Everything & Anything...and a bit gay Podcast

This week’s Gay Bit goes a little bit everywhere, and that’s the point. Zach is back in his psychic medium and near-death experience era, and it has him thinking about the things he blurts out mid-interview, like his dream of being cryo-frozen and launched into space so aliens can find him a million years from now (backup plan: a seed pod under a big tree).From there, he gets real about how this show changed what he believes about death, why he now fully believes in reincarnation, the signs his father and grandmother have sent him, and why he talks out loud to his guardian angels every night instead of praying.Then it’s on to marriage: his husband Andrew, the self-narrating, always-singing chatty Kathy; a tense dinner with a friend in from Dallas; and Zach’s theory that Andrew’s problem with loud gay dinners has nothing to do with the gays and everything to do with being out-talked by them, especially after a table full of loud Long Islanders.Plus: the birdseed bill, the cardinals and blue jays on the feeder cam, a banana-loving groundhog he’ll miss all winter, Charlie the cat, and Heidi, the fiercely protective Saint Bernard who once knocked out a kid’s front tooth.In this episode:Space burials, tree pods, and what Zach wants when he diesWhy talking to psychic mediums changed his views on the afterlifeSigns from loved ones and talking to guardian angels at nightAndrew, the chattiest husband in MassachusettsAre the gays really too loud at dinner?Backyard birds, a groundhog, Charlie the cat, and Heidi the Saint BernardNew guest episode drops Sunday. Subscribe, and leave a five-star review so more people can find the show.Have thoughts or feedback? Email [email protected] music by Six Foot Five. Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Davey and Omie, the couple behind Traveling Boyfriends, join Zach from London to talk about love, travel, and what it really takes to see the world as a gay couple.In this episode:How a job interview Omie didn’t want and a canceled conference brought a Chicagoan and a Scot together in MiamiMaking long distance work across the Atlantic, and why traveling well together is the best relationship testHow they choose destinations, and why they go beyond Mykonos and Barcelona to places like Marrakesh, Dubai, Oman, and EgyptThe emotional toll of hiding affection abroad, and reconnecting once they get homeWhy some places with progressive laws can feel less welcoming than places with strict onesWhere they draw the line on countries they won’t visit, and how US religious groups have fueled anti-LGBTQ+ laws abroadMessages from followers, including a mom asking how to keep her gay son safe in JordanThe friendliest places they’ve been, from a stranger’s kindness on a tiny Irish island to ScotlandBeing monogamous in a world of open relationshipsThe honeymoon debate: Antarctica or Hawaii?Advice for young LGBTQ+ travelers who want to see the worldFollow Traveling Boyfriends:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/traveling_boyfriends TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@travelingboyfriends https://www.travelingboyfriends.com/Intro music by Six Foot Five.Have thoughts on this episode? Email zach@everythingandanythingpodcast.comeverythingandanythingpodcast.com | @TheRealZachRE Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

He made a first-ever climb of Denali’s north face, hitchhiked around the world at 22, got thrown out of two countries in one week, and was one of the last Americans standing in northern South Vietnam when the North invaded in 1972. Now 84, John Graham is “Badass Granddad” to 127,000 followers, and in this episode he tells Zach how an adrenaline junkie learned that the biggest adventure of all is finding meaning.John opens up about the night on a freighter at 17 that turned a bullied, skinny kid from Tacoma into a thrill-seeker; the moment in Hue when he realized he’d become a “moral monster”; and the PTSD, encounter groups, and inner work that turned his life around, leading to his work at the United Nations, including his role in the fight to end apartheid. He also shares a story he rarely tells: a three-year period of psychic experiences, deep meditative trances, and leaving his body, and what he believes it taught him.Plus, the story of the Giraffe Heroes Project, founded by his wife Ann Medlock to tell the stories of people who stick their necks out for the common good, and why John thinks service is the most stable source of meaning there is.Links:Giraffe Heroes Project: https://www.giraffe.org/ https://www.johngraham.org/badass-granddad https://www.youtube.com/user/JohnGraham29 John's Books: https://www.johngraham.org/books Have a story to share or feedback on the show? Email [email protected] Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Zach returns with a solo This Is Everything segment, working through the headlines that have been weighing on him and on the LGBTQ+ community. He starts with the Supreme Court’s two trans sports ban cases, asking how a ruling could collide with the dozens of state laws and school policies already in place, and points to Massachusetts as proof that anti-trans talking points can cost a candidate. From there he takes on HIV/AIDS funding cuts that threaten medication, testing, and clinics at home and in Africa; the Kansas move that voided trans residents’ driver’s licenses overnight; and book bans targeting LGBTQ characters and people of color. He widens the lens to Ecuador’s new adoption restrictions and the independent LGBTQ journalists forced into hiding in Russia. Then the episode turns hopeful: Zach shares that Listen Up Girl has been trending in Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, where being LGBTQ is criminalized, and what it means that people there are quietly listening through their headphones. A short message from one listener sums it up and becomes the reason he keeps going. He closes with his belief that change is coming. Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A Baptist preacher who’d never held a gun walks into the FBI Academy, and 24 years later walks out a different man. On this episode of Everything & Anything…and a Bit Gay, Zach sits down with Eric Robinson, author of Irreverend: From Saving Souls to Chasing Sinners in the FBI, for a conversation Zach admits he might have turned down a few years ago.Eric spent years as a youth pastor, assistant pastor, and founding pastor of his own church in Western New York, where he gave his congregation a “flinch test” to make sure everyone who walked through the door felt welcome. But two years of daily stress headaches pushed him out of the pulpit. He preached his last sermon on Easter Sunday 2002, entered the FBI Academy the next week, and went on to work drugs, Chicago gangs, public corruption, and 15 years on SWAT.Then his oldest child came out as trans. Then his middle child. Then his youngest came out as gay. Eric talks about the moment that broke him free from the “love the sinner, hate the sin” thinking he’d held onto for decades, and why he calls unconditional love the bare minimum for a parent.In this episode:Why Eric reached out to a former congregant 25 years later to apologizeThe “flinch test” he used to build a more welcoming churchHow chronic stress headaches led him from ministry to the FBI, and stopped the day he was acceptedWhat investigating gang members, a $20 million fraudster, and child predators taught him about human natureWhy many LGBTQ+ people are wary of the FBI right nowWatching the white supremacist group Blood Tribe target an LGBTQ+ barbecue in Toledo, and why prosecutors couldn’t actFinding a “flow state” on high-risk SWAT raidsHis oldest’s coming out, and the freedom of letting go of judgmentTelling his FBI colleagues about his trans kids and banning Fox News from the break roomZach’s own coming-out story with his father, and his brother’s 8 a.m. phone callHow Eric thinks about faith, the Bible, and his old sermons todayConnect with Eric Robinson:Website: https://preachertobreacher.com/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_eric_robinson/LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-robinson-9220053a4/Book: Irreverend: From Saving Souls to Chasing Sinners in the FBI (Weaving Influence)Connect with Zach:https://everythingandanythingpodcast.com @TheRealZachRE on all platformsIntro music by Six Foot Five. Podcast song by SIXFOOT 5: https://www.sixfoot5prod.com Apple: https://music.apple.com/us/artist/sixfoot-5/1551774977 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5rHMzoU0G0fLhaBsrQiOOY?si=laSZ5hiKTYubJJyhrzf2JQ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.