Oh, hey. Hey, guys. Welcome to Coming Out with Lauren and Nicole. We are a weekly podcast,

and what we do is we have on queer folks 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 we are here with Lewis Pitesman.

He is a writer.

You may have seen his work in BuzzFeed News and most recently the New York Times, which

congratulations.

Thank you so much.

I was very excited when I saw that.

It's a major publication for those of you who are younger. A newspaper is a thing we used to have. Now, we know each other through a very weird way. I do a show called Red Flags that if people follow me on Twitter they may have seen me tweet about before.

It is an immersive show. It was actually written and directed by a former guest of ours,

Lauren Ludwig. And what it is is it's a one-person show, just me, and it's a one-adience

member show. And the conceit is you are on a bad first date. You met online. It's the first time you're meeting. It's not going to go well. That's all you know going in. And that is literally the first time we met. I was in character and you were you. I was me. Well, I was a version of me that would be going on a date with a moment. That's 100% true. I was also in character in a way. You're also in character. Yeah, no, that's fair. And then what's weird is that's our only in-person meeting. We've had plenty of interaction on social media since then. But this is the first time we're meeting face-to-face as like actual second date people. I'm still, and I am still in character, to be as like actual second date. I'm still,

and I am still in character, to be honest.

Oh, okay, great.

Well, then this is going to go terrific.

Yes. But yeah, do you want to introduce yourself and say any, anything that I've left out?

Sure. Yeah.

I mean, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm in a weird, like, middle ground between jobs place right now

because I was at BuzzFeed for six years recently, not at BuzzFeed.

So I'm still sort of figuring out, you know, how to introduce myself, honestly, not to get too real.

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