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The Twist Podcast Android News Edition: Science, Politics, Entertainment and Culture Small Plates
If you’ve been listening to The Twist Podcast for any length of time, you know that Mark and Rick have opinions about things. Science, politics, food, entertainment, and the general state of the world as it lurches forward into whatever this era is going to be called when historians get around to naming it.
So we did what any reasonable pair of podcasters would do: we cloned ourselves.
Meet the android versions of Mark and Rick — same voices, same sensibilities, significantly less coffee dependency — and they’re here every week with The Twist Podcast: Android News Edition, your weekly roundup of everything worth knowing and a few things worth arguing about. Will we go weekly? If the interest is there and we can hire more robots.
Each week we’re covering four beats: science, politics, food trends, and entertainment. Politics, because ignoring it hasn’t been working out great for anyone. Science, because it tells you more about the world than just the news does. Food trends, because you deserve to know that beef tallow is making a comeback and tiramisu is officially everywhere. And entertainment, because even in complicated times the shows we watch and the stories we tell matter.
New episodes drop every Friday. Find us wherever you’ve always found The Twist, same feed, no new subscriptions required.
— Mark & Rick
(The originals. Probably.)
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Rick Rose Featured Essay: Taking Stock of Privilage
The following is reprinted with permission from Rick Rose Essays
Taking Stock of Privilege
There is a moment when abundance stops feeling normal and starts feeling like something worth examining. I have three toilets in a home I live in alone. I have two heated garage parking spots and one car. I have a dishwasher, an air fryer, a microwave, three electric blankets for my European feather bed and favorite chairs – one of which is a 240-hand massage chair, something most people will never sit in in a lifetime.
I have 1,800 square feet of living space, three storage closets stuffed full of things I mostly see on holidays – if I even remember to pull them out. I have two walk-in closets and a foyer closet. On a cold morning, my biggest decision is which hoodie in which color, with or without pockets. And on a hot evening, which length of short and what feel of fabric do I choose.
And yet everything that actually matters to me fits in two shoeboxes.
Letters. Notes. Photographs. Small trinkets from people I love and people who have loved me.
No brand name. No price tag. Nothing you could shop for. Just proof that I was known by someone, and that I knew them back. That is the inventory that never lies.
And somewhere between those two shoeboxes chosen from the hundred pairs of shoes I have collected is the question I think about more and more – what is the quiet weight of having too much? It’s time I let that thought lead my ways.
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LGBT Senior Announces: One Thing or Another – Life, Aging, and the Absurdities Of It All Now A Free Audiobook
OR LISTEN AT YOUR LEISURE HERE
Getting older was supposed to come with wisdom. Nobody mentioned the absurdity.
In One Thing or Another: Life, Aging and the Absurdities of It All, Mark McNease takes a clear-eyed, warmly funny look at the indignities, surprises, and occasional revelations of growing older. With the timing of a seasoned storyteller and the honesty of someone who has lived enough to laugh about it, McNease finds humor in the everyday moments most of us are too busy — or too embarrassed — to examine closely.
From the small humiliations of a body that no longer cooperates to the baffling speed of a world that keeps changing without asking permission, these columns remind us that aging is something we’re all doing together. We might as well laugh.
One Thing or Another is the perfect companion for anyone who has ever caught their reflection and thought, when did that happen?
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LGBT Senior Announcements: Cora Berke Joins LGBTSr As Contributing Writer
Cora Burke I started this website 15 years ago with several contributing writers. The amazing Stephanie Mott, trans activist and luminous soul, passed away a few years ago, and David Webb, of Dallas Voice fame, retired. It’s been a long and sometimes lonely time, and I’m thrilled to welcome Cora Burke as a contributing writer to LGTSr. – Mark
About Cora
Cora Berke has dabbled in writing since reading Nancy Drew Mysteries in 3rd Grade.
She has written for the Bucks County Herald covering municipal and school board meetings. Cora also blogged for the Bucks County Visitor’s Center and wrote a food column for Out in Jersey Magazine.
She served on the Board of FACT (Fighting AIDS Continuously Together) and volunteered over 15 years for New Hope Celebrates to preserve LGBTQ+ history.
Born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, Cora now lives in Lambertville, NJ.An avid reader, she also loves knitting and gardening.
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LGBT Senior On the Lookout: Uncloseted Media Provides LGBTQ Journalism That Doesn’t Look Away
In a media landscape where LGBTQ coverage has been shrinking for years, Uncloseted Media is doing the opposite, digging deeper, harder, truer.
Launched in 2024 by journalist and NYU professor Spencer Macnaughton, Uncloseted Media was founded on the belief that once marriage equality was won, much of the mainstream press quietly decided the story was over. It wasn’t, it isn’t, and Uncloseted Media was launched to prove that.
Uncloseted Media describes its mission plainly: providing objective, nonpartisan, rigorous, original journalism that investigates America’s anti-LGBTQ landscape and elevates everyday American heroes. No hot takes, no noise, just journalism.
