Shows
Bad GaysTRAILER: Extra Bad Gays December 2025It's never too late to give the gift of Bad Gays this holiday season: invite a friend or loved one into our community at https://www.patreon.com/badgayspod/gift
This month, we discuss Christmas spirit, the cancellation of the Netflix Marines drama Boots and the death of homonationalism, and then take a Gaggony Guncles question from a listener who needs to hear that He's Just Not That Into You.
2025-12-2408 min
Bad GaysCome See Us Live!We're coming to a city near you! Berlin on June 7, Sheffield June 20, and Bath June 22!
Tickets and info: badgayspod.com/live
2025-05-2700 min
Bad GaysTRAILER: Extra Bad Gays Gaggony GunclesSubscribers to our monthly "extra" show get to hear advice segments that we, (hopefully) charmingly refer to as the Gaggony Guncles. Here's last month's sample–for one or two juicy questions and thoughtful answers each month, plus conversations about the latest in queer history, culture, and politics, subscribe at Patreon.com/badgayspod or on Apple Podcasts.
2025-04-1011 min
Ivory Tower Boiler Room"These Bad Gays Are Trying to Murder Me," Ben Miller Exposes the "Bad Gays" Throughout HistoryJoin The Ivory Tower Boiler Room Cafe, $5 a month, to watch the video interviews and listen to bonus episodes: patreon.com/ivorytowerboilerroom
Andrew continues his San Francisco Queer History conference episodes with Ben Miller, a writer, podcaster, and academic, who has made a splash with his new book, co-written with Huw Lemmey, "Bad Gays: A Homosexual History." Ben begins by explaining the origin story for how the "Bad Gays" podcast was created, and how he and Huw met. Andrew asks why the word choice "Bad" instead of say "Evil" was chosen? Don't worry, Ben has an answer.
2023-03-061h 06
Well There‘s Your ProblemEpisode 124: Berlin-Brandenburg Airportmeine airport vas feelink very normal UND ZEN
Ben's twitter assuming the site still exists: https://twitter.com/benwritesthings
Ben's podcast: https://badgayspod.com/
Our Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/wtyppod/
Our Merch: https://www.solidaritysuperstore.com/wtypp
Send us stuff! our address:
Well There's Your Podcasting Company
PO Box 40178
Philadelphia, PA 19106
DO NOT SEND US LETTER BOMBS thanks in advance
in the commercial: Local Forecast - Elevator Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
2023-02-081h 59
LiliAnna's Preread Mediathek(500) Days of Summer (2009) | Part 2Hello, listeners! And, to complete the mysterious duology that is #500DaysOfSummer, we're proud to announce that Part 2 is now live!
Joined once more by the wonderful Loretta, we’ll be talking about:
🔹The 'male gaze' and what it represents
🔹The role of romcoms in teaching us how relationships should be structured
🔹 And why these characters are acting like teenagers when they’re supposed to be almost 30 🙄.
It might be grey outside, but it's all blue skies and big sunglasses on LiliAnna's Preread Mediathek 👗😎☀️🏙️🕶️
📝 Shownotes: 📝
📼 Preread text (Rowan Ellis, https...
2022-11-221h 16
Spaßbremse31 - Bad Gays w/ Ben MillerPride Month in North America may have just ended, but here in Germany the local Pride festivals — or "Christopher Street Days" — are just beginning. To talk about the complicated history of Germany's queer movements, we're joined on this episode by writer and historian Ben Miller, co-host of the podcast Bad Gays and co-author of the book Bad Gays: A Homosexual History, which just came out last month.
To learn more about Ben's podcast and book, check out www.badgayspod.com. If you’re in Berlin, you can join Ben and Bad Gays co-author Huw Lemmey at Prinz Eisenhe...
2022-07-031h 12Bad GaysUS Tour!
Our UK tour has been fun -- and the US is next! Ben (sadly Huwless) will be stopping in San Francisco, LA, Chicago, New York City, and Boston in the back half of June. All the events are available for RSVP and booking –– many with great discounts on copies of the book and swag included! –– so visit badgayspod.com/book to get your spot before they're gone, as most of our UK events have sold out!
2022-06-0803 minBad GaysEugen Sandow (with Ruby Hann)Happy Pride! We invited Ruby Hann, who completed her MA in History in 2020 and her MSc in History in 2021, both at the University of Edinburgh, to talk about Eugen Sandow, the bodybuilder who spread the cult of muscle around the world. Her research is focused on masculinity, sexuality, and the body in early twentieth century Britain. Ruby is not currently in academia, but she still occasionally writes, lectures, and attends conferences. You can follow her Twitter @RubyVolunteers to find her work.
