The Sewers of Paris

My guest this week is the comedian Ricky Sim , who’s currently touring with his show Coming Out to Dead People . As the name might suggest Ricky’s coming-out process was a little bumpy. Starting with the time that he smuggled an adult VHS tape into the one place he felt safe watching it … a church basement. ( Check out Ricky’s upcoming shows in Chicago and New York at https://www.rickysim.com/#tou...

My guest this week is culture writer Erik Piepenburg , author of the new book Dining Out: First Dates, Defiant Nights, and Last Call Disco Fries at America's Gay Restaurants . It’s a nationwide tour of the places queer people gather to eat, and how those places satisfy more than just our literal hunger. When Erik started the project, he expected that he’d be documenting the dying-out of gay restau...

My guest this week is writer Christopher Tradowsky , who loves nothing more than to slip into the sanctuary of an old-fashioned movie palace, to commune with strangers all indulging together in whatever escape is unspooling up on the screen. These days, those great vintage movie houses are getting harder to find. But Christopher’s extending an invitation to discover that magic through his new book...

My guest this week is filmmaker Peter McDowell , whose documentary Jimmy in Saigon is a sort of detective story that follows Peter’s attempt to unravel into the strange death of his brother … and also an unspoken love story that had been hidden for years. Peter didn’t expect to find himself making this documentary, and for a long time didn’t even think of himself as a filmmaker. It wasn’t until re...

My guest this week is Alexis Langlois , director of the film Queens of Drama — a musical love story about two performers who enter a forbidden romance behind the scenes of a pop-star competition. Alexis has been making films with a troupe of irregulars for years, inspired by John Waters’ Dreamlanders and the recurring actors in the films of David Lynch. His style is scrappy, independent, political...

My guest this week is Pete Crighton, whose debut book The Vinyl Diaries comes out next week on May 13. It’s a memoir and a disocography, based on a journal that Pete kept of his various hookups with men over the years and the soundtrack of each encounter and relationship. We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris , I hope you’ll consider supporting the...

A new film called Lavender Men comes to theaters this month, and streaming in June — it’s about a theatrical stage manager who daydreams about her connection to Abraham Lincoln through queer romance. I’m chatting with two of the folks involved in the film this week: Lovell Holder directed the film, and Roger Q. Mason is the writer and star. They’re longtime collaborators, going back to college whe...

My guest this week is the writer, director, and co-star of the new Argentinian film Most People Die on Sundays . Iair grew up watching soap operas, pulled into on-screen melodramas. And now as an adult, he gets to make movies and work alongside the actors he used to watch on his favorite shows. But that’s only the start of what makes his latest film so personal. We’ll have that conversation in a m...

You may have seen writer, actor, and comedian Jeffery Self on the shows 30 Rock , Desperate Housewives , and Jeffery & Cole Casserole alongside Cole Escola. Or you might know him from his books, Drag Teen and A Very Very Bad Thing . Jeffery’s latest book Self-Sabotage: And Other Ways I've Spent My Time came out last month. And for this week’s episode, we’re heading into the Sewers archive to r...

You might’ve seen this week’s guest, Andrew Gurza, in the news lately. An activist and advocate for people with disabilities, he recently drew headlines for talking openly about how sex workers have changed his life, and why he believes the government should pay for them. Andrew has a new book coming out this month called Notes from a Queer Cripple: How to Cultivate Queer Disabled Joy (and Be Hot...

As you might’ve heard, I have a new video up on YouTube about the film Dog Day Afternoon , and a queer bank robber who stunned New York way back in the 1970s. For this week’s episode, we’re diving into the Sewers of Paris archives to explore queer life (and, occasionally, crime) in New York of the ‘70s. Back in the spring of 2020 I spoke with a man who remembered that era well; he earned the nickn...

My guest this week is author and architect Robert Raasch , whose recent debut novel The Summer Between is a coming-of-age adventure set in Greenwich Village of the late 1970s. It’s a topic that Robert knows well, having lived through that time himself — making the most of the thrilling disco and loft parties and sexual exploration it had to offer. And now his book offers a glimpse back at the best...