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Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast: Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller (Chapters 19 – 21)
Welcome back to Mark McNease’s Fearsome Fiction Podcast, with Night Flight to Murder Town – A Marshall James Thriller, chapters nineteen through twenty-one.
It’s 1992, and Marshall James is forty blocks into his first real walk through New York City — down through Chelsea, where hope is spilling out onto the sidewalk in front of every coffee bar. He’s thirty-three, starting over, and beginning to believe that might actually be possible.
That belief gets complicated fast. A tour of Muscles Gym leads to a dinner invitation from Leland Jenner that Marshall knows he shouldn’t accept — and accepts anyway. Meanwhile, he learns that Trent has his own standing Tuesday arrangement with a certain Senator Daniel Roth.
Then we jump forward. Marshall and his partner Boo arrive in Lambertville to look into the murder of a famous author — last seen alive at the bed and breakfast where they’re now unpacking. The canal, the locked rooms, and a housekeeper with perfect comic timing are all waiting for them.
Chapters Nineteen, Twenty, and Twenty-One. Night Flight to Murder Town.
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LGBT Senior’s Weekly Humorscope: ‘L’ is for Leo
What does the universe have in store for LGBT seniors this week? We asked the cosmos. The cosmos, as usual, was vague but entertaining. Here’s what we got.
♈ Aries
You’re ready to charge ahead — but not everything needs a dramatic entrance. This week rewards strategy over speed. Pick your battles (and your emails) carefully.
Best Day: Tuesday
Avoid: Saying the quiet part out loud♉ Taurus
You want comfort, stability, and maybe a really good snack. Valid. Just don’t resist a necessary change out of habit. Something shifting now is actually in your favor.
Best Day: Friday
Avoid: “I’ll deal with it later”♊ Gemini
You’re juggling ideas, conversations, and maybe a little gossip. Stay grounded. One clear decision will feel better than ten open tabs in your brain.
Best Day: Wednesday
Avoid: Overexplaining -
Savvy Senior: Where to Get Help with Medicare Decisions
By Jim Miller
Dear Savvy Senior,
I’ll be 65 in a few months and could sure use some help sorting through all the confusing Medicare options that are available to me. Where can I get help with my Medicare decisions?
–Baffled Bob
Dear Bob,
With around 11,400 Baby Boomers turning 65 every day in 2026, you’re asking a very timely question.
Many people approaching Medicare are confused by all the choices available today. In addition to original Medicare (Part A and B) that has been around for more than 60 years, you also have the option of enrolling in a Part D prescription drug plan, and a supplemental (Medigap) policy – both of which are sold by private insurance companies.
Another option is a Medicare Advantage plan. These plans, also offered by private insurers, bundle hospital coverage, medical care, prescription drugs, and often extra benefits like vision, dental, and hearing into one policy. Most operate as HMOs or PPOs and require you to receive care within a defined network of providers in your area.
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LGBT Senior’s Weekly Writing Prompt: Happiness? Fulfillment? None of the Above?
This week’s writing prompt
Happiness is a word we use easily and define poorly. It can mean delight, relief, pleasure, laughter. Contentment feels quieter, perhaps as a sense that our life is enough and we’re pleased with it. Fulfillment might feel deeper still, as if we’re living the journey rather than being on it.
For this one-page flash writing, don’t overthink it. Write honestly. Let your pen move before your inner critic takes over. And don’t hesitate to be contrary. If none of these things seem applicable to you, say it. Maybe you think it’s nonsense. Maybe you think happiness is a marketing tool for the wellness industry. That’s perfectly okay.
However you define them, consider this: What might you want to feel them, or more of them: A change in routine? A conversation? More rest? A creative risk? Less noise? More calm in the chaos of the world around us? More connection?
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LGBT Senior’s Health Beat: Spring Into It
By the LGBTSr blog team
I just got a bicycle, something I’ve been intending to do for several years. Luckily a friend and neighbor had one to give away, saving me the considerable cost of a new bike. My plan is to start slowly, riding up the road every day and extending the distance a little each time. Eventually I’ll be doing a few miles, and who knows from there? I want the cardio, and I love bike riding. Stay tuned for an update. – Mark
It’s warming up. Your body is ready. Here’s how to meet it where it is.
Something happens this time of year that no gym membership or fitness app can replicate. The days get longer. The air changes. The front door starts to look like an invitation instead of just an exit. For those of us who spent the winter months moving a little less and sitting a little more, spring is one of the best natural motivators there is — and all we have to do is not waste it.
Here’s how to make the most of it, sensibly and enjoyably.
Start slower than you think you need to.
This is the one everyone skips, and the one that matters most. After months of limited activity, muscles can lose strength and flexibility, so it’s important to ease back in rather than jump straight to your pre-winter routine. That enthusiasm you feel on the first warm Saturday of the year is real and good — just don’t let it write a check your knees can’t cash. A twenty-minute walk is a complete success. Build from there.
