Best Ben Edmund Podcasts (2025)

1
TRAILER: Extra Bad Gays July 2025 9:42

5d ago9:42

9:42

A preview of our conversation about Mayor Pete this week. For more, subscribe at Patreon or Apple Podcasts.By Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

1
TRAILER: Extra Bad Gays June 2025, The Second: Touring, Representation, and Gaggony Guncles 12:10

1M ago12:10

12:10

For full episodes of Extra Bad Gays, subscribe on our Patreon or directly through Apple Podcasts. Join our community of nefarious nellies and help support the show!By Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

1
Special Episode: Gavin Arthur (with Maurice Casey) 1:07:06

2M ago1:07:06

1:07:06

Join our community of Extra Bad Gays on Patreon or Apple Podcasts for special episodes and more! Have you ever wondered who the sexual link between Edward Carpenter and Allen Ginsburg was? Wonder no more, and meet Gavin Arthur: grandson of US President Chester Allan Arthur, astrologer, sexologist, Irish Republican, sometime Communist, sometime Demo…

1
Extra Bad Gays June 2025, The First: Weird Vibes Pride, Edmund White, and Bisexual Dilemmas (TRAILER) 16:46

2M ago16:46

16:46

This is just a trailer! For the full episode, join our community of Extra Bad Gays on Patreon or Apple Podcasts. Weird Vibes Pride Month, nefarious nellies! What is this Pride Month's vibe? Who is its target audience? We're confused. How do we build power as queer movements hollowed out by corporate sponsorship appear to crumble? Then, we mourn the…

1
Come See Us Live! 0:43

2M ago0:43

0:43

We're coming to a city near you! Berlin on June 7, Sheffield June 20, and Bath June 22! Tickets and info: badgayspod.com/liveBy Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

1
TRAILER: Extra Bad Gays - The Sex We Cannot Have 5:23

3M ago5:23

5:23

This month, it's all about a fantastic reader question about the sex we cannot have. What do we learn from it? How do we think about it? What can it teach us? Please keep sending your Gaggony Guncles questions to us: emailbadgays[at]gmail[dot]com. And for the full segment, and to support the show, subscribe to Extra Bad Gays on Patreon or Apple Pod…

1
Special Episode: Alexander von Humboldt (with Michael Huldt) 1:18:41

3M ago1:18:41

1:18:41

Today we welcome Michael Huldt, host of Worm From Home, an environmental history podcast focused on East London, to discuss the German naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. Born in Berlin in 1769, he would travel the world amassing a wealth of botanical, geological, and human knowledge. Working in Europe, Russia, and South America, Humboldt became a p…

1
TRAILER: Extra Bad Gays Gaggony Guncles 11:48

4M ago11:48

11:48

Subscribers to our monthly "extra" show get to hear advice segments that we, (hopefully) charmingly refer to as the Gaggony Guncles. Here's last month's sample–for one or two juicy questions and thoughtful answers each month, plus conversations about the latest in queer history, culture, and politics, subscribe at Patreon.com/badgayspod or on Apple…

1
Jacques de Molay 51:12

5M ago51:12

51:12

Today’s subject, Jacques de Molay, was the last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, or to give them their full title, the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon. Ever since their dissolution, the Knights Templar have been associated with all sorts of apparent manifestations - of occultism, of shadowy transnational powerbrokers…

1
TRAILER–Extra Bad Gays February 2025: German Elections and How To Sauna 9:42

5M ago9:42

9:42

This month, we begin with a conversation about the just-occurred German elections. The far right made gains: but the elections offer a ray of hope for the Left, and a conclusive disproving of the "anti-woke" left thesis. Then, we turn to a discussion of a Gaggony Guncles question: how to gay sauna? We give some tips and tricks for a smooth entry in…

1
Adele Spitzeder 1:00:27

6M ago1:00:27

1:00:27

Adele Spitzeder, born into operatic royalty, washed up when she tried a career on the stage: so instead, she started accepting bank deposits for 10% monthly interest, and paying old customers with new customers' money. In three years, she amassed deposits of 38 million Gulden, or the equivalent of more than 500,000,000 euros: the world’s first Ponz…

