Last week I promised. This week, I delivered.

Matt Hyams is the breakout Instagram star who has healed millions of men and women through laughter…because LAUGHING MATTERS, even when it’s no laughing matter. And believe me, perimenopause is no laughing matter. Well, he and I did a thing I’ve been sitting on for a few weeks that I just HAD to share with you all first!!!

If you have read any of my earlier posts, I have been THROUGH IT with “Peri,” and having to navigate the choppy waters of finding relief from “doctors” and “gurus” in what I thought was a solo journey. Until…

A MAN came to save us!

To be clear, he isn’t running round calling himself the “King,” I’m calling him that. But, just like Jesus, he’s earned the title. His commentary on our behavior as women suppressing the pangs of wanting to murder our partners for simply breathing, is funny for three reasons:

1.) A dude in a wig is, and always will be, funny. (Unless, of course, he is transitioning to actually become a woman, in which case, not funny.)

2.) If a woman actually said the shit Matt says on camera, she would be labeled a “bitch.” And bitches aren’t funny.

3.) Matt’s just funny. Period.

Now we have permission to laugh at the retirement of our uteruses because a MAN had to be the vessel of hilarity regarding our dry vaginas, probable heart attacks, uncontrollable hair loss, estrogen shortages, zero libidos, dwindling muscle mass, 24/7 scarfing down of protein, and no-fucks-to-give attitudes!

He and I not only talked about the cringe detail of perimenopausal boobs mimicking their heyday of breastfeeding and going hard for no reason, but we tackle deep thoughts on the existential crisis of not knowing who we are over 50 anymore and how, sometimes, almost quitting everything you want, gets you everything you want.

So, happy Friday y’all! You heard it here first!

In Laughter, LStL

Full Video Below:

p.s. THIS is the only newsletter he reads. The man has good taste, what can I say.

LAUGHING MATTERS is a place for personal essays about the things we’re all thinking but don’t always say out loud: aging, creativity, fear, love, disappointment, and the strange relief of finding humor in the middle of it all. Here, I try to tell the truth without making it heavy, and to find meaning without losing the laugh. If you’ve ever wanted to feel a little less alone inside your own thoughts, you’re in the right place. ❣️

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If LAUGHING MATTERS makes you smile, please consider becoming a FREE subscriber. If it makes you laugh, please consider becoming a PAID subscriber. Either way, I thank you for reading, even if you don’t subscribe at all!

Another way to tell the same story: through a microphone! Here’s me speaking last week’s post for those of y’all who’d rather clean the house when you “read.” Or walk when you “read”. Or…whatever else you want to do when you “read.” And now, a revelatory moment of red flags in a past relationship and doing what we all like to do when we see them: ignore them.

In Laughter, LStL

Hey All!

Attached is the audio version of last week’s post with bonus material: musical snippets! Even though it took me WAY too long to cut this in GarageBand, it kinda made me want to do a whole series with musical moments. I seriously need an AV team.

Enjoy!xx,LStL

p.s. Also, Happy May Day Everyone! It’s a national holiday here in France where everyone grocery shops the day before like it’s Covid 19 all over again because no one works today, their Labor Day. But hey, I expect nothing less than the French taking it easy on my 50th Birthday! (More on that in a bonus post tomorrow.)

Hey All!It’s been a doozy of a week. But at least the sun is shining in Paris and spring is springing. Watching the tulips bloom makes it hurt less that I just had to spend $9,000 on a new boiler for my home in Brooklyn for which I had to liquidate my dwindling assets. Such is “this American life.” And the plumbers I found were the cheapest plumbers for the job. Eye roll. I am rethinking the importance of my kids getting college degrees. They should become plumbers. THAT’S where the money’s at. Dayum.

As per readers’ requests, I am going to try to deliver, more regularly (gulp), the podcast versions of my posts. Our lives have become ones of listening-while-doing and I, for one, can appreciate an energizing walk whilst gaining knowledge and/or just escaping from the constant barrage of the French speaking, “Baaaaaaahhhhhh ouais, du coup, eeeeuuhhhhhhh, c’est quoi ça?” Really? I spent years trying to perfect an impossible language to say, “That’s what, that?”

So, here is last week’s post in podcast format for all!

I send it with love, appreciate all of your support and readership/listenship, and will continue to create from the ether and deliver into the ether with the hopes that I can soften a heart or two, or simply make you smile.

