Marathon runners! Bragging about YOU at a conference! Free SoCal stuff!

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. My roommate was just like “Wow, Daylight Saving Time ending is hitting hard, huh?” And I was like “Yes, I’m going to skip most of this newsletter I’m writing because I am too sleepy” and he said “Don’t skip the Ruby picture!!!!!”

Reader, I would never do that.

Anyway, I was at a fun little conference for the last few days, talking with other podcaster types about hey-what-if-your-show-also-gave-away-some-money-or-something. The screen I was ~presenting on~ was very very big (see above) so I made cute collages out of various pictures of our merch, and our grant winners, and some of the sweet (anonymized) messages that listeners have sent about the show. It was a very fun way to show off how great y’all are! (I also challenged the attendees to join our patreon and exactly one person did so hello to Ben Riskin Only!!!)

Today, I spent a long time watching the New York Marathon run by my house… which is surprisingly kind of tiring considering that I was just standing still while thousands of other people did superhuman feats of athleticism.

This sign (not mine) was surprisingly polarizing.

Photo: A sign that says "33% DONE" (next to an Ursula K. Le Guin book, also not mine.)

The most common reactions were:

4. “That’s a good sign!”

3. Wordless negative reaction (groan, etc. — one guy flipped us off lol)

2. Wordless positive reaction (smile, pointing, thumbs up, cheer, etc.)

1. “IS THAT TRUE???”

Here’s my question: why would they lie about this????????????

Anyway, I loved the whole experience. The person with the sign called it their “favorite public holiday” or something like that, and I agree.

Also, speaking of marathon runners, this song rules and also slaps.

OKAY! Enough stalling. Mckenzee and I have two free SoCal-area events next week, if you’re so inclined:

• I don’t know why you would go to this event in Orange (it’s in the middle of the weekday and we, the participants, do not even understand what it’s going to be about) but technically you can if you want. (It’s 60-75% Gender Reveal alum by volume, which is fun.)
• Our Los Angeles book event is technically sold out, but tbh you can also just like, show up anyway, and it will be totally fine.

No podcast updates this week. We’re doing a lot of work but I am not ready/awake enough to form that work into updates at this time! Thank u for understanding.

In the meantime, it’s time for Links & Stuff. Except, like last week, I feel weird linking to anything that’s not about Palestine, and I also think that you do not need my help getting Palestine content (right??????? If you do, let me know for sure), so I’m just going to share one link. This story is so heartbreaking but there’s also hope and resilience in there, and I really encourage you to read it.

What’s making you feel hopeful and resilient amidst the ongoing horrors? Maybe let us all know in the comments because wow it sure is just so incredibly bad huh?

That’s it for this week. Hang in there. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb.

Photo: Ruby laying on a high shelf, looking straight ahead, with alert eyes and ears and very prominent white whiskers.

Xo,

Yr resident gender detective