OUTCAST UK

You 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.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Drag 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.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We're joined by Kevin Guyan — one of the UK's most compelling thinkers on queer life, power and systems. Kevin is a leading academic at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Queer Data and The Rainbow Trap, two books that have become essential reading on how LGBTQ+ lives are shaped, sorted and managed by institutions.It's about data. Not as numbers, but as power.Kevin asks the question most of us never think to ask until it's too late: what actually happens when queer people are counted? Because being counted doesn't automatically mean being protected. Sometimes it means being exposed.We unpack the seductive promise of visibility — the idea that if the state knows we exist, we'll be safer. Kevin explains why data is never neutral. Every statistic hides decisions about who felt safe enough to answer, who stayed silent, who was answered for, and who disappeared entirely. Once those numbers exist, they travel — into headlines, policy, algorithms and systems far beyond our control.Using the UK census as a starting point, Kevin shows how queer communities globally are trapped in a brutal bind: counted badly, our numbers are weaponised; not counted at all, our existence can be denied. Either way, data doesn't just describe us — it acts on us.The conversation darkens as we look at history and the future. Data collected in one political moment doesn't vanish when politics change. It waits.We also explore the algorithmic systems already deciding who you are without asking — sexuality inferred from clicks, gender guessed from behaviour, profiles built silently while you scroll.What happens when the system knows who you are — and you can't take it back?---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since around 2020, a lot of queer people were finally let in.Into institutions that had ignored us, sidelined us, or treated us as a liability for decades. Suddenly we were wanted. Asked to advise. Asked to represent. Asked to sit on panels, lead staff networks, front Pride content, help “shape culture”. It felt like progress. It felt overdue.And then something shifted.The tone cooled. The questions stopped being curious and started being cautious. Budgets disappeared. Projects were quietly killed. People who had been welcomed for their visibility were suddenly treated as awkward, political, or risky. The same doors that had opened so loudly were slammed shut — and we were left standing on the outside, marked as “other” again.In Part 1 of a two-part interview, we're joined by Kevin Guyan — one of the UK's most respected thinkers on LGBTQ+ inclusion, power and systems. Kevin is the author of Queer Data and The Rainbow Trap, books that don't flatter institutions or offer easy fixes. They ask harder questions about what inclusion actually costs the people being “included”.We talk about what it really feels like to work inside organisations that love queer visibility but fear queer demands. The exhaustion of unpaid emotional labour. The pressure to be grateful just for having a seat at the table. The quiet expectation that you'll soften yourself, simplify yourself, make yourself legible to straight managers who decide — consciously or not — which versions of queerness they're comfortable digesting.We ask the questions that don't usually make it into DEI strategy documents.Do queer people have to perform a role to survive at work?What happens if you don't “read” gay?If you're trans but don't fit the image people expect?If you're a lesbian who doesn't behave the way they think lesbians should?If your identity is complicated, political, messy — or just inconvenient?Kevin talks about the trap of being invited in on someone else's terms. About “gratitude politics” — the idea that we should be thankful just to be tolerated. About how quickly inclusion turns into extraction, and how easily queer people become window dressing for institutions unwilling to change anything structural.This isn't a conversation about rejecting opportunity. Most of us can't afford to. It's about learning how to move through powerful institutions without losing your spine. How to recognise the red flags early. How to tell the difference between real support and rainbow garnish. And how to protect yourself when the political winds inevitably change.Part 2 takes this further — into how inclusion becomes classification, and how data and bureaucracy are now being used to formalise who belongs, who's manageable, and who gets erased.But this first part is about the emotional reality. The whiplash. The silence. The moment you realise the door that opened so confidently can close just as fast.And what you do next.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on Outcast World, Graeme and Topher accidentally kick a hornet's nest on TikTok and Instagram and get absolutely swarmed. Bots, right-wing bedwetters, and people arguing with total confidence that red is actually blue. A proper deluge. Where do they all come from, and why do they all sound the same?There is one bright spot: Green Party deputy leader Zack Polanski shares the post on TikTok, which helps restore some faith in humanity. But like everyone else, we're still drawn to the worst comments — so we read them. All of them. Then we start replying.What follows is a scorched-earth comments policy. Bots get called out. Bad arguments get dismantled. Unhinged profiles get gently (and sometimes not so gently) mocked. We end up trolling the trolls so efficiently it becomes a full-time job — and, weirdly, a great day out.Along the way we get into why Topher will always hire and promote sex workers, and why on earth a certain Mr Yaxley-Lennon publicly complained about being served gay Grindr ads by the algorithm… then chose to post about it. The highlights are here. The comments are unhinged. And yes — we replied to pretty much all of them.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We start today's episode with an explanation from Topher Taylor, our cohost and tart with a heart, on why the original podcast recording had to be pushed back...The reason is entirely on brand... A last-minute OnlyFans shoot with a man he simply couldn't turn down took priority. Sometimes work is work. And we respect the Hustle.Then in today's interview we chat to the gorgeous, charming Kyle Pritchard, who has a soft South Wales accent to die for and after being on reality dating show, The Bi Life back in 2018 has spent the last few years in the gym and studying Psychology in London and Bristol.Now as part of his masters research he is lifting the lid on sexual assault in LGBTQ+ community and how there is an avalanche of this stuff going unreported with as many as half of queer people impacted in some way. Queer spaces sometimes operate differently and those in charge need to know what sexual assault looks like in a more sexualised environment and how the fear of shame or not being believed puts many off reporting.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Legendary Queer photographer and the man behind the Attitude uncut Kink edition front page, Charles Moriarty joins Graeme Smith to talk about Brock — his new photobook following actor and filmmaker Brock across four unstable years, from early ambition to the completion of Brock's debut film Test. What started as a DM in 2017 became a stop-start collaboration shaped by distance, lockdown and uncertainty. Charles breaks down how Brock holds multiple threads at once, Brock as subject, Brock as filmmaker, the photographer's role in shaping narrative, and the thin line between lived reality and performance. Since its release, the book has been quickly picked up by queer press in the UK and US.The conversation then moves into politics, and the tone hardens. Charles is clear about his anger at the current Labour leadership, arguing that its stance on trans rights and immigration has consequences that extend far beyond messaging. He and Graeme talk about how far-right ideas are normalised through misinformation, how fear is monetised online, and why many queer people no longer feel protected by mainstream politics. ---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

