Wednesday With Woody

This week, with International Lesbian Day and National Coming Out Day landing within days of each other, Wednesday with Woody is wondering who actually gets to know you’re queer. Because visibility gave so many of us the chance to see what our lives could become, but being seen can still carry consequences. And somewhere between pride, privacy and safety, queer people are making tiny decisions abo...

Personally, I love a red flag. Racist? Homophobic? Generally committed to being a nightmare? Thank you for the signage. At 30-something years old, I simply do not have six months to discover you’re an a**. This week on Wednesday with Woody , I’m wondering when accepting people for who they are became convincing them to be somebody else. Do I really need to change your mind, or can I just believe t...

I heard a gay man say he sometimes feels stranded in the middle: too gay for straight people, but somehow not gay enough for the gays. He misses the references, doesn’t recognise himself in the stereotypes and feels like everybody received a gay starter pack except him. I laughed. Then I remembered an acquaintance once telling Ryan and me that we were “too boring for the gays”. Rude. Also… strange...

I found out what a canthal tilt is this week, and I really wish I hadn’t. Because I was perfectly happy with my eyes before someone on the internet informed me there was an angle involved. And obviously I went looking. Bad idea. I ended up somewhere between looksmaxxing, bodybuilding, skincare, hair transplants and men having “protocols” for things we used to just call moisturising. And somewhere...

I watched the trailer for Club Kid, a new film concerning a gay party promoter whose life is turned upside down when the son he never knew he had suddenly turns up. I watched it and thought to myself That sounds nice, then carried on scrolling. In a strange way, that’s exactly how ordinary it seemed. This week on Wednesday with Woody , I’m thinking about the people who showed us what our lives cou...

I saw a HYROX athlete casually call himself a power bottom in a sponsored Instagram post and, naturally, I had questions. Not about the porridge. About why those two things together caught my attention at all. This week on Wednesday with Woody , I’m wondering what being a bottom has to do with being a man. Somewhere along the way, we decided bottom meant submissive, submissive meant feminine, and...

I was standing in Woolworths buying the same groceries I’d bought the week before when I had a slightly ridiculous thought: Did I actually choose any of this? The tofu. The coffee. The route home. The music in my headphones. The first app I opened that morning. It made me wonder how much of my life is actually mine, and how much has quietly been handed over to habit, algorithms, work, fear, or a v...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we ask a deceptively simple question: how are men making friends in 2026? Inspired by a TikTok about how difficult male friendship becomes with age, Woody explores the friendship recession, marriage, emotional labour and the strange social rituals men use to stay close without ever quite admitting they need each other. From gym nods and group chats to loneliness...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we look at what happens when hate arrives dressed as love, concern, faith, family and protection. In “When Hate Calls Itself Family: Pride, Fear and the Politics of Protection,” we unpack the softer language often used to make queer people smaller: “I love you, but…”, “family values,” “protect the children,” and all the suspicious little phrases that sound gentl...

Season 6 of  Wednesday with Woody  opens in Pride Month with a funny, tender and honest reflection on why Pride still matters. In this episode, Woody explores coming out not as one dramatic announcement, but as a lifelong negotiation with rooms, risk, family, work, culture, safety and the body. From awkward everyday moments to the shrinking of corporate Pride support, from visibility and represent...

Trigger warning: This episode includes discussion of homophobia, mental health and discrimination toward LGBTQ + people. Listener discretion is advised. This week on Wednesday with Woody, we look at the closet that survives the coming out. The quiet one. The one that lives in the mind and shapes how we speak, love, work and move through the world. Drawing on research and lived experience, Woody un...

This Transgender Awareness Week, Woody explores the world of Walls, Runways and Realness from the ballroom brilliance of Paris Is Burning to today’s conversations about visibility and belonging. Through the lives of Venus and Angie Xtravaganza and Jonathan Bailey’s historic win, this episode celebrates trans legacy while asking what true inclusion really means. It is a love letter to trans history...

