When marriage equality was finally achieved, Karl Dunn thought life couldn't be better. He had a husband, a dream job, and a beautiful life in LA. But then, as everything unraveled through a contentious divorce, Karl discovered just how unequally the system treats same-sex couples.

This crisis sent Karl on an urgent journey of self-rediscovery—from heartbreak in LA to healing in Berlin and beyond. In his memoir How To Burn a Rainbow, Karl explores what liberation really means when he stopped chasing personal perfection.

• Karl Dunn's Substack

Karl Dunn is author of How to Burn a Rainbow: My Gay Marriage Didn't Make Me Whole, My Divorce Did. He formerly served as Global Creative Director on several world-famous brands like MINI Cooper, Levi’s, and ASICS. He spent over two decades as a multi-award winning advertising creative working in Australia, Asia, Africa, Europe, and America. His career culminated as the Director of Innovation for a powerhouse global advertising network.

Karl is a keynote speaker on Reconnecting A Divided World. Living between LA and Berlin, he also works as a freelance advertising consultant to brands.

Full transcript available here at relationscapes.org.

Katelyn Burns, journalist and podcast host of Cancel Me, Daddy. Katelyn was the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S. history and she continues to be a leading voice among journalists on trans issues. It’s not the cushiest job there ever was, especially right now. I wondered how she was holding up under our excessively transphobic regime.

• Cancel Me, Daddy podcast
• Katelyn Burns, GUEST COLUMN: The current ‘mindf*ck’ of being a trans journalist (The Handbasket)
• The Flytrap
• Assigned Media, Evan Urquhart
• Erin In the Morning, Erin Reed
• Nico Lang's Queer News Daily on Instagram
• Eris Young, “Nonbinary Thinking”
• Abi Maxwell, “The Challenges of Parenting Trans Kids”
• Laurie Lee Hall, “Trans In the Latter Days”
• Kyle Lukoff, “A Haunted Trans Story”

Katelyn Burns is a freelance journalist based in New England. She was the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S. history. She hosts the Cancel Me, Daddy podcast and co-owns the Flytrap.

Full transcript available at relationscapes.org.

Frederick Joseph grew up without a father, and he's wondering now whether he wants to be one himself. As a child, he loved Broadway musicals when everyone else expected him to be into sports. Today he resists the suffocating expectations placed on him as a Black man in America through his poetry and essays, inviting men to break the mold of masculinity and embrace the full range of human emotions—sorrow, anger, love, and joy, and more.

Frederick's latest book is a collection of poems called We Alive, Beloved. He joins us to talk about the intersections of race and masculinity in America.

• Frederick Joseph's Substack
• Order Frederick Joseph's new novel, This Thing of Ours

Frederick Joseph is the award-winning two-time New York Times bestselling author of The Black Friend and Patriarchy Blues, in addition to writing other books. His latest is a collection of poems called We Alive, Beloved. His first novel This Thing of Ours comes out in May 2025. He was a 2019 Forbes 30 under 30 list maker, and was included in The Root’s top 100 most influential African Americans. He’s also worked in advertising, activism, and philanthropy.

Full transcript available here at relationscapes.org.