Welcome to our first ever presidential election ep not about Biden, wherein we break down the (daddy) issues of the core 4 candidates in the way only TMAYF can or will. Some fun facts about our candidates' formative lives: Kamala's father - named Donald - did not congratulate her on being named VP in 2020, and did not attend the inauguration. According to Donald Trump's psychologist niece Mary, his father Fred was a sociopath, who, "short-circuited Donald's ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion." JD's father - also named Donald - never claimed him, and Tim Waltz's dad was a humble HS teacher who died when Tim was just 19. Plus, we parse Michelle Obama's punk AF speech the other night in Kalamazoo. Please vote. Love ya.

In this episode, Erin talks to Cleveland writer Indira Samuels about her Jamaican immigrant dad, Lionel, and their unique bond, cemented by watching television together up until the day Lionel died in 2014. Like so many dads we talk about on this show, Lionel was a man of few words himself, especially when it came to the big stuff like his daughter's teenage pregnancy, her acceptance to a prestigious university, her robbery and assault, or his illness. But what he could share with his youngest daughter before his death in 2014, was a love of storytelling through the syndicated sitcoms and game shows of the 80s. A favorite of them both: The Golden Girls (Lionel saw himself as a Sofia, but Indira thinks her dad was very much a Blanche) and Jeopardy, the show that taught her the most about her father by his trivia answers. We also talk about testing the taste of men through tv, the messiness of Bob Eubanks, Jerry Springer's on-brand game show called Baggage, and processing grief through mourning Alex Trebek.

Emmy nominated writer, comedian, producer and podcaster, Erin Gibson talks with Matt about growing up in Texas with a father who was, deep down, an actor and writer, but who was put through a military academy, fought in Vietnam, and who became an engineer and never saw his natural talents come to fruition. She recalls, three years after his death, what it was like to be by his side for his final month as he fought a losing battle with cancer, and how his death taught her not to be afraid of death and to take more chances.

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Matt Phillp talks with Komail Aijazuddin, author of new memoir Manboobs about what it was like to grow up Muslim, fat, and queer in Pakistan - with no ability to hide any of those characteristics. He talks about the process of extricating himself from the oppressive silence of his family and from Lahore and what it was like to discover that the America he’d seen through pop culture was nothing like the real thing.

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Elizabeth talks with journalist Tricia Romano, author of the new oral history The Freaks Came Out to Write: The Definitive History of The Village Voice, the Radical Paper That Changed American Culture. Tricia, who was a contributing writer at the Village Voice for nearly a decade covering New York City’s nightlife and club scenes in the early 2000s, spent six years and hundreds of hours interviewing the newspaper's former staff, dating back decades to its founding in 1955 by Norman Mailer, a psychotherapist, and an editor. Tricia discusses the white macho roots of the publication and its eventual evolution to include female, queer, and Black writers who helped the Voice redefine itself. She also talks about the Voice's prescient coverage of Donald Trump and his father Fred Trump, and the paternal influence that a complicated editor there had on her own life.

In this episode, Erin and Elizabeth talk with Margaret Wappler, author of A Good Bad Boy: Luke Perry And How a Generation Grew Up, which was excerpted in Vanity Fair. The "Bad Boy" refers to Luke Perry's character on Beverly Hills 90210, Dylan McKay, a Gen-X James Dean with a tender heart. A Good Bad Boy is a dual biography of Luke Perry and Margaret as a teenager mourning her father's death.

Margaret regales us with tales of Luke's heroism, like defending Tori Spelling from her abusive boyfriend and waking Jason Priestly from a coma. We also discuss the art of the masculine identity drag show that is the WWE, which Luke admired and his son proudly performs in under the names "Jungle Boy" and "Scapegoat." Luke Perry was a good man, an acclaimed dad, and a mensch in an industry known for its hubris. We salute him this Father's Day month, five years after his loss.

It’s our PRIDE episode! Recorded a few days before her new song, SPRKL, dropped - Christian country music star and drag queen Flamy Grant talks candidly about her journey out of the evangelical southern church in which she grew up and became a worship leader, through her parent-sanctioned ex-gay therapy, and eventually out the other side as a gay man and drag queen who sings about the experience. She talks about the estranged relationship she has with her father and how she places him in perspective in her life, about what she does to stay fortified as she takes her detractors head-on via social media, and what’s giving her life this Pride.

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Tim Alberta joins Ravi Gupta to discuss his new book, “The Power, the Glory, and the Kingdom." The book takes an in-depth, personal look at the birth and rise of America’s evangelical movement and explores how deceit, scandal, and fear have contributed to the wreckage it stands on today.

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