This year's Thanksgiving seems like a particularly important time to reflect back on the good things in our lives, the positive advances we've made, and the people we love and trust -- in fact, times given what they are, our very sanity may depend on it.
Life's a balance of good and bad, and there's never so much of one that there's none of the o...
2016-11-24 14:00:34 +0000 UTC View Post
At this point, we're all very familiar with the foundational queer story that many of us have lived: feeling like outcasts, fleeing from small towns to big cities, and searching for our tribe.
But what happens once you get to that big city? What can you create once you're free to create the life you've always wanted? My guest this week is P...
2016-11-17 14:00:39 +0000 UTC View Post
If you're like me, right now you're searching for something -- anything -- to lend you comfort. We've just ended a horrifying election season, and are about to embark on four years that will likely be even worse. How do we even start to recover from this, how do we get out of bed for the next four years, what can we do to move forward?
Well the f...
2016-11-10 17:16:36 +0000 UTC View Post
My guest this week is Austin Bull, also known as the performance artist The Bearded Femme. His stage persona is eye-catching and weird, from vibrant green beards to dressing up as sexualized religious figures. Creating creatures onstage is his way of making sense of a darkness that once threatened to overwhelm him -- and standing up to his own fear...
2016-11-03 16:56:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Why is food so important? I mean, other than the whole keeping-you-alive thing. My guest this week found his life forever changed by food when he won the first season of The Great British Bake-Off. Edd Kimber was a shy, unhappy banker when his cakes, cookies, and pies catapulted him to national fame. It was all a bit much for a young man who once d...
2016-10-27 16:42:11 +0000 UTC View Post
How do you know when it's time to stop wandering and put down roots? This week's guest is Robert Roth, who spent years looking for the right place to call home. After he ran away from home, his journey took him to some dark, dangerous places. It took a lot of work to pull himself back up to where he could create a home not only for himself, but for...
2016-10-20 16:45:14 +0000 UTC View Post
This week's guest has seen the end of the world. Enrique's favorite game growing up gave players a choice about who they could save before an impending apocalypse -- and of course, you can't save everyone. It was a dark obsession for a little kid, but playing through the end of the world got him through some tough times as a kid -- and even tougher...
2016-10-13 17:03:11 +0000 UTC View Post
For many of us, going home to the place where you grew up can be, at best, stressful. But what if you could recreate just the good parts of your childhood home -- the TV shows that kept you company and helped you shut out the rest of the world?
My guest this week is Sam Pancake, who you may know from Arrested Development, Legally Blond 2, Where t...
2016-10-06 16:41:57 +0000 UTC View Post
My guest this week is Jason Merrell, who was desperate to leave his repressive religious community. Finally, he thought he'd found a way -- it just required that he make a deal with his parents. That seemed easy enough. But it was a deal that wound up nearly costing him his life.
Now I don't mean to alarm you but there are evil forces within and without, teaming up to take you down. I'm referring of course to the ...
2016-09-22 17:06:52 +0000 UTC View Post
Who can you trust to keep your secrets safe? Well that might depend on the secret. Jonathan Federico wasn't sure the people in his life could handle the truth about him, so he entrusted the truth to fictional figures, disappearing into alter-egos on stage. Occupying characters was comforting to him -- but it wasn't until well into adulthood that he...
2016-09-15 05:24:18 +0000 UTC View Post
We all have alter egos -- most of us more than one. There's the person you are at work, the person you are online, the fun person you are when splashing around at the beach, the responsible person you are when your parents are visiting, and the unique kind of angry person that only exists when you're waiting for everyone ahead of you to get off the...
2016-09-08 05:24:36 +0000 UTC View Post
What happens to fussy little boys who love musical theater and have lots of feelings? If they're lucky, they grow up to be fearless women. My guest this week is the fabulous Miss Coco Peru, who you've seen in movies like Girls Will be Girls, To Wong Foo, Trick, and as a guest star in the greatest cold open in the entire run of Will and Grace.
Lik...
2016-09-01 16:12:15 +0000 UTC View Post
How far can passion take you? My guest this week is Ted Biaselli, a TV development executive who's had a hand in shows from My Little Bony to Elvira's Movie Macabre. I've had the lovely pleasure of knowing Ted for a couple of years, and from our first meeting -- at a Dr. Who themed Halloween party that he threw -- it was clear this this is a man wh...
2016-08-25 15:54:05 +0000 UTC View Post
Why do villains get to have all the fun? Surely you've noticed that Darth Vader has a better time than Luke Skywalker, that the Joker relishes his misdeeds, and that Skeletor lives in a party house. One of my favorite movie lines ever is when Magneto tells Rogue "we love what you've done with your hair."
Drew Droege may have come to your attentio...
