Friends, Loves, & Life
Friends, Loves, & Life
Podcast Description
Real conversations. Meaningful connections. Join me, David Begor, each week as I sit down with a friend to explore love, identity, growth, and the messy beauty of being human. New episodes Wednesday. davidbegor.substack.com
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast explores a variety of themes including love, identity, personal growth, and the LGBTQ+ experience. Episodes cover poignant topics such as self-acceptance, navigating relationships in midlife, the realities of HIV, and the evolution of friendships. Examples include conversations about aging, sexual health outreach, and the joys and challenges of parenthood, all delivered with a mix of depth and light-heartedness.
Real conversations. Meaningful connections. Join me, David Begor, each week as I sit down with a friend to explore love, identity, growth, and the messy beauty of being human.
Randy and I met in 1989 while doing laundry at the Chateau des Fleurs in Los Angeles. I had just moved to LA to work at Bullocks Wilshire in visual merchandising. Randy was working as a graphic designer at Exposure Magazine—the same publication where a young Ryan Murphy was working as an editor. Through Randy, I discovered the world of graphic design, typography, and the creative possibilities that would shape my career.
In this episode, Randy and I reconnect again to talk about creativity, loss, and what it means to sustain an artistic life across time. His career spans art direction roles at The Advocate, Genre, Hero, Home Magazine, and YM, plus 18 years teaching graphic design at FIDM. But more than credentials, Randy brings wisdom about the creative process—particularly his mantra that mistakes aren’t just acceptable, they’re essential.
Our conversation moves through the excitement of 1980s New York, where Randy worked alongside brilliant designers and editors, many of whom were lost to AIDS. We discuss his philosophy, and obsession, on typography (he once took type specimen books to lunch), his experiments with AI in music creation, the invisible burden of aging as a creative person, and why he wishes he’d gotten a business degree instead of relying solely on talent.
Randy is candid about regret, honest about ego, and generous with the lessons he’s learned. He talks about being fired for arrogance, the magazines that died around him, and why he still believes in doing things differently, even when it’s uncomfortable.
This is a conversation about craft, survival, and what it takes to keep creating.
I hope you enjoy my conversation with Randy. -David
#AQueerPOV #RandyDunbar #GraphicDesign #QueerPodcast #Typography #AIDSCrisis #CreativeLife #LGBTQHistory #DesignPodcast #QueerCreatives
A Queer POV: Friends, Loves, & Life with DavidYou can listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Substack, and YouTube.And if you enjoy it, please leave a review—it helps more than you know.
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PS: When I’m not podcasting, I also make wedding, birthday, and anniversary cake toppers. (Yes, really.) Take a peek at the shop: Taylor Street Favors
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