Reaching Out with Michael Constable

This week we chat with life coach, yogi, and all around delightful human being, Jimmy Adams (he/him)!

Jimmy shares with us the stories and lessons learned from his three comings out -- first as gay, then as an alcoholic, then as a person living with HIV. Each of which, according to himself, got progressively easier yet required an increasing amount of vulnerability.

Through his coming out stories, Jimmy shares what it was like growing up as gay in a rural and conservative town in Michigan, he shares the benefits and clarity around life he has received since becoming sober six years ago, and he shares some advice on how to better educate yourself about HIV in 2022 (U=U) and tips on the best language to use when speaking about HIV.

We also talk about Titanic (1997), Survivor's Richard Hatch,  and our shared trauma from Sports Illustrated swimsuit magazines.

Crack open an ice cold pop and enjoy!

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Episode Links:

• Follow Jimmy on social media:
  • Instagram: @__jimmyadams 

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's TikTok: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

Sweeties... this is one for the Reaching Out history books.  Today we chat with co-host of the incredible podcast, Like a Virgin, and AMC Stubs rewards member, Fran Tirado (she/they)!

This episode is so incredible due to Fran's uncanny way to mix humor, heart, and knowledge into her stories and advice. 
 
Today Fran chats with us about:

• How boxing yourself into having specific "types" of physical attraction could be preventing you from better sex
• The limiting stories and narratives we create in our heads that prevent us from sexual experiences that you might end up loving
• How Fran was a gatekeeper to her own transness until her community helped her realize the validity in her experience
• Advice for people who are curious and want to explore their gender identity
• Finding and making queer community -- regardless of where you live

We also gossip about Twitter porn, breakup movies, Fran being turned on by her own drawings of Greek warriors' "huge tits and chiseled abs", Marcel the Shell, and so much more!

Enjoy!

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Episode Links:

• Follow Fran on social media:
  • Instagram: @fransquishco
  • Like A Virgin Instagram: @likeavirgin420
  • Like A Virgin Podcast

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's TikTok: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

This week we chat with movie buff and comedian, Stephen Kropa (he/him)!

In this week's feature presentation, Stephen tells us about his journey going from what he refers to as having negative dating experience growing up to his snowy and cinematic first kiss with a man that unlocked his mind to the truth that he had been avoiding about his bisexuality.

Stephen and I also chit chat about:

• the hardest person to come out to: yourself
• how having unequal attraction to men and women made him reticent to admitting his bisexuality
• how watching Call Me By Your Name and The Last Jedi in less than a week helped things click for him

We also chat about our favorites movies, the MCU, bi musicians, and more.

Enjoy the show!

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Episode Links:

• Follow Stephen on social media:
  • Instagram: @kropacabana

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's TikTok: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

This week we are chatting with my former roommate and real life Gen Z'er, Jack McDermott (he/him)!

Jack came into my life as my (at the time) 20-year old roommate when I first moved to San Francisco and we shared a special bond.  "Special" as in he would give me shit 24/7 and I adored him for it.

This story is one about Panera Girls (aka the world's greatest allies), the massive impact that growing up in an environment that is pro-LGBTQ+ can have on a young queer child growing up (listen up, straight allies having kids!!), and sticking up for yourself and others when harmful anti-homosexuality speech is being used -- especially when it doesn't start with the letter "F" and is instead disguised as religious teachings and is being taught to young, impressionable minds... I digress...

I learned so much about my little Jacky Boy in this convo, I'm excited for you to hear it!

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Episode Links:

• Follow Jack on social media:
  • Instagram: @thejackmonty  

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's TikTok: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

This week's guest is one of my all-time favorite girlies, the walking ray of sunshine that is Aarthy Lakshmanan (she/her)!

Skip ahead to 10:27 if you want to dive right into our conversation!

In today's intro I give you a quick little update on what I've been up to during our season break, including a very recent lesson learned about building queer community! I'm back in Mexico City and on a mission to build a queer community for myself, something I've lacked here despite all of the time I've spent here recently. I share a very recent story about how I started to do that recently, hoping it might help any listeners who also find making community in a new place difficult.

Aarthy and I then dive into so many great topics!

• Finding and building queer community (a lovely coincidence given the intro)
• Pressures of being a queer woman growing up in an Indian family
• Difficulties of coming out to immigrant parents and managing expectations of their reactions
• The absolute power of finally being able to speak with another queer person about your experiences and them just getting it

...and much more! 

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Episode Links:

• Follow Aarthy on social media:
  • Instagram: @aarthymusic

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's TikTok: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

What a big week this is for the podcast.  Not only was Tuesday National Coming Out Day, but the podcast turned one year old on said holiday AND season two kicks off with this very episode!

In today's intro I take some time to reflect on the last year in honor of the pod's birthday.  I share the pod's origins, some lessons learned,  and some pod numbers one year in.

You can skip ahead to 10:56 if you'd like to dive into Jeff's story

Today's guest, Jeff Holoman (he/him), and I become fast friends on this pod as we relate to everything from silly little narratives we would tell ourselves ("that can't be ME") to us both guzzling the liquid poison that is Burnett's vodka in college in an attempt to deal with our sinful gay tendencies #healthy to us both finding the space and clarity we needed to fully come out to ourselves while traveling in Europe.

