Hi, I'm Justin from Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. The Sound of Young America is an independent

production supported by listeners like you and me. If you'd like to donate to support

the show, visit it maximumfund.org and click on donate.

Live on tape from my house in Los Angeles, I'm Jesse Thorn and this is the Sound of Young

America from Maximumfund.org Welcome to the Sound of Young America. I'm Jesse Thorn.

This week on the show live from Seattle Sketchfest in Seattle, Washington, Dan Savage. He's

the editor of Seattle's alternative news weekly, The Stranger. He's also the columnist

behind Savage Love, the sex and advice relationship column that runs in alternative newspapers

around the country and the voice of the Savage Love cast, the podcast based on the column.

Shortly after Dan Savage sat down next to me on the stage at Seattle Sketchfest, it occurred

to me that it was going to be pretty tough to interview a sex columnist about stuff

exclusively that you could talk about on the radio. About half of this interview ended

up going out over the airwaves, what you'll hear here on the podcast is the unedited version.

So without further ado, Dan Savage. Please welcome to the program Dan Savage.

Nobody warned me that these were on wheels. Yeah, I know. You shouldn't have made your

big entrance. I know you've been sitting backstage there that whole time thinking about, oh man,

this is the sit down that I'm going to do and I get on stage. Okay, so I think it's

appropriate to start with a little bit of backstory and the question that everyone wonders

about, the question that everyone wonders about someone who has your job is, where does it come

from? Did you always imagine yourself becoming an advice columnist? Was it an interest of yours?

No, no. It's not the kind of job you can apply for and there's no courses you can take except

perhaps psychology, therapy, and other crap that I didn't take. Other stuff that would be

...