The 16 Best Weird Podcasts to Listen to During Pride
While queer culture podcasts are welcome year-round, I’m using Pride Month as a great excuse to shout out 12 incredible podcasts that are also made by queer people. These shows aim to give voice to different aspects of the queer experience, exploring lesbian bars and asexuality, combating anti-trans hate, and reminding queer people (and everyone else) to love themselves unapologetically. June is all about celebrating all kinds of love and I love all of these podcasts.
But we loved
Jordan Gonsalves knew nothing about queer history when he was a gay child growing up Catholic in conservative Texas. WithBut We Loved , he created a show that will help ensure that no gay child today grows up in similar circumstances. It brings together guests from different generations to talk about important moments in LGBTQ history, including the Stonewall riots, the AIDS crisis and the fight for marriage equality. Every conversation is authentic and introspective; Jordan is a fantastic interviewer and his guests are consistently engaging storytellers.
Second Sunday
Second Sunday is a podcast about Black gay men finding, maintaining, and sometimes losing faith in the Black Church. The show is part of PRX’s Big Questions project and seeks to explore issues at the intersection of spirituality, culture and identity. You’ll hear valuable advice and learn real, vulnerable stories about the challenges and complexities of Black queer culture that will keep you thinking for days.
Strange music
Queer art has had a huge impact on popular culture. OnQueer the Music, Scissor Sisters frontman Jake Shears and his guests reveal the queer anthems that have dominated the dance floor, seeped into the mainstream and influenced the LGBTQ community. Each show examines the history of a song and shines a light on queer artists who have made their mark on the world with their (sometimes risqué) self-expression.
Lost places
Given the persistent conservative climate in many parts of the US (and, let’s face it, everywhere), conversations about safe queer spaces are still important.Lost Spaces is a show that explores how strange spaces have helped shape people’s lives. He considers their importance, weighs the consequences of losing them (when they are lost), and shares the wonderful stories that come from them. In candid interviews with various guests, host K. Anderson reveals it all.
Free from desires
Thirty-five-year-old Alina had never been attracted to anyone – neither sexually nor romantically. In their podcast, Free From Desire , which will be released June 7 and debut on Tribeca , they tell us how difficult it has been to acknowledge and accept their asexuality and their aromanticism in a society that prefers to focus on love and sex. This recognition also allowed them to have a child through artificial insemination. From adolescence to their first fascination with relationships and sexuality, as well as loneliness, Aline talks to us about how different stages of their lives illustrate their experiences of asexuality. Throughout the show, Aline speaks with experts, sociologists, and even acquaintances and friends to discuss our society’s attitudes toward sex and our preoccupation with traditional sex.
Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness
In “Curiosity,” Jonathan Van Ness (of Gay Thrones and Queer Eye for the Straight Guy ) is interested in… everything. Each week, it brings in experts on super-niche topics, from trash collection to ancient beauty rituals, cheese making and the child welfare system. Jonathan is passionate about every topic and can’t help but squeal with excitement about everything his guests teach him. Even when they’re focused on important topics, these conversations are illuminated by Jonathan’s brilliance, sense of humor, and ability to view anything and everything through a strange lens. I especially like it when he talks about animals, so watch the Prairie Dog episode first.
LGBT questions and answers
Nominated for Best Podcast at the 2023 GLAAD Awards , LGBTQ&A introduces Jeffrey Masters to some of the most interesting and influential LGBTQ+ people in the world; Past guests have included Laverne Cox, Janelle Monáe and Pete Buttigieg. Their conversations will help you brush up on queer history and stay informed about how current events impact the queer community, providing you with the necessary context needed to understand the challenges facing less visible sexual and gender minorities in contemporary American culture.
Queer Family Podcast
On The Queer Family podcast, queer mom Jamie Kelton has funny conversations with guests about how they formed their families and how they found themselves in a world that wasn’t necessarily made for them. Each episode provides a snapshot of the diverse ways families work and thrive, reaffirming that queer families can be as strong as any other. (Kids still throw tantrums and refuse to eat their vegetables, no matter who their parents are.) The Queer Family podcast normalizes the new ways people are choosing to build their families in a world designed for straight people.
