the title is a misdirect
December 11, 2019 8:39 AM   Subscribe

Bad Gays is a podcast series about bad gay men in history... mostly. ("Bad" and "gay" can both be slippery terms when discussing historical figures, as the hosts are often quick to point out.) With episodes ranging from Ernst Röhm to J. Edgar Hoover to Fredrick the Great, hosts Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller argue that telling the story of why complicated figures do terrible things can allow us to host better conversations about what it means to be gay--and good.
posted by sciatrix (11 comments total) 34 users marked this as a favorite
 
It's one of the best podcasts of the year, and one of the best examples of how to do the two-people-explain-history-to-each-other format well; there's no waffle, the depth of knowledge is profound, and it feels so urgent.

It's also why I can't bring myself to get a NY Mag subscription while they still have Andrew Sullivan on the payroll. God, what an asshole.
posted by Gin and Broadband at 9:17 AM on December 11, 2019 [9 favorites]


Awesome
Ctrl-F Alcibiades produces no episodes. I hope they get to him. Slippery, indeed!
posted by Glomar response at 9:41 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


I have a thing for J. Edgar Hoover dating all the way back to high school when I stumbled across Masters of Deceit, his bonkers 1950s book about the Communist Menace in America. That led me to writing my high school term paper on him. Even when I was reading about it in the late 80s the fact Hoover was queer was only briefly whispered about in one, maybe two biographies. And not even presented as fact, only speculation.

Fascinating man. Also evil.

Roy Cohn is definitely worth listening to in order to put current Trump bullshit in historical context.
posted by Nelson at 9:48 AM on December 11, 2019 [7 favorites]


Roy Cohn is just incredible. He was so influential and well-known and now his legacy is a self-hating gay patriot who hated taxes and had a weakness for straight, male kissups (Trump). Angels in America is one of the few pieces of media where he is the "star" he always wanted to be!
posted by Freecola at 10:20 AM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


This sounds great! Thanks for posting. Will listen.
posted by Don.Kinsayder at 11:01 AM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


The first episode of this I ever listened to was the one on Lord Alfred Douglas, and I now use the phrase "evil twink energy" on the regular.

My only criticism of the show is that the sound quality is sometimes a bit iffy, but the content is consistently great so I can totally overlook it.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 11:26 AM on December 11, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm delighted to see an FPP on this show! I listen to a lot of podcasts and a lot of history/history adjacent podcasts in particular. They range from the rather dry, academics talking about their area of expertise (New Books in History, BBC History Extra) to the comedians taking the piss variety (The Dollop, Behind the Bastards).

Bad Gays carves out its own very appealing niche somewhere in-between. They are experts who are neither afraid to go full professor-mode and really get into the queer theory, ambiguity etc. nor to crack a joke or give a genuine emotional reaction to the show's topic. It has the feeling of meeting your post-doc friends at a bar and getting into a really compelling discussion of their area of research, which they are both knowledgeable AND passionate about.

Also, I listen to enough of this genre of podcast that I end up hearing the same story multiple times (like, I get it, it's hard to resist giving your own take on John R. Brinkley and his magical goat balls...) I've heard new stories on this show, that probably won't end up on another history podcast. For example, the story of Friedrich Radszuweit was fascinating and I had definitely never heard of him before.
posted by thewrongparty at 11:41 AM on December 11, 2019 [5 favorites]


Michael Alig needs one too
posted by fluttering hellfire at 2:07 PM on December 11, 2019 [1 favorite]


I immediately thought of Sullivan. And now I have listened to the episode about Sullivan. And now I truly, deeply detest Andrew Sullivan. I was aware of some of his past, and have read some articles of his over the years, but I did not know the extent to which he is a disgusting human being.

Thanks for this post. I'm normally not a fan of podcasts (give me pixels!), but these two have great, direct delivery and make the listening experience worthwhile. I will check out some more.
posted by SoberHighland at 5:47 PM on December 11, 2019 [4 favorites]


This is such a great podcast and I hadn't realised how much I needed my concept of gay history to be complicated before I started listening to it. The recurrent theme of homonationalism alone has been eye-opening, as has how class has played such a role in how homosexuality has been defined.

Huw Lemmey's novels - Chubz and this year's Red Tory - are absolutely incredible as well, if they haven't crossed your path.
posted by garlicsmack at 1:32 AM on December 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


Oh, God, sciatrix, thank you so much! I have a thing for podcasts about evil people, but I can't deal with Behind the Bastards for some reason I don't have the energy to interrogate right now, so I've been jonesing for a while. Just last night I discovered that Russia, if you're listening is back on and now this deliciousness? I am set for the holiday season.
posted by Don Pepino at 3:58 AM on December 12, 2019 [1 favorite]


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