Hello friends!
Well here we are in almost-spring, when everyone's hearts turn to fancy. That's a nice way of saying that it's the season when even under normal conditions we're climbing the walls in frustration, eager to charge out into the world and throw off our winter-things and go a bit zany. But now, a year into this strange alone-time and with a possible end in sight, the drive to be wild and free feels like a champagne cork with enough pressure behind it that whe...
2021-03-04 00:15:50 +0000 UTC
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James and I spend way to much time in the sewers this week, but there's lots to investigate and uncover down there. We also offer an appreciation of Casper the Friendly Ghost and Sabrina; ruminate on the evolutionary speculation of After Man and Man After Man; and speculate about which Batman villains the cast of Seinfeld would be. Oh and you might've seen that I have a new YouTube video up, and we remember at the last moment that we should probably talk about Bewitched too!
2021-03-01 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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Last week we heard from a Twitch streamer from Germany who goes by the name Jygglypuffdaddy, and this week I want to bring you a conversation with another streamer — Brian Gray, also known online as Urban Bohemian. A shy kid, Brian used to find it difficult to make friends… until he realized that his love of nerdy culture like Clue and British sci-fi were actually signposts that could help him find the friend group that he’d been looking for all his life.
And by the way — Brianâ...
2021-02-25 22:00:53 +0000 UTC
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Hello, I’m Matt Baume, and welcome to the Sewers of Paris. My guest this week has been on a wild adventure since high school. Andre, also known online as Jygglypuffdaddy, grew up in a small German village and found queer friends online, eventually leaving home to move in with his internet-boyfriend in Berlin the day after he graduated from high school, eventually getting married. It was a risky move that paid off — and he’s hoping that his latest venture, dropping out of grad school to ...
2021-02-18 22:02:28 +0000 UTC
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With Valentine’s Day coming up soon, I wanted to bring you a special episode from 2016 — a conversation with several wonderful queer folks about the romantic entertainment that changed their lives.
Join me now on a candle-lit paddle through the Sewers, where we’ll bump into Louis Virtel, host of the Keep It Podcast; Edd Kimber, the first winner of Great British Bakeoff, Comedian Kevin Yee, Artist Terry Blas, and more — all talking about the book and movies and music and shows th...
2021-02-12 00:46:50 +0000 UTC
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My guest this week is Timothy Siragusa, who was very popular with about 30 lesbians in Omaha. He was part of an experimental theater scene in a small city that was at first a little, let’s say, challenging for mainstream audiences to appreciate … until one night he had a brainstorm that transformed their struggling avante garde troupe into a huge local hit.
We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a quick thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris2021-02-04 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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At long last, lunge into another episode of Cozy Pants, where we talk about the entertainment that is bringing us joy and also, apparently, create random sexy product endorsements??? This week we've got a lot to say about WandaVision, about Ann Landers' response to sex-shamers, about the surprisingly good cast of The Flintstones, and my adventures in virtual reality. Also, I am annoyed about Sex and the City for the dumbest possible reason.
2021-02-01 17:00:07 +0000 UTC
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We’re trying something different this week. Perhaps you've been watching Marvel’s new TV series WandaVision, a strange, otherworldly series that debuted earlier this month with each episode so far re-creating the genre of classic old sitcoms. Episode 1 was a throwback to The Dick Van Dyke Show, Episode 2 referenced Bewitched, and last week’s Episode 3 has traces of The Brady Bunch.
As someone who spends a lot of time ensconced in entertainment history, I am of course obsessed with...
2021-01-28 17:00:04 +0000 UTC
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My guest this week wears a lot of hats, and occasionally frocks. Lewis Bartlett is a bee scientist, baker, and drag queen who found his way from Yorkshire, England to Athens, Georgia. A shy, nerdy kid, he found refuge in Lord of the Rings novels and Live Action Role-Playing (or LARPing) groups, but he reached a turning point where he decided to give all that up, along with years-long friendships, so that he could pursue...
2021-01-21 17:01:03 +0000 UTC
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My guest this week is one of the most wholesome people on the Internet — a Twitch streamer who goes by Blizzb3ar. His goal is to create refuge from drama and competitiveness and cynicism, and for viewers to be able to relax in the comfort of good clean kind fun. It’s the sort of environment that he realized he was missing for himself, and now he’s got big goals for transforming his life in 2021.
We’ll have t...
