The Monday After
LightNews LightNews
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Monday After
@themondayafter2025.substack.com
8 followers 14 following 93 posts
The Monday After — part podcast, part Substack, all sarcasm therapy. Dating chaos, gaslighting recovery, and luxury hotel flakery told with wit, scars, and too many bar tabs.
Posts Replies Media Videos
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Writing “Give My Heart Some Rest”: How Grief, Faith, and a Poem Helped Me Sit With Loss
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Writing “Give My Heart Some Rest”: How Grief, Faith, and a Poem Helped Me Sit With Loss
Inspired by Hina Gondal’s poem “When Grief Refuses to Leave,” this piece explores how grief, faith, and art can coexist—without rushing healing or demanding answers.
open.substack.com
January 26, 2026 at 3:26 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
When the Crumbs Stop Feeling Like Love: How Cognitive Dissonance Keeps You Hooked on People Who Hurt You
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
When the Crumbs Stop Feeling Like Love: How Cognitive Dissonance Keeps You Hooked on People Who Hurt You
You don’t stay because you’re weak — you stay because you were conditioned to believe crumbs were a feast, until you finally learned to feed yourself peace instead.
open.substack.com
January 23, 2026 at 1:03 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Don Lemon, the First Amendment, and the Lie of Elite Moral Authority
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Don Lemon, the First Amendment, and the Lie of Elite Moral Authority
A former media icon storms a church, invokes the First Amendment, and exposes how elitism, virtue signaling, and performance anger hollow out civil rights.
open.substack.com
January 20, 2026 at 10:28 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Illusion Delusion: The Quiet System That Rewards Virtue and Excuses Failure
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Illusion Delusion: The Quiet System That Rewards Virtue and Excuses Failure
A clear-eyed look at how moral storytelling replaced accountability—and why the people who perform virtue best are often the least accountable.
open.substack.com
January 17, 2026 at 12:00 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
How Telling Someone to "Be the Bigger Person" Is a Power Play: How Elite Feminism Escapes Accountability
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
How Telling Someone to "Be the Bigger Person" Is a Power Play: How Elite Feminism Escapes Accountability
Why calls to “be the bigger person” are often used across the political and social spectrum as a strategy to shift blame, silence dissent, and protect elite power.
open.substack.com
January 15, 2026 at 1:28 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Two Truths and a Lie: How Gossip Becomes Defamation by Implication
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Two Truths and a Lie: How Gossip Becomes Defamation by Implication
How gossip framed as “mostly true” narratives can still constitute defamation per se under North Carolina and federal law — even when no one says the lie out loud.
open.substack.com
January 12, 2026 at 6:08 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Why Friendship Dinners With ‘Single’ Women Almost Always Backfire
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Why Friendship Dinners With ‘Single’ Women Almost Always Backfire
Modern dating has redefined “available,” and if you don’t understand what that actually means, you’re probably paying for dinner you’ll never be thanked for.
open.substack.com
January 7, 2026 at 12:51 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Maria Was a Chatbot, But at Least She Didn't Judge My Spotify Playlist Like Kimberley Did
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Maria Was a Chatbot, But at Least She Didn't Judge My Spotify Playlist Like Kimberley Did
Sometimes the fantasy of a chatbot is still better than the real-life dinner date who wants equality—except when the check arrives.
open.substack.com
January 5, 2026 at 1:11 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Once in a Lifetime: The Song I Wrote When Love Collided with Gravity
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
One Million Light Years Away: The Song I Wrote When Love Collided with Gravity
A love song written from the wreckage — and a reminder that sometimes drifting apart is just how we learn to find our way back to ourselves.
open.substack.com
January 1, 2026 at 12:33 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
When “Being the Bigger Person” Is Just Emotional Silence in Disguise
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
When “Being the Bigger Person” Is Just Emotional Silence in Disguise
A reflective piece on how “choosing peace” often becomes a demand for silence, and why real friendship requires accountability, repair, and mutual effort—not quiet compliance.
open.substack.com
December 31, 2025 at 1:02 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
It’s Not the Body Count — It’s the Backstory: Why a Woman’s Past Matters More Than Her Number
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
It’s Not the Body Count — It’s the Backstory: Why a Woman’s Past Matters More Than Her Number
A brutally honest deep-dive into why a woman’s relationship history, patterns, and justifications reveal far more than the number she admits to.
open.substack.com
December 30, 2025 at 1:30 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Narcissism Manifesto: How DSM-VI, Social Media, and Elite Feminism Created a New Generation of Covert Manipulators
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Narcissism Manifesto: How DSM-VI, Social Media, and Elite Feminism Created a New Generation of Covert Manipulators
A brutally honest deep dive into how culture, psychology, and modern dating collided to create the most entitled, therapy-fluent, emotionally unaccountable generation of narcissists we’ve ever seen.
