Podcast
Queer as Fact
Hosted by Queer as Fact · EN
Queer history podcast covering content from around the world and throughout time.
29episodes
Episodes
Newest firstAll episodes
Ötzi the Iceman
Dec 1400:46:13Tap to summarizeToday we're talking about the ancient Italian ice-mummy known as Ötzi the Iceman. Join us to learn about the world's oldest pants, the ethics of archaeology, and and whether there really was sperm in Ötzi's anus. This episode was originally released on our Patreon in 2023. There are few points throughout the episode where the sound becomes crackly. It happens three or four times, and none of the instances last more than about 30 seconds. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: text reading '"Ötzi" war schwul!"]
Transcribe →
The Blue Caftan (2022)
Nov 3000:49:11Tap to summarizeWe're back! The first episode of this block of episodes covers Maryam Touzani's 2022 drama film, The Blue Caftan. Join us for a discussion of queerness in Morocco, the "ostentatious nudity" of the bathhouse, and resolving the tension between differing modes of love with grace and deep affection. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: A poster for the film 'The Blue Caftan' featuring the title in a sky blue, as well as the three major characters looking at each other affectionately.]
Transcribe →
The Left Hand of Darkness (1969)
Oct 1502:06:12Tap to summarizeToday we are discussing Ursula K. Le Guin's Hugo and Nebula award-winning 1969 science fiction novel, The Left Hand of Darkness. Join us to hear about ambisexual beings who defy gender norms, the initially sexist man who comes to love them and a sexually charged journey across a glacier. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: A cropped cover of "The Left Hand of Darkness" featuring the author's name, Ursula K. Le Guin, as well as the tagline "A masterpiece from one of the great writers of the 20th Century".]
Transcribe →
Tu'er Shen
Oct 100:57:06Tap to summarizeIn today's episode, we discuss the Daoist god Tu'er Shen, who is considered to be a patron god of homosexuality. Join us to learn about intimacy between men in 18th century China, a secret gay statue, and one Daoist priest's desire to create a safe space for queer youth. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: cropped from photograph by Han Cheung, Taipei Times]
Transcribe →
Sherlock Holmes
Sep 1501:15:34Tap to summarizeToday's episode is on Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's iconic consulting detective! Join us as we talk about aromanticism, turn-of-the-century masculinity,and whether Watson is, in fact, a woman. Link to the article Watson was a Woman? discussed in the episode Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: Illustration of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson by Sydney Paget. Source]
Transcribe →
Gavin Arthur and the Circle of Sex
Sep 100:55:09Tap to summarizeIn today's episode, we're discussing the Circle of Sex, a 1960s astrological representation of sexuality, and its eccentric creator Gavin Arthur. Join us to hear about how to have sex à la Walt Whitman, how to figure out if you're a Sappho or a Club Woman, and whether there is a faint possibility, just maybe, that the Circle is a tiny bit flawed. If you would like to follow along at home, please have a look at the Circle of Sex diagram. We do our best to explain it, but it will hopefully make things a little bit clearer if you have a look yourself! Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: The Circle of Sex, a diagram of a circle cut into twelve segments, with a Yin-Yang symbol at the centre. Each segment has a label such as 'Hyperheterogenic - Don Juan' or '3/4 homogenic - Lesbian'.]
Transcribe →
Maximilien Robespierre
Jul 15, 202502:20:37Tap to summarizeToday's marathon episode is about the French revolutionary figure Maximilien Robespierre, whose apparent lack of sexuality has been a point of discussion for scholars ever since his death. Join us as we try to find the real man behind more than two hundred years of conflicting propaganda, explore methods of approaching history on the asexual spectrum, and add to the pantheon of Queer As Fact historical pets. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: Wikimedia Commons, Portrait of Maximilien Robespierre, c. 1790, anonymous artist]
Transcribe →
The Green Knight (2021)
Mar 31, 202500:53:02Tap to summarizeToday's Queer as Fiction episode discusses David Lowery's 2021 adaptation of Arthurian legend, The Green Knight. Join us for a romp through allegorical adventures of identity, whale-like giants and dissapointingly unsexy ents. If you'd like to read Jude Doyle's review (that we discuss fairly extensively towards the end of the episode), you can do so here: https://judedoyle.medium.com/the-green-knight-is-the-existential-queer-folk-horror-we-need-843be5fbd1d6 If you never got around to our episode on the original Arthurian legend that this movie is based on, you can check that out here: https://queerasfact.podbean.com/e/sir-gawain-and-the-green-knight/ Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. [Image: Sir Gawain raises an axe on a hilltop, in front of the film's title which sits on a plain red background.]
Transcribe →
Area Scatter
Mar 15, 202501:08:15Tap to summarizeToday we’re talking about the Nigerian performer Area Scatter. Learn about her successful career as a trans performer in 1970s Nigeria, gender diversity in Igbo culture, and how we approach research when academic sources are limited. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky. (Image credit: Still from Jeremy Marre's Beats of the Heart: Konkombe (1979))
Transcribe →
Fiore de Henriquez
Mar 1, 202501:19:50Tap to summarizeToday's episode is on Italian-British sculptor Fiore de Henriquez, whose art reflected her own complicated relationship with gender and sex as an intersex person. Join us to hear about Fiore distracting Nazis with crepes, seducing everyone around her whether she meant to or not, refounding a town, and ruminating on the gendered nature of clay. Check out our website, where you can find our sources, as well as everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Instagram, Tumblr and Bluesky.
Transcribe →