The Sewers of Paris

Matt Baume
  • 4.8 (380)
  • SOCIETY & CULTURE
  • UPDATED SEMIMONTHLY
The Sewers of Paris

Revealing stories about the books, movies, tv, music and more that have changed the lives of gay men. Each week, a guest plucks a piece of entertainment from their past, and answers the question: how did it change your life?

  1. 3 DAYS AGO

    Becoming a Library Gay (Ep 491 - Tales of the City/Michael)

    I have a new YouTube video premiering this weekend about the miniseries Tales of the City, based on the books by Armistead Maupin, and for this week’s episode we’re diving into the Sewers archives to revisit my 2020 interview with Michael — who, like the main character of Tales, moved to San Francisco to discover himself and wound up finding someone he didn’t expect. I recorded this conversation almost exactly five years ago, and a lot has changed for Michael since then — stay tuned at the end of our conversation for an update about his life that Michael just recorded. And like I mentioned, I’ll have a new YouTube video coming about the miniseries Tales of the City, and the Republican scheme in the 90s to use a gay love story to defund PBS. That’s going live this Sunday, October 27, at youtube.com/mattbaume.

    1 hr

  2. OCT 17

    Tina Turner's Wet Season (Ep 490 - Tina Turner/Ben Graetz & Miss Ellaneous)

    My guest this week is Ben Graetz, also known as Miss Ellaneous — an Australian drag performer whose work is infused with influences that range from a life-changing Tina Turner concert to his family’s First Nations heritage. Ben knew he wanted to perform from an early age, and attended an arts school with some actors whose names you’ll probably recognize. But he struggled to figure out what his place in the theater was, and even stepped away for a few years … before coming at it from a new angle, and finding a way to make it work, on his terms. And if you’re going to be in Australia, Miss Ellaneous will be a featured performer at Brisbane’s Melt festival later this month — stay tuned for more details about that in our conversation, and check the show notes for a link. We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series My So-Called Life, and my YouTube videos! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

    38 min

  3. OCT 10

    Beautiful and a Little Tormented (Ep 489 - Dr. Who/Toni)

    I’ve got a special conversation for you this week: Toni Godwin Sells is the Chief Business and Strategy Officer at the Museum of Pop Culture in Seattle. MoPOP is about to open a new exhibit dedicated to the works of Keith Haring and Toni and I spoke about Keith’s work to bring art to unlikely places — and how Toni found connection with other queer nerds through pop culture touchstones from a love of Dr. Who to designing outfits for drag shows. We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like  my YouTube videos! I have a brand new video about the show My So-Called Life, and how the character Rickie Vasquez changed television forever. Plus, join me for weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

    32 min

  4. OCT 3

    I Have Been Looking for the Pirate King (Ep 488 - Shakespeare/Johnnie McNamara Walker)

    My guest this week is Johnnie McNamara Walker, whose solo shows The Heterosexuals and Redheaded Stepchild led to him being described as a comic genius by The Irish Times. Johnnie spent a lot of his youth doing everything he could to hide the queer kid trying to break free — while also finding himself drawn irresistibly to singing, dancing, and wearing as many wigs as he could. Now, he’s not only broken free from that turmoil, but it’s part of what fuels an artistic project that he says isn’t so much a planned career as an all-consuming compulsion.

    43 min

  5. SEP 26

    From Gay Dive Bars to Jazz at Lincoln Center (Ep 487 - jazz/Richard Cortez)

    My guest this week is jazz musician Richard Cortez, whose new album Mood Swings comes out in one month, on October 24, 2024. Richard’s love of music was instilled early in life, but he hit some road bumps on his first attempt to move to New York and make it big in the arts. That was followed by various jobs in health care, in more adult careers, and occasionally flipping between stripping and jazz singing before he finally found success with his latest project. We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume. And you may also enjoy my other projects —  my YouTube videos, weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my email newsletter. Check out all that at MattBaume.com. Also, I hope you’ll check out a new documentary series premiering on CNN on September 22, about TV milestones that shaped American culture. It’s called TV on the Edge, and I’m just one of the folks interviewed on the show.

    43 min

  6. SEP 19

    A Little Space Alien (Ep 486 - Superman/Glenn)

    This weekend, there’s a new documentary coming to theaters about the life of Christopher Reeve, the actor who played Superman. It’s called Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, and it’s about his career, the injury that changed his life, and about what Superman the character means to different people. For this week’s episode, we’re diving into the Sewers archives to revisit a 2018 conversation on that topic. My guest was Glenn Kiser, whose name you might not recognize but he’s had a hand in countless films over the last thirty years — helping to craft movies alongside directors like David Fincher, Spike Jonze, Jane Campion, and George Lucas. As a kid, Glenn would obsess over movies and dream of the day he could make his own — never dreaming that his journey could take him from living on an isolated ranch in Texas to working at Skywalker Ranch. We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume. And you may also enjoy my other projects —  my YouTube videos, weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my email newsletter. Check out all that at MattBaume.com. Also, I hope you’ll check out a new documentary series premiering on CNN on September 22, about TV milestones that shaped American culture. It’s called TV on the Edge, and I’m just one of the folks interviewed on the show.

    57 min

  7. SEP 12

    Homosexuals Are Mad as Hell and We're Organizing (Ep 485 - live television/Mark Segal)

    My guest this week is Mark Segal, who started making waves in the 1960s and hasn’t stopped since. Mark was there for Stonewall, he was there for the organizing of the first Prides that followed, and he was ready to get arrested for the cause of gay liberation — and was many times, including on one memorable occasion when he invaded a broadcast of the CBS evening news. These days, he claims the title of the nation’s most awarded LGBT journalist, he continues to oversee operations at the Philadelphia Gay News, and he has some wisdom to offer queer people following the trail that he blazed. We’ll have that conversation in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume. And you may also enjoy my other projects —  my YouTube videos, weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my email newsletter. Check out all that at MattBaume.com. Also, I hope you’ll check out a new documentary series premiering on CNN on September 22, about TV milestones that shaped American culture. It’s called TV on the Edge, and I’m just one of the folks interviewed on the show.

    54 min

  8. SEP 5

    A Strange Kind of Family (Ep 484 - Grey Gardens & Second Life/Tony & Brad)

    Tony Maietta and Brad Shreve are the co-hosts on the podcast Going Hollywood, where they talk about their favorite films. And on this week’s Sewers of Paris, we’ve got a double feature — first an interview with Tony and then an interview with Brad. Tony’s an actor-turned-writer whose books include The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens, which he wrote after a chance encounter with The Marble Faun himself. And Brad’s a writer of queer mystery novels, though he went through a pretty rough time before his writing career took shape — spiraling through drug use, homelessness, and a period where the only way he could communicate with his then-boyfriend, now-husband was through the video game Second Life. We’ll have those two conversations in just a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon.  Patrons get access to an exclusive Discord server, stickers and books in the mail, bonus videos, and more. You can join the Patreon at patreon.com/mattbaume. And you may also enjoy my other projects —  my YouTube videos, weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my email newsletter. Check out all that at MattBaume.com.

    46 min
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4.8
out of 5
380 Ratings

About

Revealing stories about the books, movies, tv, music and more that have changed the lives of gay men. Each week, a guest plucks a piece of entertainment from their past, and answers the question: how did it change your life?

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