OUTCAST WORLD

You may already know Carl Cashman as the Liberal Democrat politician who keeps making headlines for being ridiculously in shape and unapologetically shirtless on Instagram. The “world’s hottest politician” label follows him everywhere. But what happens when the internet crush turns out to be smart, likeable, politically ambitious — and fully aware that the gays love him? Recorded live in front of...

Drag has never been more visible, but for many performers it has never felt more complicated. In this episode of Outcast World, Graeme Smith speaks to Crystal about what it’s really like to be a drag artist in 2026. They talk about the idea of “quiet quitting drag”, the rising pressure on LGBTQ performers, and why staying visible now comes with real personal and professional risks. Crystal joins t...

We’re joined by Kevin Guyan — one of the UK’s most compelling thinkers on queer life, power and systems. Kevin is a leading academic at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Queer Data and The Rainbow Trap, two books that have become essential reading on how LGBTQ+ lives are shaped, sorted and managed by institutions. It’s about data. Not as numbers, but as power. Kevin asks the question m...

Since around 2020, a lot of queer people were finally let in. Into institutions that had ignored us, sidelined us, or treated us as a liability for decades. Suddenly we were wanted. Asked to advise. Asked to represent. Asked to sit on panels, lead staff networks, front Pride content, help “shape culture”. It felt like progress. It felt overdue. And then something shifted. The tone cooled. The ques...

This week on Outcast World, Graeme and Topher accidentally kick a hornet’s nest on TikTok and Instagram and get absolutely swarmed. Bots, right-wing bedwetters, and people arguing with total confidence that red is actually blue. A proper deluge. Where do they all come from, and why do they all sound the same? There is one bright spot: Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski shares the post on TikT...

We start today's episode with an explanation from Topher Taylor, our cohost and tart with a heart, on why the original podcast recording had to be pushed back...The reason is entirely on brand... A last-minute OnlyFans shoot with a man he simply couldn’t turn down took priority. Sometimes work is work. And we respect the Hustle. Then in today's interview we chat to the gorgeous, charming Kyle Prit...

Legendary Queer photographer and the man behind the Attitude uncut Kink edition front page, Charles Moriarty joins Graeme Smith to talk about Brock — his new photobook following actor and filmmaker Brock across four unstable years, from early ambition to the completion of Brock’s debut film Test. What started as a DM in 2017 became a stop-start collaboration shaped by distance, lockdown and uncert...

YOUR BI WEEKLY DOSE OF QUEER POLITICS, SEX AND CULTUREOn today’s episode, Graeme and Topher are joined at the start by Nick Charles — Trinidad-born Loud Brown Gays podcaster, music producer, and part of the original Outcast team — for an episode that opens on an awkward realisation: Graeme’s just seen a video on X of someone being bummed, and slowly works out the arse belongs to the man now sittin...

In 2009, Graeme went to LA to work and make TV industry contacts but was exposed to a darker and more underground world than he could ever have imagined. The intersection of tinseltown, people seeking fame and the allure of meth and sex has been the ruin of countless promising careers and Graeme tells Topher about how the career highlight of working filming TV shows in LA, led to the discovery of...

In this first episode of our sixth season. Hot on the heels of our shortlisting as Best Interview Podcast at the prestigious British podcast awards, the team are back with the global queer group chat. Today Graeme Smth is joined by regular Topher Taylor and fellow queer Irishman in London Charles Moriarty. The theme is our memories of Amy Winehouse, the queer icon and British music icon, taken too...

A brutally honest look at grief, addiction, and finding a way back to life. After almost four years and 130 episodes of Outcast World, the mic finally turns towards its own creator. This week, the show takes a personal turn as The Divorce Social host Samantha Baines — known from BBC Radio London, The One Show, The Crown and Call The Midwife — interviews Outcast World’s Graeme Smith, an award-winni...

In this episode of OUTCAST WORLD, Graeme Smith sits down with Jaxon Feeley, author of "Fear Proof" out this week. Jax is here to flip everything you’ve ever believed about fear on its head. Jaxon Feeley is a British TV personality, presenter, speaker and advocate known for his work around trans inclusion, authenticity and mental-health awareness. Originally working as a prison officer, he began hi...

He kissed a boy. Then told the villa — and the whole country — he was living with HIV.Adam Williams went on I Kissed a Boy looking for love — and ended up schooling the nation on HIV and therapy. On Outcast World this week, Graeme Smith gets the goss straight from the masseria:Coming out (again) — this time on reality TV and ultimately the entire internet. Therapy, trauma, and trying not to cry on...