1
Anne Lister 1:07:04

6M ago1:07:04

1:07:04

She was an industrialist, a lesbian, a landlord, a traveler, a businesswoman, a womanizer, a butch, a snob, a pioneer of gay marriage, a Tory. She was the original Tory girlboss, and19th century English diarist who coined such terms as "grubbling," for mutual masturbation. Ey up love, been grubbling? She was, of course, Anne Lister. Subscribe to E…

1
Larry Kramer 1:10:36

6M ago1:10:36

1:10:36

Today we profile Larry Kramer, the writer and AIDS activist. Kramer took space, took credit, operated in the world with tremendous privilege, and was somewhere between actively and passively misogynist and racist. But politically effective people are not always as we imagine them. We document Kramer's exclusions and blind spots, and explore how his…

1
TRAILER - Extra Bad Gays: Extra Bad Gays January 2025: Unity Mitford, Lavender Scares, and Gay Guys With Girlfriends 7:38

6M ago7:38

7:38

In this month's subscriber-only episode, we examine some recently discovered diaries from Unity Valkyrie Mitford, odious sister of the odious Tom. How precisely was her brother supposed to be a devoted Nazi but "not an anti-semite?" Only British journalists can tell. Then, we discuss Trump's executive orders in the context of lavender scares past a…

1
Abd Al-Ilah 40:47

6M ago40:47

40:47

The Crown Prince of Iraq, Abd Al-Ilah, ruled the country as a prince regent on behalf of his nephew, from 1939-1953 - although not interrupted. A member of the powerful Hashemite dynasty, Al-Ilah was also an authoritarian antisemite who once took refuge on a British naval ship called the HMS Cockchafer. A dandy, he charmed MP Chips Cannon into writ…

1
Reed Erickson 56:55

7M ago56:55

56:55

Today's episode profiles an eccentric, wealthy businessman––with the pet tiger, Mexican nudist ashram, ketamine and cocaine habits, and baroque legal battles over the title to various compounds to prove it––who also financially supported trans research, gay history, and dolphin ESP. Reed Erickson forged his own path in a difficult world and his lif…

1
Albrecht Muth 52:52

7M ago52:52

52:52

For today’s episode, I we take you into the murky world of the Washington foreign policy elites, and one of its murkiest characters, a man named Albrecht Muth. Who is Albrecht Muth? Well, that’s another question entirely. He claimed to be a dashing German aristocrat and married into Washington's foreign policy elite. The shocking truth became one o…

1
Elisar von Kupffer 1:05:00

7M ago1:05:00

1:05:00

A fascist femboy, a Baltic count, an orientalist white supremacist, editor of the first anthology of gay literature, painter of a 30-meter cyclorama featuring 90 androgynous twinks disporting themselves in the nude in a fantasia of the four seasons, devotee of Adolf Hitler, founder of a new religion, and poet: it's Elisar von Kupffer. Subscribe to …

1
Tom Mitford 1:05:18

7M ago1:05:18

1:05:18

Today's episode profiles a very bad bisexual: the lawyer, soldier and society favourite, Tom Mitford. But the idea of featuring Tom is partly a ruse. This will be not just a profile of Tom himself, but of his whole family, and especially his six siblings, the famed Mitford Sisters, whose intense, often conflicting relationships have become somethin…

1
Olive Yang 48:54

7M ago48:54

48:54

From almost the first season of the show, we’ve been tantalised by stories of the Burmese gangster Olive Yang. Now, to open season 8, we have their story: Olive was a lesbian — or possibly transmasculine — gangster born royal in 1927 British colonial Burma, who when first married off to a man threw a pot of their own urine at him to prevent the mar…

