Podcast
OUTCAST WORLD
Hosted by Graeme Smith · EN
Queer politics • sex • culture
Outcast World is a queer politics, sex and culture podcast hosted by multi award-winning broadcaster and podcaster Graeme Smith, alongside rotating guests and co-hosts.
Each week features an eclectic mix of guests. Journalists, comedians, academics, authors, activists and artists appear alongside queer stars from the BBC’s groundbreaking I Kissed a Boy, and familiar faces from global reality franchises including Married at First Sight and TOWIE. The show also features authors of he biggest-selling LGBTQ+ books in the world and Oscar nominated film makers.
Reactive, candid and often funny, the show unpacks politics, sexuality and culture through discussion and debate. While rooted in a queer perspective, its cultural analysis and political commentary resonate well beyond LGBTQ+ audiences.A gold winner at the British Podcast Awards and nominated for Best Interview Podcast in 2025 — alongside Louis Theroux and The News Agents — Outcast World has been recommended by The Guardian and The Independent, and was named a must-listen queer podcast by The Independent.
Get involved, watch our latest episodes and read the latest queer and gay news, politics, sex and relationships and culture on www.outcastworld.net
159episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Britain’s New Gender Panic
May 2800:32:28Tap to summarizeMulti award winning LGBTQ journalist Jamie Wareham from Queer AF drops in The UK’s new EHRC guidance has triggered outrage, confusion and fear across the LGBTQ+ community, but what does it actually mean in practice? This week, Graeme Smith is joined by journalist Jamie Wareham, founder of QueerAF, for a sharp, urgent conversation about the Supreme Court ruling, the EHRC’s controversial code of practice, and the wider political shift happening across Britain. They discuss why this debate no longer affects only trans people, how gender policing increasingly impacts butch lesbians, feminine gay men and anyone seen as “not masculine enough,” and why many activists believe the UK is sliding backwards on LGBTQ+ rights at an alarming speed. Also explored - Wes Streeting, the Cass Review, media hostility toward trans people, Britain’s collapsing international LGBTQ+ rankings, and why local communities and businesses may now become the frontline of resistance. This is OUTCAST WORLD
Transcribe →Nigel Farage, HIV & A Warning From History
May 2000:40:10Tap to summarizeNigel Farage has revived one of the most controversial arguments of his political career: that migrants living with HIV should be denied NHS treatment. It's a position he first promoted during the 2015 election campaign. At the time, HIV charities, clinicians and public health experts condemned the claims, arguing that treating people living with HIV protects public health, reduces transmission and ultimately saves lives. Now, more than a decade later, the same rhetoric is back. The difference is that Farage is no longer a fringe insurgent. He is leading one of Britain's most successful political movements and could conceivably find himself in Downing Street. The question at the heart of this debate is not really about immigration. It's about who deserves healthcare. Who deserves treatment? And who gets left behind when politicians decide some lives are more worthy of care than others? That question sits at the centre of filmmaker Matt Nadel's remarkable documentary Cashing Out. He talked to us in a long form chat for The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast Oscars special. Here we listen to an extended cut of the chat about a dark moment in queer history. The film tells the story of an extraordinary industry that emerged during the AIDS crisis in America. Thousands of people living with HIV sold their life insurance policies while they were still alive in order to pay rent, buy medication and survive with dignity. Investors collected the payout when they died. What makes the story even more extraordinary is that Nadel later discovered his own father had been one of those investors. In this conversation, Graeme Smith speaks to Matt Nadel about HIV, political memory, healthcare, capitalism, family secrets, queer history and why the lessons of the AIDS epidemic still matter today. Because history doesn't always repeat itself. But political rhetoric often does. The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast is available everywhere now and is out every fornight, hosted by Graeme Smith and it's the home of intelligent queer conversation - the intersection of ART, QUEER, CULTURE. #HIV #NigelFarage #ReformUK #LGBTQ #AIDS #Healthcare #Politics #OutcastWorld #MattNadel #QueerHistory
Transcribe →Labour Panic, Reform Chaos & The Funniest Review Comic Leila Navabi Ever Received
May 1800:33:22Tap to summarizeLabour looks like it’s eating itself alive, Reform councillors are combusting in real time, the manosphere is getting dismantled by Louis Theroux with the energy of a disappointed supply teacher — and somewhere in the middle of the collapse, Leila Navabi joins Outcast World with the genuinely incredible story of how making a baby with her friend as a sperm donor somehow became a full-blown musical. Yes. Really. Graeme opens this week’s episode by wading into the increasingly bizarre state of British politics: Keir Starmer’s apparent slow-motion leadership death spiral, Wes Streeting’s endlessly rehearsed Westminster energy, rumours of Andy Burnham positioning himself as Labour’s northern saviour, and the growing sense that Reform UK’s rise could eventually force Britain into electoral reform whether the establishment likes it or not. There’s also the small matter of Reform councillors dropping like flies under public scrutiny — including allegations surrounding extremist online content and another candidate exposed over explicit gay OnlyFans material involving sex in public places. Different allegations, different levels of seriousness, same recurring problem: a party obsessed with presenting itself as the guardian of “traditional values” repeatedly finding itself consumed by scandal. And then there’s HS Ticky Tocky and the collapsing manosphere ecosystem, following Louis Theroux’s documentary and the increasingly surreal online fallout around Grindr, burner accounts, fake alpha masculinity and influencer culture built almost entirely on performance and contradiction. Then Leila Navabi arrives and the entire show takes a gloriously chaotic turn. The comedian, broadcaster and writer discusses the DIY IVF journey with her friend that inspired her musical, the absurd realities of queer parenting logistics, and one of the funniest theatre reviews imaginable after falling over on stage during a performance — with Time Out delivering a line about it so brutal it’s become legendary in her own personal history. There’s also a very direct message from Leila to gay people supporting Reform UK, alongside a wider conversation about identity, community, culture-war politics and why some queer people appear determined to align themselves with movements that fundamentally do not like them very much. Smart, filthy, political and properly funny. This is Outcast World.
