5 Queer Local Podcasts we Love

We’re on the radio!

To celebrate, we’ve put together our top 5 local queer podcasts that’ll move you in all the good ways.

I was recently invited onto Joy FM’s queer film show ‘Out Takes’ to talk about the upcoming plans for 10 Years in Full Colour with doco aficionados Gina Lambropoulos and Conrad Browne. You can click here to listen, and lend your ears to a few other terrific, locally made queer hears below.

1. National Youth Week Special Feature on the Minus18 Queer Formal

   I challenge you not to shed a (happy) tear listening to this gorgeous podcast, which was created by, among others, 10 Years in Full Colour’s own Maddy Paulson. (You can hear one of their vox pops at the 1:46 mark). One of the highlights of this podcast was towards the end: ‘My name’s Jeff… I’m just here to pick up my daughter!’ Like a hot water bottle and snuggy uggies for the soul.

2. Coming Out, Blak

   Wiradjuri and Kamilaroi woman Matika Little teams up with Butchulla and Gubbi Gubbi woman Courtney Hagen to present this brilliant poddy series supporting and celebrating First Nations people in the LGBTQ+ community. Very tough to narrow down highlight eps, but definitely check out The One With Pep Phelan on COVID in Indigenous communities, and The One with Jojo Zaho on being queer in a regional town and discovering drag.

3. Joy FM’s Dying to Tell

   Described as exploring ‘end of life and death’, this stand-alone Joy FM series is, in the words of co-producer Gina Lambropoulos, surprisingly ‘positive, inspiring and life-affirming’. Gina and her co-producer Steph interview death doulas, politicians, advocates, doctors, morticians, funeral directors, carers, lawyers - and that’s just the first three episodes. As Gina says: “… a conversation I thought would be really depressing, highlights the things we take for granted in life. We shouldn’t have to wait for bad things to happen for us to re-examine them.’

4. SYN’s Loud and Queer

   A super well-loved, weekly national radio show produced by and for queer youth through SYN FM. In recent eps, they delve into diverse issues spanning laws on suppression practices, the Religious Exemptions Bill and cancer care for queer patients.

5. Out Takes

   There’s a delicious back catalogue to binge on with this JOY FM podcast, featuring reviews, movie news, and interviews with filmmakers from around the world. The Pedro Almodovar retrospective is a goodie, and Race Relations, Rebellion and Resistance in Queer Cinema is unmissable, and features an interview with Herbert Peck who made the award-winning doco I am not your Negro.