YOUR BI WEEKLY DOSE OF QUEER POLITICS, SEX AND CULTUREOn today's episode, Graeme and Topher are joined at the start by Nick Charles — Trinidad-born Loud Brown Gays podcaster, music producer, and part of the original Outcast team — for an episode that opens on an awkward realisation: Graeme's just seen a video on X of someone being bummed, and slowly works out the arse belongs to the man now sitting next to him.From there, the conversation moves into Heated Rivalry — why it's landing with gay men right now, and what it gets right about desire, masculinity and intimacy without sanding things down.Politics follows. Nick talks about growing up in Trinidad, living next door to Venezuela, and having Venezuelan family, and why Trump's renewed interest in the Caribbean feels unsettling from that position. Watching the scale and cruelty of ICE deportations in the US sharpens the concern.The episode closes back in the UK, asking whether Reform are serious about their promises — and what a real deportation drive would actually mean.P;---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In 2009, Graeme went to LA to work and make TV industry contacts but was exposed to a darker and more underground world than he could ever have imagined.The intersection of tinseltown, people seeking fame and the allure of meth and sex has been the ruin of countless promising careers and Graeme tells Topher about how the career highlight of working filming TV shows in LA, led to the discovery of a dark and destructive world just beneath the surface.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this first episode of our sixth season. Hot on the heels of our shortlisting as Best Interview Podcast at the prestigious British podcast awards, the team are back with the global queer group chat.Today Graeme Smth is joined by regular Topher Taylor and fellow queer Irishman in London Charles Moriarty. The theme is our memories of Amy Winehouse, the queer icon and British music icon, taken too young.Charles was the photographer who took the images of Amy that launched the image we remember today for the album "Frank" with the iconic Bee Hive getting its first outing on a photo shoot in New York with some of the images displayed at The National Portrait Gallery in London.Topher talks of the time he was saved from homophobic abuse at a bar in Soho back in the late 00's by non other than Amy.Please leave a rating and comment on this show to help spread the word---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A brutally honest look at grief, addiction, and finding a way back to life.After almost four years and 130 episodes of Outcast World, the mic finally turns towards its own creator.This week, the show takes a personal turn as The Divorce Social host Samantha Baines — known from BBC Radio London, The One Show, The Crown and Call The Midwife — interviews Outcast World's Graeme Smith, an award-winning broadcaster and podcaster, about a story he's never shared publicly before.Recorded in late 2023, the conversation explores the loss of his partner after a decade together to a traumatic drugs death, and his own struggle with mental health and addiction. In 2012, Graeme ended up in rehab on a mental health ward after a total breakdown. And not the nice private rehab you see celebrities go to, but the gritty kind that usually cleans up drug users straight from prison. He had lost his job, his mind, his home and all his self worth.But within the dark time on the rehab wards of a mental health trust specialist detox unit, The Chapman-Baker Unit, in North Manchester he felt like her was remade. His self worth realised again after putting the pieces together, with nothing, not even the laces in his shoes after a suicide attempt earlier in his rehab stay.Then not long after, came the death of his ex fiancé, Darren Williams, to drugs at just 35 years old on a night out in London in February 2015 under circumstances that will never truly make sense. A healthy 35 year old man just died at a party with friends. Tearing apart the lives of so many people forever.It's a raw and honest look at grief, love, and starting over — from someone who's spent years helping others tell their stories, now sitting on the other side of the mic.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of OUTCAST WORLD, Graeme Smith sits down with Jaxon Feeley, author of "Fear Proof" out this week. Jax is here to flip everything you've ever believed about fear on its head.Jaxon Feeley is a British TV personality, presenter, speaker and advocate known for his work around trans inclusion, authenticity and mental-health awareness.Originally working as a prison officer, he began his transition in 2021 while still in post and has since leveraged his experience to inspire others to live their truth.This isn't another “feel the fear and do it anyway” chat. It's a raw, smart, and beautifully vulnerable conversation about what it really takes to become Fear Proof — to live a life that's honest, messy, and fully awake.Jax opens up about rebuilding from the ground up, grieving past identities, and finding courage in the quiet moments. Together, they unpack how fear can be a compass, not a cage — and why you don't need to be fearless… you just need to do it scared.Get your copy of Fear Proof:https://amzn.eu/d/6UF0dSw---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