BE TRANS
BEING Trans feels like a reality show to your ears. Over the course of six episodes, you’ll meet Jeffrey, a transgender stand-up comedian who is forging a relationship with his partner Emma; Mariana, a trans woman from Guatemala who navigates complex issues at a local LGBT center with her colleague Cadence; Chloe, who was new to Los Angeles and dating for the first time as a trans woman; and Sy, who is figuring out his relationship and family dynamics with his husband Robert since he came out as non-binary and transgender. Jeffrey, Mariana, Chloe and Sy share the tiny human moments in their lives – both triumphant and difficult – and give you a little insight into what it’s like to wake up and go to bed every day as a trans person.
black fat woman
The BFF Podcast (that’s Black Fat Femme) gives a voice to two leading queer, fat, and black changemakers who are determined to prove that every person has the right to love themselves unapologetically, even in a world where self-love is common. feels impossible. John and Jojo feel like friends who will hold your hand and tell you about days that feel like a struggle. They interview (and spotlight) guests who find joy in unexpected places, and they’ll make you feel illuminated, too.
TransLash
Today, transgender people face extreme political, social, and physical violence on a daily basis, but this does not reflect the entire history of the transgender experience. At TransLash, award-winning journalist Imara Jones gives transgender people and their allies a platform to fight. This is a cultural podcast that celebrates transgender people: how they live and how they change the world. Each episode is a mixture of heavy themes, balanced with moments of joy, filled with equal parts heart and bad.
Love and luck
Love and Luck is set in modern-day Melbourne, Australia. This is a fictional podcast radio play told through voicemail between two men, Jason and Kane, who fall in love even as they discover they have magical powers. It’s a positive story in a sea of podcasts about dark and terrible places – an inventive slice-of-life narrative that finds beautiful moments around every corner, with carefully crafted audio, detailed writing and acting that will keep you engaged.
Gay future
The year is 2062, North America is under the control of a totalitarian government with an insidious gay agenda… because everyone is gay. One teenager holds the key to rebellion because he has a dark secret: he’s straight. Obviously, Gay Future is a fictional series, but with its comedic tone and carefully written script, it raises questions about sexuality and power that will leave you in stitches.
Cruise
Lesbian bars are disappearing from the world, and Cruising can be thought of as a temple to their memory. Three kinky women, Sarah Gabrielli, Rachel Karp and Jen McGinnit, climb into a Honda SUV to visit standing bars, aiming to complete the longest lesbian bar crawl in history. (You’d think this would be scary, but there are seriously fewer than 25 of them left in the US.) The fact that this podcast is even possible tells a story about queer identity today. Does this mean that safe spaces for lesbians are no longer necessary, or have they experienced a kind of erasure? (Consider Henrietta Hudson, a former lesbian bar in New York that now calls itself “a gay bar built by lesbians.”) Piecing together micro-stories of people who were able to come out because of the safety these places offered them. and the people who fought to create them.
Making gay history
It’s one thing to read about the history of gay rights, but another to hear stories from people who did it. Making Gay History offers a glimpse into Eric Marcus’ decades-old audio archive of rare interviews that allow you to hear the voices of people who witnessed and championed the fight for gay rights. The sound is carefully selected and crafted into captivating pieces that paint intimate, personal portraits.
Gender Reveal
In Gender Reveal , journalist and educator Tuck Woodstock attempts to answer the question: What the hell is gender anyway? They don’t do it alone. In conversations with poets, drag artists, organizers, comedians and more, they highlight the vast diversity of trans experiences, interviewing a wide range of trans, non-binary and two-spirit people.
We’re having gay sex
Comedian Ashley Gavin spent 10 years as a serial monogamist, but in We’re Having Gay Sex, she traded in her U-Haul and took it upon herself to have enough casual hookups to bore a 20-year-old, and she’s willing to tell us about every one a tender kiss (and more). She also enlisted her younger gay friends to help her learn the latest ins and outs of kinky dating; they have to keep her from doing something awkward or getting canceled. Together they interview gay guests from across the sexual spectrum about the “gay” sex they had that week.