2021-01-14 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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What’s the story you plan to leave behind, and what happens if that story doesn’t go according to plan? My guest this week is Sheldon Goodman, a historian who specializes in cemeteries, discovering the untold stories of people who are long gone, and excavating the memory of bygone eras — metaphorically speaking. In his work Sheldon’s discovered countless stories that were previously lost — particularly of LGBTQ people — and he’s considered nearly every aspect of how he himself w...
2021-01-07 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello friends!
Welcome to whatever 2021 is going to be. Let's seize this year by the scruff of its beard and make it a good one. Somehow, impossibly, against all odds, I find myself unable to resist a curious impulse this month: Making plans. I know, I know, I should have learned by now that plans by their very nature are doomed ... and yet I've been gathering research for YouTube videos that I plan to make about gay bathhouse culture in the 1970s; about ACT UP; about T...
2021-01-05 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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It's a new year and a new episode of Cozy Pants, our completely frivolous podcast where James and I talk about the entertainment that's bringing us joy or, as is more often the case, putting us to sleep. On this episode we discuss Bette Davis/Bette Midler and the bathhouses of the 1970s; the nude trillby ghost; jock straps; Undertale; and Designing Women before James completely loses consciousness.
2021-01-04 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Next week marks the anniversary of the original theatrical release of the film Girls Will be Girls, an otherworldly drag comedy by writer and director Richard Day. For today’s episode, we’re revisiting my 2016 interview with Richard, in which we talked about his time working on shows like Ellen, It’s Gary Shandling’s Show, and Arrested Development — and how he found inspiration from John Waters and comedians who mined comedy from the secret abnormalities of the suburbs.
We’l...
2020-12-31 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Hello friends!
I hope you're having a nice holiday time and are formulating wonderful/devious plans for the New Year. I've been working on a new video for you, and as a backer you get a little sneak peek at what's coming: A tour of one of the most exciting times in history to be openly queer, as told through the lens of Harvey Milk and a semi-forgotten spinoff of The Mary Tyler Moore Show called Phyllis
2020-12-28 20:01:09 +0000 UTC
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Hello and welcome to the Sewers of Paris Holiday Special Special! In the spirit of the season, we’re diving back into the Sewers archives for my 2017 conversations with numerous past guests about their very favorite seasonal entertainment. We'll have an appreciation of Batman Returns from writer Anthony Oliveira, author of Lord of Empyre: Emperor Hulkling among many other works. There's a tribute to Snow Miser from Glen Weldon of NPR's Pop Culture Happy Hour. Performance artist Johnnie Jung...
2020-12-24 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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There are incredible secret stories hidden all around us if you just know where to look, and today’s guest knows where to look. Sacha Coward is a historian, escape room designer, and mermaid hunter in London who’s always had a passion for stories of myths and monsters. And as a museum professional, he now gets to explore those stories, discover new ones, and share them with the world.
We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a quick thanks to everyone who supports the Sewer...
2020-12-17 17:00:05 +0000 UTC
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You may think you love reruns, but this week’s guest lives them. Taylor grew in literally the most geographically isolated town in the lower 48 states, where his only connection to the outside world was syndicated TV. Fortunately, he had a ticket out, and found a way to create an entire career around investigating, studying, and teaching others about the magic of old TV shows.
We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a quick thanks to everyone who supports the Sewers of Paris...
2020-12-10 17:01:03 +0000 UTC
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Hello, my holiday hamburgers.
I hope you're having a cold dark December, and I mean that in a good way because it's when things are cold and dark that we can discover the coziest brightest warmth. I wish you all the tea, candles, mushroom soup, savory little pies, flannel and scarves and fondue of the season.
This weird year being what it is, now seems a particularly vital time for seeking out comforts, and it's in the spirit of comforting company that I've ...
2020-12-08 17:15:00 +0000 UTC
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Short Circuit, The Love Guru, and Metal Gear Solid -- this episode of the Cozy Pants podcast has it all and a bundle of Orson Welles. We're back and just as punchy as ever for a chit-chat about our favorite things. James recalls his family's dastardly scheme for obtaining ill-gotten VHS tapes; I describe the bawdy adventures of one of Harry Potter's teachers; and we find a fabulous new role for either David Hyde Pierce or Titus Burgess. Also, a controversial opinion: John Candy, even in his w...
