Queer Words Podcast

Frank Pizzoli, journalist and AIDS activist

Mackenzie Nolan, social worker and horror movie buff

Dakarai Larriett, MBA product manager turned political candidate

Mickie Kennedy, poet and press release distributor

Mike Player, stand-up comedian, activist, and screenwriter

Laura Goode, essayist, poet, screenwriter, producer, and professor at Stanford

Nina Kennedy, concert pianist and television host

Max Austin, nurse and proud adoptive father living in Staffordshire

Sezín Devi Koehler, poet, essayist, and pop-culture commentator

Gordon Blitz, poet, playwright, and former accountant

Rupert Kinnard, award-winning cartoonist and former periodical art director

Dale Lykins, former pastor and founder of the Open Table Community

Thomas Stacy Helton, counselor/therapist and former social worker

Mary Desch, retired psychotherapist living in the Portland area

Jeffrey Bryant, Pushcart-nominated Los Angeles-based poet

Anna Brenner, filmmaker, and theater director

Kyle Casey Chu, filmmaker, former educator, and co-founder of Drag Story Hour

Ingrid Hu Dahl, certified executive and team coach

Madeleine Nakamura, editor and gamer

Jen Michalski, who likes smoke signals, balloons, chocolate, and rescuing Boston Terriers

Jesse Scott, HIV/AIDS Case Manager

Sudi (Rick) Karatas, screenwriter, songwriter, and poet

Shawn Stewart Ruff, Lammy Award winner, fashion, beauty and lifestyle copywriter

Wayne Scott, psychotherapist and educator

Soizick Jaffre, comic book artist and avid windsurfer

Daniel Meltz, retired technical writer and teacher of deaf young people

It is with great sadness we report the passing of one of our community’s stalwarts, Felice Picano. Here is my 2019 conversation with him

Rainie Oet, drawn to mermaids, robots, half moons, rainbows, aliens, ghosts, reality, the speculative, transness, justice, and hope

Roxie Key, copywriter for a global brand

Sara Ryan, teen services librarian and writing instructor

Samantha Ryan, S.E. Hinton Endowed Scholarship for Creative Writing winner

Cris Ascunce, LGBTQ rights advocate, copywriter, graphic designer, and web designer

Orlando Ortega-Medina, criminal, appellate, and deportation defense attorney who assists with post-conviction relief

Jason June, lover of dinosaurs, unicorns, Pomeranians, and anything magical that takes you to a different world or time

Howard Miller, business consultant, performer, and avid tennis player

Alexandra Swarens, screenwriter, filmmaker, and performer/Mak Shealy, playwright and performer

John Garrison, scholar of Shakespeare and Renaissance Literature

Rich Rubin, former globe trotter and travel writer

Michael Leali, bookshop worker and former high school instructor

H.N. Hirsch, former professor and dean of arts and sciences

Eliot Schrefer, New York Times best-selling science writer with an affinity for the natural world

Mala Kumar, technology developer, formerly with GitHub and the United Nations, co-host of the podcast “Desi Women Diaspora”

Charles K. Carter, poet, mental health advocate, and former educator

Robert Bruegmann, historian of architecture, and a professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago 

Peter E. Fenton, playwright and paleontologist

Erin Becker, marketing and content strategist

Lee Airton, Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies in Education at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario

Ronald Hunter, former hustler who sees himself as a successful survivor, rather than a victim

Trent Clifford, teller of stories, proclaimer of uncomfortable truth, queer survivor of domestic abuse, and insatiable artist

Jess Vosseteig, illustrator specializing in queer, feminist, and inclusive illustrations that focus on inclusivity, empowerment, and breaking gender stereotypes