Gaby Dunn is In Bed With Eva
Cripping Up Sex: On this episode of In Bed with Eva, we have the fabulous Gaby Dunn! Tell us your name, pronouns, and a bit about what you do
Gaby: Hiii. I'm Gaby. She or they is good. I'm a writer and podcaster and artist-type person in LA. I have a show called Just Between Us and another called Bad With Money.
Cripping Up Sex: That’s awesome you’re a writer and podcaster! How did you get started?
Gaby: I started writing for my local newspaper when I was 14/15 as an intern and then went to college and worked as an intern again at the Boston Globe because I wanted to be a journalist.
Gaby: And then I worked freelance for a bunch of places in NY until I moved to LA, thinking I could write [for] TV.
Gaby: So I switched jobs a lot and was doing YouTube which is I think how most people found me.
Cripping Up Sex: That's so cool! What’s it like being a queer person in your industry?
Gaby: It's weird! It sometimes feels like living in 2 different worlds because I know from experience what queer people would want to watch or listen to, from my real life, but if you go in and try to explain it to the people with money or the people making important decisions, they're often skeptical.
Gaby: Sometimes you find great places like Boom Studios, who published my graphic novel Bury The Lede
Gaby: But it makes my head spin sometimes because people want "diversity" but they want it in name only, and they don't want to actually have to listen to you.
Gaby: So you end up with a lot of work that is what a straight person thinks a queer person might want, and we [actually] don't want it
Gaby: Our real lives are more interesting 🙂
Cripping Up Sex: That's very similar to disability. Like the media only wants a few storylines of "the disabled person overcoming their disability" or "the poor disabled person"; they don't have much interest in what our experiences actually are.
Gaby: Exactly!
Cripping Up Sex: You also have a podcast called “Just Between Us” with your friend Alison. Tell me a little about that.
Gaby: It's a variety show based on our YouTube show but it's grown into so much more than comedy, which is lovely. (You've been a guest!) So it's grown more now into a show that has comedic elements but is educational.
Gaby: Our guests are almost never comedians. They're people with specialties in their fields.
Gaby: So we've had a primatologist, and an expert on redlining, and multiple mental health professionals, and people talking about polyamory.
Gaby: Anyone who is an expert in their field who can entertain and educate our audience. And then Allison and I share our lives, and we also do a game show portion.
Cripping Up Sex: That's so cool! You do have a variety of amazing guests.
Gaby: Well you were one!
Cripping Up Sex: It was so much fun being on your show
Gaby: You were great
Cripping Up Sex: Thanks so much! Switching gears a bit, you are also open about having bipolar disorder. What prompted you to come out, per se?
Gaby: I didn't want to for a long time because I thought it was a Scarlet "B" in a sense
Gaby: That everyone would think I was crazy and not listen to my opinions or engage with my art anymore
Gaby: It would be used to brush me off
Gaby: And I also didn't want to believe it myself but I was writing my book Bad With Money and I'd been on meds and in therapy for a while so I had a bit of a handle on it, and I was able to write about it from a distanced perspective. Also, I needed in the book to explain some motivations for why I'd spent so much money recklessly and the only explanation was I was manic.
Gaby: So it was an integral part of my story that I couldn't leave out or ignore.
Gaby: And then people have been so kind and have related to it, so it was worth it to come out.
Cripping Up Sex: I think more visibility about bipolar disorder and other mental health issues is so important to reducing the stigma around it.
Gaby: Well, movies like Split don't help anyone!
Gaby: Did you see Midsommar?
Cripping Up Sex: No I did not see Midsommar!
Gaby: It has a throwaway line about a bipolar girl killing her whole family that really made me cringe
Gaby: So that's our rep!
Cripping Up Sex: Oy. That certainly does not help anything.
Cripping Up Sex: How have you felt about the idea that bipolar disorder is a disability?
Gaby: I didn't think it was! Someone made a list of their favorite disabled Youtubers and I was on it and I was surprised.
Gaby: I didn't want to take up space in a community that I didn't know I belonged in
.
Gaby: I'm still unsure.
Cripping Up Sex: That's fair and makes sense. I know how the queer community can be with visible disabilities, but how you have found the queer community in terms of non-visible disabilities?
Gaby: They get it in many ways because of the inherent feeling of being an outsider, or not being the first thought of the people in charge. Not having their needs catered to.
Gaby: There's a huge intersection between people not getting the healthcare they need and being queer.
Gaby: Having access to treatment for bipolar is so expensive.
Gaby: And not having treatment can really spiral, and that incurs more costs. (Plus obviously, impulsive spending is a huge part of the disorder.) So I'm sure because queer people (particularly trans people) are less likely to have the money for treatment or even access to treatment, there's a huge overlap in the communities.
