You're listening AdFree on Amazon Music.

Hello, and welcome to Outward Slate's LGBT podcast.

I'm Jewelskill Peterson coming to you live from the year 2024.

You know, I managed but kind of barely to stay up to midnight on New Year's Eve. And I did turn on Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper's Times Square broadcast for like all of five minutes at one point. I think it might have been out of like morbid curiosity. But y'all, it was too weird for me. Like anyone who's lived in New York, I've always felt stressed by the idea that, like, people show up to Times Square at 9 a.m. on New Year's Eve because they have to kind of stand around

all day waiting and apparently, or at least allegedly, don't have access to bathrooms.

So just know that, like, whenever I see these crowds in Times Square,

even on TV, my bladder really starts dancing. And then there was just something about like

gain up that whole scenario with Andy and Anderson in front of one million product placements

that took it to a whole new level of weird for me. Anyways, I hope whatever kind of holiday you had, it included time for rest and

rejuvenation and that you're feeling ready for this new year. I'm so thrilled because today

I'm bringing you an extra special episode where I'm sitting down with the one and only Raquel Willis

to talk about her new memoir, the risk it takes to bloom on life and liberation. You might remember

that actually her book made it onto my gay agenda recently. And it was like a gay agenda I was

making for myself. Literally, I needed to sit down and read this book as

part of my gay holidays. So I figured why not share the experience with you all and invite Raquel

onto the show to tell us more about her remarkable life journey and her fierce activism.

It's a really exciting and interesting and moving conversation. I know you're going to love.

So stick around and I will be right back with Raquel Wellis after this short break. Welcome back.

Listeners, I think we all know, Raquel Willis is the real deal.

You know her from earth-shifting activism in the service of Black and Trans Liberation,

including the Signal Event that was a 2020 March for Black Translides in Brooklyn,

where thousands flooded the streets.

...