He kissed a boy. Then told the villa — and the whole country — he was living with HIV.Adam Williams went on I Kissed a Boy looking for love — and ended up schooling the nation on HIV and therapy.On Outcast World this week, Graeme Smith gets the goss straight from the masseria:Coming out (again) — this time on reality TV and ultimately the entire internet.Therapy, trauma, and trying not to cry on national telly.The truth about undetectable = untransmittable.Dating apps, reality TV edits, and managing a mental health.Adam's not here to be your poster boy — but he is here to talk about what happens when you stop hiding and start making noise about who you really are. It's impressive. Listen.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Junaid Ahmed is one of the most visible queer Muslims on British television — and he's doing it on one of the UK's most-watched reality shows.As The Only Way is Essex returns to ITV2 and ITVX on Sunday nights at 9pm, Junaid sits down with Graeme Smith to talk identity, faith, fame and the reality behind the reality TV.In this candid conversation, Junaid reflects on:Coming out as a British-Pakistani MuslimNavigating fame, faith and familyThe pressures of visibility in both the LGBTQ+ and Muslim communitiesLife behind the scenes of TOWIEMental health, resilience, and staying true to yourselfJunaid speaks with honesty and clarity about what it means to take up space as a queer person of faith — and why authentic representation on mainstream TV still matters.Watch TOWIE every Sunday at 9pm on ITV2 or stream anytime on ITVX.

