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The Daily Whatever Show, Nov 26: The Halfway Cafe
We opened today’s The Daily Whatever Show with some pre-Thanksgiving banter (and Dana DuBois channeling her recurring “old smoker barfly” voice), plus a quick chat about Dana’s new essay When Thanksgiving Isn’t Safe for Your Trans or Nonbinary Child, delving into issues around family, pronouns, and why 2025 feels very different from pre-Trump-2.0 days.
After that, we pulled in our guest Dash from The Halfway Cafe, who arrived fresh off hitting #2 on Substack’s Rising list, which gave us the perfect excuse to deep-dive the weird, chaotic sorcery of Substack algorithms.
Dash broke down how he uses Notes (spoiler: obsessively), why he doomscrolls hourly for joke ideas, and how even two or three paid subscribers can rocket you up the leaderboard. Lawrence explained what we’ve learned about restacking — namely, that it’s the secret fertilizer for growth if you hit it in the first 48 hours. Dash vowed to start treating restacks like cardio.
From there, the conversation spiraled beautifully into politics, and what the Dems keep getting wrong—and how MAGA keeps trapping the left into bad messaging.
Dash argued that Democrats lose when they obsess over micro-niche culture-war issues and forget mass appeal. Dana and Lawrence countered that the problem isn’t raising tough issues — it’s letting the right weaponize them first and define the narrative. Cue a spirited argument about the “big tent,” the filibuster, the Overton window, and whether Democrats should stop poll-testing themselves into oatmeal.
Some standout moments:
* Dana: “Democrats need a Maslow’s hierarchy of communications. Start with groceries.”
* Lawrence: “Start at 1000, not 25.”
* Dash: “Democrats bring pillows to a gunfight.”
* Everyone agreeing we live in the worst goddamn timeline.
We wrapped without solving American democracy (again), but with a whole lot of clarity about what works, what doesn’t, and why Dash might be the hardest-working humorist in the Substack trenches.
Huge thanks to Dash — we always love chatting with you, and need to do that again, soon!
Thank you Jason Odell, Neurodivergent Hodgepodge, Caro Henry, Polly Walker Blakemore, You Ready Grandma, and many others for tuning in.
We love you all, mean it!
Get full access to genXy at www.genxy.io/subscribe
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By GenXyWe opened today’s The Daily Whatever Show with some pre-Thanksgiving banter (and Dana DuBois channeling her recurring “old smoker barfly” voice), plus a quick chat about Dana’s new essay When Thanksgiving Isn’t Safe for Your Trans or Nonbinary Child, delving into issues around family, pronouns, and why 2025 feels very different from pre-Trump-2.0 days.
After that, we pulled in our guest Dash from The Halfway Cafe, who arrived fresh off hitting #2 on Substack’s Rising list, which gave us the perfect excuse to deep-dive the weird, chaotic sorcery of Substack algorithms.
Dash broke down how he uses Notes (spoiler: obsessively), why he doomscrolls hourly for joke ideas, and how even two or three paid subscribers can rocket you up the leaderboard. Lawrence explained what we’ve learned about restacking — namely, that it’s the secret fertilizer for growth if you hit it in the first 48 hours. Dash vowed to start treating restacks like cardio.
From there, the conversation spiraled beautifully into politics, and what the Dems keep getting wrong—and how MAGA keeps trapping the left into bad messaging.
Dash argued that Democrats lose when they obsess over micro-niche culture-war issues and forget mass appeal. Dana and Lawrence countered that the problem isn’t raising tough issues — it’s letting the right weaponize them first and define the narrative. Cue a spirited argument about the “big tent,” the filibuster, the Overton window, and whether Democrats should stop poll-testing themselves into oatmeal.
Some standout moments:
* Dana: “Democrats need a Maslow’s hierarchy of communications. Start with groceries.”
* Lawrence: “Start at 1000, not 25.”
* Dash: “Democrats bring pillows to a gunfight.”
* Everyone agreeing we live in the worst goddamn timeline.
We wrapped without solving American democracy (again), but with a whole lot of clarity about what works, what doesn’t, and why Dash might be the hardest-working humorist in the Substack trenches.
Huge thanks to Dash — we always love chatting with you, and need to do that again, soon!
Thank you Jason Odell, Neurodivergent Hodgepodge, Caro Henry, Polly Walker Blakemore, You Ready Grandma, and many others for tuning in.
We love you all, mean it!
Get full access to genXy at www.genxy.io/subscribe