August Edition: Reporting live from the apocalypse!
Nothing left to do but pray for Hot Vax Fall. 🙏💉🍁
Wow, I can't believe August is over! Which means summer is basically over. It was pretty uneventful, aside from the impending apocalypse. What ever happened to Hot Vax Summer? Lol, remember when we were all hype on summer 2021? It kinda reminds me of NYE 2019 when people were super bullish about 2020… and we all know how that turned out.
Seasons are changin', and I've just wrapped season two of Girlboss. I stepped in halfway through as the Managing Producer and was thrilled at the opportunity to work with the show's new host, the slashie queen herself, Puno (@punodostres). I feel like every job teaches me SO MUCH about myself, and I learned a ton from our very wise guests, and of course Puno, on this one too:
12. What an Astrology App Looks Like From the Inside with Chani Nicholas & Sonya Possi
13. How to Be Consistent When Building Your Brand with Elsa Majimbo
14. Breaking Down VC Funding with Brightland’s Aishwarya Iyer
15. Redefining Accessibility in Design With Disabilities Advocate Emily Ackerman
16. Building Brands from Disney to West Elm to Nike with Trelawny Davis
17. Behind the Beauty Brand That Only Has Two Products With April Gargiulo of Vintner's Daughter
18. Creating Partnerships That Matter with TED's Lisa Choi Owens
19. Pivoting Your Business Towards Sustainability with Mara Hoffman
20. What's an E-commerce Marketer & How to Become One with Ceilidh MacLeod
21. How to Take Your Social Media Skills Pro with Taylor Loren
22. How to Change Work Culture from the Inside with Flo’s Chief People Officer Ann Roberts
23. The Future of Content Creators and How to Evolve with Rachel Nguyen
24. Should I Go Freelance? A How-To with Puno, Founder of ilovecreatives
In other podcasting news, over the past seven months, I've discovered I LOVE teaching up-and-coming podcasters. Reflecting on my own process and sharing my favorite audio stories is such a treat, and it's made me better at my job outside of the Zoom classroom, as well.
I have a bootcamp all about the business side of podcasting coming up in September. If you're a podcaster looking to level up your game or take your skills pro, please join!
This month, I also threw a whole ass global rally for #FreeDonziger. It all started by listening to this podcast episode during a Memorial Day road trip. The short of it is: Chevron has basically had a human rights attorney under house arrest for more than two years IN THE UNITED STATES OF FREAKING AMERICA after he won a landmark $9.5 billion judgment against them on behalf of Ecuador’s Indigenous Amazonian people. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, so I got in touch with Steven Donziger wanting to throw a rally, and the effort quickly gained worldwide support.
The NYC rally had a great turnout with speakers including Susan Sarandon, Josh Fox, Avery the Activist, and more. Our LA rally on Sunset Boulevard was smaller but still mighty. I met Dr. Nan Greer, whose report about Chevron's business practices is coming out next month, and renowned investigative journalist Greg Palast.
But despite more than a dozen locations across the globe and three separate press releases, the rallies didn't really attract any mainstream press coverage. The growing social media support was awesome to see, but it's depressing that most people don't even know this is happening. So my brief stint as organizer is on hold, as I've realized I need to report on this myself. I'm going to New York next week to get started...
In other environmental news, I watched Seaspiracy a few days ago (and then the next night, too), and I had to rethink my pescatarian diet. The night of my first viewing, I literally had fish and chips for dinner. But after watching the documentary, I decided that I don't want to contribute to ruining our oceans anymore. So I'm back to vegetarian for now. Maybe I'll just eat fish on special occasions or maybe never — idk, it's bad y'all. You have to see it for yourself.
Another great documentary I saw recently is Val (as in Kilmer), which gave me a whole new appreciation for the actor. Plus, the Hollywood BTS is incredible — young Kevin Bacon and Sean Penn off-the-cuff in a Broadway dressing room. I mean...
Against my better judgment, I woke up at 4:30am and then wrote this InsideHook article on speed golf, which came out last week. It was the best worst way to start my day. These guys are officially insane, but now I'm a speed golf groupie?
Speaking of insane, The Great August 2021 OnlyFans Unwilding (and then rewilding?) has been crazy to follow. I went on Worst Year Ever and offered my expert commentary on the issue. Sofiya and I are also working on a new edition to our Comedians of OnlyFans series that covers the recent events, featuring Tito Bonito, Meredith Jacqueline, and Selena the Stripper. Episode drops this week.
And finally, my Private Parts Unknown co-host (and bestie) Sofiya and I were asked to give our advice for a Men’s Health article about the age-old question:
“How Many Dates Should You Wait to Have Sex?”
See ya in September! I’m a Libra baby, so I’ll be celebrating my birthday. xx