S8 Ep20: LGBTQ+ Representation in Media (feat. Kacen Callender), Uvalde and What Happens Now, Andrew's Wild Weekend

#Millennial is back in time for PRIDE month y'all! Time for some pretend adulting, gay talk. To kick off Pride Month, we speak with Kacen Callender, author of bestselling novel 'Felix Ever After.' Kacen tells us how they got started as a writer, and we chat about the increase in popularity of LGBTQ romance in mainstream media. Kacen's new book is titled Lark & Kasim Start a Revolution and will be released this September! Follow Kacen on Twitter and check out their website here! It's time to talk gun safety reform... again. In the space of two weeks, mass shootings in a Buffalo supermarket and a Texas grade school left dozens dead. We've heard the same rhetoric around this gun debate for our entire lives - why does this keep happening? We look at some data to explain how our state legislatures respond. The upshot is this: Republican controlled state legislatures respond by loosening gun laws 120% in the year following a mass shooting. Why? The NRA continues to be better funded, and gun fanatics are simply better at engaging with the political process. Here's what we all need to do to make a difference: be engaged with what your state's legislature is doing, join a local gun violence prevention group, donate to a national gun reform organization (Everytown For Gun Safety, Brady, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence, Sandy Hook Promise), volunteer for pro-gun reform candidates, and VOTE in every election!  Want to help victims and survivors in Buffalo and Uvalde? Check out these verified fundraisers: Verified fundraisers for Buffalo + Verified Fundraisers for Uvalde Shifting gears, Andrew tells us about an eventful birthday weekend, and provides video evidence of a wild police stop he witnessed right in front of him. This week's recommendations are informative and comfy: 'Prehistoric Planet' on Apple TV+ (Andrew), 'The G Word' on Netflix (Laura), and shoe inserts for converse (Pam). And in this week's installment of After Dark, available on Patreon: We're kicking off our in-depth host interviews this week with Pam! Pam shares how she got into journalism, and the joys and and difficulties of breaking into the field. Where did we meet Pam? Through Harry Potter? Through Twilight? None of us can remember. What does Pam do outside of #Millennial? And what's her greatest ambition in life? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices