Queer as Fact

Back in October, we promised that if our episode on Oscar Wilde reached 2000 downloads, we would try milk punch - the drink Oscar and his fellow queer poet Walt Whitman shared when they met in 1882. Today, we bring you the fulfillment of that promise, as well as an announcement about what's coming up for Queer as Fact!

We are back from our hiatus with an episode on the bisexual Israeli poet, Yona Wallach. Join us as we visit Tel Aviv's 1960s gay scene, learn about gender in Hebrew, and read some of Yona's most controversial poetry.

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This is the second part of our two-part episode on Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde! We're talking about the latter half of Oscar's life, including the wittiest comedy in the English language, the tumultuous relationship between Oscar and Alfred Douglas, and Oscar's trial and imprisonment.

Listen to Part 1 here.

It's time for our much-anticipated episode on Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde! Today we're covering the first half of Oscar's life, from his birth in 1854 to the publication of his homoerotic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray in 1891. Tune in to hear about his rise to notoriety, his scandalous fashion choices, and whether he and Walt Whitman ever had sex.

Today's episode is on the erotic pottery of the Moche people of 1st to 7th century Peru. Tune in for skeleton sex, dragging bad scholarship, and the possibility of a third gender in ancient Peru.

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[Image source: Janusz Z. Wołoszyn and Katarzyna Piwowar's "Sodomites, Siamese Twins, and Scholars: Same-Sex Relationships in Moche Art" in American Anthropologist, Vol. 117, No. 2 (2015), p.288]

Today's episode is on the 19th-century Chinese poet and playwright Wú Zǎo. We'll be reading queer love poetry, talking about gender, and discussing the relatable experience of drinking wine while reading sad books.

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[Image: text from Wú Zǎo's play Qiáo Yǐng]

Today's episode is on Billy Tipton, well-known jazz player and transgender man.  Tune in for a man who could play the piano and the saxophone simultaneously, a nude portrait featuring an erupting volcano, and more dogs than you could possibly wish for! 

Today's Queer as Fiction episode is on the famous 1982 epistolary novel by Alice Walker, The Color Purple. Join us for a discussion about intersectionality, what qualifies as good representation and the critical reaction to the novel since its publication. 

What does it take for a painting to ruin a friendship, initiate a court case, and change the Australian art world forever? Tune in to this episode on the Australian artist William Dobell and his controversial win of the 1943 Archibald Prize for portraiture to find out!

(Image: William Dobell, Self Portrait, 1932.)

This week we have our first ever collaborative episode, where we meet with our fellow queer history podcast History is Gay to compare queer slang in Australia and the USA. Join us as we talk about lavender linguistics, Gilette blades, and our favourite ways to say we're queer.

You can find History is Gay on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter, and check out more of their episodes on their website, or wherever you find your podcasts.