On this week's Outcast World, Graeme Smith is asking the big question: should we finally ditch the dating apps? Author and broadcaster Daniel Harding joins the show to talk about the impact of his best-selling book Letters To My Younger Queer Self, and his new project hitting the streets to find out how queer people really feel about swiping, hookups, and love in 2025.Then, it's music time with UK Eurovision girlband Remember Monday, back with their summer anthem Happier and a Desperate Housewives-inspired music video.And stick around for a teaser of next week's exclusive with one of the breakout stars of I Kissed a Boy, opening up about HIV, mental health, and going public on national TV.NOMINATED BEST INTERVIEW PODCAST AT THE 2025 BRITISH PODCAST AWARDS - THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Outcast World goes live from Manchester Pride 2025 with Graeme Smith and Nick Charles right at the heart of the action hosting a podcast and radio show from the site on the afternoon of Graeme's stag doo in the city!As well as speaking to some modern Manchester queer icons and old school pop legends, we're essentially hosting the entire podcast outside on the street whilst getting ready to go "out out". For one of the last Big Pride's of the season we're headed back up North.Singer and Manchester broadcaster Jsky opens up about being refused entry to Village venues as a queer person of colour — for reasons still unknown — and reflects on the power of finally performing on the Pride stage in his home city.We also sit down with trans masculine legend and Kerrang! Radio host Paris Munro, who calls out companies for paying lip service to trans rights and questions the growing commercialisation of Pride, with festival-goers often forced to pay for multiple tickets.Graeme and Nick share their own emotional stories of queer awakenings in Manchester before revisiting the 90s classic Queer as Folk, the Russell T Davies series that put Canal Street on the map.And yes — we catch up with B*Witched on the phone from their dressing room (how 90s) Keavy from the band gets into the essential stuff like whether they ever imagined double denim would be their legacy. She also has an important take on Pride and its impertinence in the current climate It's Pride, politics, and pop all wrapped up in one very Manchester episode.

“This feeling I was nurturing… was punishable by death.”This week on Outcast World, Graeme speaks with writer and doctor Majid Parsa, author of The Ayatollah's Gaze — a compelling story about growing up queer in the Islamic Republic of Iran.We explore forbidden desire, the underground queer scene in Tehran — full of joy, glamour, and danger — and what it means to party knowing your social gathering at home with friends could be raided at any moment.Majid opens up about gender performance, state surveillance, religious expectation, and the power of queer intimacy in places where even the word “gay” is unspeakable.A conversation about shame, courage, exile — and the quiet ways queer Iranians keep finding each other.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we're going full cultural yin and yang.First, Harry Eric Derbidge (The Only Way Is Essex, ITV2 & ITVX) spills on the brand-new TOWIE season kicking off this Sunday at 9pm – expect sun, sea, and classic Essex drama.Then, we swap spray tans for sculptural blooms with Hamish Allan Powell, the Instagram-famous florist making waves in high-end floral design. This conversation comes from The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast – for all things ART, QUEER.CULTURE.From reality TV to floral fantasy – two very different worlds, one episode.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Kuan-wen Huang is a queer, Taiwanese comedian, writer, and actor based in London. He's appeared on Comedy Central, BBC, and Channel 4, and has become a standout voice on London's comedy circuit. Now, he's bringing his brand-new one-man show Andrews Are The Worst to the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.In this episode of Outcast World, Graeme Smith sits down with Kuan-wen to talk about heartbreak, hookup disasters, Fringe burnout, and the suspicious pattern that every villain in his life seems to be called Andrew.They dive into Kuan-wen's experience growing up gay in Taiwan, how his mum reacted when he came out, his time doing mandatory military service — and his fears for Taiwan's future in its increasingly tense standoff with China.He also reflects on why he's sworn off Grindr during the Fringe!---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Church of England just met to decide the future of LGBTQ+ people in the Church — again. Still no equal marriage. Still no full acceptance. Still a fight.This week, Graeme speaks to Phillip Baldwin — a gay man, HIV-positive, and one of the few openly queer members of the Church's General Synod. From inside the Church's governing body, Phillip takes us behind the scenes of a system still struggling to recognise LGBTQ+ lives with dignity.It's a raw conversation about faith, identity, and what it means to stay in the room when the institution you serve refuses to fully welcome you.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What happens when you gather some of the most fabulous, fearless minds in queer media around a breakfast table? OUTCAST WORLD takes you inside the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Breakfast Club — with legendary Attitude Editor-in-Chief Cliff Joannou front and centre.Cliff is a defining voice in queer journalism — shaping the stories, covers and controversies that have marked a generation. In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, we talk about:

In this episode, Graeme Smith is joined by Stu Oakley and Lotte Jeffs — co-authors of Do Ask, Do Tell, the bold, funny, and radically honest new book that lays queer life, love and culture bare.Stu is a film publicist who's worked on Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Jurassic World. Lotte is a genderqueer journalist, novelist, children's author, and former ELLE editor. Together, they're also the co-hosts of the award-winning podcast Some Families — the UK's leading LGBTQ+ parenting show.In Do Ask, Do Tell, they take on everything from sexuality and gender to body image, mental health, HIV stigma, open relationships, queer parenting and faith. And yes — they explain what a darkroom actually is. ---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bob Vylan at Glastonbury sent the outrage machine into overdrive.We've scoped 24 hours of GB News to bring you every pearl-clutching reaction from the self-declared defenders of free speech.But here's the twist: our guest, sex educator and writer Topher Taylor, actually knows someone from Bob Vylan personally — and brings rare, real-life insight into the kind of person behind the noise.THIS EPISODE CONTAINS AUDIO OF RECENT NEWS EVENTS THAT SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND UPSETTING.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

As the Glastonbury Festival heatwave rolls on, the political outrage is just warming up. Graeme and Nick Charles unpack Kneecap's headline-grabbing set and the pearl-clutching reaction from MPs and a media desperate to censor a culture they don't understand. Did The 1975 let us down with the announcement mid set they didn't want to do politics.. to only then go and sing a load of inherently political songs. There's also Bob Vylan and the stage chants that got police attention. Are we all compelled to comment on the issues tearing the world apart, or is it ok to sit things out like The 1975 tried do?Then it's onto porn in crisis: with gay adult performer Austin Wolf facing child porn and sex offence charges, we ask why mainstream porn is getting darker, more extreme, and frankly bizarre. And as if on cue, a Tory peer wants to appoint a Minister for Porn. We'd just call them what they are: the Minister for Wanks---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reality star Jordan Burrow won hearts on I Kissed a Boy—the BBC's flagship queer dating show hosted by Dannii Minogue—but his story goes beyond the groundbreaking global hit show.In this episode, Jordan opens up about using his platform to start real conversations: from coming out in a remote rural village, his love of football and sports, to his bold message on the biggest billboard in Manchester UK, dedicated to his dad during Men's Mental Health Week. The powerful image, featured in Attitude, made headlines—because saying “I'm doing okay” shouldn't feel radical, but it often does.Also how many queer footballers are there in the top leagues? We try the quick maths. But where are they all?---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graeme Smith sits down with UK drag royalty Kitty Scott-Claus, who opens up like never before.As a finalist on worldwide TV show - RuPaul's Drag Race Global All Stars, Kitty is riding high — but the past year has brought huge personal change. She speaks movingly about her friend and fellow queen The Vivienne, and the impact her tragic passing had on the drag community. Kitty reflects on Viv's strength, visibility and vulnerability — and how her loss underscores just how much pressure drag performers are under right now, both on and off stage.We also dive deep into Kitty's remarkable transformation — losing over eight stone through swimming, running and cutting out booze — just before the world went wild for Ozempic. She's honest about why she's glad she did it the “old-school way,” and how she navigates the often shallow world of queer dating and body politics now that she looks, in her words, “more socially acceptable.”Expect laughter, brutal honesty, and a little bit of glitter!

