday, because you flew out first thing in the morning, and I flew out late at night.
And I spent that day wandering San Francisco, and it ended up being this meandering, beautiful story about how sometimes you need to just have nothing planned to find magic in a day and to get that creative spark back, because I had been feeling like it had dimmed a bit. But in the course of writing the story and deandering all, I encountered my first cyber truck. And I had no idea what it was. I'd never heard of them.
I don't follow cars. And I talked, I... You worked with it. I did not.
I just posted the story to Substack. It was on Medium. Never really found its audience on Medium, but I feel like 10 extras on Substack are going to get this one, because the unifying thread that ties an art of art together is hearing Tom's Diner in a cafe in a diner toward the end, and realizing that just as in that song, she's sort of documenting... them mundane happenings all around her but really it's all about that last line i am thinking of your voice right she's just taking it all in but really she's sitting with how she's feeling about whoever the person is who has this voice for me it was describing all of the mundane but it's really about a creative rewagening but right there in the middle of that story i'm like that is the stupidest fucking looking vehicle i've ever seen in my life of course it's a tesla how does this happen it was only 10 months ago lawrence like so much has changed in 10 months but my sentiment that song when you think about it really is about late-stage capitalism and rising clashes in the world you know that was who's in this whole thing are you making no of course lawrence there are connections i'm weaving my narrative arc together don't don't you dare call it his weave it is my creative process and i will not have you or tell me about this before maybe on the first recording of this podcast it was brilliant it would have solved all those problems but at any rate i am thrilled to see that um the stocks are plummeting the things are flying off the cars are getting recalled and you know i'm no economist but from what i understand he has leveraged the value of the tesla stock to quiet and run twitter and if one falls the house cards tumble and i would have a big sad right wouldn't that just be lovely a good piece of real greek tragedy where hubris leads to a giant fall you did a very nice yourself about how hubris is destroyed our democracy well like that i'm doing the weave where i bring the things back together again the verb 12 which was a really good verb right like you're throwing down your well it was a fine it was and so now i don't i guess he's taking weave too a noun and a verb jesus christ anyhow those are the things that are giving me hope and before we go lawrence i did want to read one other really cool thing i need to open my phone to read it which is we got feedback from a listener and specifically you did i'm gonna read it this is from someone i know hi kim and she wrote and said by the way i'm listening to your podcast with lawrence and i love it exclamation point and lawrence has the best voice oh my god i could literally listen to him all day i don't know how to do asmr isn't it just whispering and scratching your nails on things yes but you have to sound more relaxing than that so just think think about hypnosis and meditation and now try is this relaxed are you relaxed now okay fine hello i really appreciate you listening and his voices we love you thank you for that very nice feedback we love you all 97 subscribers let's get to 100 yes yes beyond 100 and beyond absolutely calendar april 2nd check for the link in the in the story that this podcast is associated with find all the links because all the stories we're talking about will be in here and is this all i'm betting if i know you you've got some cat on it somewhere that you have to go clean up but you know what else i have lawrence while we were talking i just got groceries delivered a heart full of love i do a heart full of love for all of you but i also have about eight bags of groceries sitting right there full of perishable things to put away before my child returns in approximately seven minutes well actually it's not dependent on it we have to be done before she returns but it would be nice to get the groceries away too it's always something always something yes i hate her i mean i love her better i hate her yeah well and on that note of severe internal conflict we would like to say goodbye to everybody in this therapy appointment is next i wish i wish you are my therapy appointments oh oh so sweet all right well until next week i've got everything crossed please record please love you mean it bye love you mean it bye