1
Extra Bad Gays December 2024: Luigi Mangione, Folk Hero? (Trailer) 15:02

8M ago15:02

15:02

available with easy shipping to both sides of the Atlantic. On this month's episode of Extra Bad Gays, we discuss Luigi Mangione, who has now been charged with the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in New York City earlier this month. How do some assassins become folk heroes? Why is there such a groundswell of support for Mangione? Is i…

1
Extra Bad Gays November 2024: The Transatlantic Anti-Trans Post-Election Backlash (Trailer) 13:34

8M ago13:34

13:34

Our new merch–evil twink energy socks, camo hats, and more–is now available with easy shipping to both sides of the Atlantic. In the wake of Donald Trump's dismaying reelection to the Presidency, the most cynical consultants and commenters on both sides of the Atlantic have decided it's trans people who are to blame. We break down how ascending thr…

1
Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie (with Indigo Dunphy-Smith) 1:07:20

9M ago1:07:20

1:07:20

Today's special guest is the researcher and museum worker Indigo Dunphy-Smith, who is bringing her expertise to the case of Marianne Woods and Jane Pirie, two Edinburghian school teachers who found themselves embroiled in a sex scandal and court case in the early years of the 19th century. Their legal woes followed accusations by a pupil about sapp…

1
Extra Bad Gays October 2024: Meet Your New Gaggony Guncles 10:18

9M ago10:18

10:18

Say hello to your new agony uncles: or is that Gaggony Guncles? A gay guy wonders if he's having enough sex! People ask about moving to Berlin. A freshly out transmasc wonders: am I becoming an evil twink? For the full story, subscribe to EXTRA BAD GAYS directly in Apple Podcasts or on Patreon.By Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

1
Jerome Robbins (with Liz Rosenfeld) 1:04:32

11M ago1:04:32

1:04:32

Today, special guest Liz Rosenfeld discusses the choreographer Jerome Robbins. Born in New York to Jewish immigrants, Robbins pursued dance and radical politics––until, under the threat of being blacklisted and exposed for his sexuality, reporting on his former comrades to the House Committee on Unamerican Activities. As one of Broadway's star chor…

1
Extra Bad Gays June 2024: Pride From Stonewall to Subaru (Trailer) 20:06

1y ago20:06

20:06

Starting with a reading from Martin Duberman's book Stonewall about the riots that kicked off a revolution, we reflect on the history of increasing corporate involvement in Pride, some unreasonably horny Subaru ads, a Raytheon Pride slogan from this year that made both of us momentarily speechless, and the politics and ethics of engaging with corpo…

1
Christopher Marlowe (with Will Tosh) 1:16:59

1y ago1:16:59

1:16:59

Today's special guest is Will Tosh, Head of Research at Shakespeare's Globe, London, and the author of a new book, “Straight Acting: The Many Queer Lives of William Shakespeare.” Having answered the obvious question in the prologue, the book becomes a sort of emotional biography of Shakespeare’s private life, but uses that his life and his work to …

1
Rotha Lintorn-Orman 51:22

1+ y ago51:22

51:22

We close out our season with the story of a dashing tomboy who was the first woman to found a British political party. The only problem: that party was the British Fascists. Subscribe to EXTRA BAD GAYS, our monthly conversation about queer life, culture, and politics. ----more---- SOURCES: Colin Cross, The Fascists in Britain (London: Saint Martin'…

1
TRAILER: Extra Bad Gays April 2024 - Tory Sex Scandals and Capote's Feud 16:54

1+ y ago16:54

16:54

Enjoy a sneak preview of EXTRA BAD GAYS, our monthly, subscriber-only show on contemporary queer politics and culture. For the full episode and a new episode every month, click 'subscribe' on Apple Podcasts or join our Patreon by clicking here.By Huw Lemmey & Ben Miller

1
Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás 41:30

1+ y ago41:30

41:30

Today’s subject had a multi-hyphenate name and a multi-hyphenate resume––, in his 55 years of life, he was an adventurer, a geologist, a spy, a dinosaur scientist, one of the founders of paleobiology, the world’s first airplane hijacker, a founder of the field of Albanian studies, a cosplay artist, and a murderer. Born in 1877 in Transylvania, the …

