EXTRA BAD GAYS

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Bad Gays

Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller
  • 4.5 (518)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED SEMIWEEKLY

A podcast about evil and complicated queers in history. Why do we remember our heroes better than our villains? Hosted by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. Learn more: www.badgayspod.com

  1. 2H AGO

    Mandelson: A Homosexual History - Episode Two

    Subscribe on Patreon to hear Episode Three now, get our monthly Extra Bad Gays episodes, and stay a week ahead on the miniseries. Last week we looked at Mandelson’s early years, and his move from a flirtation with Marxism to being firmly on the right of the Labour Party. We also discussed the left-right split in the Labour Party, and how, in the 1980s, that became a full blown civil war. This week, it's time for the 1987 General Election, and for the paranoid homophobia of late-Eighties Britain: section 28, sleaze, AIDS panic, and tabloid hell.

    1h 3m
  2. Mandelson: A Homosexual History– Episode Three

    13H AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Mandelson: A Homosexual History– Episode Three

    This week, on Mandelson: A Homosexual History, we cover the 1992 UK election and the birth of New Labour. If Huw's Margaret Thatcher wasn't enough to turn your stomach, try his John Major on for size. Neil Kinnock loses the 1992 election. John Smith becomes leader of the Labour Party, flanked by two feuding up-and-coming reformers named Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Peter Mandelson buys a lovely home in Notting Hill with questionable financing, and sets himself to defeating Clause IV once and for all. The exciting but fundamentally reactionary Cool Britannia cultural moment helps us understand how tentative New Labour were about rocking the cultural boat. Their victory in 1997 was more about stasis than change.

    1h 9m
  3. Extra Bad Gays April 2026: Stonewall and Saunas

    6D AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Extra Bad Gays April 2026: Stonewall and Saunas

    We tackle Kezia Dugdale's welcome interview as head of the charity Stonewall, and her bewildering desire to find common ground by selling out the goals of the trans rights movement and publicly praising J. K. Rowling. Then we tackle a Gaggony question from a listener wondering about being trans-fem at the gay sauna. Can legalistic distinctions govern queer space?

    54 min

  4. APR 29

    Mandelson: A Homosexual History–Episode One

    Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to hear Episode Two of Mandelson: A Homosexual History now, and to stay a week ahead as the miniseries continues. They call him the Prince of Darkness. Peter Mandelson's decades-long political career is a skeleton key to everything that's gone wrong in Western politics in the last forty years. He's a spin doctor, a sometime minister, and a networker whose downfall through the Epstein files now threatens the survival of the British government. This miniseries examines his gay life and times, tracing the collapse of mass politics, the emergence of neoliberalism, and the political history of homosexuality in the UK, from decriminalisation to Section 28, from Sleaze to Gay Marriage. A Faustian story, Mandelson: A Homosexual History plays out on a world-historical scale, but at its heart is driven by the failures and compromises of greed and lust. In Episode One, we trace the emergence of Mandleson’s career in the Labour Party, and the formation of the networks of power that would help hollow out British social democracy in the years of Thatcher and Blair.

    53 min
  5. Mandleson: A Homosexual History - Episode Two

    APR 28 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Mandleson: A Homosexual History - Episode Two

    They call him the Prince of Darkness. Peter Mandelson's decades-long political career is a skeleton key to everything that's gone wrong in Western politics in the last forty years. He's a spin doctor, a sometime minister, and a networker whose downfall through the Epstein files now threatens the survival of the British government. This miniseries examines his gay life and times, tracing the collapse of mass politics, the emergence of neoliberalism, and the political history of homosexuality in the UK, from decriminalisation to Section 28, from Sleaze to Gay Marriage. A Faustian story, Mandelson: A Homosexual History plays out on a world-historical scale, but at its heart is driven by the failures and compromises of greed and lust. Subscribers like you get to listen to Episode Two free now, a week ahead of most listeners: and you will stay a week ahead as the miniseries continues. Enjoy.

    1h 3m

  6. APR 2

    Special Episode: Daniel Dunglas Home

    Subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Apple Podcasts or Patreon to support our work, get monthly bonus episodes, and join our community of listeners!   Daniel Dunglas Home always knew he wasn't like the other boys. Not because he was gay, but because, while they were out on the sports field playing rugby, he was communicating with the dead. Despite being a huge celebrity in Victorian England, today Home is almost unknown. In this special episode, academic and novelist Avery Curran talks to Huw about one of the most significant mediums of 19th century Spiritualism, and what his life and reputation can tell us about gender and sexuality in high society at the time. ----more---- SOURCES:   Heyday of a Wizard - Jean Burton   The First Psychic - Peter Lamont   Experiences in Spiritualism with DD Home - Viscount Adare   ‘Very hot indeed’: Intimacy between men in Experiences in Spiritualism with Mr. D. D. Home  - Avery Curran, Journal of Victorian Culture   Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.

    1h 18m
  7. Extra Bad Gays March 2026: Women Who Love Men Who Love Men

    MAR 30 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Extra Bad Gays March 2026: Women Who Love Men Who Love Men

    Some opening banter––Italy! Mandelson!––fades into a conversation about the German far-right political party AfD's lesbian leader and the state of homonationalism today. Then, the bulk of the conversation is dedicated to a Gaggony Guncles question asking us to weigh in on the politics and ethics of women who love MLM romance and fiction. (We promise we didn't write the question!)

    56 min
  8. Extra Bad Gays February 2026: Mandelson, Gay Mafias, And Liza's Floor Mop

    FEB 25 • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Extra Bad Gays February 2026: Mandelson, Gay Mafias, And Liza's Floor Mop

    We have heard your pleas. The news has made them even more urgent. We're going to do a whole main feed Peter Mandelson episode in Season 10: but for now, here's a taste of our legally-bounded musings on his arrest and what it says about UK political culture. We also talk about a Wired article about a supposed gay mafia in the tech world that doesn't deliver on its promises, and take Gaggony Guncles questions from an enby worried about their relationships with their cis family and a cis woman wondering what to call her enby coparent. Plus, we descend into madness imagining Liza Minnelli hosting a floor mop infomercial.

    45 min
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Hosts & Guests

4.5
out of 5
518 Ratings

About

A podcast about evil and complicated queers in history. Why do we remember our heroes better than our villains? Hosted by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. Learn more: www.badgayspod.com

Information

  • Creator
    Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2026
  • Episodes
    161
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2019-. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Bad Gays
  • Provider
    Benjamin Miller

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