2020-12-07 17:00:08 +0000 UTC
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Happy December holidaytime, listeners, I hope you’re able to celebrate and relax and revel and enjoy what has always been a weird time of year, now that we’re in the weirdest year of our lives. For this week’s episode, I wanted to bring you one of my favorite Christmas-themed episodes from the Sewers of Paris archives — a conversation with Jose Gonzales, who found an unexpected connection with his distant father through, of all things, the Arnold Schwarzenegger Christmas movie Jingle ...
2020-12-03 11:01:00 +0000 UTC
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I’m so excited to bring you this week’s guest — the wonderful Frank DeCaro, writer, performer, pop culture encyclopedia. Frank was a role model for me back in the 90s when I would watch him on The Daily Show, and it was an absolute joy to geek out about pop culture with him and hear his disbelief that a weird little kid from Jersey got to grow up to have as many bonkers adventures as he has.
We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a quick thanks to everyone who supports ...
2020-11-26 19:44:38 +0000 UTC
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Last week we heard from Great British Bakeoff’s Edd Kimber, and this week I’m so excited to bring you another guest whose life was touched by the show. Max Miller is the creator and host of the fantastic YouTube series Tasting History, where each week he shares a historical recipe as well as an intriguing story about the surprising origin of some food we still eat today — and occasionally have never even heard of. The series was inspired in part by historical segments that appeared on e...
2020-11-19 17:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Hello Patreon pals!
Hugest of huge thanks to you all for your support here on Patreon! Since you're a backer, you get a little sneak peek at the stuff I'm working on, and this month I'm chugging away on a new video about the odd connection between The Bob Newhart Show and the American Psychological Association's 1970s-era decision that homosexuality is not, in fact a mental illness.
The video should be coming your way next week, complete with lots of FASCINATING newspaper headline...
2020-11-16 17:01:04 +0000 UTC
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We’re getting close to Thanksgiving, and what better way to celebrate that than with good food, feeling of thanks, and a guest who does not actually observe the holiday at all. This week we’re diving into the Sewers of Paris archives for my 2016 conversation with Great British Bakeoff Winner Edd Kimber, who found his life forever changed when he won the first season of the cooking competition. Edd was a shy, unhappy banker when his cakes, cookies, and pies catapulted him to national fame,...
2020-11-13 23:25:51 +0000 UTC
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Hello friends!
Oh gosh. Oh jeez. Oh my stars and garters. What a whirlwind few days. Did Four Seasons Total Landscaping happen five minutes ago or three weeks ago? I feel like my hat's just flown right off of my head.
I hope you've been celebrating in whatever way feels right (I can't help but notice the grocery store is low on champagne right now). Lots of work to roll up our sleeves and get ready for, but for the moment let's just take a deep breath and feel ......
2020-11-09 21:52:26 +0000 UTC
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What does it take for you to feel comfortable truly letting loose and being yourself? For my guest this week, it took some flamboyant game show guests, improv class, and more speedos than he knew what to do with. Brett White is a pop culture critic at Decider and biographer of unjustly forgotten queer TV stars. He was inspired by giddy flamboyant 70s figures like Charles Nelson Reilly to become a professional TV-gay… but he wasn’t expecting that inspiration to extend to swimwear in his pe...
2020-11-05 17:01:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello! I thought perhaps you could use something fun right now, so here's a new episode of Cozy Pants in which James and I talk about the stuff that's making us laugh and feel joyful at the moment. The Mandalorian is very good; the first half of The Witches is excellent, and it's never a bad time for a story about the weird characters of James' hometown. And we discover a new game this week -- which of us can make the most obscure ridiculous cultural reference? (James wins, spoiler alert.)
2020-11-02 19:58:31 +0000 UTC
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What unexpected superhero powers might you possess? My guest this week was inspired by Wonder Woman to become one of the world’s foremost experts on wastewater — and yes, I promise, it’ll all make sense once you hear it. Raul Pacheco-Vega has been obsessed with women superheros his whole life, an obsession his parents indulged by enrolling him in martial arts classes, perhaps knowing that their young gay kid might need to defend himself at some point. But heroism came in an unlikely for...
2020-10-31 16:00:05 +0000 UTC
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Hello Patreon members!
Thanks thanks thanks for all your lovely support here on Patreon -- as a backer, you get a little sneak peek at the stuff I'm working on in patron-exclusive videos, and I'm so excited to show you what's coming in the next Culture Cruise. (And if you can't see the above video, you can watch here:
https://youtu.be/CgmKE9SlEkk )
My next Culture Cruise video's going to be all about the show...
2020-10-29 00:13:29 +0000 UTC
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