1
Qutbuddin Mubarak Shah 48:25

1+ y ago48:25

48:25

"If you have to take an beautiful enslaved convert boy from another province to become your lover, and then you fall hopelessly in love with him, and then promote him and he attains great power, do be aware than he might actually want to take your throne." Somehow, this extremely specific lesson was forgotten by two generations of rulers. Join us i…

1
Marthe Hanau 44:48

1+ y ago44:48

44:48

Marthe Hanau built a several-hundred-million-franc financial powerhouse: which turned out to be a fraud. Her investors had been promised returns of 8% interest on savings and in investments forty percent a year —but by the time she died in prison, they were owed a hundred and fifty five million francs. Some people even credit her spectacular swindl…

1
John Whitgift 1:05:59

1+ y ago1:05:59

1:05:59

Today's episode is about England and its capacity to be deeply weird. Weget into one of England's weirdest, bloodiest, and maybe horniest moments, the English Reformation: a time of enormous tumult and violence, but also new ideas that reconfigured and reshaped the world. Today’s Bad Gay is perhaps an unlikely and unfamiliar candidate, but one whos…

1
James Levine 59:26

1+ y ago59:26

59:26

Warning: this episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse, sexual harassment, and workplace sexual assault. Listener discretion is advised. Many people may have seen Maestro, a biopic about the American conductor Leonard Bernstein, a handsome and extroverted communicator. The next most famous gay Jewish conductor of the 20th century was, in …

1
Elagabalus 1:02:32

1+ y ago1:02:32

1:02:32

This episode has everything: a tyrannical little boy king, a dictator who wanted to overthrow the Roman pantheon and install a meteorite as the object of a new monotheism, prostitution and vestal virgins, and drowning your party guests in rose petals. We break down Elagabalus: the myth, the legend, the gender-bending icon and the searcher for the b…

1
Ahebi Ugbabe 50:44

1+ y ago50:44

50:44

Today’s subject was an uneducated woman who was born in approximately 1880 and rose in her nearly 70 years of life from enslavement to sex work to female king. She was a leader of her community of Enugu-Ezike in present-day Nigeria and a collaborator with British colonialism in the region. Finally removed from power by British officials and local e…

1
Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell 1:05:44

1+ y ago1:05:44

1:05:44

Warning: this episode contains discussions of domestic violence, child sexual abuse, and suicide. Listener discretion is advised. A rare twofer this week on our show: we discuss the lives and careers of Joe Orton and Kenneth Halliwell. Both frustrated writers from the North of England making their way in the repressive, damp climate of the postwar …

1
Karl Lagerfeld 1:02:59

1+ y ago1:02:59

1:02:59

Are you wearing the Chanel boots? Yes, we are. A white-haired, powdered, starch-cuffed petty dictator who ruled over the expanding business with an iron fist, stopping every once in a while to make a misogynist or racist public comment, Karl Lagerfeld was one of the most influential figures in the fashion industry as it shifted into late capitalist…

1
Simeon Solomon and Sascha Schneider - Live from Podfest Berlin 1:06:18

1+ y ago1:06:18

1:06:18

Subscribe to EXTRA BAD GAYS, our monthly conversation on politics and culture, here or by clicking "Subscribe" on Apple Podcasts. Merry Christmas! Happy holidays! As usual, we're making our contribution to family holiday entertainment with an hour-plus podcast about sodomy. Today's program, recorded live at Podfest Berlin in October 2023, profiles …

1
Benedetta Carlini 1:19:21

2y ago1:19:21

1:19:21

What's your favorite Paul Verhoeven film? We knew you were going to say Showgirls–but we'll put in a word for his latest, Benedetta, with Charlotte Rampling acting up a storm and nuns diddling each other with dildos carved out of statues of the Virgin. Improbably, the film is based on a true story: and within it, and within its subject's life, ther…

