Fruitbowl: An Oral History of Queer Sex

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify John C. has had an unpredictable professional career and sexual history. He grew up in the deep south with racist family members and neighbors. Sexual experimentation with a friend happened early on, but, later, in college, things got complicated when a coworker raped John after a night of drugs and drinking. Jealous partners during his years as an aerobi...

When I was preparing to record my intro to Zachery’s episode, I started to compose a long reflection on the recent tragedy in Colorado Springs where a 22 year old monster with a rife decided to murder 5 innocent people in a gay bar, but every attempt I made trying to articulate my rage and sadness seemed trite and cliché. So I decided to simply dedicate this episode to the victims. Some listeners...

Fruitbowl’s creator and producer, Dave Quantic, provides his first full-length Fruitbowl interview in this “very special” episode hosted by editor Ryan Weadon. Dave’s sexual orientation came into focus early on while growing up in small-town, suburban Kansas in the late eighties, but the only place he could meet other queer people was cruising bathrooms and public parks in near-by Wichita. An assa...

Steven grew up in his “shit-kicking” town of Tucson, AZ and even though it was liberal compared to the rest of the state, he was still a target for bullies because of his lisp and his habit of staring at other guys in the locker room. But summer adventures with his Dad in Ojai, CA taught him that a wondrous queer world waited for him outside of Tucson. Since recording his original Fruitbowl interv...

Lizzie grew up in super-liberal Seattle with super-cool, neo-hippie parents who had lots of queer friends and didn’t bat an eye when Lizzie let them know that she was … not straight. Lizzie took the lead when it came to her first time with a guy and you’ll enjoy hearing about her other adventures with a girl from her gym, an Irish bartender and a French Canadian who swept her off her feet - enough...

On this special Getting Fresh episode of Fruitbowl editor Ryan Weadon takes the reins as host and introduces a conversation Dave had with Eric, a nurse and Monkeypox survivor who lives in Portland with his partner Dave. Eric describes what it’s been like dealing with the virus and the challenges he’s had emotionally. Click HERE to visit the webpage for this episode that will feature Eric’s written...

Listen on Apple Podcasts  Listen on Spotify Andrew was a self-described baby drag queen when he was little, putting on makeup and heels and performing for his parents. So when he told his mom at age 10 he was gay, her reaction was, “I know.  Do you still wanna go to the mall?” But just because Andrew was out didn’t mean adolescence was a walk in the park. A self-described awkward kid, he struggled...

Gay men had a lot of variables to balance while coming of age in the 70s and 80s: the sexual revolution & liberation, drug culture, AIDS, social stigma and intimacy and Coming out wasn’t easy while he was working on Wall Street. Through all of it, Mike tried to stay true to himself while figuring out that, as sexual beings, we are in a constant state of evolution. Later in life, Mike became a lead...

Originally from a small town in Georgia, Puddin’s coming of age was divided in two. Outwardly, he was a devout Christian of the Pentecostal tradition and aspired to be a church leader and during sermons, homosexuality was always used as an example of the worst kind of sin. Privately, though, he struggled with his sexuality and was the target of abuse by a family member. After his family found out,...

You might assume you don’t have much in common with a 71 year old lesbian, but consider these three points: 1. Debra came of age at the dawn of the sexual revolution; 2. She’s a legend in the lesbian kink community and has some really fun kink play stories; 3. She is a total badass and a one of a kind human. Growing up in famously liberal Palo Alto, Debra was a precocious young woman, hungry for k...

In this Getting Fresh episode, Dave welcomes his in-studio guests: the creators of the Seattle-based Gayish podcast, Kyle and Mike and asks them about their podcast’s origin and its unique format: unpacking gay stereotypes one episode at a time. Then we listen to a listener-submitted story that describes the writer’s first time at an orgy and we discuss our own orgy adventures and our different ex...

Kenny is the definition of a survivor. After experiencing abuse by a family member and getting kicked out of the house by his single mom while still in high school, Kenny lived in his car until he decided to move in with his first boyfriend. A move to Chicago for a job seemed like an opportunity to start fresh until he was laid off and had to turn to sex work in order to support himself. But despi...

