You've heard of the AMA (ask me anything), wait till you hear THIS:

isn't it about time for something new and better and really cool, actually

What's up chuckleducks! I've been working BTS (blockbuster film lingo for 'behind the scenes') on some cool and frankly important stuff, which will be announced tomorrow (exciting).

BUT TILL THEN:

You've heard of AMAs…

It stands for Ask Me Anything. Popularized by the very chill and very feminist website Reddit, the term and idea - a real-time Q&A with someone of interest - is very much a post 2000 internet era thing! At least that's according to the 2014 Atlantic article, "AMA: How a Weird Internet Thing Became a Mainstream Delight," back when we’d non-ironically put words like 'delight' into headlines.

Basically, the format - which hinged on getting interesting people, who often worked in taboo topics like sex, drugs, and science, to answer questions from anonymous users on forums like Something Awful, Metafilter, UrbanBaby, Slashdot, etc.

The key, it seemed, was the anonymity. People felt comfortable asking weird ass questions knowing they'd often get a real ass answer.

With anonymity, though, *cue dark turn in the music* came today's internet - a mean trollopolis of misery and remorse (except Both Are True and most of Substack!).

Which is why it's time for something new. Something that can take us from parasocial to, idk, actually social? Introducing...

YAMA-MAYA

No, it's not a cool new electronic keyboard from which the illusory world emerges, ya goose! It stands for:

You Ask Me Anything + Me Ask You Anything

A two-way street! As outlined in the title:

• You can ask me anything and I will answer as best as legally possible

• I will ask you something and you can, if its in your practice, respond! You can even then ask a follow up question if you want.

This, according to leading experts in the space, is a conversation.

And y'all can ask each other questions too. I don't care. All I know is we'll all tell our grandkids, even though they didn't ask to know, that we were here for this, the world's first YAMA-MAYA.

So let's party - got anything u want to ask me? Hit me with, if not your best shot, at least one you feel is commensurate with your ability.

Oh also: does anyone here work in Social Work? Or have their masters in Social Work? Or work in perinatal health? I got a friend looking to talk to people in the field, so if that’s you, reply to this email or comment!

And with that very specific not at all philosophical quandary, the first monthly YAMA-MAYA has begun!