I don't know what happens out here, like, after we go back in the booth.

Never seen it.

This is the moment when I'm in charge.

LinkedIn News, I'm Jesse Hempel, and this is Hello Monday.

I have a very special guest on the show today.

You know her.

At least if you come to office hours or you listen to the credits, you've heard of her.

It's our very own producer, Rachel Karp.

Okay, let me just tell you about Rachel. She is so incredibly creative.

And when she first came to us, she was working on a project.

I would call it a side project or a passion project if it didn't overtake, not just her attention, but our attention as well.

That's how cool it was.

See, Rachel's the co-creator of the podcast, Cruising, which is, in fact, a podcast all about lesbian bars.

And now she has a new book out.

It's called The Lesbian Bar Chronicles, The Living History and Hopeful

Future of America's Dyke Dives and Safic Spaces. Now listen, folks, I cannot tell you how

important bars are to queer culture. And I say that both as a child who has a gay father

and came of age in the 90s and as a young person who had to find my own way out of the closet

and find my own community and culture,

gay bars are where it's at.

And in fact, in this moment,

when it sometimes seems like things are a little weird and wacky

...