Gay by May (Ep 503: Snow White/David)

Gay by May (Ep 503: Snow White/David)
Matt Baume & Filmmaker David Beck

My guest this week is filmmaker David Beck. His childhood love of theater led him to a life as an actor — and also a difficult struggle to keep his head above water in a career where work was unpredictable and fiercely competitive. After coming out of the closet with the help of a few illicit substances, a chance offer from a friend led to a reinvention behind the camera. His new film, Regarding Us, is the story of a trans woman working at a Catholic school. It comes out next week, but it very nearly never saw the light of day.

We’ll have that conversation in a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my YouTube videos, my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

(PS: Thanks for your patience with the podcast schedule while I heal up! I'm feeling much better, and I'm not expecting any more gaps between episodes.)

The Moment Where I Lost It (Ep 502 - E.T./Andrew)

The Moment Where I Lost It (Ep 502 - E.T./Andrew)
Matt Baume & Andrew Putschoegl

This month sees a rerelease of the classic ‘80s film The Goonies, which is about to turn 40. In honor of that milestone, we’re heading into the Sewers archives to hear my 2018 chat with Andrew Putschoegl, whose childhood mirrored that of ‘80s films where groups of neighborhood kids are thrown together into unstructured days of outdoor exploration. In those movies, each kid tends to have one unique trait that sets them apart, and marks them as an outcast. For Andrew, that trait was that at the age of 9, he suddenly woke up to find his hair falling out. It was a medical mystery that made his already-awkward teenage years even more difficult.

We’ll have that conversation in a moment. And I also want to give you a quick heads-up that there may be some breaks between episodes of the podcast. I just learned that I’ve sustained some damage to my spine — nothing too serious and I’m getting treatment, but I might need to step away from my desk now and then for medical appointments and rehab. I’m expecting to make a full recovery, it’ll just take a couple months to get back to 100%.

The short version of what’s going on is that one of my lower vertebrae has slipped slightly to the side, and it’s pressing on a nerve that’s causing blindingly bad pain all the way down one leg. But there’s good news! As these things go, it’s the least severe grade of damage; I’m on some wonderful painkillers at the moment; and I have a team of experts helping with my recovery. As I’m typing this, my pain is at a 2 out of 10, which is a huge relief after a few days of not being able to move! It’s looking pretty good for me to get better, but I’ll have to be patient as it won’t happen overnight. In the mean time, the painkillers should add to the unhinged chaos of my weekend livestreams.

I’ll be posting about my recovery process on Bluesky, so give me a follow there if you’d like to see how things are coming along. As a little tease, right now you can see an ultrasound image of my left butt cheek!

I Accidentally Found Myself on MTV (501: The Real World/Danny Roberts)

I Accidentally Found Myself on MTV (501: The Real World/Danny Roberts)
Matt Baume & Danny Roberts

My guest this week is Danny Roberts, one of the stars of Real World: New Orleans, which originally aired on MTV in 2000. Danny was planning to become a teacher and wound up on the show through a series of coincidences, accidents, and last-minute changes of plan, so he was a little unprepared for the fame that he soon found thrust upon him. To say nothing of the weird — and sometimes awful ways — that fame took control of his life. But fortunately, he was able to find a way to take control back.

Check out Danny’s work with History UnErased at https://unerased.org/

I recorded this interview with Danny for a video that I’m working on about The Real World’s cultural impact. That’ll be coming your way on YouTube a bit later in January, so stay tuned for that — and subscribe to my free email newsletter to get a heads-up when it goes live, at mattbaume.com.

The Sewers of Paris 500th Episode Q&A Spectacular!

From Mormon to Drug Lord (Ep 499 - Last of the Mohicans/Sean)

From Mormon to Drug Lord (Ep 499 - Last of the Mohicans/Sean)
Matt Baume & Sean Hemeon

My guest this week is Sean Hemeon — an actor, writer, painter, and former Mormon drug dealer. Sean’s currently working on a memoir that details just how deep he fell into a violent, and at times deadly world of dealing crystal meth. And how an arrest, a lucky break, and a love of acting helped pull him out.