Jeff also shares with us stories about:
- handling his first experiences with men in college
- growing and learning from his failed first relationship
- finding the clarity he needed to truly accept himself while on a trip to Prague (traveling = coming out, you cannot tell me otherwise !!)

Welcome back, girlies!

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Episode Links:

• Follow Jeff on social media:
  • Instagram: @jsholoman

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's TikTok: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

We've got a BIG episode for you this week --  it's episode 30, it's our first ever three person episode, and it's our season one finale!

(Note: If you want to jump right to the Heartstopper discussion, it begins at 13:48)

Before we dive into this incredibly fun discussion around Heartstopper, I catch you up on what I've been up to the past two weeks.  I give a recap about the madness that was Madrid Pride and I also give a quick personal update that explains why we've chosen to use episode 30 as our season finale.

I've been so excited for this episode to launch because we bring back two fan favorite guests, Aisha Khan (eps 24, 25) and Brad Evans (ep 27) , to chat about the hit Netflix show, Heartstopper.  (We only lament a teensy bit that we didn't have this show as we were growing up.)

The idea for this episode came from the unplanned (but personal favorite) episode Aisha and I did about Sex Education on episode 24.  This time around we wanted to be more intentional about it so we came up with some topics that the three of us share our opinions on:

• Favorite characters
• Most powerful scene
• Moments that resonated most strongly with our queer experience
• Which character we would have had a crush on if we went to Heartstopper High

This was such a fun episode to record and I think you're going to enjoy it, too.  Enjoy!

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Episode Links:

• Brad's Instagram: bradleyy_y
• Brad's YouTube Channel:
  • Channel
  • Heartstopper Live Reaction Series
• Aisha's Instagram: @lavidaoosha

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's Twitter: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

This week we have on the supremely clever and funny, Rose Dommu (she/her)!

Rose is an incredibly talented writer and co-host of the addicting pop culture podcast, Like a Virgin.  I've been following Rose on Twitter for years and have always been a huge fan of her wit and sense of humor, so getting to meet her and have her share her story on the podcast was such an honor.

After Rose and I gab about Ewan McGregor, Wanda Maximoff, and Like a Virgin, Rose tells us about her two coming-outs -- first as gay at 14 years old and then as trans years later as an adult.  She talks about how moving to NYC and becoming involved in the underground art scene opened her mind to the different possibilities of queer life as she was finally exposed to a diverse queer scene that was not solely cisgendered gay men.  That expanded queer community she found coupled with an increase in trans public figures in the past decade or so helped Rose in exploring and challenging her true feelings about her gender identity -- ultimately confirming what she knew ever since she was a child.

Rose's cover photo credit: @djdumpling

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Episode Links:

• Follow Rose on social media:
  • Instagram @rosedommu
  • Twitter @rosedommu
  • TikTok @rosedommu
• Like A Virgin Podcast:
  • Spotify
  • Apple Podcasts

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's Twitter: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

This week we talk with the king of pop culture, Ira Madison III!

Ira humors me as I fangirl over some of the insanely cool projects he works on, including his hit podcast, Keep It; his first ever Marvel comic that he wrote; and his time working on one of my all-time favorite tv shows, Q-Force (RIP).

Ira tells us about some of the his formative coming-of-age queer pop culture, his thoughts between queer life in LA vs NYC, and how his coming out was not necessarily on his own terms.  Ira and I also bond over one of my favorite midwestern past times, which is, of course, not sharing complex feelings with family members!

I loved getting to catch up with Ira and I think you'll enjoy this chat, too. Enjoy!

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Episode Links:

• Ira's Instagram: @irathethird
• Keep It Podcast:
  • Spotify
  • Apple Podcasts

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's Twitter: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit

This week we talk to budding YouTube star and Reaching Out's first European guest, Brad Evans!

First off, I can't believe I get to have Brad on not one, but TWO episodes of Reaching Out in the next couple of weeks.  We explain how this all came to be in the first few minutes... a story I truly cherish.

Brad's story brings up so many interesting topics.  He discusses the dichotomy between his experience with coming to terms with his sexuality amongst different family members: some choosing to take the piss out of him while others made it known that he had the freedom to come out.  Brad also makes some really great points about setting boundaries with people as you begin to come out and express your true self for the first time -- despite others might not understanding.

I feel so lucky to have Brad on Reaching Out because he is truly heading towards some amazing things with his YouTube channel, you've got to check him out.  Getting the chance to hang out with him twice this week (via video chat) was the biggest treat for me.

Check out his episode and then go check out his YouTube channel!

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Episode Links:

• Brad's Instagram: bradleyy_y
• Brad's YouTube Channel:
  • Channel
  • Heartstopper Live Reaction Series

Follow along with Reaching Out:

• Podcast's Instagram: @reachingoutpod
• Podcast's Twitter: @reachingoutpod
• Michael's Instagram: @michaelwingsit