TDWS: Not Straight Forward with Guest Char Sundust

Lawrence’s other best friend of 32 years, Char Sundust, flew in from Seattle and is sitting RIGHT NEXT to him in the studio — and what was supposed to be a Monday hangout turns into one of the most wide-ranging episodes of the season. They start with plazas (yes, plazas), wander through city planning and the lost art of the village, and land in the question that may matter more than any other right now: how do we take care of us? Not me. Not you. Us. From the AIDS crisis and the lesbians who stepped up, to the slow-motion erasure of Seattle’s Capitol Hill, to the trans kid Char spotted in a Fort Wayne restaurant who deserves every ounce of our respect — this is a conversation about queer community, chosen family, and what we owe each other when the world gets loud.

Then it gets spicier. Char and Lawrence dig into the new study out of the UK that says one in three kindergarteners can’t open a book — they try to swipe the pages. They get into “digital dementia,” AI girlfriends marketed on the promise that “she never says no” (chills, both of them), and whether Substack is becoming the digital plaza we’ve been missing. And because it wouldn’t be the show without it: Above & Beyond obsession, K-pop Demon Hunters’ “Golden” on repeat, a summer dance-party manifesto, and the moment Ripley the cat publicly cheats on Lawrence with Char on live camera. Come for the philosophy. Stay for the betrayal.

Thank you Nick Paro, Dana DuBois, Amy Gabrielle, Beth Cruz, LeftieProf, and many others for tuning into my live video! Join us for our next live video in the app.