Our book is available at badgayspod.com/book along with tour dates in the US and t...
2022-06-011h 29Bad GaysOur UK Tour! (US Coming Soon)Our book, Bad Gays: A Homosexual History is now available for pre-order from Verso –– and we're making many, many stops across every corner of Great Britain (Northern Ireland, we're sorry and we'll be there soon) to promote it, including three stops in London and stops in Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Glasgow, Bristol, and Cardiff. All the events are available for RSVP and booking –– many with great discounts on copies of the book and swag included! –– so visit badgayspod.com/book to get your spot before they're gone.
2022-05-1904 min
Fruitloops: Serial Killers of ColorE154: Andrew Phillip Cunanan(note: time stamps are without ads & may be off a little)This week Beth and Wendy discuss Andrew Phillip Cunanan, a Filipino-Italian-American best known as the man who killed Gianni Versace. But in actuality, he committed a total of five murders. He was either a spree killer or a serial killer, depending on who you talk to.We dive into the setting (5:19), the killers early life (16:29) and the timeline (22:02). Then, we get into the investigation & arrest (48:08), "Where are they now?" followed by our takeaways and what we think made the perp snap (52). As usu...
2022-04-141h 20
The AlternThe Lavender Scare Pt. 1 DiscussionIn our first discussion episode, Wes and Julian discuss the start of the Lavender Scare, and in particular, Roy Cohn, one of its executors, and how divisions in self-identity can allow for intra-community violence. This is part 1 of a two-part series on the Lavender Scare - part 2 will discuss the formal end to the Lavender Scare and how effective it was in actually ending employment discrimination against queer people in the Civil Service.
Email: altern@camprehoboth.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealternde/
Sources:
Executive Orders. (2016, August 15). National Archives. https://www...
2022-03-2233 min
librarypunk044 - Bad Gays feat. Ben MillerBen’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/benwritesthings
https://benwritesthings.com
https://badgayspod.com
Pre-order book https://badgayspod.com/book
Schwules Museum https://twitter.com/gaymuseum
Media mentioned
Gabrielle Palluch - The Opium Queen
The Queen's Throat: Opera, Homosexuality, and the Mystery of Desire by Wayne Koestenbaum
Nadezhda Durova - Wikipedia
Curating Visual Archives of Sex: A Roundtable Discussion
University of Toronto Press - States of Liberation
Racism and the Making of Gay Rights: A Sexologist, His Student, and the Emp...
2022-02-211h 04
The AlternTMQH: The Lavender Scare Pt. 1In our newest episode of our bite-sized history episodes, Julian discusses the start of the Lavender Scare, a parallel witch hunt to the Red Scare for queer people in the US government. This is part 1 of a two-part series on the Lavender Scare - part 2 will discuss the formal end to the Lavender Scare and how effective it was in actually ending employment discrimination against queer people in the Civil Service.
Email: altern@camprehoboth.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thealternde/
Sources:
Executive Orders. (2016, August 15). National Archives. https://w...
2022-02-1204 minBad GaysAnne BonnyAre you ready to have your timbers shivered and your mainbrace spliced? Today’s subject is a mysterious one, a historical figure whose life and reputation are confused by propaganda, romance and mythology: the Irish pirate Anne Bonny. We'll use her story to discuss gender, race, and class in the Golden Age of Piracy.
Visit www.badgayspod.com for an episode archive, a link to pre-order our book, and more information about the show.
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SOURCES:
B. R. Burg, Sodomy and the Pirate Tradition: English Sea Rovers in the Seventeenth-Century Ca...
2022-01-251h 08
True Gay CrimeA Mormon Monster, Arthur Gary BishopPatrick covers the horrendous story of Arthur Gary Bishop. This Mormon man was headed to a bad place from the get go. Unable to control himself, he destroyed families and communities of people along the way. How was he finally caught? What is blood atonement? And what terrible similarity does he have with his younger brother? Let’s find out!SUPPORT the PODCAST EMAIL: truegaycrime@gmail.comLISTEN ON YOUTUBE SOURCES: h...
