It feels like life is pulling many of us down at the moment — so we asked each other: what do you do to stay afloat? We discuss swimming, solo cinema trips, birds and well-stocked food cupboards. The queer future starts here?

-Adam + Tash

Listen to ad-free episodes by supporting the show on Patreon.

Aunt Nell:  Newsletter | Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

For the story of the helpline Switchboard and untold stories from Britain's LGBTQ+ history: listen to Seasons 1-3, co-produced with Shivani Dave.

For interviews from the research for our book, published by Faber & Faber: listen to Season 4.

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Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every Easter in San Francisco, there’s a competition to find the best hunky Jesus. We didn’t go to it, BUT we spoke to Sister Roma, one of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, the order of queer nuns that organises it. AND to filmmaker Jennifer Kroot who’s just made a film about the sisters and their search for hunky Jesus. 

-Adam + Tash

Films: 

Hunky Jesus

La Grazia

Teenage Sex And Death At Camp Miasma

I Saw the TV Glow

Queer disabled arts project:

Eff-able

TV:

The Repair Shop (BBC) - featuring the first Switchboard log book!

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why have one adolescence when you can have two? That’s the reality for many LGBTQ+ people. So let’s talk about what happens when you come out (or let people in), and unleash a whole new era on yourself. Sex, friendships, romance, lifestyle — all these things are up for grabs again a second time around for many queer people. Why is that? And what does psychology research say about it?

-Adam + Tash

Discussed in this episode:

The Second Adolescence of LGBTQ+ Adulthood, Psychology Today (2023)

The importance of sexual and romantic development in understanding the developmental neuroscience of adolescence

Sexual Development Through the Lifespan

Sex, Clubs, Dissent: Visualising Queer Nightlife by Amelia Abraham (ed)

Heartstopper (Netflix)

We Are Who We Are (HBO/BBC)

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’ve got a star guest this week! Tino Orsini is a versatile character actor — you might have seen him playing the artist Banksy in Ted Lasso. For his next trick he’ll be on stage performing an intimate solo show about his own dark past. It’s all based around the time he tried to make it in Hollywood.

We loved hearing Tino’s reflections on immigration, addiction, sex, family secrets and, of course, showbiz. His new show is called Ghosts of West Hollywood and it’s on 2-7 June at the Et Cetera theatre in London.

-Adam + Tash

Aunt Nell: Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

Seasons 1-3, from 2019-22, were co-produced with Shivani Dave, in partnership with Switchboard.

Season 4, from 2025-26, featured interviews for our book, published by Faber & Faber.

KI7FHCTLCUOCNJZ9

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tash has been reading some intriguing studies about the psychology of lab rats — and has discovered something about themself in the process. So let’s talk about it! Join us while we gnaw on the topics of cages (real and imagined), being queer, and the power of nature.

-Adam + Tash

Discussed in this episode:

The Well Gardened Mind by Sue Stuart-Smith

Aunt Nell: Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

Seasons 1-3, from 2019-22, were co-produced with Shivani Dave, in partnership with Switchboard.

Season 4, from 2025-26, featured interviews for our book, published by Faber & Faber.

KI7FHCTLCUOCNJZ9

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We make no secret that we’re obsessed with queer history and heritage. So in this episode Tash met Shoun Obana who’s created a zine called Inherent Vice, “for heritage professionals and enthusiasts alike”. 

We’ve also got a poem by Tash, Dear Section 28.

-Adam + Tash

Discussed in this episode:

Zine: Inherent Vice

Radio poem: Dear Section 28, originally created for Short Cuts, series 33, a Falling Tree production for BBC Radio 4

Aunt Nell: Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

Seasons 1-3, from 2019-22, were co-produced with Shivani Dave, in partnership with Switchboard.

Season 4, from 2025-26, featured interviews for our book, published by Faber & Faber.

KI7FHCTLCUOCNJZ9

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sometimes you read a book and feel ‘this is a bit of me!’ That’s how we both felt reading An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail, so we wanted to talk about it. It’s a book about friendship, across generations, and the power of queer solidarity. So it also led us to two recent photography exhibitions too.

-Adam + Tash

Discussed in this episode:

Book: An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail by Hélène Giannecchini

Exhibition: We Others: Donna Gottschalk and Hélène Giannecchini @ The Photographers’ Gallery until June 7th

Exhibition: Catherine Opie: To Be Seen @ National Portrait Gallery, until May 31st

Aunt Nell: Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

Seasons 1-3, from 2019-22, were co-produced with Shivani Dave, in partnership with Switchboard.

Season 4, from 2025-26, featured interviews for our book, published by Faber & Faber.

KI7FHCTLCUOCNJZ9

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oh, we do like to be beside the seaside… 

Tash went for a swim (Adam went to the cafe), but we BOTH went to the Margate Queer Library and Archive, which is run by Sé Malaïka Nomyo. We also met Jen Scott, aka SHELLY GROTTO, who also told us about her work on Margate and Thanet’s queer history.

Discussed in this episode:

Space: Margate Queer Library and Archive

Video: New Rumours on YouTube

-Adam + Tash

Aunt Nell: Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

Seasons 1-3, from 2019-22, were co-produced with Shivani Dave, in partnership with Switchboard.

Season 4, from 2025-26, featured interviews for our book, published by Faber & Faber.

KI7FHCTLCUOCNJZ9

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We’re relaunching your favourite podcast! 

We’re Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, and EVERY WEEK we get together to talk about history, politics, art and LGBTQ+ life. 

From us ageing millennials nattering on, to interviews with exciting people doing amazing things, The Log Books contain… the stories of our lives. 

Let us know what you think of the new format, and what you think we should feature.

-Adam + Tash

Aunt Nell: Instagram | YouTube | website

The Log Books is hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The assistant producer is Mia Campbell

Music from Soundstripe

Original artwork by Natalie Doto

Thanks to the dreamboats at Acast

Seasons 1-3, from 2019-22, were co-produced with Shivani Dave, in partnership with Switchboard.

Season 4, from 2025-26, featured interviews for our book, published by Faber & Faber.

KI7FHCTLCUOCNJZ9

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Tash and Adam listen to Abi McIntosh, our youngest interviewee!, who first listed her sexuality on MySpace...

Abi also reflects on her experience of connecting with older queer Black people, and how this has changed how she sees herself.

You can listen to Abi on the podcast Black And Gay, Back In The Day on Apple and Spotify.

Buy our book or see our events listings: The Log Books: Voices of Queer Britain and the Helpline that Listened.

Hosted and produced by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith

The voice of the log books: Serena James

Assistant producer: Marnie Woodmeade 

Engineer: David Pye

Music: Tom Fosket-Barnes

Original artwork: Natalie Doto

Thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute; our publisher, Faber Books; the dreamboats at Acast; the staff and volunteers at Switchboard, and all the contributors who shared their stories.

Episode transcripts available here.

Call Switchboard on 0800 0119 100, email [email protected] or instant message via www.switchboard.lgbt.

Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.