Wo Chan! Jellyfish-riding octopi! Unionizing Love is Blind?

Hey friends,

Hope you’re all hanging in there. It’s a weird time on top of a weird time on top of a weird time and I don’t have anything smart to say about it, but I’m sending solidarity and care.

(I’m also realizing that you might never see this because your inboxes are all hell from the Holiday Sales of it all, but I owe y’all a newsletter so I’m sending it on Saturday night and hoping most of the sale emails are over.)

This week on the show, I spoke with Wo Chan (aka The Illustrious Pearl) about Togetherness, isolation, deportation, powerpoint drag, poop poetry, ostrich feathers, human sacrifice, family restaurants, psychoanalysis, and so much more. This conversation felt very rich to me and I hope that you, too, find a lot to love in there.

Photo: A picture mentioned in the podcast, in which Wo is on the sidewalk wearing basketball shorts and looking cute. 

(I also did a long This Week in Gender segment about the US midterm elections and how you absolutely cannot under any circumstances “queer Congress,” lol.)

Meanwhile, on Gender Conceal (our Patreon-only bonus podcast), I spoke with Soraya Shockley about unionizing audio workplaces and also about the Love is Blind finale. A little something for everyone, ya know?

Photo: Soraya wearing an olive green jumpsuit. They have an Afro and glasses.

And speaking of Patreon rewards! I just wanted to clarify once again that if I owe you stickers, I will send them to you even if you cancel your membership in the meantime. So if, for example, you subscribed in August but cancelled (or bumped down to $1) in October, I will still send your stickers once I have caught up to the August people. (Yes, I’m VERY behind, but I did just buy 400 envelopes today, so!)

Anyway, next week on Gender Reveal, we’ve got Joan Summers of Eating for Free! In the meantime, here’s Links & Stuff:

• Caity Weaver has a new piece out, featuring the iconic line “I wanted to hear the forbidden blood song.” (She posted a paywall-less link because she’s an iconic.)
• WaPo interviewed Dril. (Requires WaPo log-in)
• I was excited to learn about this new queer, Deaf, and Latinx-owned restaurant in Portland, where all the employees communicate through ASL.
• I also appreciated learning more about how one Japanese-owned farm in Washington essentially did Land Back.
• This collection of food invented in dreams is very good.
• Octopi can drive jellyfish???????

That’s it for this week. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb. (I was going to send this about 90 minutes sooner but she was laying on one of my arms for a long time and I couldn’t possibly move her.)

Photo: Ruby laying on top of a heating pad, which is on top of a comforter. She is tucked under a blanket and holding her toy.

Xo,
yr resident gender detective

PS: Heather from our Gender Reveal Slack made this meme about the newest bonus episode and it made me laugh:

Photo: A meme where Geordi La Forge says no to "getting bored with reality matchup normativity drama" and yes to "yessss time to catch up on some drama to be ready for Gender Conceal"