In Laughter,LStL

p.s. I have an excerpt from my memoir coming for my Paid Subscribers. You know who you are. And I love you for helping me keep this journey going. Y’all have no idea how gratifying it is to be rewarded for words. It is…deeply…gratifying.

LAUGHING MATTERS is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

If you like this post, please do ❤️ it as it allows for further visibility on Substack, which allows me to continue doing my thang. xx

A couple of days ago, Tor and I were talking about the price of eggs and bird flu in the U.S. vs the price of eggs and lack of bird flu in France. Somehow, Tor stumbled upon an article about a British man who was sentenced to 3 years in prison for, as the title suggests, having sex with chickens. His wife was sentenced to six months for being complicit, ie a willing participant. (Women, we need to do better.) It’s a shocking story that I'm certain, will make you feel like you are an actual saint for being such a “normal” person. If we have nothing else in life, it’s that there is always someone out there more effed-up than we are and well, that’s comforting.

Link to Newsweek article.

Another article

In Laughter, LStL

Join me for my next live video in the app

Here lies the podcast version of my latest Substack post of the same title. Here, I give my take on the two books The 5AM Club by Robin Sharma and The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins. Little did I suspect that I would be developing my own “Rule of One”in the process. Ya never know what to expect when the fingers start doing the tapping.

In Laughter,LStL

Disclaimer: This podcast is presented solely for educational and entertainment purposes. I am not a licensed therapist, and this podcast is not intended as a substitute for the advice of a physician, professional coach, psychotherapist or other qualified professional.

Hey y’all! While I’m cookin’ up another post for this week, I’m releasing Episode #15 of my podcast from my post on September 12, 2024.

Things are going a bit more smoothly here in Paris. Less bureaucracy, more getting to the business of creativity.

Enjoy this little listening “morceau” and I will holler back atcha’ later this week!

xx,LStL

And for your Sunday listening pleasure, the audio version of my June 12th, 2024 Substack post. Who doesn’t want to listen to the story of a young woman’s first time and her mother’s outrageous reaction to it?

In Laughter,LStL

In honor of dropping-off my kid at the college he ended up at last weekend, I decided to post the podcast version of my April 2nd SubStack entry for your listening pleasure. Don’t worry…the whiny, Hanna-Barbera cartoon character voice I use at the beginning doesn’t last that long. LOL.

It is also a prelude to my next post out tomorrow. Stay tuned!

In Laughter,

LStL

p.s. I MUST recommend the podcast below that I listened to this morning about parenting. What an eye-opening, jaw-dropping, humbling yet inspiring wake-up call I had listening to Dr. Shefali Tsabari on the Mel Robbins Podcast. It’s truly a great listen for anyone who is a parent or has ever had a parent. Sooooo…that’s basically EVERYONE!

As we pack-up our home here in Brooklyn to embark on a year-long adventure in France, (yes, I WILL be writing about our experiences), I have been challenged in the realm of time and space in getting all the things done in all the time allotted in the span of a day. As a person who struggles with perfectionism, I have also emotionally flogged myself for missing a second week of posting here on Substack since starting this labor of love in January. Some would say, “Not too shabby Lis’!”, or, “You only missed 2 weeks out of 7 months??! That’s amazing!”, but not me. I say to myself, “You missed two weeks.” So, there’s that. I hope you forgive me for the lag and more importantly, I hope I can forgive my damn self. I am only human, even though I pretend to be Wonder Woman.

LAUGHING MATTERS is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Please & thank you!

So today, in honoring the requests for more podcast recordings, and in honor of today’s official lyric video release of “Don’t Waste The Pretty”, I recorded the podcast version of my post from May 1st, 2024 (my birfday!) You can stream the single now on all the platforms like Here on Apple Music or Spotify (below). But you can also share it, playlist it, download it, take a listen to the official lyric video…whatever mode moves you.

There will be additional content posted this week for my paid subscribers. (hint: it’s a super-private journal entry from 2010. Boy was that a wake-up call!) Sooooooo, if you haven’t become a paid subscriber yet, please consider doing so. Not only does it super-duper help to sustain this SubStack, but you get to enjoy exclusive content that you truly won’t want to miss, especially as I ramp-up the memoir-ing! Btw, I also struggle with asking people for things. ;-) xx,LStL

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