A Thousand Natural Shocks With Gabe S. Dunn

Content warning: SA

Comedian Alana Bamfield joins the show to talk about turning her experience as a Larry Nassar victim into her comedy special "Untouchable." We talk about her writing process for new material, her bizarre experiences after Nassar was stabbed in prison, and her parents' support for her stand-up.

Watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzigeuasz2I

Writer and comedian Mary Houlihan joins Gabe to talk about Hollywood's lack of movement on ICE and Palestine and what the media is getting wrong.

Incredible and brilliant author Dean Spade (Mutual Aid, Love In A F*cked Up World) joins the podcast to talk about the early fight for trans rights, the history of organizing as a long-term project, and the community care-based ways of living he's experienced in other countries. It's a wonderful and far-reaching conversation. We can't afford to throw people away.

Dean's books: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/category/author/dean-spade

Gabe's Substack: https://athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com/

Aleksandra Vaca of Transitics talks about being a 19-year-old independent trans journalist and three trans legislative stories that the mainstream media isn't covering well or at all.

Aleksandra's substack: https://www.transiticsnews.com/

Gabe's substack: https://athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com/

Disability advocate Annie Segarra joins the show again to speak more broadly about the groundbreaking Olmstead Act, the dangers of Medicare cuts, and the eugenics of disability decisions by politicians.

Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com

Accessibility advocate and long-time YouTube friend Annie Segarra joins the show to talk about the stories of children with disabilities who are in ICE custody and the ways it is easier for disabled people to be disappeared during fascism. Gabe once again goes on his horror movie ableism rant and Annie talks about the effects of COVID to this day. (Vaccine tea.) We end on Halloween...

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Photojournalist Tom Hudson joins the show to give testimony about the ICE surge at the Geo Group prison Delaney Hall in Newark, NJ this month. We discuss the myriad reasons to document this violent dissent into fascism. Tom explains New Jersey state police's collaboration with ICE and where legacy media is failing us.

Note for the listener:

At 39:19 Tom's dog barks lightly in the background and there are also lovely bird chirps in the background toward the end because Tom was outside on a porch in Virginia

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Rachel and Jamie from the "Debt Heads" narrative/investigative podcast joins the show to get back to Gabe's Bad With Money roots. The trio discusses the bigger implications of debt in the larger US political and economic system. Plus, Gabe shares some debt that happened after he was attacked in his car in 2024.

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This man has STORIES. Career photojournalist Nick Stern shares how he got into photographing ICE and DHS raids and stories of being press during a time when even local law enforcement shoots and arrests reporters.

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Maebe A. Girl (Maebe Pudlo) joins the show to talk running for state Senate in California (election is on 6/2), why she runs for office in drag, and having the conviction to be truly progressive despite roadblocks.

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Please don't break your jaw with a tiny hammer. What a fantastic conversation about men and the Internet. I love this one! Please listen if you like smart people like Aidan! Writer Aidan Wharton of Gay Buffet, joins the show to talk about tech, human connection, and the male loneliness epidemic. Gabe grapples with the misconception he had about working for himself, when he realized he actually works for social media. (And I get it, okay Millennials whateverrrr).

https://gaybuffet.substack.com

JeremyFindsAI: https://www.instagram.com/jeremyfindsai/

This one is important! Ballots are out! Rev. Rae Huang, the future Mayor of Los Angeles if anyone has any sense, joins the podcast to go step-by-step through her ideas for a better Los Angeles. 

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Writer KB Brookins joins the show to talk about trans news that doesn’t suck. It’s a really great conversation about specific wins and how to see them, use them, and get involved in creating them.

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Author and activist Ben Greene joins the pod to talk about why he focuses on good news. Your despair is someone else's business model. Plus, some extremely insane stories of passing as cis. (Ben's is wild!!!)

Good Queer News: https://www.goodqueernews.com

Eligio Guerrero from The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) in Seguin, TX joins the show to talk about the organization's work and its return to its roots as a civil rights stalwart in the face of ICE raids. And then the people of Big Bend National Park fight back against a wall. Plus, the children of the Dilley detention center, investing in the youth, and how to make it easier for Latinos to vote despite all the efforts against it. 

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Gabe and Lex Rofeberg, who had very similar childhoods, talk about discarding the Zionism they were taught growing up. What does that mean for their futures and the future of Judaism?

https://www.judaismunbound.com/2026-courses/p/jewish-citizenship

In honor of her new book Like, Follow, Subscribe, Fortesa Latifi joins Gabe to talk about something Gabe hates: child influencers and family vlogging.

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Reporter Fortesa Latifi joins Gabe to discuss the origins of mommy blogging and child influencers, what has come out since these children have grown up, and what these families are actually selling. Plus, the dangers and problems of selling exclusive content of your children, turning your home and their safe space into a "set," and strangers being a fan of your child. What laws can be put into place to p...

Bill O’Reilly book titles. Zionist Instagram accounts. Checking NewsMax every day. Lyz Lenz, author and writer of the newsletter Men Yell At Me, joins the show to talk about making men mad. We discuss divorce, our funny(?) families, and how we’ve become better and worse for consumption of political media. Political discussion starts about 8 minutes in. Tw for Epstein.

Writer Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya joins the show to talk about finding queer community and chosen family in a red state like Florida. Gabe shares his stories of growing up there and learns about the type of solidarity that can beautifully develop in adversity --- both with the weather and, you know, otherwise.

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Gabe’s old BuzzFeed coworker and writer Ash Perez joins the show to talk about his new rom com Speak Now. The duo catch up about transness, autism, and the wild paths their lives have taken. 

Speak Now is a queer rom-com about a rising-star chef who’s forced to confront her first love when she’s hired to cater her ex–best friend’s wedding, putting her career-defining opportunity at odds with unresolved feelings from her past. Set in the world of fine dining in Big Sur, it’s a funny, emotionally honest story about second chances and se...