Transcribe →
Making a baby with friends… Turned Into A Musical
May 1300:29:37Tap to summarizeWelsh queer comedian Leila Nevabi drops by. Welsh-Iranian comedian, writer and rising theatre menace Leila Navabi joins Outcast World for one of the funniest and weirdly moving chats we’ve had in ages. You’ll probably know Leila already from writing on Bad Education, Never Mind the Buzzcocks and Deep Fake Neighbour Wars, or from voicing Claire in Don't Hug Me I'm Scared. She’s also become a major name on the UK live comedy circuit, supporting comics including Nish Kumar and Jessica Fostekew while quietly building a reputation as one of the sharpest queer comedy voices working right now. But this episode is really about the project that might push her into another league entirely: turning her real-life queer DIY conception story into a musical. After being told in her twenties that having children might not be possible, Leila and her wife ended up rejecting the expensive, sanitised “acceptable” version of queer parenthood and instead built a family the way queer people often build everything: through friendship, improvisation, emotional honesty and an alarming amount of admin involving sperm. This episode dives into the now-infamous DIY conception setup that inspired her show Relay: spare rooms, a sperm donor who was already one of their closest friends, syringes quietly bought from Boots under the pretence of “having a big dog”, and the deeply surreal ritual of everybody washing their hands and heading out for brunch afterwards while pretending this was a perfectly ordinary Sunday activity. At one point, Leila describes sitting in a café fully aware that her partner is technically “dripping with your best mate’s sperm” while everyone politely orders eggs and coffee. Which honestly tells you almost everything you need to know about the energy of this episode. Underneath all the chaos though, this is really a conversation about modern queer family life, chosen family, emotional honesty and why comedy so often becomes armour for people trying to survive complicated lives in public. There are also cats named after Joan Rivers, emotionally repressed gay people using humour to avoid vulnerability, and a genuinely fascinating discussion about why queer family stories are still treated as niche when they’re often far more emotionally intentional than traditional family structures.
Transcribe →IKAB STAR GARETH: RIGHT WING GAYS ARE NOT WELL!
May 1100:29:02Tap to summarizeAmy Spalding & Gareth Valentino are talking to Graeme about REFORM UK, the GREENS and their new podcast. As Reform UK surges, the Green Party continues to grow and Labour struggles to hold its coalition together, the episode explores why more young gay men appear to be drifting towards right wing politics online — and what that says about masculinity, social media, identity and the modern culture war. Topics include Nigel Farage, Reform UK, Green politics, Labour’s decline, queer identity, dating culture, internet discourse, TikTok radicalisation, cancellation, reality TV fame, LGBTQ+ politics and the growing ideological divide inside queer communities. Featuring discussion around I Kissed A Boy, I Kissed A Girl, queer representation in British media and what it means to be publicly queer in an increasingly polarised online world.