Junaid Ahmed is one of the most visible queer Muslims on British television — and he’s doing it on one of the UK’s most-watched reality shows. As The Only Way is Essex returns to ITV2 and ITVX on Sunday nights at 9pm, Junaid sits down with Graeme Smith to talk identity, faith, fame and the reality behind the reality TV.In this candid conversation, Junaid reflects on:Coming out as a British-Pakista...

On this week's Outcast World, Graeme Smith is asking the big question: should we finally ditch the dating apps? Author and broadcaster Daniel Harding joins the show to talk about the impact of his best-selling book Letters To My Younger Queer Self, and his new project hitting the streets to find out how queer people really feel about swiping, hookups, and love in 2025.Then, it’s music time with UK...

Outcast World goes live from Manchester Pride 2025 with Graeme Smith and Nick Charles right at the heart of the action hosting a podcast and radio show from the site on the afternoon of Graeme's stag doo in the city! As well as speaking to some modern Manchester queer icons and old school pop legends, we're essentially hosting the entire podcast outside on the street whilst getting ready to go "ou...

“This feeling I was nurturing… was punishable by death.”This week on Outcast World, Graeme speaks with writer and doctor Majid Parsa, author of The Ayatollah’s Gaze — a compelling story about growing up queer in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We explore forbidden desire, the underground queer scene in Tehran — full of joy, glamour, and danger — and what it means to party knowing your social gatheri...

This week we’re going full cultural yin and yang. First, Harry Eric Derbidge (The Only Way Is Essex, ITV2 & ITVX) spills on the brand-new TOWIE season kicking off this Sunday at 9pm – expect sun, sea, and classic Essex drama. Then, we swap spray tans for sculptural blooms with Hamish Allan Powell, the Instagram-famous florist making waves in high-end floral design. This conversation comes from The...

Kuan-wen Huang is a queer, Taiwanese comedian, writer, and actor based in London. He’s appeared on Comedy Central, BBC, and Channel 4, and has become a standout voice on London’s comedy circuit. Now, he’s bringing his brand-new one-man show Andrews Are The Worst to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. In this episode of Outcast World, Graeme Smith sits down with Kuan-wen to talk about heartbreak, hookup...

The Church of England just met to decide the future of LGBTQ+ people in the Church — again. Still no equal marriage. Still no full acceptance. Still a fight. This week, Graeme speaks to Phillip Baldwin — a gay man, HIV-positive, and one of the few openly queer members of the Church’s General Synod. From inside the Church’s governing body, Phillip takes us behind the scenes of a system still strugg...

What happens when you gather some of the most fabulous, fearless minds in queer media around a breakfast table? OUTCAST WORLD takes you inside the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Breakfast Club — with legendary Attitude Editor-in-Chief Cliff Joannou front and centre. Cliff is a defining voice in queer journalism — shaping the stories, covers and controversies that have marked a generation. In this candid and wi...

In this episode, Graeme Smith is joined by Stu Oakley and Lotte Jeffs — co-authors of Do Ask, Do Tell, the bold, funny, and radically honest new book that lays queer life, love and culture bare. Stu is a film publicist who’s worked on Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Jurassic World. Lotte is a genderqueer journalist, novelist, children’s author, and former ELLE editor. Together, they’re also the co-ho...

Bob Vylan at Glastonbury sent the outrage machine into overdrive. We’ve scoped 24 hours of GB News to bring you every pearl-clutching reaction from the self-declared defenders of free speech. But here’s the twist: our guest, sex educator and writer Topher Taylor, actually knows someone from Bob Vylan personally — and brings rare, real-life insight into the kind of person behind the noise. THIS EPI...

As the Glastonbury Festival heatwave rolls on, the political outrage is just warming up. Graeme and Nick Charles unpack Kneecap's headline-grabbing set and the pearl-clutching reaction from MPs and a media desperate to censor a culture they don’t understand. Did The 1975 let us down with the announcement mid set they didn't want to do politics.. to only then go and sing a load of inherently politi...

Reality star Jordan Burrow won hearts on I Kissed a Boy—the BBC’s flagship queer dating show hosted by Dannii Minogue—but his story goes beyond the groundbreaking global hit show. In this episode, Jordan opens up about using his platform to start real conversations: from coming out in a remote rural village, his love of football and sports, to his bold message on the biggest billboard in Mancheste...