Everything & Anything...and a bit gay Podcast
Join your host, Zach Randles-Friedman, for engaging conversations that delves into a myriad of topics, offering heartfelt stories from the LGBTQ+ community and beyond. Tune in for an inclusive blend of personal anecdotes, thought-provoking insights, and empowering narratives that embrace the richness of diversity and allyship with many laughs.
Episodes
Dr. Lee Phillips has built a wildly unique career sitting at the intersection of clinical expertise and comedy. With a doctorate in psychology, a master's in social work, and a growing social media following fueled by his razor-sharp takes on gay dating and public confrontations, Dr. Lee is a voice the LGBTQ+ community didn't know it needed — until now.
In this episode, Zach and Dr. Lee cover:
- How Dr. Lee went from a ki...
Doreen Mary Bray is a psychic medium, herbalist, therapist, mystical guide, and spirit communicator who has been in contact with the spirit world since birth — literally since the moment she was delivered. In this episode, Doreen shares stories spanning decades of work: freeing earthbound spirits, performing exorcisms, healing through herbs, and teaching thousands of students to access deeper states of consciousness.
She expl...
Episode: This Is Everything — Queer People Contain Multitudes
Welcome to the first installment of This Is Everything — Zach's new weekly segment on Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay that goes a little deeper, a little wider, and a lot more personal than the Friday A Bit Gay episodes.
This week, Zach opens with a thesis he's been carrying for a long time: queer people contain multitudes. Not groundbreaking o...
Dr. Bradley Nelson — chiropractor, author, and founder of Discover Healing — joins Zach to reveal how trapped emotions silently sabotage our health, relationships, and ability to love. From crushing chest pain that vanished in seconds to a woman who found her childhood sweetheart living around the corner for eight years, Dr. Nelson shares remarkable stories that will completely change the way you think about your body.
...
Are you actually happy — or just really good at staying distracted? In this week's Gay Bit, Zach gets real about the difference between being busy and being fulfilled, the noise we use to drown out our own thoughts, and why slowing down might be the most radical thing you can do right now.
Zach explores how full calendars, constant plans, and social media highlight reels can mask a deeper emptiness — and shares his own ...
Tim Bair is the author of Ever Near, a memoir and spiritual account of his ongoing relationship with his late wife Marilyn, who passed away from gastric cancer in 2017. Beginning just one week after her death, Tim began hearing Marilyn's voice — first audibly during a walk, then through what became a practice of writing letters together. That collection of letters, now numbering over 400, forms the foundation of his book seri...
Peggy is the author of Surviving the Family Kingdom: A Memoir of Growing Up in a Mom's Cult, Escaping and Reclaiming a Life, available now on Amazon. A psychotherapist of more than 20 years specializing in trauma, she sat down with Zach to talk through her extraordinary story — from the violent men and instability of her early childhood, to the gradual systematic indoctrination that began around age 11, to the "domino effect"...
Grant Ginder is the author of six novels, including The People We Hate at Weddings (adapted into the 2024 film starring Kristen Bell and Ben Platt) and his latest, So Old, So Young — a story that drops in on six college friends across five parties over twenty years. A University of Pennsylvania grad and former Washington speechwriter, Grant now teaches in the MFA program at NYU.
In this episode:
- Welcoming baby Celia via...
The rainbow flags are missing this June — and the silence is telling. In this Pride Month episode, Zach goes deep on rainbow washing (a.k.a. rainbow capitalism): what it is, where it came from, how it took over Pride, and why corporations are now retreating in record numbers.
From the 1969 Stonewall riots to Subaru's coded 1990s lesbian marketing, from the Bud Light and Target blowups of 2023 to the six-figure sponsorship sho...
Are we losing LGBTQ+ unity — or do we just need to rebuild what it looks like?
In this Friday's Gay Bit, Zach digs into the division he's been watching play out inside the community: gay men turning on trans folks, bisexual and pansexual people getting invalidated, non-binary identities misunderstood, and comment sections full of people who'd rather criticize than get curious.
He reflects on the incredible bravery of the peop...
