In this episode, Dennis is joined by singer, actor and American Idol alum David Hernandez to talk about his new single and video "Beautiful 2.0," which features trans artist Mila Jam. David talks about his inspiration for re-recording the song, which he wrote and released in 2016, working with his former Harlem roommate Mila Jam, and how he feels much more comfortable on camera now than he did in 2016. He also talks his stint on American Idol in 2008, his favorite memory from the show, being on the same season as fellow out singer David Archuleta, how it blew up his life and the Idol connection that helped get him back on track. He also discusses his forays into acting, playing a serial killer in the Tubi horror movie Glamping. Other topics include: what he's learned about himself since getting sober a few years ago, his favorite Idol memory, appearing in Naked Boys Singing, his relationship to his voice, his "really weird childhood" and how it felt to get naked and pay homage to D'Angelo's "How Does It Feel" in his musical video "Special."

Dennis is joined via Zoom by playwright Robert Axelrod to discuss his new play Lifeline, which is a dramedy about a group of new volunteers at a suicide hotline. It was inspired by Robert's own experience as a volunteer for The Trevor Project hotline. Robert talks about what it was like to volunteer there, the extensive training volunteers go through and he recalls some of his more memorable conversations. He also talks about the importance of collaboration and why he loves to be the dumbest person in the room. Other topics include: the moment he got bitten by the playwriting bug, the ancestral magic of theater, how he approaches writing characters that aren't like him, like a neurodivergent Gen Z-er and a trans woman of color and why showing up at work toting a latte from Starbucks and a scone might rub some co-workers the wrong way.

Dennis is joined via Zoom by playwright Justin Tanner whose one-person show, "My Son, the Playwright," is currently running at the Rogue Machine Theatre in Hollywood. Justin talks about his motivation for writing the play, in which he plays a version of his father in Act 1 and a version of himself in 2004 in Act 2. He also talks about how he memorized the 14,000 word script by using a the robotic voice feature in Final Draft as well as an Allison Janney-inspired method involving the first letter of each word. Dennis and Justin also discuss the challenges and opportunities of writing plays compared to other formats, with Justin sharing insights about his early theater career and the impact of sobriety on his work. Other topics include: the theater scene in Los Angeles, how caring for his sick cat changed Justin's perception of himself, whether burnt bridges can ever be rebuilt, the glory days of LA queer gathering places like Cuffs and Basic Plumbing, the connection or lack thereof between the LA theater scene and success in Hollywood and what he thinks his late father would think of My Son the Playwright.

https://www.roguemachinetheatre.org/

Dennis is joined via Zoom by actor Ron Butler who has narrated hundreds of audiobooks including the current bestseller Baldwin: A Love Story by Nicholas Boggs, which is about the life and loves of the iconic queer writer James Baldwin. Ron talks about how the project came to him, how he approached doing Baldwin's voice and getting so emotional at the end of the process that he cried. He also talks about how the business of audiobook narrating works, from how he gets paid to the prep work that happens before to the sexy little home booth he bought for himself right before the pandemic. Other topics include: the Heated Rivalry-esque gay romances he's narrated Illegal Contact (football studs) and Dirty Steal (baseball studs), making the move to Palm Springs, growing up in the Bahamas as the son of Bahamanian musician and club owner Ron Butler Sr, leaving his post-college corporate job to pursue acting, playing a breakdancing Barack Obama on Jimmy Kimmel in 2007 and the queer coming of age book that brought him to tears in the recording booth.

https://www.ronniebutler.com/

For this episode, Dennis is joined via Zoom by the cast of the new film Adam and Steve Escape From MAGA for a rollicking game of You Don't Know My Life! Writer-Director Craig Chester is joined by his cast mates Nora Burns, Nadya Ginsburg, Ned Van Zandt, Madeline Reed, Mélisa Breiner-Sanders, Cary Curran, David Ilku and Michael Musto to answer these two questions: As your film demonstrates, last year was a total shitshow...but what's something good you experienced in 2025? AND You're writing a magazine article entitled My Actor's Nightmare based on an incident from your life. What happens in it? Their surprising and hilarious answers include stories about everything from Chorus Line and Studio 54 reunions to getting horny in Trader Joe's at Christmas to having explosive diarrhea in a bagel shop and turning the story into an audition monologue.

Watch Adam & Steve Escape From MAGA here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgVjFrF0AwM&t=3095s

Dennis is joined via Zoom by author Jon Imparato to talk about his new memoir The Good Inside the Grief, in which he writes about everything from his Catholic childhood to his challenging relationship with his father to volunteering to man the shaving cart and shaving AIDS patients at the height of the pandemic. Jon also talks about the moving and surprising reactions he's gotten to it so far and what it was like to write about such difficult topics as losing three lovers to AIDS, having two difficult heart-to-hearts with his father 45 years apart and getting sexually assaulted by a guy he met in acting class at 19. He also writes about working with gay youth at the LA LGBT Center, teaching writing to queer seniors at Triangle Square in LA and discovering the magic of being in "vagina world" when he booked Eve Ensler's The Vagina Monologues as his first big show as Director of the Cultural Arts Department of the Center in the late 90's. Other topics include: why he used to call people for two rings and then hang up, the pleasure of Sunday Sauce, befriending a Canadian soldier while traveling in Bali and having it change his life forever, the wisdom of Betty White and a psychic Stevie Nicks story that will blow your mind.

https://www.jonimparatowriter.com/

In this episode, Dennis is joined via Zoom by his friend Bob Merrick who pens the Substack newsletter Magnificent Obsession where shares sweet, sassy and occasional sad stories about everything from his tumultuous childhood and family life, his wide circle of friends and his star-studded misadventures in Hollywood. Bob talks about why he started writing the newsletter, how people have been reacting to it and how it's helped him process some of the more thorny parts of his life. He also shares lots of fun celeb stories, from working in the production office of the Tom Hanks film Cast Away to meeting NSync at the height of their fame and becoming close friends with Lance Bass to appearing in one of exercise icon Richard Simmons' Sweating to the Oldies workout videos...and maybe getting paid for it. Other topics include: how pop culture gave Bob an escape growing up, the importance of forgiveness, Dennis and Bob's first meeting in 2000 and that time Bob got to play foosball on Joey and Chandler's foosball table on the Friends set after hours.

