Everything and Anything…and a bit gay Podcast Zachary Randles-Friedman

Neyla Pekarek spent eight years as the cellist and vocalist for The Lumineers, joining the band just weeks after graduating college in 2010 after answering a Craigslist ad. What started as a way to get out of her parents' house turned into Grammy nominations, a Saturday Night Live performance, opening for U2, playing Madison Square Garden and Red Rocks, and an invitation to perform for President Obama at the White House.

In this conversation, Neyla talks about why she eventually left the band to pursue her own songwriting and return to her musical theater roots, and how being the only woman on tour with two men shaped that decision. She and Zach dig into the imposter syndrome that follows creative people even after real success.

The heart of the episode is the story of Rattlesnake Kate, a real Colorado folk hero Neyla discovered in a small-town museum while in college. Kate killed 140 rattlesnakes in a single afternoon in 1925 while protecting her young son, then made a dress out of the snakeskins. Neyla turned Kate's story into a concept album and eventually a full musical produced at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts in 2022. She also discusses her follow-up project, "Queen of Magic," inspired by Adelaide Herrmann, the first woman to headline her own magic show during the Victorian era, and why she keeps gravitating toward overlooked women in history.

Neyla also shares details about her new five-song EP, her collaborators including jazz pianist Annie Booth and Broadway performer Mary Kate Morrissey, and her upcoming vaudeville-style "extravaganza" shows — August 13th in New York City at the Green Room 42, and August 27th at Cat's Crawl in Los Angeles.

Buy tickets to the NYC show (August 13th at Green Room 42)

https://thegreenroom42.venuetix.com/showdetails/vuFeQ60kMUNB4ZDWbiRo/f0IR4jSqAt5bvbfyv2LG

Buy tickets to the LA show (August 27th at Cat's Crawl)

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/vaudevillian-extravaganza-tickets-1992233653487?aff=oddtdtcreator

The Queen of Magic: https://www.joymachinerecords.com/artists/thequeenofmagic

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com 

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

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Support for same-sex marriage in America just dropped six points since 2022 — and Zach wants to know why. In this week's solo episode, he digs into a recent Gallup poll showing acceptance falling from 71% to 65%, even as LGBTQ+ identification among Gen Z and millennials continues to climb. It's a contradiction that's been sitting with him, and he works through it out loud.

The conversation ranges from anti-gay laws spreading across parts of Africa, to Budapest's pride parade defying a hostile government, to the swelling wave of anti-trans legislation moving through U.S. statehouses. Zach pushes back hard on the argument that trans people living authentically has any impact on anyone else's life, and reflects on why the disappearance of DEI commitments across companies and institutions worries him.

He also gets personal — recounting what it was like coming out to his father in his early twenties (and the six months of silence that followed), and to his mother, whose first questions revealed just how little exposure she'd had to LGBTQ+ people. Zach compares that to how differently a coming-out conversation might go today, using his cousin's transgender child as an example of a much more accepting generation of parents.

The episode closes on something more intimate: why Zach, despite 27+ years with his husband, still isn't fully comfortable holding hands in public — a hesitation rooted in something he witnessed growing up in Miami. It's an honest look at the gap between wanting full visibility and knowing when it doesn't feel safe.

Zach also hosts Listen Up Girl, a daily LGBTQ+ news podcast, and The Gay Bit, a weekly Friday dose of campy commentary — both available wherever you listen to this show.

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com 

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

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In this deeply moving episode, Zach sits down with Arnold Dahl-Wooley — a nationally recognized Two Spirit public speaker, advocate, and founder of Two Spirit Advocacy in Minnesota — for a conversation about identity, culture, and survival.

Arnold opens by defining "Two Spirit" for listeners unfamiliar with the term: a sacred identity within Native American culture referring to those within the LGBTQ+ population who are seen as embodying more than one gender, historically honored as leaders, healers, and teachers. He traces how colonization stripped that sacredness away, and explains why the term is culturally specific — not a label for non-Indigenous people to claim, even as its teachings of sacredness and self-worth are for everyone.

The conversation moves through Arnold's own journey of hiding his authentic self as a kid to protect himself, into 25+ years of public speaking and founding Two Spirit Advocacy — the only organization of its kind in Minnesota — offering crisis outreach, healthcare connections, ceremony, drum-making classes, and community nights.

Zach and Arnold also go deep on spirituality: what happens to Two Spirit people after death in Ojibwe tradition, spirit guides and spirit names, and how continuation (not reincarnation) shapes Arnold's worldview.

The episode turns serious as they discuss the MMIW/MMIR crisis, the pain of being "erased twice" through misgendering and disappearance, and what real allyship and visibility can do to save lives. Arnold closes with a message to the wider LGBTQ+ community: Two Spirit people are part of the alphabet too, and walking together — sharing culture instead of appropriating it — is how healing happens.

Arnold also shares his 27-year love story with his husband, and reflects on what it means to live loudly and authentically after years of hiding.

Learn more: twospiritadvocacy.com

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com 

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

It's Friday, which means it's time for The Gay Bit — Zach's weekly dose of camp, commentary, and community talk on Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay. This week: summer is officially Zach's least favorite season, and he's not sorry about it. He breaks down why he'd rather be bundled up in a sweater than baking in the heat, why he's never been a beach person despite growing up in Miami, and why his skincare routine comes before his tan.

From there, it's a full tour of gay summer culture: the annual pilgrimage to Provincetown, the joys and exhaustion of tea dance, why the "gay beach" walk is an outright scam, and the very specific rhythm of a P-town week (breakfast, tea dance, dinner, drag show, Spiritus Pizza at 1am, repeat). He ranks the best and worst weeks to visit — skip July 4th, aim for Labor Day — and reflects on how the town has changed over the years, including a tribute to a beloved local performer who's since passed.

The episode closes with a chaotic, hilarious, oddly touching story about "Ann," a P-town regular from summers past who Zach and his friend Tony can't stop talking about — and an open call to the internet to help him find her. Along the way: thoughts on Florida politics, dream towns, and why Boston might just be the right amount of gay.

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com 

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Kathy Anderson joins the show to talk about her new short story collection, Vamoose, fifteen stories centered on older lesbians standing on the edge of something new. She traces the book's title back to a single line of dialogue that captured the collection's spirit of letting go of the old to make room for the new.

The conversation moves through Kathy's own path: coming out at 17 in the late 1970s, building a career as a public librarian at a time when librarians were among the first professionals to organize an LGBTQ task force, and publishing her first book after 60 following years of writing, mentorship, and contest submissions. She and Zach talk candidly about writing humor alongside loss, why she resists cynical endings, and what it means to finally stop worrying what people think.

They also dig into queer literary history and access, from the 1989 Texas Pride Parade to present-day book bans, and Kathy highlights two resources for readers: the Queer Liberation Library (accessible free through the Libby app) and a new community library opening in Boston. Vamoose is available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Bookshop.org, and directly through Vine Leaves Press.

Guest: Kathy Anderson, author of Vamoose (Vine Leaves Press)

In this episode:

• The story behind the title Vamoose
• Coming out at 17 and building a career as an out public librarian
• Balancing queer identity with literary fiction that reaches everyone
• Writing humor and loss in the same story
• Publishing a first book after 60
• The Queer Liberation Library and free access to queer books via Libby
• A new LGBTQ community library opening in Boston
• Reflecting on Pride history and today's book bans

Want to support the show? Subscribe, rate, and leave a review — and share this episode with someone who loves a good coming-of-age-at-any-age story.

Kathy's Book: 

https://www.amazon.com/dp/3988322067?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com 

Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.