Transcribe →I Kissed A Boy & Girl Stars on Cancellation, Toxic Gays & Open Relationships
May 600:24:19Tap to summarizeThe BBC made history with I Kissed A Boy and I Kissed A Girl. Then they cancelled them.In this episode of Outcast World, Graeme Smith is joined by Gareth Valentino and Amy Spalding, two of the standout names from those shows, now launching their own podcast It Started With A Kiss.What starts as a conversation about queer TV quickly turns into something else.We get into what it actually felt like to come out on national television, the reality of sudden visibility, and why those shows mattered more than the BBC seems willing to admit.Then it shifts.Gay men being brutal to each other. Lesbian solidarity. Open relationships, when they work and when they really don’t. Chemsex culture. Internalised homophobia.And a story about a relationship that went very wrong, involving secrecy, betrayal, and HIV disclosure, that says more about queer dating than most people are willing to say out loud.This is part one of a two-part conversation.In part two, we go further into the politics, Trump, trans rights, the UK, and why queer culture feels like it’s moving forward and backwards at the same time.CHAPTERS00:00 Why I Kissed A Boy and I Kissed A Girl mattered 02:30 What it felt like to come out on TV 06:00 The reality of sudden queer visibility 10:00 Gay men vs gay men 13:00 Lesbian solidarity vs male toxicity 16:00 Open relationships, reality vs fantasy 20:00 When non-monogamy goes wrong 24:00 Dating, sex, and honesty in queer cultureFOLLOW / SUBSCRIBESubscribe for full video episodes of Outcast World Part two drops in 48 hours🎧 Listen on all podcast platforms 📱 Follow for clips and updatesABOUT OUTCAST WORLDOutcast World is queer politics, sex and culture. Smart, funny, occasionally filthy.Everything you do online is tracked, fix it in two minutes, get up to 75% off NordVPN on outcastworld.net-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This helps us become easier to discover. Please take time to rate the show and if you're enjoying the podcast then take time to comment about it wherever you listen.//// Check us on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Topher's cute date with a DL gangster & The tragedy of the Baftas incident
Mar 400:33:41Tap to summarizeThis week Topher is back on, and on the last episode we found out about "felchgate". The perfect Valentines Day treat where a regular hookup was given a treat from a donor. If you know you now. The DL bad boys can be the kinkiest sometimes.This time it's news on one of his all time faves, fresh from a decade in prison taking Topher on a cute date in Soho.And we're talking about The Baftas Incident. Did we need to pitch people with disabilities and people of colour against each other? After a week to digest it we're talking it through.Everything you do online is tracked, fix it in two minutes, get up to 75% off NordVPN on outcastworld.net-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This helps us become easier to discover. Please take time to rate the show and if you're enjoying the podcast then take time to comment about it wherever you listen.//// Check us on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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F3LCHGATE: The kinkiest valentines story
Mar 200:30:32Tap to summarizeGraeme and Topher meant to record a serious episode but then got side tracked on a half hour series of glorious tangents. The best of which is right at the start:Valentines day has been and gone....What did you do?Topher had a date pop round and he had a very specific request ... (googles F3LCHING....)It's one of those episodes. Enjoy.Everything you do online is tracked, fix it in two minutes, get up to 75% off NordVPN on outcastworld.net-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This helps us become easier to discover. Please take time to rate the show and if you're enjoying the podcast then take time to comment about it wherever you listen.//// Check us on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Queer Fans, Hung Parliament: World's hottest politician Carl Cashman Explains...LIVE
Feb 1700:15:36Tap to summarizeYou may already know Carl Cashman as the Liberal Democrat politician who keeps making headlines for being ridiculously in shape and unapologetically shirtless on Instagram. The “world’s hottest politician” label follows him everywhere.But what happens when the internet crush turns out to be smart, likeable, politically ambitious — and fully aware that the gays love him?Recorded live in front of an audience at the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Gallery in Fitzrovia, London, Graeme sits down with the 34-year-old leader of Liverpool City Council’s Liberal Democrats to talk trust after the coalition years, immigration rhetoric, trans rights, a possible hung parliament, and what the UK does in a world shaped by Farage, Le Pen and Trump.In a political era dominated by culture-war strongmen, is a pro-EU, openly progressive politician who actually enjoys queer support… such a bad thing?This is the political half of a longer live conversation. To hear the full interview, head to the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast.Everything you do online is tracked, fix it in two minutes, get up to 75% off NordVPN on outcastworld.net-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This helps us become easier to discover. Please take time to rate the show and if you're enjoying the podcast then take time to comment about it wherever you listen.//// Check us on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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What Happens When Drag Becomes a Legal Battle? With Crystal
Feb 1100:25:48Tap to summarizeDrag has never been more visible, but for many performers it has never felt more complicated.In this episode of Outcast World, Graeme Smith speaks to Crystal about what it’s really like to be a drag artist in 2026. They talk about the idea of “quiet quitting drag”, the rising pressure on LGBTQ performers, and why staying visible now comes with real personal and professional risks.Crystal joins the show while still involved in an ongoing legal dispute with Laurence Fox that is due back in court this summer. She tells us whether or not she would say it all again... after 6 years of legal battles.Everything you do online is tracked, fix it in two minutes, get up to 75% off NordVPN on outcastworld.net-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------This helps us become easier to discover. Please take time to rate the show and if you're enjoying the podcast then take time to comment about it wherever you listen.//// Check us on TikTok, YouTube and Instagram @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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