Jesse, of Theater Workers For A Ceasefire, talks about the importance of theater in the political space, divesting from Israeli state-sponsored, colonialist and imperialist theater, and coming into anti-Zionism as a Jewish artist. 

Links: https://theaterworkersforaceasefire.com/statement

https://www.bacbi.be/

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Reporter Madeline Peltz joins the show to talk about her years of covering Turning Point USA, the liberal journalists who suck up to Nazis, and how liberals and leftists focus on elections over building movements. Plus, the right's ability to embrace anyone who wants in, how right-wing women are losing faith in MAGA and why we keep not believing what the right is telling us straight up that they are doing.

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Author of "Cafe Hysteria" Madison Huizinga and Gabe talk about no longer media training celebrities, the sinister origins of trends, and why concerts have become so prohibitively expensive. Plus, every influencer is fake now. Even ones with like, five followers. 

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The author of “Demystifying Disability,” Emily Ladau, joins the pod to talk about the societal expectations that make life harder for disabled people, what changes about your life, and the media’s laziness using disability as a shortcut.

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LA Taco reporter Izzy Ramirez joins the show to talk about the crushing of freedom of the press, tracking all of the ICE raids and all of the people kidnapped in them (about 100 a week in LA), and the cities where Minneapolis levels of federal brutality is happening without comprehensive coverage. Plus, violent retaliation against community watchers.

Tw: suicide 

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Just kidding! They do! Taylor Smith is back on the show to explain striking. All your questions answered. We’re also having fun!

Gabe recounts his visit to Sacramento to talk to legislators and Gov. Gavin Newsom. This week, a man named Alex Pretti was shot in broad daylight by ICE agents. What do we do now?

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Gabe and fellow activist/photographer Eric Langberg discuss the uphill battle current photographers face during this moment of no media literacy, the misunderstanding of Vanity Fair's "bad" photos of the Trump administration, and the controversy of photographing protest movements and bystanders. Plus, what he chooses to photograph versus others at the same protests. Then, Eric fights with people on Reddit. And finally, we wonder what these ICE agents and people on the wrong side of history will feel about these photos in the future and figure out how to use whatever skills you have to help in the fight...

Welcome back! Former CNN reporter, now independent journalist Nick Valencia joins the show to kiki with Gabe about the ups and downs of working for mainstream media and why he's chosen to go independent for his coverage of immigration in this horrid time.

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Gabe discusses how ableism and toxic masculinity led to his fear of quitting a job because of his new medical diagnosis.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

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This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. Monts

Professor and author Celina Su joins the pod to talk about her new position on NYC mayor Zohran Mamdani’s transition team and about the outrageous misuse of budgets and what we can do about making change.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. Monts

Each week, Gabe will sum up some of the work he’s been doing or researching anti-fascist activism on the ground and keep you updated on the latest developments. 

This week, Gabe reflects on reactions to our 50501 Movement episode and on his own confusion around what needs to happen.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

Check out Rosetta Stone and use my code TODAY for a great deal: https://www.rosettastone.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa...

To permit protests or not to permit protests? (The answer is obvious.) Hunter Dunn (no relation), of the 50501 Movement's press officers, joins the show to talk about youth in politics, queerness in the Bible and how we use religion to convince across party lines, and bringing liberals and Dems into leftist organizing. Hunter and Gabe reminisce about some of the more bizarre aspects of LA government they've experienced this fall.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

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Each week, Gabe will sum up some of the work he’s been doing or researching anti-fascist activism on the ground and keep you updated on the latest developments. This week, Gabe talks about what happened at a House Oversight Committee meeting he attended and reflects on what his grandmother told him about surviving the Holocaust.

https://www.instagram.com/epistemiccrisis?

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. M...

Historian Prit Buttar, author of “Into The Reich joins the show to draw parallels between the specifics of World War II and our lives now. It’s much more complex than even your host could believe. Check this out if you want not only a soothing British voice but also a history lesson between two obsessives.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. Monts

Original Air Date: May 6, 2025 

Gabe is thrilled to speak to Kathryn Kellogg, a spokesperson for the zero waste movement, about overconsumption’s impact on the environment and on ourselves.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. Monts

Each week, Gabe will sum up some of the work he’s been doing or researching anti-fascist activism on the ground and keep you updated on the latest developments. This week, he notes that the State Department has changed the sex marker on the passport website about 4 times in the last few weeks.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. Monts

Activist Catie Laffoon joins the show to talk about the largest ICE detention center in California, which has garnered almost no media attention, and the example of California City becoming owned by ICE. Catie and Gabe traveled two hours outside LA to what they believe to be a future "slave city" to find scandals, horrors, insanity, and corruption. They discuss their theories and research on how cities will be taken over by the federal government and military.

linktr.ee/MakeARuckus

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

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The world wasn't always organized through capitalism, and viewing that economic system through only a Eurocentric lens won't provide the entire picture. Harvard professor and historian Sven Beckert joins the show to talk about how capitalism started and how we got here. Plus, gender and racial roles in capitalism and why we view the stock market as a mystical god.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

This has been a Noted Bisexual and Diamond MPrint Productions

Produced by Melisa D. Monts

Ever make a doctor's appointment to trick them into learning about trans people? Uncloak's Kalvin Byrd joins the podcast to talk about his work testing doctors on how they treat trans male reproductive healthcare and connecting them to other safe, vetted doctors and trans patients, using himself as a guinea pig to be the first trans man a doctor has ever seen, and his commitment to healthcare access to save trans lives. Kalvin's an absolute delight and such a fantastic advocate for trans patients.

Join Gabe’s Substack at athousandnaturalshocks.substack.com

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