Matt Baume

My guest this week on The Sewers of Paris is Jes Battis, who’s just written an appreciation and analysis of the movie Labyrinth entitled It’s Only Forever. Labyrinth turns 40 this year, which marks 40 years of Jes’ particular fascination with the goblin characters — and wondering why he’s always fel

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is Steven Milliken, author of a book of autobiographical essays entitled Late Bloomer Baby Boomer. Steven was a class clown who grew up to become a teacher in some fairly rough schools, and had to move in and out of the closet over the years as he navi

You might’ve seen this week’s guest, Andrew Gurza, in the news lately. An activist and advocate for people with disabilities, he recently drew headlines for talking openly about how sex workers have changed his life, and why he believes the government should pay for them. Andrew has a new book comin

My So-Called Life lives again! This week on the podcast, we're chatting about how MSCL was saved from oblivion, resurrected on cable. What made MTV such a perfect home for this show -- better, in fact, than the network where it originally aired? Joining me this week for a chat about MTV is the delig

This week we’re concluding my conversation with filmmaker David Weissman (We Were Here, The Cockettes, Conversations With My Elders) with part 3 of our talk. Previously we talked about his background in hippie enclaves of Los Angeles in the 1960s, and then moving to San Francisco. We ended our last

Hello there! This week we're taking a peek a some fun Christmas specials and commercials, spanning celebs from Bea Arthur to David Bowie. Also, after last week a few folks suggested I say a few more words about the show Gargoyles, and you don't need to ask me twice. Backup link to this week's bonus

My guest on this week's Sewers of Paris podcast is the fascinating Terrence Smith, also known as Joan Jett Blakk, a drag performer who ran for mayor of Chicago in the 90s, and after that, President. Terrence has some incredible stories about growing up in Detroit, seeing David Bowie and The Supremes

Hello patrons! Here's another bonus video just for you, with stories that I wasn't able to fit into my recent Muppet Show video. This one features some fun details about gay Muppet Show guests (and also gay allies), as well as the unexpectedly long tradition of Gonzo wearing gender-nonconforming clo

My guest this week is musician-turned-novelist Orlando Ortega Medina. Growing up in the music scene in and around Los Angeles, he was never really in the closet — or at least, he didn’t think of himself as closeted, until he realized that his own parents didn’t fully understand that he was married t

What's the difference between confidence and arrogance? My guest this week is Evan Peterson, author of the memoir The PrEP Diaries. For years, he trained himself to be aggressive, aloof, above it all, as a way to pre-empt criticism. That meant erecting masks and disguises, from gothic costumes to cl