open.substack.com
December 29, 2025 at 2:20 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
When "Be the Bigger Person" Really Means "Let Me Lie About You in Peace"
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
When "Be the Bigger Person" Really Means "Let Me Lie About You in Peace"
I spent months being told to “be the bigger person,” only to realize it was shorthand for disappearing quietly while she avoided accountability, rewrote history, and set traps from 200 miles away.
open.substack.com
December 27, 2025 at 6:45 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
“Waiting for Love” (and Waiting for Madison to Stop Singing)
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
“Waiting for Love” (and Waiting for Madison to Stop Singing)
Sometimes love hits you in the middle of an Alias concert—and sometimes it leaves when she opens her mouth to sing (or kiss).
open.substack.com
December 25, 2025 at 4:28 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Love After Lockup: Why I’m Letting a Smoking Hot Felon Crash at My Place
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Love After Lockup: Why I’m Letting a Smoking Hot Felon Crash at My Place
Because America locks up single moms for bad decisions, and I keep letting them make one more.
open.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Love After Lockup: Why I’m Letting a Smoking Hot Felon Crash at My Place
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Love After Lockup: Why I’m Letting a Smoking Hot Felon Crash at My Place
Because America locks up single moms for bad decisions, and I keep letting them make one more.
open.substack.com
December 24, 2025 at 8:47 AM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Farewell: The Song I Wrote When Love Became a Battlefield and I Couldn’t Keep Fighting
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Farewell: The Song I Wrote When Love Became a Battlefield and I Couldn’t Keep Fighting
I didn’t write “Farewell” to forgive her—I wrote it to stop bleeding long enough to breathe again.
open.substack.com
December 23, 2025 at 1:58 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Two Truths, One Lie, and a Reputation on Fire: The Psychology and Fallout of Talking Behind Someone’s Back
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
Two Truths, One Lie, and a Reputation on Fire: The Psychology and Fallout of Talking Behind Someone’s Back
Gossip isn’t venting — it’s a weapon disguised as vulnerability, and it always hits the wrong target in the end.
open.substack.com
December 22, 2025 at 8:44 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
Gaslighting in 2025 isn’t subtle—it’s scripted.
And somehow, you’re still the one apologizing for noticing it.
I unpacked the lies, the “boundaries,” and the therapy-speak at a bar in Raleigh.
Read before someone tells you you’re “just insecure.”
The Biggest Lies in the Gaslighting Handbook (And Why No One Warned You About Them)
Modern gaslighting isn’t about love—it’s a masterclass in making men apologize for noticing the truth.
open.substack.com
December 17, 2025 at 8:37 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Diagnosis Olympics: When You Compete for Garbage, Don’t Complain About the Smell
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Diagnosis Olympics: When You Compete for Garbage, Don’t Complain About the Smell
When you keep dating chaos and calling it chemistry, the problem isn’t narcissists—it’s your addiction to attention disguised as love.
open.substack.com
December 10, 2025 at 2:35 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Slow Goodbye Nobody Admits To (and the Hot Blonde Who Wanted to Talk About It)
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Slow Goodbye Nobody Admits To (and the Hot Blonde Who Wanted to Talk About It)
Sometimes the fade-out isn’t about fear or detachment—it’s the quiet realization that one of you stopped loving, and the other finally noticed.
open.substack.com
December 9, 2025 at 2:30 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Breakup I Wish I’d Gotten: How One Honest Goodbye Could’ve Saved Us Both from Gaslighting and Chaos
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Breakup I Wish I’d Gotten: How One Honest Goodbye Could’ve Saved Us Both from Gaslighting and Chaos
If my ex had said what this woman wrote on Facebook—honestly, clearly, and without performance—we both could’ve walked away with peace instead of wounds disguised as wisdom.
open.substack.com
December 7, 2025 at 2:34 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Lines Real Men Don’t Cross (Even When She’s Tempting as Hell)
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Lines Real Men Don’t Cross (Even When She’s Tempting as Hell)
Because at some point, you’ve got to stop calling bad decisions “experience” and start calling them what they are... mistakes with better lighting.
open.substack.com
December 4, 2025 at 1:09 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Mac & Cheese Messiah: My Latest Prison Pen Pal Romance, and Why This Time I Swear She’s the One
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Mac & Cheese Messiah: My Latest Prison Pen Pal Romance, and Why This Time I Swear She’s the One
Love strikes again behind bars — and this time it comes with mac and cheese cravings, release dates, and Chuck begging me not to ruin my life (again).
open.substack.com
December 3, 2025 at 1:27 PM
themondayafter2025.substack.com
The Math of Betrayal: When Both of You Cheat and Somehow She Still Thinks She’s the Victim
open.substack.com/pub/themonda...
The Math of Betrayal: When Both of You Cheat and Somehow She Still Thinks She’s the Victim
A man’s infidelity may be five minutes of stupidity—but a woman’s is usually a PowerPoint presentation in lingerie. Let’s stop pretending one hurts less than the other.
open.substack.com
December 2, 2025 at 11:52 AM