Episode Title: The Hyphenated Life — Dr. Han on Intersectional Identity, Queer Mental Health, and Surviving the In-Between
Guest: Dr. Han (drhanren.com)
Zach sits down with Dr. Han — psychologist, author, and TikTok creator — who specializes in liberation psychology and anti-oppressive care for children of immigrants, queer people, and Asian Americans. Dr. Han grew up as a 1.5 generation immigrant, born in China a...
Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay David Archuleta: Devout, Coming Out, and Owning Your Sexual Health
Zach sits down with David Archuleta — the beloved American Idol runner-up, recording artist, and now New York Times bestselling author — for a conversation that is equal parts honest, hopeful, and necessary.
David opens up about his debut memoir Devout, the immediate bestseller that explores what it means to...
Episode Title: Kevin James Thornton on Big Baby, Coming Out Late & Finding Fame at 50
Episode Summary: Zach sits down with Kevin James Thornton — author, comedian, musician, and TikTok sensation — for a candid, warm, and hilarious conversation about his upcoming memoir Big Baby, out June 2, 2026. From growing up in Indiana and getting swept into a church youth group to spending two decades chasing a record deal in N...
Episode Summary
It's Pride Month, and Zach is getting into all of it — the joy, the history, the politics, and the very real threats facing the LGBTQ+ community in 2026. This isn't just a celebration episode; it's a call to remember why Pride exists in the first place.
In This Episode
- The magic of NYC Pride and what makes it unlike anything else
- Why Pride started — the Stonewall riots, Marsha P. Johnson, Sylvia R...
Episode Title: From Small-Town Connecticut to 200K Followers — Spencer Thomas Gets Bit Gay
Episode Summary: Spencer Thomas is a 23-year-old NYC-based TikTok creator, writer, and author of Goodbye to Boyhood — a self-published collection of short stories about queer identity, solitude, and growing up. He's amassed over 200K followers on TikTok by doing exactly what he set out to do: more gay shit. In this episode, Zach a...
Episode Summary: Zach recaps his Memorial Day Weekend trip to Provincetown during Baby Dyke Week — and officially walks back his short-lived "Boston gays aren't so bad" take. Spoiler: they are.
In This Episode:
- The last-minute ferry trip to P-Town with friends from New York and a 3-day Airbnb right on Commercial Street
- Tea dance at the Boat Slip, strong drinks, gummies, and a lesson Zach apparently keeps having to rele...
The Gay Bit | Hookup Apps vs. Real Connection
In this week's episode of The Gay Bit, Zach gets into one of the most talked-about (and exhausting) topics in gay culture right now: dating apps and whether they're actually helping anyone find what they're looking for.
Zach runs through the full landscape — from the gay-specific apps like Grindr, Scruff, Jacked, Hornet, Growlr, Her, and Sniffies, to mainstream platforms like Tind...
Zach sits down with the electric Dani Kelly — Brazilian dancer, entrepreneur, podcast host, and force of nature who traded Rio de Janeiro for Los Angeles over 25 years ago and never looked back.
Dani's story starts at age five, watching Bolshoi ballerinas on Brazilian TV and dragging her mom to audition after audition. She trained at one of Brazil's most prestigious ballet schools, mastered everything from jazz to Afro to hip...
What if you could heal almost anything — without surgery, without meds — just by mastering your mind? That's exactly what Max Reader did.
After leaving the Navy at 22, Max was dealing with a reverse cervical curve, sciatica, narcolepsy, severe depression, an ACL/PCL tear, tinnitus, crippling social anxiety, and an astigmatism so bad he couldn't read words on a page. Doctors said most of it would never change without sur...
Justin Elizabeth Sayer has been called "Oscar Wilde meets Whoopi Goldberg" by legendary columnist Michael Musto — and after this conversation, you'll understand exactly why. A novelist, playwright, television writer, and cabaret performer, Justin brings a depth of queer cultural knowledge that is as entertaining as it is essential.
In this episode, Zach and Justin cover:
- The 14th annual Night of a Thousand Judys at Joe'...
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