Hey y'all.

Hi.

Welcome to coming out with Lauren and Nicole.

We are a weekly podcast where we have queer folks on from all walks of life.

They tell us the tales of how they came out to friends, family, and the world at large.

Because who doesn't love a coming out story?

Today, I'm so pleased to welcome dear friend Joe Shaw.

This has been long in coming.

We will get into all of that.

But Joe and I actually, how long ago was it now that I did detox?

I think it was almost two years at this point. That's unfriking believable.

But yes, it would have been.

So Joe actually approached me almost two years ago to do one of his two podcasts.

He is a host of the detox podcasts ands and also after the Encore podcast.

And as soon as we, I mean, we, it was, it was one of those conversations where you connect with someone and you go, I feel like we've known each other forever and also you're inside my brain.

And so, so that is the relationship I have with Joe.

And Joe was not out at that point.

And it sparked a conversation about all that that now almost two years later has led to Joe finally being ready to be on this podcast.

And it's thrilling.

And it's been an honor to watch your journey. And I'm so excited for you to share. And Joe, please introduce yourself to the peeps. Yes. So thank you so much, Nicole. My name is Joe Shaw. My pronouns are he, him, and his. And yeah, so I started going to like corporate speak because we're on, we're like, we're doing this. and I'm so used used to like being a host and I was like wait a minute. I'm not in host mode. I'm in guest mode. So no, I'm very very excited to be on this podcast. There's definitely a lot of a lot that we're going to talk about from 2020 to 2022. There's a lot that happened in that short window, but then also, like,

there's a lot that happened leading up to it that looking back makes a lot more sense.

So I'm excited, and I don't want to take over the show, so please, like, jump in if I'm, like,

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