Detoxicity: By Men, About Men, For Everyone

This episode's guest, Clay Fernald (AKA Clay N Ferno), was voted the Most Popular Man in Boston back in 2005, thanks to MySpace (those were the days, huh?) In those days, Clay did marketing and promo for The Middle East, one of Boston's most legendary concert venues (I've maybe seen 100 shows there). These days, Clay does his own thing: he's an independent contractor, he hosts a podcast, has a Substack, and he talks about all of that during our conversation. It covers workaholism and grind culture, and knowing when to take a break! Clay also talks through his journey to sobriety, and how it's affected his relationships with family, with friends and with himself.

Follow Clay at claynferno on Twitter and Instagram.

Roman Rimer is an actor, improv performer, radio host and activist based in the San Francisco Bay Area. In this episode, Roman and I discuss activism and allyship in various communities. We discuss the gentrification of San Francisco and how he tries to stay true to the city's original spirit of being a place for those who often exist on the margins of society. Roman also charts his course as a transmasculine person, from coming to terms with this knowledge to handling the reactions of friends and family. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Dan Wilson is a Grammy-Award winning musician and songwriter who has scored hits as a member of the band Semisonic ("Closing Time"), as a solo artist (his EP Dancing on the Moon was released earlier this month), and as a collaborative songwriter with Taylor Swift, Chris Stapleton, John Legend and more.

Dan and I discuss his history of collaboration and dig deep into what makes him such a good partner and band member. We talk about his upbringing and what led him down a musical path, and we also discuss the themes of his new EP, which center around communication-an ongoing key topic of this show. I hope you enjoy the interview!

I'm super stoked to be bringing Cornell Verdeja-Woodson back to the podcast. Cornell is the head of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at the meditation app "Headspace" (I've used it, it's great) and also runs Brave Trainings, LLC, an organization that provides a starting point for organizations to unpack sensitive diversity topics through authentic dialogue.

Cornell and I discuss his journey over the last year and a half, and his goals for the future. We talk the future of DE&I, the self-care that's involved with handling such weighty topics on a regular basis, parental relationships, coming out stories and much more. I hope you enjoy this conversation!

Follow Cornell on Instagram and Twitter!

Bill Bodkin originally appeared on Detox back on Episode 33. He is the founder and editor in chief of The Pop Break (a pop culture website) and hosts so many podcasts that even my workaholic ass had to take my hat off and bow in his honor.

We revisit many of the themes from our original chat in this episode, including coping with COVID-19 as an immunocompromised person and struggling with self-doubt as a worker, a spouse and a parent. We also talk about the pitfalls of modern doctors, Bill discusses his newfound abstinence from alcohol.

Bill is one of my dearest friends. I'm very proud of him, and I know it takes a lot for him to be this vulnerable. I hope you enjoy the show!