Gaby: It's very very lucky (and based on so much classism) to be able to function. And that sucks.
Gaby: It's a never-ending loop.
Cripping Up Sex: I hear that
Cripping Up Sex: You mentioned your book “Bad with Money”. Tell me a little more about that.
Gaby: It's based on my podcast Bad With Money which started as an exploration of my own money problems and lack of financial literacy to now, six seasons in, it's a total social justice-based show.
Gaby: What I learned doing the show is that it's not entirely anyone's fault for being 'bad with money.' There's a lot in place to keep us that way.
Gaby: So I grew and learned so much, and was able to pitch it as a book to Simon and Schuster and that came out in 2019. It's part memoir, part tips based on my own bad experiences.
Gaby: The idea is not to talk down to my audience and not to gaslight them into thinking they can fix all their problems in one go.
Gaby: A lot of financial media is like, "Hey you're stupid!" and I wanted to provide the opposite of that.
Gaby: Financial media with context and care.
Cripping Up Sex: That's so important! I really think high schools should have a mandatory money management class because I did not know anything about managing money when I was growing up and that's so common.
Gaby: I think it's on purpose
Gaby: That's my very mild and obvious conspiracy theory
Cripping Up Sex: Lol
Gaby: Because if the lower class had access to information, it'd be over for rich people
Cripping Up Sex: True
Cripping Up Sex: So you are certainly busy because you also wrote a graphic novel called “Bury the Lede” as you also mentioned. What inspired you to go this route with storytelling?
Gaby: I'd never done it before. It's way different than writing a script. Every movement of every character has to be described so it was a challenge and I like a challenge. I also love collaborating. So it was so fun to write words and then see an artist bring them to life.
Gaby: Claire Roe did the art, and Miguel Muerto did the color and it was like a dream watching this book form from my words.
Gaby: I like it when everyone is good at their job and works together to create one thing. It's always a pleasure for me.
Cripping Up Sex: I bet! That's so awesome
Gaby: And I'd never done it before! And then right after that, I wrote an audio narrative podcast and so then I had to completely switch gears and instead of writing only pictures, I was writing only sound.
Gaby: There are so many ways to write a story, and so I like switching genres so I'm always challenged.
Cripping Up Sex: That's so cool
Gaby: Thank you!
Cripping Up Sex: So do you have any awesome things coming up?
Gaby: Well, the audio project came out and it's called Apocalypse Untreated so you can get that now! It's about six teenagers in a rehab wilderness program during the end of the world -- and the end of their meds supply. Which I wrote to help destigmatize a bunch of different mental illnesses.
Gaby: And actually as of today, myself and Allison Raskin are hosting a new show on Sundance TV called Make This Movie.
Gaby: That just came out like, 2 hours ago. [at time of recording]
Gaby: And then some stuff I can't say yet!
Gaby: You can get Apocalypse Untreated on Audible.
Cripping Up Sex: Awesome! Very exciting
Cripping Up Sex: Where would you like to see the queer community go in terms of disability?
Gaby: As I'm sure you know, I don't think people generally think of disabled people as having any sexuality, let alone as queer.
Gaby: It's such an invisible group.
Gaby: I'd love for us to have more comprehensive healthcare because I think that would go a long way in terms of access -- at the intersection of healthcare for disability but also for mental health which affects many of us.
Cripping Up Sex: Exactly!
Gaby: My first therapist here was specifically for dealing with LGBTQ issues because I was so distraught about a lot of things.
Gaby: But many people do not have access
Cripping Up Sex: Where would you like to see the media go in terms of disability?
Gaby: Less murderers!
Gaby: More dating!
Cripping Up Sex: Lol! That's a good start
Gaby: I think also just being included!
Cripping Up Sex: For sure!
Gaby: In groups of friends in shows, without it being a thing
Gaby: Hanging out!
Gaby: At the bar!
Gaby: Hanging out with... other disabled people so they're not a token on the show!
Gaby: Big asks I guess
Gaby: Oh! As love interests but it's not tragic
Gaby: And [disabled people] in the writer's rooms
Cripping Up Sex: Haha exactly. Well, that was the last question, this has been so much fun, Gaby. Is there anything else you would like our readers to know?
Gaby: That you're great and also there are so many people doing such great work here so don't feel alone.
Gaby: I love this show Schizophrenic in the City
Gaby: It's a podcast
Gaby: I think there are so many places you can go to not feel alone
Gaby: So don't give up on finding community
Cripping Up Sex: Awesome! Thanks so much, Gaby!
Gaby: Of course!! Thanks for having me
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