We’ll have that conversation in a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my YouTube videos, my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

The Glamour Injection I Needed (Ep 497 - Disco/Frank DeCaro)

The Glamour Injection I Needed (Ep 497 - Disco/Frank DeCaro)
Matt Baume & Frank DeCaro

My guest this week is pop culture writer Frank DeCaro, whose latest book is Disco: Music, Movies, and Mania under the Mirror Ball. Frank grew up in disco’s heyday, which he experienced through teenage disco parties in the New Jersey suburbs. He also experienced the anti-disco conspiracy that sent the genre into a sort of musical witness protection program for the following decade or two. We talked about the conspiracy among music critics to suppress disco in the ‘70s — and why disco’s outlived those who tried to squash it.

Also, just a quick reminder — this month we’ll be hitting the 500th episode of The Sewers of Paris! And to celebrate, I’m doing a special Q&A episode, answering questions from listeners. So if you have anything you’d like to ask — about the podcast, about pop culture and queer history, or just for recommendations — please send it along to at matt@mattbaume.com.

Gay Men's Catnip (Ep 496 - The Wizard of Oz/Josh)

Gay Men's Catnip (Ep 496 - The Wizard of Oz/Josh)
Matt Baume & Josh Trujillo

Before we get to this week’s episode, I have a question for you. And that question is … do you have any questions for me? I ask because we’re coming up on the 500th episode of The Sewers of Paris next month, and to celebrate I’m going to be doing a special Q&A episode where I answer questions from listeners. So if you have anything you’d like to ask — whether it’s about the show, or for recommendations, or about pop culture and queer history — please send it along to at matt@mattbaume.com.

Also, a head’s up that may be of interest: This week sees the release of Part 1 of Wicked — a musical inspired by The Wizard of Oz. And although, when I initially heard about the film, years ago, my first reaction was “oh, there’s no way that’ll be any good” … folks, I’ve seen it, and it is, in fact, very good. So to mark the movie’s release, I’m releasing special episode of my companion podcast, Matt’s So-Cast Pod, where we talk about the strange parallels between the musical Wicked and the TV show My So-Called Life — both written by the same woman, Winnie Holzman.

And also, on this week’s Sewers of Paris, we’re diving deep into the archives for a chat about why The Wizard of Oz has had particular resonance for gay men ever since the book was first published over a hundred and twenty years ago. My guest is Josh Trujillo, who was so obsessed with Oz that as a kid he attended Oz conventions, and discovered that they served as a sort of meeting-place for older closeted gay men who felt unable to meet in public or in bars.

We spoke back in 2015 — it was the third-ever episode of this podcast! So my apologies that the audio quality is at times a little peaky. Nevertheless I hope you’ll enjoy this trip back in time.

I Didn't Have Anything to Lose (Ep 495 - daytime TV/Antony)

I Didn't Have Anything to Lose (Ep 495 - daytime TV/Antony)
Matt Baume & Antony

My guest today has experienced reality TV as both a viewer and a participant. Growing up in Australia, Antony’s window to the world was watching American daytime talk shows like Oprah and Ricki Lake, where he’d occasionally catch an episode with queer guests. But it was after he moved to Hong Kong that he discovered a queer community that felt like home — and then when a friend invited him to appear on a dating show called Boyscation Too, he decided to try becoming one of those queer TV personalities he caught glimpses of in his youth.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. And by the way, if you want to watch Antony’s dating show experience, all episodes are now streaming free on YouTube with English subtitles.

Also, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my YouTube videos, my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

They're Lying and That's Not Real (Ep 494 - X-Men/Chad)

They're Lying and That's Not Real (Ep 494 - X-Men/Chad)
Matt Baume & Graymalkin Lane's Chad Anderson

My guest today is Chad Anderson, host of the Graymalkin Lane podcast. Chad grew up in a home that was not exactly a happy place to be, for a variety of reasons — among them, the rule that everything always had to look as though everything was fine. His one escape: Comic books, and despite being forbidden to read them he found a way to amass quite the collection. For decades, he felt the pressure to hide a lot about himself — and when he finally realized, after kissing another man, that it was time to come out, it was hard to envision how to write the next chapter of his life. Fortunately, by that point he was something of an expert when it came to stories of liberation.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my other projects, like my podcast about the 90s TV series My So-Called Life, and my YouTube videos! Plus, check out my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.