You Can be Sad or You Can be Gay (Ep 370 - Guy Branum)

Fifty-eight years ago this weekend, the musical Hello Dolly opened on Broadway — and this week we’re diving into the Sewers archive for a chat with Guy Branum about why, for him, the show encapsulates all the greatest joyful aspects of being gay.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. And hey don’t forget to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my cute little newsletter. 

Also take a look at my YouTube channel where I post stories about film and TV history. I’ve got a Golden Girls video in the works. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos about queer pop culture.

Hercules as a Twink (Ep 369 - Roo/Disney movies)

My guest this week is one of the busiest people I’ve ever interviewed. Roo George Warren is an educator, an ecologist, a singer, an activist, a performance artist, and that’s not even half of the jobs you might find him doing on any particular day. Roo was raised with a healthy respect for skepticism and rebellion, and after venturing away from the town where he grew up, he found his calling close to him — now focusing on issues like food sovereignty and language revitalization for the Catawba Nation.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. And hey don’t forget to head over to mattbaume.com to subscribe to my cute little newsletter — this week I shared a bunch of my favorite Betty White performances.

Also take a look at my YouTube channel where I post stories about film and TV history. I’ve got a Golden Girls video in the works. And head over to my Patreon to support The Sewers of Paris and watch hours of bonus videos about queer pop culture. I just posted a roundup on Patreon of the most downloaded episodes of Sewers in 2021, along with my most watched YouTube videos.

I Just Lied (Ep 368 - Andy/Revolutionary Girl Utena)

My guest this week has been a lot of different people — Andy Casadonte grew up a meek kid in Maryland, came out of the closet when he went to school in New York to study illustration, and then had to watch his step when his first job out of college required him to move to Tennessee to work on the religious show Veggie Tales. For a while, he found solace in the fandom of queer anime. And when he was finally able to escape Tennessee, it was to a city and a job where queerness could be celebrated.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post stories about pop culture history. And head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos. I just posted a roundup on Patreon of the most downloaded episodes of Sewers in 2021, along with my most watched YouTube videos.

Also check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

Big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

That Really Felt Like Christmas Magic (Ep 367 - Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer/Jonathan)

I hope you’re having a delightful holiday time, full of seasonal entertainment and sweaters and good cheer. For this week’s episode, we’re heading into the archives to hear my 2016 interview with Jonathan, who grew up in a deeply religious family and always found himself swept up in the pageantry of the season. These days, he's distanced himself from the faith, but unexpectedly Christmas has become spiritual for him in a far more personal way.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. And head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

Check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

Big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

A Boy in the Country (Ep 366 - The Wizard of Oz/Tyler Dwiggins)

My guest this week is playwright Tyler Dwiggins, who grew up in an isolated, rural Indiana farm town where there wasn’t much in the way of arts — especially if someone else needed to use the school’s combination auditorium/cafeteria. That’s why today he produces the kind of stuff he was looking for back then, starting with a series of queer-inclusive plays for high schools.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. And head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

Check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

Big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

I'm Not Gay, I'm Just a Dance Major (Ep 365 - The Boys in the Band/Raymond Miller)

Twenty-one years ago this week, the show Queer as Folk made its American debut, and this week we’re diving into the Sewers archive to revisit one of the very first episodes of the podcast — my 2015 interview with Toronto performer Raymond Miller. If you were a teenager in Toronto in 2002, you saw him every afternoon hosting a local after-school TV show. He's also appeared on stage in Mamma Mia, blink on Queer as Folk, and with the Canadian Opera Company. Back when he was a TV show host, management told him he needed to get rid of his lisp. And if he couldn't on his own, they told him, they had a solution to straighten him out: hockey.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. And head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

Check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

Big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

The Boys' Secret Society (Ep 364 - Gay Newspapers/Robert Steele)

My guest this week is Robert Steele, author of a new book about a figure in the early modern gay liberation movement that you probably never heard of. Robert’s subject is Jim Foshee, a teen runaway who landed in Los Angeles in the middle of a time of incredible upheaval. He was also Robert’s good friend, and between the two of them are some incredible stories about gay life of the 1950s onward.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. I just published a new one about Jim Nabors, the Andy Griffith Show, and a scandalous fake marriage that nearly ended two closeted actors’ careers. And head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

Check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

Big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

I Was Like a Zombie (Ep 363 - The Powerpuff Girls/Alex Salyer)

My guest this week is Alex Salyer, whose work you may have seen on HBO’s Animals, on Tuca and Bertie, on BoJack Horseman, and also possibly in some of your weirder dreams. Alex is an animation director whose work defies the rules of reality, and any other rules he might happen to run into. Working in adult animation, at this point Alex may have animated more dicks than anyone else in his field — quite an accomplishment for someone who grew up in a conservative religious family.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. I’ve got one coming this weekend about Jim Nabors, the Andy Griffith Show, and a scandalous fake marriage that nearly ended two closeted actors’ careers.

And you can also head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

And check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

And a big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

We've Cornered the Market on Mermaids (Ep 362 - Joel Kim Booster/Clue)

We’re careening towards Thanksgiving, and you know what that means — an onslaught of holiday specials on the horizon. One that I’m particularly looking forward to is Santa Inc, a stop-motion special featuring the voice of comedian Joel Kim Booster. I spoke with Joel back in 2017, and this week we’re diving into the Sewers of Paris archive to revisit that conversation in preparation for the holidays. 

Joel grew up in a household where his parents tried to control every aspect of his life — until he came out, at which point he found himself homeless, and then taken in by a family he barely even knew.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. I’ve got one coming up about Jim Nabors, the Andy Griffith Show, and a scandalous fake marriage that nearly ended two closeted actors’ careers.

And you can also head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

And check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

And a big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.

Lots of Trouble (Ep 360 - The Breakfast Club/Lane Rogers)

My guest this week is Lane V. Rogers, who splits his time between posting videos on YouTube, streaming on Twitch, posting nudes on OnlyFans, and getting a degree in business — all of which would be a tremendous surprise to him just a few years ago. When he graduated from high school a few years ago, Lane realized that he had spent so much time rebelling that he hadn’t developed any interests or plans or goals for his life. He found himself adrift and aimless and working a dead-end job, and might still be there today if not for a lucky discovery of a VHS tape at a thrift shop.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a reminder to check out my YouTube channel where I post videos about queer pop culture. And you can also head over to my Patreon to watch hours of bonus videos featuring stories of TV and film history.

And check out my cute little newsletter where I share sneak peeks at what I’m working on at mattbaume.com.

And a big thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris at Patreon.com/mattbaume. And to everyone who’s left a review on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen.