81 episodes

Outward, Slate's queer podcast, is a whip-smart monthly salon in which hosts and guests deepen the audience’s understanding of queer culture and politics, delight them with unexpected perspectives, and invite listeners into a colorful conversation about the issues animating LGBTQ communities.

Outward: Slate's LGBTQ podcast Slate Podcasts

    • Society & Culture
    • 4.0 • 184 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Outward, Slate's queer podcast, is a whip-smart monthly salon in which hosts and guests deepen the audience’s understanding of queer culture and politics, delight them with unexpected perspectives, and invite listeners into a colorful conversation about the issues animating LGBTQ communities.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Mercury Stardust Helps Queer People Feel Safe and Sound at Home

    Mercury Stardust Helps Queer People Feel Safe and Sound at Home

    It’s September. Are you ready to warm up your muscles as the temperatures dip and get your apartment all cozy for the cuffing season to come? If so, Outward has you covered. First, listeners Elizabeth and Peter respond to last month’s discussion of Amazon’s film adaptation of Red, White & Royal Blue. Then the hosts talk with sports journalist Katie Barnes about their new book Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates, which tells the remarkable story of how sports have been gendered long before today’s anti-trans panic. After that, they’re joined by writer and TikTok-er extraordinaire Mercury Stardust, who is known as the “Trans Handy Ma’am” for her DIY home-repair videos. Mercury’s new book, Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair, blends stunning illustrations and emotional-processing breaks with how-to guides for making your apartment into a sanctuary. The hosts end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.

    Items discussed in the show:
    “Bottoms Queers the High-School Comedy,” the Culture Gabfest’s discussion of the movie, with Christina
    “Power Bottoms,” by Rachel Handler, on Vulture
    Fair Play: How Sports Shape the Gender Debates, by Katie Barnes
    Safe and Sound: A Renter-Friendly Guide to Home Repair, by Mercury Stardust
    The Safe and Sound book tour

    Gay Agenda

    Bryan: “What Happens When You’re Almost Out of Testosterone–and You Live in Florida,” by Nico Lang
    Christina: Deadloch, on Amazon Prime
    Jules: People Collide, by Isle McElroy

    This podcast was produced by June Thomas.

    Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Red, White & Really Bad

    Red, White & Really Bad

    This month, hosts Christina Cauterucci, Jules Gill-Peterson, and Bryan Lowder discuss Amazon Prime’s adaptation of Casey McQuiston’s best-selling queer rom-com Red, White & Royal Blue. They also speak with intersex activist and educator Pidgeon Pagonis about their memoir Nobody Needs to Know and the campaign to end nonconsensual surgeries on intersex kids. The hosts end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.

    Items discussed in the show:
    Red, White, & Royal Blue, by Casey McQuiston
    Red, White & Royal Blue on Amazon Prime
    Outward’s December 2019 special episode on The Inheritance
    Nobody Needs to Know: A Memoir, by Pidgeon Pagonis
    Girl, Interrupted, by Susanna Kaysen
    Interconnect.support, a support group for intersex people

    Gay Agenda

    Christina: John Early: Now More Than Ever, on Max
    Jules: “O’Shae Sibley Was Killed While Voguing at a Brooklyn Gas Station. Last Weekend New Yorkers Rallied to Honor His Memory,” in Vogue
    Bryan: Miriam and Alan Lost in Scotland on PBS, and “Who’s Afraid of Social Contagion,” by Hugh Ryan, in the Boston Review

    This podcast was produced by June Thomas.

    Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.

    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 1 hr 5 min
    The Pleasures and Politics of Cruising

    The Pleasures and Politics of Cruising

    This month, taking a cue from the sultry, sensual heat of summer, Outward examines the venerable queer practice of cruising—for sex and sex work—in public space. First, hosts Christina Cauterucci, Jules Gill-Peterson, and Bryan Lowder make eyes at Park Cruising, a new essay collection on cruising in parks, which explores the pleasures, politics, and complexities of that gay pastime. Author Marcus McCann joins the hosts to discuss those themes. Then they head down to Christopher Street with the trans women of The Stroll, a new HBO documentary streaming on Max, as they revisit a time when New York’s now-gentrified Meatpacking District was rich with a unique and affirming form of sisterhood. Co-director Kristen Lovell stops by to discuss the making of the film. The hosts end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.

    Items discussed in the show:
    “The Real Story of 303 Creative v. Elenis,” by Mark Joseph Stern in Slate
    Outward’s Times Square billboard
    A provocative chant at NYC Drag March
    Park Cruising: What Happens When We Wander Off the Path, by Marcus McCann
    The Stroll
    The Lady and the Dale
    Sylvia’s Place
    Sylvia Rivera, Marsha P. Johnson, and STAR

    Gay Agenda
    Christina: Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed from HBO
    Jules: Hari Nef’s interviews about her role in Barbie 
    Bryan: Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music (see also Hugh Ryan on the show’s history)

    This podcast was edited by Emily Charash and produced by June Thomas.

    Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 1 hr 6 min
    Despair Is a Rational Response to Anti-Trans Activism

    Despair Is a Rational Response to Anti-Trans Activism

    In the last of our Pride month mini-episodes, host Jules Gill-Peterson is joined by Evan Urquhart, the community manager for Slate's comments section who also covers anti-trans propaganda on assignedmedia.org. They discuss Evan’s piece “Don’t Look Away From Queer Despair,” which was part of Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package. In a galvanizing conversation, they discuss the need to resist putting on a happy face in these genuinely challenging times; the compulsion to create work that will leave breadcrumbs of hope for the next generation of queer and trans people, and supporting one another.
    Items discussed in the show:
    “Don’t Look Away From Queer Despair,” by Evan Urquhart
    Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package of stories
    Assigned Media
    This podcast was edited by Emily Charash and produced by June Thomas.
    Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 24 min
    Pride Special: The Trans Pharmacist Who Went Viral

    Pride Special: The Trans Pharmacist Who Went Viral

    This month, to celebrate Pride, we’re bringing you some extra episodes of Outward. On Saturdays, we're sharing some great LGBTQ content from around the Slate podcast network.
    Today, it’s an episode of What Next, Slate’s daily news show. It features a conversation between host Mary Harris and Arkansas pharmacist Gwen Herzig. Gwen is a trans woman who testified before the Arkansas general assembly, sharing her perspective as a medical professional, only to be asked about her genitalia. The What Next team wanted to know what happened after Gwen testified and how the experience felt to her.
    What Next is produced by Elena Schwartz, Madeline Ducharme, Anna Phillips, Paige Osburn, and Rob Gunther.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 28 min
    What Was Corporate Pride?

    What Was Corporate Pride?

    This Pride month, many LGBTQ people are grappling with complicated feelings. Anti-gay and anti-trans political attacks are becoming all too common, Pride celebrations are being banned or canceled in some parts of the United States, and many of us are wondering how to put this in perspective. Hosts Christina Cauterucci, Jules Gill-Peterson, and Bryan Lowder wrestle with some of that complexity as they work through their feelings about corporate Pride. If rainbow capitalism never mattered in the first place, why does this year’s backtracking feel bad? Then they are joined by writer Delilah Friedler to discuss her piece “Tennessee Belongs to Trans People, Too,” which is part of Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package. They end the show, as always, with some new additions to the Gay Agenda.

    Items discussed in the show:
    J. Harrison Ghee and Alex Newell become the first nonbinary acting award winners at the Tony Awards
    “The Dirty Secret of Corporate Pride,” by Christina Cauterucci
    “Tennessee Belongs to Trans People, Too,” by Delilah Friedler
    Slate’s “Not Quite Pride” package of stories

    Gay Agenda
    Bryan: Casa Susana, a documentary airing on PBS’s American Experience 
    Jules: Chasing Chasing Amy, a documentary film by Sav Rodgers
    Christina: Dykette, a novel by Jenny Fran Davis

    This podcast was edited by Emily Charash and produced by June Thomas.

    Please send feedback, topic ideas, and advice questions to outwardpodcast@slate.com.

    This Pride Month, make an impact by helping Macy’s and The Trevor Project on their mission to fund life-saving suicide prevention services for LGBTQ youth. Go to macys.com/purpose to learn more.
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

    • 56 min

Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5
184 Ratings

184 Ratings

I_heart_trees ,

Complicated at best

Lonnnnnng time listener who has been growing tired of the show having a static idea of what queerness is. Finally had to unfollow today after the discussion of how “some queer content shouldn’t be made”. As someone who believes that we need MORE queer content and celebrates the fact that now we have so much content we can even celebrate the bad … I’m gonna celebrate this pod and the years of listening by giving you a 4 star rating but also unsubscribing.

Reginasrae ,

Love!

Now a Subscriber. Heart felt and knowledgeable conversations. Advocates for us Queer folks very refreshing to say the least. - what’s not refreshing is two of the speakers (3-15-23) injecting the filler word “like” into sentences multiple times. Maybe it’s a regional thing- but locally for me - not used to hearing it. And certainly not up to 5 times in one sentence. Just sayin. (It’s annoying) other than that- 5 stars!!

angrylf ,

A very problematic show

So woke they don’t realize that some of the views they push are actually homophobic - quite anti same sex. There is a lot of cluelessly misogynistic crap here too. The hosts don’t seem to understand how journalism works - they whine and squeal about the Times not advocating for causes when that is not the role of journalists.

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