Today’s Fucked-Up Friday episode delivered exactly the blend of outrage, catharsis, and chaotic laughter the title promises — thanks in huge part to our guest, writer and community-builder
, who jumped in last-minute and absolutely owned the show from the opening seconds.We kicked things off with Walter’s daughter’s adorable caricatures of us — including Lawrence’s now-iconic “eye smile,” which Walter insists cannot be faked. Then we slid straight into Substack shop talk: authenticity, accessibility, creators supporting creators, and why the mainstream media ecosystem is allergic to lifting up new voices. Walter, ever the connector, named half the people he thinks we should bring on next — and he’s not wrong.
From there we swerved into the week’s political hellscape. Trump calling for the killing of members of Congress. Senators begging the military not to obey unlawful orders. The absolute collapse of civics education. Conservative political violence. Death threats against Jasmine Crockett — all of it. And Walter, with his trademark clarity, said the thing that dropped the air out of the room:
“They’re wasting time so evil people can rape kids.”
You could feel the collective gasp in the chat.
Then came the hard pivot that defines Fucked-Up Friday: the Epstein lemon-penis story. Yes, the New York Post’s report that Jeffrey Epstein had a “tiny, extremely deformed penis shaped like a lemon” became a full ten-minute detour into anatomy, patriarchy, sexual insecurity, carrots, mushrooms, Peyronie’s-disease commercials, and why men need therapy with their own genitals.
But woven through the chaos was something else: community. People in the chat sharing their outrage, their humor, their exhaustion, their joy. Melissa heading to D.C. to report back. @Lefty declaring Thanksgiving a safe space for loudly yelling “vagina” and “penis” on principle. The Dropkick Murphys apparently playing at the rally. Kira the dog barking in solidarity.
And the overarching theme kept circling back:
We are building something the establishment won’t. We talk to each other. We lift each other. We don’t gatekeep.
As Walter put it: “Had Substack not existed, I don’t know where I’d be. Probably in a padded cell.”
Thank you
, , , , , and many others for tuning in. We love you all, mean it!
