This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan interview journalist Angela Chen about her new book, Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex. They talk about asexuality’s rise in visibility, where ace people fit in the queer community, and how asexuality can lead us to question so many of our assumptions about social constructions that depend on who your sexual partners are. Then they unpack the story of gay politician Alex Morse, whose recent congressional campaign was plagued with accusations of sexual impropriety, and what a politician’s queer sex life is allowed to look like. This podcast was produced by Daniel Schroeder. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outward: Slate's LGBTQ podcast

Being Horny Is Thorny

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan talk to Slate sex-advice columnist Rich Juzwiak about the state of sex six months into the COVID-19 crisis. They discuss the sorts of questions he’s fielding, the limits of sexual creativity, and navigating casual sex during this time. Then the team digs into Ellen DeGeneres, how she fits into the history and modern landscape of queer media, and why she seems so disappointing. This podcast was produced by Daniel Schroeder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Who Is Ellen to Us?

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan interview journalist David France about his new documentary Welcome to Chechnya on the atrocities happening there and the work being done by activists to liberate queer Chechens. Then they discuss the new audio documentary by Evan Roberts, “Caring for Lesbian Icon Phyllis Lyon, With Love and Deceit.” June shares how important Naya Rivera and her Glee character, Santana Lopez, were to the queer community and changing American attitudes on gay marriage. Then we close it out with the gay agenda. This podcast was produced by Daniel Schroeder. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sweat and Sorrow in the Summer

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan spoke with Mark Joseph Stern about the fifth anniversary of marriage equality, the future of LGBTQ rights in the United States, and the recent Supreme Court decision about employment discrimination. Then we’ve got our live show from June 3, when Bob the Drag Queen joined the crew to discuss the Black Lives Matter movement, police violence, and the healing power of the new HBO series We’re Here. This podcast was produced by Daniel Schroeder and Melissa Kaplan. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We’re Here, We’re Married, We’re Employed

In this special episode, Bryan, Christina, and Rumaan interview activist and writer Sarah Schulman about ACT UP and the legacy of Larry Kramer. They discuss how Kramer’s tactics helped and hindered the organization, the ways white gay men played an outsize role as a public face of the movement, and what lessons we should take from ACT UP’s past successes. Schulman and Jim Hubbard coordinated the ACT UP Oral History Project, and her forthcoming book is Let the Record Show: ACT UP and the Enduring Experience of AIDS. This podcast was produced by Daniel Schroeder. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ACT UP and Larry Kramer’s Legacy

This month, Christina admits to creating a quarantine bubble, and she talks with Bryan and Rumaan about why she felt comfortable joining her friends in this way and why our community seems better-equipped than others to figure out how to make such micro-communities work. Then they discuss two new documentaries on Netflix, A Secret Love and Circus of Books, and unpack how these films tried and failed to reckon with the depths of their subjects while still stirring some warm feelings along the way. This podcast was produced by Daniel Schroeder. Slate Plus members get bonus segments and ad-free podcast feeds. Sign up now. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Queerness of Quarantine Bubbles

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan discuss virtual sex parties during self-isolation with former Slate colleague Andrew Kahn, exploring what it’s like to see all these different screens and how distance and self-consciousness play into the experience. Then they talk about the Netflix series Tiger King, all its queer story threads, and whether it’s actually bad for the gays. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding Life at Queer Virtual Sex Parties

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan look at comparisons between the COVID-19 pandemic and AIDS with Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. Then they conduct a post-mortem on Pete Buttigieg with DC lawyer and Pete supporter Brooke Clagett. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

COVID-19, AIDS, and Community

A look back at our first episode: On the first episode, hosts Christina Cauterucci, Bryan Lowder, and New America’s Brandon Tensley—along with a smorgasbord of Slate staffers—reveal their queer roots. Does it all come down to crop tops? Then, in the debut Straight Studies segment, Slate features director Laura Bennett helps us decide if straight, cisgender people have roots too. Then Alex Barasch joins the gang to talk about his Washington Post piece, “Biology Is Not Destiny: Seeking a Scientific Explanation for Trans Identity Could Do More Harm Than Good.” Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Outward Classic: Our Queer Roots