Trigger warning: This episode contains discussion of sexual abuse, trauma and the experiences of male survivors. Listener discretion is advised. In this episode of Wednesday with Woody , we explore one of the hardest conversations to have in public life: male sexual abuse. We look at the myths that keep men silent, from the idea of the “gay predator” to the culture of disbelief and shame that surr...

Johannesburg Pride 2025 shimmered with sequins, contradictions, and truth. In this episode of Wednesday with Woody, we dive into the messy magic of being Purely, Queerly, African , a theme that reclaims queerness on African soil. From rainbow-washing debates and corporate floats to the deeper fight for authenticity and belonging, Woody unpacks what visibility really costs and why Pride, even when...

This week on  Wednesday with Woody , we’re diving into the weirdly quiet chaos of 2025 - the year that forgot to slay. From failed 75 Hard challenges to collective burnout, Woody reflects on why everything feels paused, what it means to wait gracefully, and how to find meaning in the in-between. With humour, honesty, and just the right amount of delusion, this episode is your permission slip to br...

This week on  Wednesday with Woody , we’re calling out one of the oldest myths in the book, that sexuality is a choice. From childhood crushes and pencil thieves to Elon’s Netflix meltdown, we’re unpacking what it  really  means to discover who you are (and why it was never up for debate in the first place). Wednesday with Woody is your midweek dive into modern life. Where storytelling, culture, a...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re going there. Grindr. Scruff. Tinder. The apps we love to hate and hate to love. But what if they’re more than just hookup tools? What if, for some, they’re the only gateway to queer connection? In this episode, we get real about the digital disconnect so many gay men feel in an online-first world. From swipe culture and ghosting fatigue to the racial and b...

What does it mean to love across race in a world still unlearning racism? In this unfiltered episode, Woody unpacks the joys and complexities of interracial dating, from Instagram fantasy to real-life friction. Drawing from his own marriage, South African history, and global queer culture, Woody dives into everything from fetishization and family dynamics to sexual racism, power, and preference. W...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re pulling back the glitter curtain on Pride season. When brands swap their logos for rainbows and roll out queer merch, is it real support? Or just rainbow capitalism in a fresh font? In Pinkwashed: The Price of Pride , we unpack the $3.9 trillion power of pink money, the rise of performative allyship, and what real support actually looks like. From Stonewal...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re talking boy problems . But not the kind you can text your bestie about. We're unpacking modern masculinity: what it’s doing to men, how it’s shaping boys, and why loneliness has become an epidemic nobody wants to name. We get into toxic masculinity, emotional starvation, queer softness, blended brotherhoods, and the quiet grief of men who were never gi...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re poppin’ balloons and joining the dating circus. Inspired by the chaotic brilliance of Netflix’s bisexual episode of Pop the Balloon Live , we’re asking: is dating in 2025 still about connection or just vibes, soft launches, and ghosting before dessert? From gay hookup burnout to straight dating confusion, queer love tropes to capitalistic romance aesthetic...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re dragging the cult of self-improvement. From gym selfies and cold plunges to green juice routines and emotional bootcamps, we’re asking: is this wellness… or just another way to punish ourselves into being lovable? Wednesday with Woody  is your midweek dive into modern life—where storytelling, culture, and unfiltered self-expression meet. Hosted by Woody, e...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re burning the beige and walking away from the life we were told to want. In a world obsessed with safety, structure, and following the script, what happens when you choose something different? Wednesday with Woody  is your midweek dive into modern life—where storytelling, culture, and unfiltered self-expression meet. Hosted by Woody, each episode unpacks the...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re talking labels—the ones we choose, the ones we outgrow, and the ones we never asked for. From LGBTQIA+ identity to personality tropes like “the strong one” or “the mom friend,” we’re unpacking what happens when the boxes we’ve built for ourselves start to feel a little too tight. Are labels helping us find ourselves, or are they lowkey keeping us stuck? Wh...

This week on Wednesday with Woody , we’re cracking open the soft-lit illusion of modern life and asking the question none of us wants to answer. From neutral-toned morning routines to aesthetic apartments that feel more like showrooms than homes. Is it beauty, or is it dissociation with a eucalyptus diffuser? We drag ourselves (lovingly), unpack the rise of “authenticity” as a branding strategy, a...