Celebrate Pride Month with these podcasts about LGBTQ trailblazers, past and present
While many Pride festivities this year will still be parade-less, there are at least lots of fantastic LGBTQ podcasts out there to help you celebrate from home. We've curated a handful of our favourites. Hear from comedy star Bowen Yang about what it's like to be the first Asian-American and only gay man in the cast of Saturday Night Live. Listen as a lonely florist and recluse writer fall in love through the mail. And honour Pride's origins not as a party, but as a protest, with a look back into queer and trans history.
To all our LGBTQ listeners, Happy Pride! Wherever you are in your journey, we hope these podcasts can bring you a sense of love and solidarity. And as always, let us know if we've missed some of your favourites!
Podcasts featured this week:
The Log Books: "What if you could glimpse into LGBTQ+ life from decades ago? The Log Books is an award-winning history of LGBTQ+ life in Britain as noted by volunteers at the helpline Switchboard. Each episode of this stirring podcast centres around log book entries made by the volunteers who staffed the phones from the charity's very first day. As a helpline for anyone who wants to talk about gender identity and sexuality, Switchboard has been hearing about, and helping, queer life since 1974."
Greenhouse: "Greenhouse is an anxious audio love story about a recluse writer and a lonely florist who learn, letter by letter, that the world is a whole lot brighter when you have someone to share your story with."
Making Gay History: "When Deborah Johnson and Zandra Rolón Amato, two twenty-seven-year-old veterans of the LGBTQ civil rights movement, headed out for a romantic dinner on Thursday, January 13, 1983 at the Papa Choux restaurant in Los Angeles, they had no idea that they'd wind up in court defending their right to be served."
Chosen Family: "Tranna and Thomas welcome none other than Saturday Night Live cast member Bowen Yang for a wide-ranging conversation! Now in his third season as a player on the show, Bowen has already made comedy history by being the first Chinese-American and only current gay man in the cast."
Nancy: "Imara Jones joins us to talk about creating a truly inclusive Black Lives Matter movement, and getting back to the roots of Pride. Imara Jones is an award-winning journalist, and the creator of TransLash, a multi-episode series about what it is like to be transgender, especially a trans person of color, at a time of social backlash."
Know an amazing LBGTQ podcast we didn't mention? Send it to us! Email, tweet us @PodcastPlaylist, or find us on Facebook.
For more great podcasts, check out CBC's podcast portal, subscribe in Apple Podcasts.