Today’s show was a rollercoaster with extra loop-de-loops. We started with the kind of news that makes you spit out your coffee: Karen Attiah—yes, that Karen Attiah, award-winning former Washington Post editor, global opinion founder, Jamal Khashoggi’s editor, social justice badass, and all-around force of nature—is coming on the show Friday. Dana shot her shot, slid into her DMs, and boom, we booked one of the biggest voices in modern journalism. Sometimes audacity pays off. (Take note, friends: fortune favors the bold… or at least the cheeky.)
Karen’s recent résumé is equal parts inspiring and infuriating: fired from WaPo, then booted from Columbia before her class even started—so she built her own “Resistance Summer School,” which immediately sold out. Thousands of people are on the waitlist. She’s out here turning setbacks into movements while most of us are still trying to remember where we left our coffee mug. We are not worthy, but we are thrilled.
Of course, that means “Fucked Up Friday” is canceled this week—because Karen’s entire story is, well, already fucked up. Instead, we’ll be talking citizen journalism, Substack as resistance, and how to amplify voices without accidentally tripping over our own. Mark your calendars: 10 a.m. Eastern, 7 a.m. Pacific. No excuses.
But wait, Dana also brought receipts of a more personal kind: her new piece, How I Learned Not To Date Down. If you missed it, the story is a GenX feminist field report from the trenches of online dating, where men named “Sven” (not his real name, and apparently not his fake name either) drag you on a second lap around the lake just to scold you for talking too much. The larger point? Dating down isn’t about money, abs, or status—it’s about men who feel so threatened by your fire that they try to snuff it out. Dana reframes “dating down” not in the incel, six-figure-six-pack nonsense sense, but as: don’t date men who diminish you. Or, in other words: know your worth and walk away from energy vampires, even if you have to invent a house fire to do it.
How I Learned Not to Date Down
It’s Sunday and I’m walking around Greenlake with Sven — not his real name, in this story or in real life.
Elsewhere in the episode, we previewed a killer lineup: Dr. Amber Hull on GenX women and sex (spoiler: they’re into it), Allie Hamilton and Melissa Corrigan on raising feminist firebrand teens without terrifying them, and Elizabeth Silback LaRue on whether it’s time to pack your bags and leave the country before America completely implodes. Light stuff. Casual. Totally brunch conversation material.
Then we veered off into the great cosmic questions: if the Rapture comes, do your clothes go with you? Should you wear your best underwear just in case? (Consensus: yes. Preferably clean.) Also, pro tip: helium-filled sex dolls make a great DIY rapture hoax for the neighbors. You’re welcome.
Finally, we got serious-ish again: no, Tylenol does not cause autism. Science says so. Common sense says so. The only people saying otherwise are grifters selling snake-oil “miracle cures” and a president who can’t pronounce acetaminophen. (If you want to keep women barefoot and in pain, just say that, don’t hide behind bad science.)
In short, today’s show had everything: huge announcements, feminist fire, dating disasters, rapture jokes, and righteous anger at junk science. Just another day at The Daily Whatever Show, where our unofficial motto is: elevate the extraordinary, mock the absurd, and always keep your underpants rapture-ready.
Thank you
, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,Please join us tomorrow as show favorite joins us to talk about how GenX Women Love Sex! Only on The Daily Whatever Show, tomorrow at 10am ET / 7am PT!
This Week on The Daily Whatever Show
Hello, friends! We’ve got some amazing guests and topics lined up for The Daily Whatever Show this week and beyond!genXy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support our work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