My guest this week is writer SW Kent, whose new novel is The Storyteller from Balincia . He’s been a storyteller himself since he was a kid, but for the first act of his career he had to rest his fiction-writing muscles so that he could concentrate on his job, which largely concerned programs for diversity, equity, and inclusion. In that role, he helped people in marginalized communities tell thei...

We’re trying different for this week’s Sewers of Paris . Instead of one guest, we have three — the cast of the new film Throuple . It’s a polyamorous romcom, a concert film, a coming-of-age story … and also a culmination of a long journey for Michael Doshier, Tommy Heleringer, and Stanton Plummer-Cambridge, who each individually struggled to find their place in the world before coming together for...

With the Oscars this weekend, we’ve reached the culmination of the year’s awards season. And  for this week’s Sewers of Paris we’re diving into the archives for a chat with an awards show legend: Bruce Vilanch, who's been slipping sly queer comedy into our entertainment since before some of us were even born. Starting out as a joke writer for great divas of the 1970s and then moving on to var...

My guest this week is director Corey Sherman, whose latest film is Big Boys — a story of a teenager who isn’t even out to himself when he goes on a camping trip and starts to develop feelings for his cousin’s boyfriend. Corey’s work has often had an autobiographical element, going back to his college webseries Billiams about a queer wolf attending a liberal arts school. Big Boys gave him a chance...

My guest this week is author and psychotherapist Wayne Scott . His new book, The Maps They Gave Us , is a memoir about navigating a rocky period in a marriage, about narrowly dodging divorce through non-monogamy, and about rediscovering his relationship with the queer community with support from his wife. It’s a complex journey, with surprising parallels to a cowboy story that was a point of obses...

Welcome to a special episode of The Sewers of Paris ! All this month, the Old Church Concert Hall in Portland is celebrating Black History Month with performances honoring Black artists. And I was lucky enough to speak with Kingsley, who helped organize the venue’s Blacker the Berry night, coming up on Saturday the 22nd. Kingsley’s inspirations span a wide range of genres, starting with a youthful...

My guest this week is musician George Alley — a returning guest who first appeared on the podcast in 2018 . Back then, we talked about how he escaped some rough bullying as a kid by creating music … and by joining a street gang. Now, he’s released a new album with a Valentine’s Day twist, so I invited him back for a new chat about the punk artists who were his musical influences, and about why he...

Cast your mind back, if you will, to the 1990s, when reality TV was new. Though the genre was young, many had already written off shows like The Real World as trash. But one young man saw an opportunity, and thought that maybe there was a way he could use television to save lives. His name was Pedro Zamora, and his work wound up changing the course of more lives than he could have possibly imagine...

My guest this week is filmmaker David Beck. His childhood love of theater led him to a life as an actor — and also a difficult struggle to keep his head above water in a career where work was unpredictable and fiercely competitive. After coming out of the closet with the help of a few illicit substances, a chance offer from a friend led to a reinvention behind the camera. His new film, Regarding U...

This month sees a rerelease of the classic ‘80s film The Goonies , which is about to turn 40. In honor of that milestone, we’re heading into the Sewers archives to hear my 2018 chat with Andrew Putschoegl , whose childhood mirrored that of ‘80s films where groups of neighborhood kids are thrown together into unstructured days of outdoor exploration. In those movies, each kid tends to have one uniq...

My guest this week is Danny Roberts, one of the stars of Real World: New Orleans , which originally aired on MTV in 2000. Danny was planning to become a teacher and wound up on the show through a series of coincidences, accidents, and last-minute changes of plan, so he was a little unprepared for the fame that he soon found thrust upon him. To say nothing of the weird — and sometimes awful ways —...

It's the 500th episode of the Sewers of Paris, and to celebrate James and I are doing a special Q&A with questions sent in by listeners! Huge thanks to everyone who sent questions, and let me know if you'd like to hear more episodes like these! And as requested by patron David, here are some of my favorite early episodes for anyone who wants to get started with the podcast, or jump back and re...

My guest this week is Sean Hemeon — an actor, writer, painter, and former Mormon drug dealer. Sean’s currently working on a memoir that details just how deep he fell into a violent, and at times deadly world of dealing crystal meth. And how an arrest, a lucky break, and a love of acting helped pull him out. We’ll have that conversation in a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris , I...