2016-08-18 16:48:50 +0000 UTC View Post
Would you rather travel the world to seek out new experiences, or create new experiences in your own home town? My guest this week is Chicago theater person AK Miller, who couldn't wait to leave his small town and find the big-city gay communities he'd always read about.
But before long, he discovered t...
2016-08-11 15:19:32 +0000 UTC View Post
Is it better to hope for the best and risk disappointment, or expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised? My guest this week is Daniel Krolik, one of the hosts of the podcast Bad Gay Movies Bitchy Gay Men. On each episode he and his co-hosts select one bad gay movie to pick apart its flaws, and maybe if...
2016-08-04 15:49:18 +0000 UTC View Post
Do you ever find yourself engaging in self-sabotage? Maybe you avoid important work or important people. Or you dismiss your potential. Or you lie about yourself to yourself. Or you surround yourself with people who undermine you.
My guest this week spent years working for Republicans, wavering in and out of the closet. Inside, he knew who he...
2016-07-28 16:31:06 +0000 UTC View Post
You know that saying about finding a job where you love what you do, and you'll never work a day in your life? My guest this week did just that when he became a country radio DJ and a sex worker in a tiny midwest town.
Brent was a fresh-faced young cub, just out of college, and somehow word got around to al...
2016-07-21 17:06:35 +0000 UTC View Post
One of the most generous gifts you can give someone is listening to them. It's a habit that some people just never picked up. But others have refined it to an art form. My guest this week is Dennis Hensley, who you might know from My Life on the D-List, from Girls Will be Girls, or from countless celebrity interviews in just about every magazine ev...
2016-07-14 17:00:28 +0000 UTC View Post
What is it about strong women that gay men find so irresistible? Whether it's a golden girl or Bayonetta or, as is the case for this week's guest, Madonna, there's something extra inspiring to us about the women who run the world.
So it's no wonder that David Russell's dedicated his career to supporting fabulous lady performers. For the last...
Many of us grew up with some kind of authority who kept us from exploring gay culture -- it might've been a parent, or a priest, or school. Now imagine if that authority was a military dictator. And imagine what you'd do the day that dictator fell.
My guest this week grew up in post-Peron Argentina, living under a military junta until a war ...
Before Pride, before gay marriage, before disco, before most of what we recognize today as gay culture, there was Greenwich Village. It's the gay enclave that invented gay enclaves, a place where you went to reject mainstream after the mainstream had rejected you. My guest today is playwright Robert Patrick, who wandered into the Village as an unsu...
2016-06-23 17:22:18 +0000 UTC View Post
How far would you go to find your chosen family? Some of us are lucky enough to find our tribe in the town where we grew up. Others had to travel to the nearest big city. And my guest this week moved across an ocean.
By Day, Taylor's a mind-mannered english teacher from Eugene, but at night, he becomes Tatianna Lee, the leader of an interna...
2016-06-16 16:55:24 +0000 UTC View Post
As a flamboyant kid in Texas, humor was Bryan's protection in situations where standing out might otherwise have been risky. He escaped to the big city he'd always dreamed of to become an actor, and for a time he tried to peel off that funny armor by taking on serious roles. But stripping down revealed something he didn't expect -- underneath the h...
2016-06-09 14:13:33 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi friends! Thanks to everyone who nominated The Sewers of Paris for a podcast award, it's made the list of finalists. Hooray! But I need your vote to win. If you have a moment, could you go give it your vote in the GLBT category at http://PodcastAwards.com? You can vote once per day ...
2016-06-06 16:20:24 +0000 UTC View Post
Listener Alert! The Sewers of Paris is up for a Podcast Award, hooray! But I need your help to win. Please go vote for the show in the GLBT category at PodcastAwards.com. You can vote once every day until June 12, so vote early and often! Than...
2016-06-02 14:33:45 +0000 UTC View Post
You may think you already know a lot about Conner, given that you've probably seen him naked in such films as Dad Goes to College, Hot House Backroom Volume 18, andBrief Encounters.
But Conner actually holds his cards pretty close to his furry chest. Though you might've seen him naked in porn, you probably know less about his background...
2016-05-26 15:03:43 +0000 UTC View Post
Hi Patrons! There was a little posting snafu with the May 5 episode and it didn't go live here on Patreon. Sorry it's coming to you a bit late! But here it is. Hope you enjoy it!
What would you do if you sacrificed everything for your dreams -- and then your dreams change? My guest this week is Kevin Yee, who's been a professional perf...
2016-05-23 14:39:03 +0000 UTC View Post
You might be familiar with the work of this week's guest. Terry drew a comic that everyone was passing around a few months ago called "You Say Latino," that's all about the differences between Latino and Hispanic. He has a new comic up...
2016-05-19 15:23:52 +0000 UTC View Post