In this special bonus episode, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan are joined by John Paul Brammer of the Hola Papi column to offer some sex and relationship advice. They answer listener questions about asexuality and navigating intimacy, reconciling fantasies with reality, taking the first steps into queer dating, and reconsidering why you might not identify with a community you’re already a part of. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Queer Advice

This month, Christina, Bryan, and Rumaan break down exclusively gay moments in film and television, exploring why they can feel so craven, and if there’s any way to get it right. Then they interview Richie Jackson about his new book Gay Like Me, a letter to his gay son about the importance of being gay. They discuss the significance of Harvey Fierstein, growing up gay, and why queer identities are so essential. Then we close it out with a usual update to the gay agenda, looking at good versions of exclusively gay moments. We’ve got a Valentine’s Day advice show coming up with JP Brammer of the Hola Papi advice column, so send your questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com or leave us a voicemail at (929) 266-4914. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Pandering and Parenting

In this special bonus episode of Outward, Bryan and a guest panel of multigenerational gay men devote a whole hour to The Inheritance, a seven-hour, two-part play by Matthew Lopez that won many awards for its recent run in London and is currently dominating discussions on Broadway. There will be spoilers! While it’s length, ambition, and engagement with the AIDS crisis have invited comparisons to Tony Kushner’s “gay fantasia on national themes” Angels in America, The Inheritance’s driving concern is a bit more personal: If gay men think of ourselves as a community spanning generations, what happens when a huge swath of that community is lost to plague, the survivors deeply traumatized, and younger cohorts must therefore come of age and figure out what it means to be gay in the wake of a tragedy that shapes everything around us? Borrowing a line from E.M. Forester’s Howard’s End, on which the play is based, The Inheritance desperately wants gay men to “connect” across age and loss — but is that kind of connection really possible? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Special Episode: The Inheritance

This month, Christina, Bryan welcome Rumaan Alam as the official third host of Outward. First, June Thomas joins the team to discuss the new L Word reboot, how it compares to the original, ways it’s stepped past it, and if any of the characters will actually become unlikeable. Then the trio go through an extended segment of prides and provocations of the decade with Andy Bowen, a consultant on queer and economic social justice issues. They tackle marriage equality, PreP, lesbian bars, and the savvy ways the LGBTQ community have navigated governmental bureaucracy. Then we close it out with a usual update to the gay agenda.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The LGBTQ Decade

This month, Christina and Bryan are joined again by writer and Slate advice columnist Rumaan Alam to talk about children. First, the team invites Slate executive editor Allison Benedikt to talk about the ways children learn about queerness and sexuality, what we can do to teach and be an example, and how kids often pick up this stuff without us. Then they interview clinical psychologist Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper about a recent case in Texas involving a trans child, the best routes for handling pre-adolescent trans care, and how affirming a child’s gender identity can really only help. And, of course, we’ve got our usual rounds of gay agenda and prides and provocations.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kids These Days

This month, Christina and Bryan are joined by writer drag performer Pretty Rik E. After talking about Ellen and Big Mouth during Pride and Provocations, they jump into CNN’s LGBTQ town hall where nine different candidates discussed the queer aspects of their platforms. Then they unwrap some toys, giving Mattel’s new Creatable World dolls a spin to see what it’s like to play with a gender-neutral doll, and how it fits into a child’s gender-learning experience.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dolls and Democrats

Outward, Slate's queer podcast, is a whip-smart monthly salon in which hosts and guests deepen the audience’s understanding of queer culture and politics, delight them with unexpected perspectives, and invite listeners into a colorful conversation about the issues animating LGBTQ communities.

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Outward: Slate's LGBTQ podcast

hubhopper