2021-06-281h 01
RabblesHuw Lemmey on homosexuality, espionage & classIn this episode, Huw Lemmey takes us on a tour through London to explore the twentieth-century world of spies and sex, crime and cruising. He discusses the class composition of British homosexuality, collusion between queers and the state's security apparatus, moral panics around sexuality, anti-communism, and more. Felix and I then have a conversation with him about this mind-bending history.
You can find Huw on Twitter @huwlemmey (https://bit.ly/2YaKzJW), subscribe to his amazing newsletter at https://huw.substack.com/, or listen to his podcast BadGays at https://badgayspod.com/.
🦋 NAVIGATION 🦋
2:30 — Huw's talk...
2021-02-151h 44
Interdependence GuestsCollaborating with the dead, Hildegard of Bingen, genius and villainy with Huw Lemmey (Bad Gays)This week we are thrilled to welcome the author and critic Huw Lemmey in celebration of his new novel https://ignota.org/products/unknown-language (Unknown Language), written in collaboration with Hildegard of Bingen and out now on Ignota books
We discuss what it is like to channel the dead and write a novel together, Hildegard's visions and genius, constructed languages, and Bad Gays; Huw’s wonderful podcast with the historian Ben Miller.
We could have talked for a few lifetimes :)
Thanks again for the support and have a wonderful week!
LINKS
Unknown Language out now on Ignota Books
https://ignota.or...
2020-12-241h 57
SaddergayGay Liberation or Gaycation?When gays go "back-to-the-land," who really benefits from it? How does a four-day retreat in the woods create longterm social change? Who else wears a dress other than Harry Styles? Feminist Killjoy, Kinda Kyle talks about the Radical Faeries, the gay white ghetto, and the future of queer liberation. Find Kinda Kyle on: YouTubeInstagramMusic by:Verano Sensual by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5049-verano-sensualLicense: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Protofunk by Kevin MacLeodLink: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/s...
2020-11-2828 minBad GaysTruman CapoteBorn in a violent and difficult childhood in the American South, Truman Capote would rise to the highest levels of literary celebrity, praise, and fame: even joining the highly-exclusive jet set of 1960s and 1970s high society. Several of his short stories, novels, and plays have been praised as literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's (1958) and the true crime novel In Cold Blood (1966), which he labeled a "nonfiction novel". His works have been adapted into more than 20 films and television dramas. But Capote would be pursued by demons throughout his life – alcoholism, other forms of addiction, and cr...
2020-11-241h 15Bad GaysCarl Van VechtenA man with a passion for the dangerous, subversive, and avant garde; who eschewed the middle brow and loved the urbane and modern. Known in his life not just as a man of taste, but a tastemaker, someone who set the tone for elite cultural society in his lifetime; the white author, critic and photographer Carl Van Vechten became enchanted with the Harlem Renaissance, approached Black cultures as a source of ideas that he could take and exploit, and perpetuated racist stereotypes in his work.
Visit our website at badgayspod.com for an episode archive, T-shirts...
2020-11-1757 min
InterdependenceCollaborating with the dead, Hildegard of Bingen, genius and villainy with Huw Lemmey (Bad Gays)This week we are thrilled to welcome the author and critic Huw Lemmey in celebration of his new novel Unknown Language, written in collaboration with Hildegard of Bingen and out now on Ignota booksWe discuss what it is like to channel the dead and write a novel together, Hildegard's visions and genius, constructed languages, and Bad Gays; Huw’s wonderful podcast with the historian Ben Miller.We could have talked for a few lifetimes :)Thanks again for the support and have a wonderful week! LINKSUnk...
2020-11-101h 20Bad GaysBenjamin BrittenThe composer Benjamin Britten was a central figure of 20th century music; and the national composer that Britain had been searching for since the death of Henry Purcell in 1695. He never shook his Communist and pacifist sympathies –– even as he rose to the highest levels of elite British cultural production. A fervent pacifist, antinationalist, and homosexual –– with a deep, complex, and troubling love of children –– Britten, through the strength of his music and through the nation’s desire to have a musical hero of its own, became an utterly unlikely national celebrity.
Content warning: this episode contains discussions of...
2020-11-101h 20Bad GaysJeremy ThorpeThis is a story of sex, death and political malfeasance that will make Teddy Kennedy look like Anne of Green Gables. It has everything you’ve come to expect from a Bad Gays story about the English upper classes — psychosexual repression, violence, class prejudice, hypocrisy, the brutality and cheapness of life at the heart of the political system, and plenty of people named things like Rupert, Auberon and Emlyn.
