36 min
Season 2 Premiere: The History of Gay Cruising w/ Alex Espinoza PRIDE
-
- Society & Culture
PRIDE is back for Season Two! To celebrate the last day of Pride Month, and to kick off the rest of Pride Year, Levi Chambers sits down with queer historian, author, and professor Alex Espinoza to explore the intimate and radical history of gay cruising. Today's four part episode will:
Cover the basics of cruising
Explore its long history
Unlock its secret code
And consider the impact of COVID and dating apps on this enduring sexual practice.
Alex Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico to parents from the state of Michoacán and raised in suburban Los Angeles. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of California-Riverside and an MFA from UC-Irvine’s Program in Writing. His first novel, Still Water Saints, was published by Random House in 2007 and was named a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. The book was released simultaneously in Spanish, under the title Los santos de Agua Mansa, California, translated by Lilliana Valenzuela. His second novel, The Five Acts of Diego León, was also published by Random House in March 2013. His fiction has appeared in several anthologies and journals, including Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California’s Inland Empire, The Southern California Review, Flaunt, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His essays have been published at Salon.com, in the New York Times Magazine, in The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles Magazine, and as part of the historic Chicano Chapbook Series. He has also reviewed books for the LA Times, the American Book Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and NPR. His awards include a 2009 Margaret Bridgeman Fellowship in Fiction to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a 2014 Fellowship in Prose from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for The Five Acts of Diego León, and a 2019 fellowship to MacDowell. His newest book, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime, was published by The Unnamed Press in June, 2019. Alex is also deeply involved with the Puente Project, a program designed to help first-generation community college students make a successful transition to a university. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner Kyle and is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing.
Be sure to follow Alex on twitter.
Your host is Levi Chambers (he/him), founder of Rainbo Media Co. You can follow Levi @levichambers across socials.
Follow the show and keep up with the conversation @PRIDE across socials.
Want more great shows from Straw Hut Media? Check out or website at strawhutmedia.com.
PRIDE is produced by Levi Chambers, Frank Driscoll, Maggie Boles, Ryan Tillotson, and Brandon Marlo. Edited by Frank Driscoll and Daniel Ferrera.
Have an interesting LGBTQ+ story to share? We might feature U! Email us at lgbtq@strawhutmedia.com.
*This podcast is not affiliated with Pride Media.
PRIDE is back for Season Two! To celebrate the last day of Pride Month, and to kick off the rest of Pride Year, Levi Chambers sits down with queer historian, author, and professor Alex Espinoza to explore the intimate and radical history of gay cruising. Today's four part episode will:
Cover the basics of cruising
Explore its long history
Unlock its secret code
And consider the impact of COVID and dating apps on this enduring sexual practice.
Alex Espinoza was born in Tijuana, Mexico to parents from the state of Michoacán and raised in suburban Los Angeles. He holds a BA in Creative Writing from the University of California-Riverside and an MFA from UC-Irvine’s Program in Writing. His first novel, Still Water Saints, was published by Random House in 2007 and was named a Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Selection. The book was released simultaneously in Spanish, under the title Los santos de Agua Mansa, California, translated by Lilliana Valenzuela. His second novel, The Five Acts of Diego León, was also published by Random House in March 2013. His fiction has appeared in several anthologies and journals, including Inlandia: A Literary Journey Through California’s Inland Empire, The Southern California Review, Flaunt, and the Virginia Quarterly Review. His essays have been published at Salon.com, in the New York Times Magazine, in The Other Latin@: Writing Against a Singular Identity, in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Los Angeles Magazine, and as part of the historic Chicano Chapbook Series. He has also reviewed books for the LA Times, the American Book Review, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and NPR. His awards include a 2009 Margaret Bridgeman Fellowship in Fiction to the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, a 2014 Fellowship in Prose from the National Endowment for the Arts, a 2014 American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation for The Five Acts of Diego León, and a 2019 fellowship to MacDowell. His newest book, Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime, was published by The Unnamed Press in June, 2019. Alex is also deeply involved with the Puente Project, a program designed to help first-generation community college students make a successful transition to a university. He lives in Los Angeles with his partner Kyle and is the Tomás Rivera Endowed Chair of Creative Writing.
Be sure to follow Alex on twitter.
Your host is Levi Chambers (he/him), founder of Rainbo Media Co. You can follow Levi @levichambers across socials.
Follow the show and keep up with the conversation @PRIDE across socials.
Want more great shows from Straw Hut Media? Check out or website at strawhutmedia.com.
PRIDE is produced by Levi Chambers, Frank Driscoll, Maggie Boles, Ryan Tillotson, and Brandon Marlo. Edited by Frank Driscoll and Daniel Ferrera.
Have an interesting LGBTQ+ story to share? We might feature U! Email us at lgbtq@strawhutmedia.com.
*This podcast is not affiliated with Pride Media.
36 min