For this final episode of the year, Dennis flips the script and appears as a guest on the Behind the Book Cover podcast hosted by his friend and past Dennis Anyone guest Anna David. He also weighs in on the miracle that is Heated Rivalry during the So This Happened segment at the end of the episode.

Here are the official show notes Anna wrote about the episode:

Dennis Hensley was the very first real writer I ever knew—back when getting a book published felt like spotting a unicorn in 1990s LA.His debut novel Misadventures in the (213) came out in 1998, and I thought it was the coolest thing imaginable. Years later, we'd find ourselves sweating through Ben Allen's dance classes together, proving that creative people really do wear all the hats.

Dennis has written for everyone from Joan Rivers to Wondery podcasts, created party games and somehow made more money dancing in commercials than writing this year.

Our conversation (recorded the day before his 61st birthday) goes deep on resilience, disappointment and figuring out how to keep creating when the scoreboard stops making sense.

Topics Discussed:

• The 1990s writing gold rush: When Gen X believed you could actually make a living as a writer, gift bags overflowed at parties. and magazines paid $1 per word
• Breaking in: How an audition rejection for Madonna's Blonde Ambition tour became Dennis's first published article, leading to gigs at Movieline, Detour and beyond
• Writing for free (for three years): The unglamorous hustle behind Misadventures in the (213), including interviewing Carrie Fisher in her bed and scoring a gym membership through barter
• The 2013 Fashion Police strike: How standing up for freelance writers' pay during the Writers Guild organizing effort traumatized Dennis, cost him his best friend/roommate and triggered a health crisis that changed everything
• Rehab for disappointment: Dennis's raw account of hospitalization, thinking he'd "die of disappointment" and the long road through somatic therapy, meditation and redefining success
• Changing how you keep score: Why tracking wins vs. losses will destroy you, and how Dennis learned to measure creative life by "who I'm being" rather than what he's getting
• The game that almost was: Pitching "You Don't Know My Life!" to Jason Bateman's production company, feeling good about the pitches, getting rejected—and being sad for only five seconds
• "Everything is impossible, so anything is possible": Life lessons from artist Stephanie Elizondo Griest and why trying matters more than outcomes
• Dancing pays better than writing: How Dennis made more money this year from Vegas commercials than his writing career, and why he's okay with that

Mentioned:

• Misadventures in the (213) and Screening Party books
• Rob Weisbach, Detour, Movieline, Fashion Police
• "You Don't Know My Life!" party game
• Podcasts: Dennis, Anyone? and Dennis Hensley's Happy and Gay
• Ben Allen's Group Three dance class (RIP the Thriller flash mob)

In this episode, Dennis is joined via Zoom by visual artist & production designer Nino Alicea whose larger-than-life installations Got Framed and Atebay's Treasure are currently on display in San Francisco's Embarcadero as part of the city's year-long Big Art Loop initiative. Nino talks about the inspiration for both pieces. Got Framed, with it's 91 roses, is inspired by his grandmother Rosamelia and Atabey's Treasure is a tribute to Nino's homeland of Puerto Rico and the challenges it face after Hurricane Maria. Both pieces, as well as several others, were initially created for Burning Man, where Nino has mounted several pieces over the last decade. Nino talks about the moment over ten years ago where, after a week at Burning Man, he pledged to himself that he would have an installation at next year's festival, even though he had little idea how he would pull that off. With the help of a small army of fellow artisans and at least on engineer, he did it...and he's been going back every year. Nino also talks about getting to create props for Ricky Martin's "All In" Las Vegas residency and world tour and how that opportunity came because he was in the right place at the right time and "just said yes" when the possibility was suggested to him. Other topics include: that time he spent a month making over a hurricane-damaged basketball court in Puerto Rico, the steps one must take to get a piece into Burning Man, why the best part of his work is all the people he gets to work with, that "Oh shit" moment at Burning Man when he realized he didn't have enough screws, how he used recycled pizza tins for the fish gills on Atabey's Treasure and that time Nino went viral with a comedic video sketch in a stage show Dennis co-hostened that would probably get them both cancelled today.

www.leaveittonino.com

In Part 2 of his annual Holiday Gift Guide, Dennis talks to creative entrepreneurs Scott Willams and Cam Clarke. Scott discovered a passion for ceramics during the pandemic and has since launched a side business called SEW Ceramics, based in Cambria, California. His Strata line of clay lamps are his most popular items to date. Each is one-of-a-kind because, as Scott quips, "I couldn't duplicate them if I tried." Scott talks about how getting his hands dirty has served as an escape from the stresses of modern life, the crafty grandmother who inspired his artistic side and how he comes up with cool names for his lamps, like Astra, Flint and Lumen.

https://www.sewceramics.com/

Next up is Cam Clarke, the man behind the gorgeous new coffee table book Now They're All Here about The King Family of entertainers, which Cam is a member of. Cam reveals the slightly petty reason he took on the project, the discoveries he made along the way and what having the family's life and career documented in this way has meant to his relatives. He also talks about his career as a performer and voice-over artist (he was the OG voice of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!) and recalls the moment when he was 6 years-old and demonstrated a flair for the fabulous on live TV.

https://camclarke.com/