Cute lil catchup with Topher and Graeme. Topher is the sexual freedom awards writer of the year 2025 and a longstanding OUTCAST alumni.Once again his services have been in demand on various podcasts to talk about him dating downlow guys, it's worth unpacking what the appeal and issues are.And a chat about coercion and bribery in the chemsex scene, how criminal gangs are getting people into compromising situations in order to exploit them.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graeme Smith is joined by writer and Queer I Am podcast host Andrew Flewitt for a deeply personal conversation about queer grief — the kind that isn't always spoken about, but lives quietly inside so many of us.Andrew's new book, Do You Believe in Life After Loss?, explores the grief queer people carry: the loss of lovers, of friends taken too soon — and the quieter griefs too. The ones tied to shame, family estrangement, and the delayed onset of emotional adulthood many LGBTQ+ people experience because the world won't let us.This is a raw, open-hearted episode about making space for grief, telling the truth about loss, and finding meaning on the other side of it.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we chat to Roxy Bourdillon, the editor in chief of DIVA magazine, the world's biggest media outlet for queer, trans and non binary women.Roxy has a new book called "What a girl wants" in which she charts the path of her teenage, sexually unsure self all the way to heading up one of the world's biggest queer media outlets, even using her teenage diary entries along the way.Nick Charles also joins the chat for a bit and updates us on his mum who listens all the time from Trinidad. Get well soon Rose!THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week on OUTCAST WORLD, Graeme and newly crowned Sexual Freedom Awards Writer of the Year Topher Taylor are talking about how Trump's budget cuts in the US have impacts for queer people everywhere. We're joined by journalist and author Daniel Harding, whose new book Letters to My Younger Queer Self is already being called essential reading. Together, we ask: what would you say to your younger queer self if you had the chance?Plus:

OUTCAST WORLD residents the queer writer, journalist and Only Fans model Topher Taylor and Loud Brown Gays podcast host Nick Charles join Graeme Smith for a groupchat to talk through the latest happenings for LGBTQ+ people around the world:Has the rapid rise of Trump and the American evangelical right wing created an existential crisis for the LGBTQ community?What the success of REFORM UK will mean for queer people in the UK?And Nick has some highly unconventional theories about the selection process for the latest Pope.---THIS IS OUTCAST WORLD ---Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review. 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 Insta, Youtube and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Graeme Smith and his husband Steven John travel to Trinidad and Tobago to launch series 6 of OUTCAST UK just days after the country's shock court ruling recriminalised homosexuality, reinstating a colonial-era law that now carries a 5-year prison sentence for same-sex intimacy.In this on-the-ground exclusive, OUTCAST UK meets Jason Jones, the activist taking the Trinidadian government to the Privy Council in London — the last hope for decriminalisation, not just in Trinidad, but for millions of LGBTQ+ people across the Commonwealth.Together, we unpack the deep scars of British colonial law, the grip of modern-day US-backed conservative networks, and the global battle to push back against the rising tide of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation.This isn't just a story about one island — it's a frontline report from a legal fight that could shape queer rights across the world.Producer- Graeme Smith Contributors - Jason Jones and Steven John. Like and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts and please leave a review.We're on Insta and TikTok @playoutcastuk Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The week after Esther Ghey accepted the Attitude award for her daughter Brianna posthumously at a ceremony in London attended by the great and good of the LGBTQ+ community. We Esther and close friend Jaxon Feeley, who presented the award on the night to sit down in a studio in Manchester to chat about that awful period, what she learned and how she is trying to make a difference after losing her beautiful daughter. Jaxon is a previous Attitude award winner and star of Channel 4 reality shows including "Hunted" and "Banged Up: Stars behind bars". He transitioned whilst working as a prison officer in Wigan and has become famous for his activism. This episode is in published in full HD video on Spotify. THIS IS OUTCAST UK