Lilian grew up in Sedalia Colorado, a small community outside of Denver. Growing up, Lilian was a good little straight boy who judged other kids for having pre-marital sex. It wasn’t until college in LA that Lilian began her journey into becoming a self-described non-binary, genderfluid transgender woman who is a solo-polyamorous, relationship-anarchist pansexual lesbian slut. An advocate for sexu...

Growing up in a small California town in the late 90s, Drew didn’t have any exposure to queer people or culture except for the brief mentions on broadcast sitcoms. NBC’s “Must See TV” was a particularly rich source of information. A secret relationship with another guy in his high school confirmed Drew’s budding sexuality but it wasn’t until college at UC Santa Barbara that he had his first legit...

Ari grew up in Milwaukee until age 10 when his family moved to Tucson, AZ. The new environment brought him out of his shell in spite of being raised in a religious family. Raised as a girl, Ari had the most difficulty with his mom when it came to his family’s acceptance of his identity first as a lesbian, then as a trans man. Ultimately, Ari had to prioritize his own mental health and happiness ov...

Introducing the premiere episode of the Getting Fresh series reboot. For season four, these episodes will feature informal conversations with interviewees whose main Fruitbowl interviews are more than a year old. In this episode Justin updates us about how his relationship with his husband has evolved during the pandemic and the accommodations that the couple has made for their “extra curricular”...

Raised by feminists who had strong opinions about women’s rights, pro-choice advocacy and lesbian visibility, Justin knew early on his sexuality wasn’t pre-determined. But even in liberal college-town Providence, RI he was a target of less-evolved classmates. When presented with his first opportunity for sex experimentation, he chose the D and hasn’t looked back. But ambivalence about masculine tr...

This episode features a voice that will be familiar with Fruitbowl fans: our very own host with the most, Saira B.! After just a few minutes of listening, you’ll soon learn why Saira (who, BTW, uses ALL the pronouns) is the perfect person to represent the amazing diversity of experiences of Fruitbowl interviewees. Raised in Wilmington, Delaware to academic parents who trusted their kid to explore...

Adam grew up in what he describes as a “Rated R household.” Prince was an early emissary of carnal pleasure who made a deep impact on Adam as a future professional musician. His parents split when he was 2 but his mom remarried and both his dad and his stepdad represented two different versions of masculinity. But homosexuality was still a taboo subject so Adam had to educate himself through early...

As a first generation Vietnamese-American, Mike felt an obligation to make the most of his opportunities that his immigrant parents fought so hard to provide him. But even though his family was part of a robust Vietnamese community in Sugarland, TX (a suburb of Houston), Mike still felt like an outsider. Unlike most of his friends, he wasn’t fluent in Vietnamese and his emerging sexuality only mad...

As a kid, Donovan loved to dance and even took lessons beginning at age 9, but growing up in San Diego, he soon realized that the many military bases in the area fueled a toxic culture of masculinity and homophobia and any behavior outside the norm put a target on his back. Once, after seeing a movie, he was called a faggot and assaulted. So even though he had some early experimentation with same...

Andre can’t remember a time when people thought he was straight. Raised as a girl by an independent single mom who took a “tough love” approach to parenting, Andre grew up with a rich inner life but had few friends. “Lesbean” was the preferred insult in grade school, so Andre made up a fictional boyfriend in order to avoid talking about sex.  Even after entering college and coming out as trans, An...

Dan grew up just north of Seattle and his adolescence was uniquely queer-positive in that it featured supportive parents and plentiful queer friends even in high school. But Dan had his share of challenges including insecurities about sexual performance, penis size and a long journey to discovering his preference for polyamorous relationships. An early education in flirting came courtesy of a frie...

Karilla’s story, in so many ways, reflects the common stages of personal growth that so many queer people go through: in our early years, insecurity about our sexuality and adults who fail to help guide us; during high school, sitting on the sidelines and watching as our friends perform all the typical hetero coming of age rituals; in college, painful memories about first love and the lessons we l...

For those of us who are more, ahem, “mature”, being out and proud during our adolescence was just not an option - especially in Colorado where Ryan spent most of his coming of age years. In his interview, Ryan does a good job of articulating what it’s like when your body tells you you’re gay before you can even admit it to yourself. Sometimes surprising things can happen when a Tony Little VHS tap...