5 podcasts that take a deep dive into LGBTQ+ history
Podcast host and producer Francis Plourde recommends his top 5 LGBTQ+ podcasts worth listening to
Award-winning journalist Francis Plourde, this season's host and co-producer of The Village: The Montreal Murders, shares his top five podcast recommendations to keep on your radar this Pride month.
The Village: The Montreal Murders uncovers the 1990s serial murders of gay men in Montreal, which Plourde describes as "a historical investigation with a queer focus." This season, CBC/Radio-Canada produced a sister podcast in French, titled Le Village : meurtres, combats, fierté hosted by Marie-Eve Tremblay.
Plourde's podcast recommendations cover a diverse selection of LGBTQ+ history and culture. Keep reading to learn more about Plourde's picks, in his own words.
This podcast, hosted by journalist Leon Neyfakh — who hosted the first two seasons of Slow Burn — dives deep into the AIDS crisis. The eight-part series goes back to the origins of the epidemic, in 1981, when it did not yet have a name, but was only described as a "gay plague," and takes us through the '80s and '90s as governments failed to address the issue.
Neyfakh revisits history with a fresh perspective, talking directly to people who lived it — patients, doctors, activists — in a way that both feels engaging and relevant. Many anecdotes shared in Fiasco will sound familiar; we've heard them recently as the world has been dealing with COVID-19.
While Season 3 of The Village does address the AIDS epidemic and how it affected the gay community in Montreal, Fiasco goes much deeper. I started listening to it recently and was blown away by Neyfakh's research and how he doesn't shy away from tackling tough questions, such as how the U.S. dealt with it as a moral issue rather than a public health crisis or how the slow response to the epidemic was fueled by prejudices against LGBTQ people.
Fiasco also serves as a reminder that hundreds of thousands of people still die from AIDS-related illnesses every year. It got better, but it's not over.
In this oral history podcast, award-winning broadcaster, and journalist Shawn Dearn — who was the first openly gay president of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery in 1999 — interviews guests on a range of topics, many of them related to Canada's queer history. Many episodes go in-depth into topics we cover more superficially in The Village, such as Montreal's Park of Hope, one of the earliest memorials dedicated to people who died due to HIV/AIDS, or the fifth international AIDS conference, which occured in Montreal in 1989. Dearn knows his queer history very well and his discussions are engaging.
His interviews with openly gay actor Greg Malone and with ACT UP MTL co-founder Blane Charles, a Black activist with a flair for fashion, are worth listening to.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan goes on the hunt for The Doodler, a serial killer who terrorized the city's queer community in the seventies. Along the way, he revisits the investigation and the challenges detectives were facing while dealing with survivors. It's a true crime podcast in its purest form.
Lesser known than other California serial killers, The Doodler killed between 6 and 16 men before vanishing in 1975. He met his victims at gay bars or nightclubs, and would draw sketches of them in a way to connect and earn their trust. The investigation is still open today.
I recommend The Doodler for its high production values, Kevin Fagan's storytelling, and as a way to revisit what life was like for queer people in San Francisco in the '70s.
They & Us was released two years ago but is more relevant now than ever. I've known Faith Fundal, the host of the show, as a friend and colleague at the CBC, but I discovered a totally different side of them when I listened to They & Us, a podcast on what it means to be non-binary.
It's a highly personal podcast, where Faith shares their journey and guides listeners through the world of gender expression and gender identity. Faith worked on this podcast when they lived in Prince George, B.C., far away from big cities like Vancouver or Toronto. Maybe that's why they approach the topic in such a relatable way, without judgment or preconceptions about what people should or should not know.
I'm really curious about this podcast — newly released on June 15, 2022 — that promises a lot. Provincetown may be small, but it's well-known for its community of artists and its openness to queer people. Welcome to Provincetown should offer us a compelling glimpse into a summer in this LGBTQ+ haven. It's a partnership between Stitcher, Rococo Punch and Room Tone. Host and documentarian Mitra Kaboli follows seven locals — each a character on their own — and documents their dramas and dreams.
The description reminds me a bit of S-Town, in which host Brian Reed follows John, a queer man who despises his Alabama town and wants to do something about it. S-Town gave me chills; it felt like a novel but it was real. Every person interviewed seemed bigger than life and five years later, I still remember vividly several moments of this podcast. It looks like this foray into P-Town has similar potential.