The worldwide hit LGBTQ+ show Heartstopper is back on Netflix for its highly anticipated third series. Just ahead of the launch, Bradley Riches caught up with Graeme Smith live in the studio in London to talk about how he got on the show, navigating life as a queer autistic person and how it really was in Celeb Big Brother earlier this year. THIS IS OUTCAST UK

The app that changed the way we love, make friends and hook up at it's 15th birthday. In this special programme (exclusively in video form on Spotify and available to listen wherever you get your podcasts. The LGBTQ+ journalist and author of "Gay Man Talking" Daniel Harding looks into how the community are using the app we all take for granted. THIS IS OUTCAST UK

Graeme catches up with the amazing Kitty Scott Claus with news of the new Ru Paul's Drag Race Global All stars launching this week around the world. The best queens from around the world go head to head for £200k in cash!Also back to the fringe in Edinburgh for a catch-up with the legendary Kate Butch whose standup drag show has had the critics soiling with laughter. Connor Moseley pops in with news of his new documentary “Queer sexpectations” and Kev from Pride Daily has the latest LQBTQ news from around the world.THIS IS OUTCAST UK

UK Black Pride took place on Sunday 11th August 2024, just a week after racist violence erupted on the UK's streets. Far right rioting, violent public racist attacks and inflammatory rhetoric have left some people of colour fearful or in their own homes. The UK's black and brown population have barely begun to process what has gone on. UK Black Pride this year was taking place in the middle of a global war on woke by the far right around the world. We begin to start the conversations about how safe we feel after these events and why UK Black Pride was such an important statement. Graeme Smith talk's the morning after the event to Asad Zafar a non binary queer activist, muslim and sexual health testing outreach worker in London. Graeme also talks to comedian and writer Holly Stars who is live from the Edinburgh fringe with news of their new drag comedy show "JUSTICE FOR HOLLY". and Kev McGrath is on hand with a check on the week's biggest LGBTQ news stories from around the world. THIS IS OUTCAST UK

Graeme is joined in the studio by Daniel Harding the author and LGBTQ+ journalist to talk about the 15th anniversary of Grindr. Daniel is also the author of best selling LGBTQ book "Gay man talking" and has a new book coming next year called "Letters to my younger queer self".

UK LGBTQ rapper James Indigo has been delighting audiences around europe and hitting us with sexual energy to his music like "Daddy's coming home" and rapping about being a top and "D Print" for the last few years. The Birmingham born queer rapper with a staunchly catholic mum mixes his Jamaican / British background with his queer perspective on pop culture. The result is a unique sound from unique guy. His new single "But you said we had a connection" brings us a different and more emotional side to the guy we thought we knew. We stuck James Indigo in a studio for an hour with Graeme Smith to talk about his music, sex, Madonna and Nicki Minaj. THIS IS OUTCAST UK

The Labour Party has won the UK general election with a landslide majority. Traditionally seen the party of LGBTQ+ progress, there has been little in the way of support through the general election campaign as they sought to avoid any difficult issues. So will the new occupant of number 10 be our friend? In this special episode that was broadcast on Virgin Radio Pride within 72 hours of the election result, we talk to Jamie Wareham from Queer AF. Also features Kevin McGrath with a roundup of other LGBTQ+ news stories from around the world that week. If you want to sign up for the Queer AF newsletter then head to https://www.wearequeeraf.com

The creator of "the other blue pill" podcast, HIV and prep expert Phil Samba from The Love Tank drops in to talk all things prep, getting access to it, and also new developments in sexual health like doxy pep. Graeme Smith and Topher Taylor host. THIS IS OUTCAST UK --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

This week we speak to our favourite Lesbian from Leeds, the editor in Chief of DIVA magazine, Roxy Bourdillon. Roxy is in talking about making a new radio show and podcast about the recent Lesbian nightlife explosion and has a book due out next year. We talk about the journey from a 13 year old who passed off her interest in women as just feminism to begin with, through to coming out and ending up editor in chief of worlds biggest magazine for queer and bisexual women and non binary people. THIS IS OUTCAST UK --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