1
Tokugawa Iemitsu 56:03

2y ago56:03

56:03

Through the life of this 17th century Japanese shogun, we explore the role of same-sex relationships in Japanese court culture of the time, the radically different meanings of age and gender in different times and places, and a gay teen romance that ends, alas, with being stabbed to death in the bathtub. Order our book in paperback for a free e-boo…

1
Dong Xian 49:11

2y ago49:11

49:11

There’s power in being the king who sits upon the throne, but also power in being the throne upon who the king sits. This was true as ever in the court of Emperor Ai in Han Dynasty China in 22 BC. We’re going to be talking about someone who in 21 short years of life rose from a low class status to being one of the most powerful imperial officials i…

1
Tom Driberg 1:18:33

2y ago1:18:33

1:18:33

Today’s figure is the sort of character who has been extinguished from British public life today, and maybe that’s for the best. He’s a mass of contradictions, the sort of mass that confuses the idea of an easy history of “lessons we can learn”. How did this man manage to be both an avant-garde poet and a gossip columnist, a communist revolutionary…

1
Griselda Blanco 52:09

2+ y ago52:09

52:09

Nicki Minaj once rapped: Drug Lord Griselda, I used to move weight thru Delta. She’s referring to today’s subject, la Madrina, the drug lord of the Colombian Medellín Cartel, Griselda Blanco Restrepo, the Black Widow. Born in 1943 in Cartegena, on the north coast of Columbia, she became the so-called "Queenpin," and adopted all the macho tropes of …

1
André Gide 1:00:06

2+ y ago1:00:06

1:00:06

Warning: this episode contains discussions of child sexual abuse. Listener discretion is advised. This week, we tackle the French author André Gide, a self-styled "immoralist" who oscillated between an austere Protestantism and a sensualism he associated with the so-called "Orient," and who elevated pederasty above sodomy in a way that helps us und…

1
Mustapha Ben Ismaïl (with Arthur Asseraf) 1:02:59

2+ y ago1:02:59

1:02:59

Today we welcome special guest (and Associate Professor in History at the University of Cambridge) Arthur Asseraf to talk about Mustapha Ben Ismaïl, a terrifyingly ambitious twink who rose from being an illiterate street beggar to Prime Minister on the strength of the king's love for him –– and whose disastrous policies helped bring an end to Tunis…

1
Jorge Horacio Ballvé Piñero 1:06:00

2+ y ago1:06:00

1:06:00

Argentina, 1942: a scandal breaks. Tabloids scream about newly discovered photographs –– taken by the amateur photographer Jorge Horacio Ballvé Piñero –– at homosexual orgies in Ballvé's apartment, photos allegedly depicting young cadets from the national military university in compromising positions. 29 cadets are expelled, discharged, and/or puni…

1
Julie D’Aubigny 53:17

2+ y ago53:17

53:17

She's an icon, she's a legend, and she is the moment: today’s subject caused such a scandal in her life that even its fictionalized depiction in a novel was banned by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. The Mozart of bisexual drama, sword-fighting crossdressing opera singer Julie D'Aubigny burned through a dizzying series of lives, lo…

1
George Santos 1:01:38

2+ y ago1:01:38

1:01:38

We're starting off Season Six with George Santos, who rocketed the pathological homosexual narcissism we've spent much of our show discussing to the halls of Congress. In gay bar, there is at least one delusional queen who can't stop lying about his life. If you give him firearms and crystal meth, he turns into Andrew Cunanan. If you elect him to C…

1
Jack Saul LIVE! at Foyles in London with Shon Faye 1:26:02

2+ y ago1:26:02

1:26:02

Happy Christmas! It's Bad Gays Live! Relive our reading of the Jack Saul chapter – covering the life and times of the Victorian sex worker and pornographer – from our book BAD GAYS: A HOMOSEXUAL HISTORY at Foyles in London, with the inimitable Shon Faye reading out the saucy bits (maybe use headphones if you're spending today with Grandma, unless y…

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