=Content warning for child sexual abuse in the early parts of this story=
But as ridiculous and kinky as the fruity rulers of Britain are, the stor...
2020-11-031h 12
ChannelCollaborating with the dead, Hildegard of Bingen, genius and villainy with Huw Lemmey (Bad Gays)This week we are thrilled to welcome the author and critic Huw Lemmey in celebration of his new novel Unknown Language, written in collaboration with Hildegard of Bingen and out now on Ignota booksWe discuss what it is like to channel the dead and write a novel together, Hildegard's visions and genius, constructed languages, and Bad Gays; Huw’s wonderful podcast with the historian Ben Miller.We could have talked for a few lifetimes :)Thanks again for the support and have a wonderful week!LINKSUn...
2020-10-071h 57Bad GaysLord CastlereaghThe Anglo-Irish aristocrat, politician and statesman Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry: better known, like Bjork or Madonna, by his mononym - Castlereagh. A Whig politician, he was hated by the populations of both England and Ireland for his support of vicious repression against liberal, reformist, and radical politics and activism. Lord Byron put it best: "Posterity will ne'er survey / A nobler grave than this: / Here lie the bones of Castlereagh: / Stop, traveller, and piss."
Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/
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2020-04-0749 minBad GaysJames BuchananThe United States of America's first gay – and worst – President. This bumbling slaveholder collaborated with the Confederacy, promoted the racist Dred Scott decision at the Supreme Court, and cohabited in Washington with a dashing Alabama Senator who, in the words of President Andrew Jackson was the "Aunt Nancy" to his "Aunt Fancy."
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Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/
Sources:
Baker, Jean H. James Buchanan: The American Presidents Series: The 15th President, 1857-1861. Macmillan, 2004.
Balcerski, Thomas J. Bosom Friends: The Intimate World o...
2020-03-311h 04
Bad GaysNikolai Yezhov
A man variously known as the “Iron Hedgehog” and a “malignant Dwarf”, but also as charming, courteous, and, most importantly “a good party man,” a man who held the position of the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs - the head of the NKVD during Stalin’s Great Purge - Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov.
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Like our show? Support us, buy cute shirts, and check out past episodes at www.badgayspod.com/
Deutscher, Isaac. The Prophet Outcast: Trotsky, 1929-1940. London: Verso, 2003.
"Gay in the Gulag." Libcom. https://libcom.org/history/gay-gulag
Getty, J. Arch, and Oleg V. Naumov. The Roa...
2020-03-2453 min
Permanently MovedPeasants & Plague [Huw Lemmey]S03E11 Primidi Germinal, Peasants! Plague! Radical Cults! Class Politics! Thats right @huwlemmey is guest presenting this week. He is the host of the hit podcast Bad Gays and writes the weekly newsletter Utopian Drivel over at https://huw.substack.com/. Huw on Twitter: https://twitter.com/huwlemmey Bad Gays Pod: https://badgayspod.podbean.com/ Utopian Drivel: https://huw.substack.com/ --- Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded in one hour by @thejaymo Website: https://www.thejaymo.net/ Podcast: http://pe...
2020-03-2005 min
Tender Buttons003 Huw Lemmey: Flesh, Meat and Fighting the Guerrilla Culture WarWe chat to writer Huw Lemmey about queer desire, shame, a politics of bodily love and ways to fight the British culture war.
References:
You can subscribe to Huw’s weekly essays on his ‘Utopian Drivel’ substack here: huw.substack.com
His two novels are Chubz: The Demonization of My Working Arse (Montrez Press: 2014) and Red Tory: My Corbyn Chemsex Hell (Montrez: 2019)
His Bad Gays Podcast, with co-host Ben Miller: badgayspod.podbean.com
Other References: Richard Scott Soho (Faber: 2018) Jean Genet Thief’s Journal (1949)
2020-03-011h 07
Permanently Moved301 - 1929 - Inspiration and Setting Bigger GoalsS2E29 Still thinking on the same thread as last week about being inspired by other people in my life, and wanting to do more ambitious things. Links: Enemy's Review of Holly Herndon @ the Barbican : https://www.nme.com/reviews/live/holly-herndon-live-review-barbican Utopian Drivel : https://huw.substack.com/ Bad Gays : https://badgayspod.podbean.com/ --- Permanently moved is a personal podcast 301 seconds in length, written and recorded in one hour by @thejaymo Website: https://www.thejaymo.net/ Podcast: http://permanentlymoved.online Zine: http...
2019-10-1805 min