The Gaily Show

Welcome to our new friends on Alternative Talk 1150 KKNW. THEN: we’re joined by Dr. Samuel Clowes Huneke! We discuss the latest poll about marriage equality. For Pride month, he we talk about “the first Prides” and recent anti-LGBT legislation in Africa. 

Dr. Huneke is an award-winning associate professor of history at George Mason University. A historian of modern Germany, he is the author of numerous books and articles, including States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany and A Queer Theory of the State. His new book I Will Not Abandon You Queer Women in Nazi Germany just came out in April (2026). You can buy his books and learn more about his research at his website https://samuelcloweshuneke.com. 

Buy A Queer Theory of State: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9783982389462

Buy States of Liberation: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781487542146

Buy I Will Not Abandon You: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781487554347

Connect: https://samuelcloweshuneke.com

Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/schuneke.bsky.social

Luis Argueta from Unidos MN joins us to discuss the Minnesota DFL convention and the Governor’s race. George Santos strikes again! Plus, Windy City Times Managing Editor Jake Wittich is back with new reporting (read them all at https://windycitytimes.com):

Pride in a political moment: What’s at stake for LGBTQ+ rights in Illinois

Windy City Times has been the voice of Chicago’s LGBTQ+ community since 1985. That’s 41 years of uplifting queer stories, reporting with Pride and chronicling LGBTQ+ history. Visit http://WindyCityTimes.com/newsletters to sign up for the publication’s weekly LGBTQ+ news updates.

It’s voting day in California…and it’s down to the wire for the candidates for governor. The Minnesota Republicans had their convention this past weekend…and you’re not going to believe who they had a moment of silence for. Derek Chauvin. Plus, Hungary lifts its ban on the Budapest Pride Parade

No, James Talarico is not transgender. We take a look at how the rumor got started and potential impacts. 2026 Midterms: California is choosing its candidates for Governor on June 2. It’s kind of a mess. Plus, there’s an all-new and all-gay Midsummer Night’s Dream opening June 5th. Director Grant Sorenson joins us to discuss! Get your tickets here: https://www.dreammpls.com/tickets

We take a look at the key races happening today in Texas. Major updates from Alabama and South Carolina on the fight to change Congressional maps. An anti-trans voter ballot initiative was just tossed out in Maine.

It’s our monthly On Stage with Jim Pounds segment. He talks with Paul W Kruse who is the playwright of eelpout which is now playing at Chicago’s Witt Theatre. For tickets head to Shattered Globe’s website: https://shtheatre.org. Then he talks with John Heimboch from Walking Shadow in Minneapolis about the upcoming production of Perfect Arrangement. It runs May 30 – June 21, 2026 at the Crane Theater in NE Minneapolis. For tickets: https://walkingshadow.org.

THEN: Ilana Masad is back with her May book recommendations:

Dream Facades: The Cruel Architecture of Reality TV by Jack Balderrama Morley

Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781662602924

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781638930518

Here for the Wrong Reasons by Annabel Paulsen and Lydia Wang

Buy: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781639107094

Ilana is a writer of fiction, nonfiction, and criticism whose work has been widely published. She holds a PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and is the author of the novels All My Mother’s Lovers and Beings, as well as the coeditor of the forthcoming anthology Here for All the Reasons: Why We Watch The Bachelor. Get it here: https://bookshop.org/a/82376/9781684426126. Connect with Ilana here: https://www.ilanamasad.com

Host John Parker sits down with award-winning author and queer historian Hugh Ryan to unpack the pre-internet landscape of LGBTQ+ life in the 1990s. They dive into everything from the wild mega-clubs of New York City and finding queer history using the library’s Dewey Decimal System to the terrifying reality of the “second silence” surrounding the AIDS epidemic. Get ready to explore the analog era of the queer community before Ryan’s new book, My Bad: A Personal History of the Queer 90s and Beyond, hits shelves on May 26th.

John Parker and Jim Pounds sit down to honor the monumental legacy of the late Congressman Barney Frank and his barrier-breaking fight for LGBTQ+ rights on Capitol Hill. They also break down a flurry of trans healthcare lawsuits coming out of Texas and Kansas, exploring how these state-level legal battles impact queer communities nationwide. To cap things off, Windy City Times managing editor Jake Wittich stops by to share the latest on a major Chicago lawsuit against the Trump administration and drop a fun preview of their upcoming Pride Month coverage.