Today’s episode was peak Whateververse: warm, chaotic, political, emotional, and a bit all over the place
I opened the morning broadcasting from a Starbucks in Bellingham because the hotel I impulsively booked for my daughter’s college tour turned out to be — according to Lawrence — a sex motel (look, the sign DID say “vacancy.”) The entire lobby was the size of a biscuit, the waffle machine oozed batter like a crime scene, and my daughter was still asleep in the tiny room. So I hauled my ring light into Starbucks and set up camp in the corner. The barista didn’t even blink.
Lawrence, meanwhile, gave an emotional update about his mom’s health: she’ll likely undergo a mastectomy in early December. She’s still raking leaves and ordering Lawrence around with her typical mama bear pragmatism, but you could feel the weight of it. We held space — and then, in classic TDWS fashion, pivoted to hex codes and morning light like two dorks avoiding tears.
From there the show spiraled (beautifully) into my late-night experiment with
’s now-infamous prompt: ChatGPT, tell me my blind spots.And oh, it did.
Lawrence tried it live and it roasted him so hard he’s considered filing a workplace harassment claim against a language model:
“You treat every project like it’s on fire.”
“You mistake chaos for momentum.”
”You think you don’t belong at the table even when you’re running the table.”
YOU DON’T SAY.
It even nailed my tendency to confuse men’s oversharing for intimacy. Honestly? Rude.
And correct.
Then we shifted to our twin viral story moments:
Lawrence’s resurfaced TDWS epsiode with Marlon Weems about reparations
His post is blowing up weeks later because a Substack guy named Nathaniel wandered in to declare reparations “problematic” and Lawrence absolutely handed him his entire ass, politely and with citations. The chat was screaming. We all were.
We also talked about:
Twitter’s brief, glorious leak showing half of MAGA is bots in Nigeria and Russia
Universal Basic Income (your kids asking for “their UBI” monthly is iconic)
GenX healing generational trauma
Thanksgiving plans (including my Turkey Day Live show with
and ’s all-day Live marathon to ensure everyone has company this Thanksgiving )Lawrence’s mustache and the hazards it poses during certain gay activities
The “big dark” of Pacific Northwest winters
And Wilco/Billy Bragg’s “California Stars,” which started playing behind me mid-show like the universe was DJing our feelings.
It was raw, funny, deeply human, politically sharp, and held together by the kind of friendship that carries people through big darks of all kinds.
Thank you
, , , , , and many others for tuning in.We love you, mean it!!
