It was so popular last year that we decided to do it again! Join us this holiday season as we introduce you to twelve of our favourite podcasts in the 12 Days of Podmas.
From Queer to Eternity is an alternately hard-hitting and heart-warming podcast. Hosted by director and producer Scott Handcock, and released weekly from April to July 2021, the thirteen-part series explores queerness it all its forms, laying bare the joys and lows of growing up queer, and makes for compulsory listening regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.
As Handcock states in the introduction, the interviews sometimes touch on serious issues and traumatic experiences, and as such caution is advised when listening.
Handcock’s guests are predominantly actors with whom he has worked previously – the likes of Mark Gatiss, Nathaniel Curtis, Samuel Barnett, Luyanda Unati Lewis-Nyawo and Misha Butler. They feature alongside a smattering of other individuals from the arts – including writer and model Jamie Windust, and sound designer Thea Cochrane – and even an established academic, Dr Emily Garside. Although not 100% exhaustive, many different groups within the LGBTQ+ community are represented by the line-up of guests.
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Discussion moves from the harrowing to the joyous and back again, touching on everything from coming out to staying in, Section 28 to the AIDS crisis, internalised homophobia to discrimination against – and from within – the queer community, and much more. Guests describe the ups and downs of their professional careers and personal lives, and share anecdotes about family and friends. All while examining cishet norms, the intersection of race with gender and sexuality, breaking down of barriers and binaries, and perspectives on queer spaces and societal trends.
Handcock is an effective interviewer and a sympathetic listener who knows when to spur the conversation onwards with a new and incisive question, and when to hold back and afford the interviewee a platform to share of themselves openly and generously. He also gets the chance to tell his own story in the thirteenth episode, when actor and radio broadcaster Tom Price turns the tables and steps into the interviewer’s chair. There’s also a supplementary episode featuring Mark Gatiss that was recorded live at the London Podcast Festival and released in October, some months after the main run of episodes concluded.
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From Queer to Eternity is at once a celebration of queerness, an exploration of life’s variety, and, indirectly, a wakeup call for the continued commitment towards queer-positive legislation, progressive societal change and all-round inclusivity. Here’s hoping enough people tune in to warrant the commissioning of a second season and allow a dozen or so new guests to further entertain, inform and enlighten.
You can listen to From Queer to Eternity on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and other platforms.