One of the stars of new UK LGBTQ movie Bonus track drops in to chat to Graeme Smith and Topher Taylor. Bonus track is a story of young love, with reminders of "Heartstopper" and mid 90s queer classic "beautiful thing". Samuel drops in to explain why its so important to be involved in a film like this. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

Trans model, influencer and activist Kenny Ethan Jones drops into the studio to talk to Graeme Smith and Topher Taylor about his new book "Dear Cisgender People". Kenny's mum was hugely supportive of his transition and despite the loss of her a few years ago, he still owes her acceptance, love and support everything. THIS IT OUTCAST UK --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

Hosted by Graeme Smith and Topher Taylor from the studios of Virgin Radio Pride. We hear exclusively from Esther Ghey, mother of Brianna Ghey, ahead of her documentary with Jason Feley for Virgin Radio Pride 2024. Kevin McGrath has the latest from Pride Daily and we talk through the week's LGBTQ+ happenings. THIS IS OUTCAST UK --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

Liam McDonald is in the studio with Graeme Smith this week, chatting about the latest happenings and events across the queer diaspora. Get involved on Tik Tok and Instagram just search PLAYOUTCASTUK. Includes a news update from Kev McGrath at Pride daily. THIS IS OUTCAST UK --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

Topher Taylor and Graeme Smith are in the studio talking about what the Diane Abbott story says about us as a nation and the NHS stopping giving puberty blockers to under 18's. Plus a check on the week's LGBTQ+ news stories with Kev McGrath from Pride Daily. THIS IS OUTCAST UK --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

There has been an explosion in STIs in the UK in the last decade. But at the same time government funding for the services that treat potentially life threatening conditions has been dramatically cut in real terms. We speak to sexual heath expert Dr John White this week to discuss access to sexual health services and the ease of Hep C testing during the current NHS campaign. Also it turns out Hep C treatment is a lot easier than it was a few years ago. Dr John White has 25+ yrs of clinical experience in sexual health. He was an NHS consultant in Genitourinary Medicine for 13 yrs at Guy's and St Thomas' Hospitals, London. He currently works in Western and Northern Health & Social Care Trusts, Northern Ireland, while also working for Preventx. John was Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of STD & AIDS from 2009 to 2020. He is an expert in bacterial STIs and novel diagnostic approaches and is passionate about educating and speaking on clinical sexual health and HIV medicine. Including Pride Daily update with Kev McGrath. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

With the shock news of queer strictly veteran Robin Windsor's passing this week, Graeme Smith talks to his friend David Allwood about grief and loneliness. We're also talking about the film that has cinema audiences in tears - all of us strangers AND how queer dance collective Homoparody is bringing the community together in London. Plus Kev is here with the latest LGBTQ+ news with a Pride Daily update. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

Our resident tart with a heart Topher is fronting this week's episode and takes Graeme along to the Grabby awards pre party in London. The great and good from the European gay porn industry throw an awards bash once a year with best bottom, best top and best collab. Thanks to sites like Only Fans, adult stars are no longer under the control of the big studios. The result has been well paid, successful sex workers who are in control of the fruits of their own labour. We are joined in the studio in London by Callum and Cole a couple who have a huge TikTok following that they turned into subscribers to their Only Fans page. Their relationship and sex life has literally always been on camera. Also features a check on the latest LGBTQ+ news stories with Kev from Pride Daily. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message

This week Graeme is talking through some of the world's biggest queer news with the New York born actor and podcaster Cameron Bernard Jones. Including the significance of Colman Domingo's Oscar nomination for the black queer community. Why Google have used the mid 20th century author civil rights activist and author James Baldwin. Also the worsening situation for trans people in Florida after changes to gender ID rules on driving licences. & Kev McGrath is on hand with a queer news update from Pride Daily. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/outcastuk/message