Episodes

This episode of Queer Currents considers the history and ethics of marketing to queer communities. Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC)scholar Dr. Jeanne Persuit joins us to consider the marketing of everything from underwear to Oreos this Pride month. What is rainbow washing? Do boycotts work? Get answers to these questions and more! Stay tuned through the end of the episode where we take some questions from our live studio audience.

Author Roger Luckhurst writes that gothic plots, "often revolve around ideas of transgression, the breaching of boundaries of life and death, good and bad, knowledge and belief, and this restless transformation makes it a privileged place for many to explore foundational questions of self and other." In this episode of Queer Currents we explore the queer in gothic literature and film. We consider how queer characters and themes play key roles in gothic horror narratives. Join us for this spooky discussion of how non-normative sexualities and gender identities populate tales of vampires and ghosts (with a little David Bowie mixed in for good measure).

This episode of Queer Currents considers the intersection of queerness and disability in the Netflix series Special. Disability studies scholar Dr. Julie Ann Scott-Pollock joins us to discuss the disability rights movement, the disability spectrum and the concept of compulsory able-bodiedness. We consider the Netflix documentary Crip Camp as well as the influential work of disability studies scholar Robert McRuer, author of Crip Theory: Cultural Signs of Queerness and Disability. Finally, we apply McRuer's concept of compulsory able-bodiedness to the Netflix series Special.

StarNews entertainment reporter and media critic Hunter Ingram visits Queer Currents to discuss queer television memories and offer a guide for queer Netflix binge-watching just in time for summer. We remember queer moments from Dawson's Creek, Six Feet Under, Happy Endings, Brooklyn 99 and Schitt's Creek. We also revisit queer milestones like Queer as Folk and Glee. Finally, we discuss the new season of Queer Eye as well as the Netflix original movie Alex Strangelove. Join us for a queer stream of consciousness session that includes Catherine O'Hara's wall of wigs, one queer spy and a few women in black leather jackets.

This is the second (and final) episode of highlights from the Reel Out Charlotte film festival. After an extended foray into the food and cocktail offerings in Charlotte, we finally get down to business. In this episode we discuss the French film Beats Per Minute which dramatizes the activism and lives of the members of ACT UP in France in the early 1990s. We also discuss a charming lesbian romantic comedy, Signature Move and a harrowing queer true crime documentary, Southwest of Salem. Southwest of Salem tells the story of the "San Antonio Four," a group of four Latina lesbians wrongfully convicted of gang raping two young girls. The episodes concludes with an interview with Southwest of Salem director Deborah Esquenazi and one of the San Antonio Four, Anna Vasquez.

This is the first of two episodes on the Reel Out Charlotte film festival. In this episode we discuss queer film festivals in general and the Reel Out Charlotte festival specifically. We look closely at a few of the highlights from our first 24 hours at the festival with an eye toward the charming film Saturday Church. Saturday Church is the story of Ulysses, a 14-year-old struggling with issues of identity and family. Ulysses finds escape (and a much needed support network)in the world of ball culture but this brings him directly into conflict with his birth family. This episode concludes with an interview with Reel Out festival organizers Jerry Yelton, Daniel Valdez and Matt Comer.

In this episode we offer our thoughts on the Oscar-winning Chilean film A Fantastic Woman. A Fantastic Woman is the story of a trans woman's grief and growth in the aftermath of her partner's death. We specifically discuss how the film engages and challenges tropes and stereotypes historically associated with trans characters in media. Later in the episode you will hear a student produced segment on queer coming out films. These students(Abby Greenfield, Helen Rogalski and Julia Russo) compare and contrast Brokeback Mountain, Moonlight and Love, Simon in terms of how the films allow for and address coming out. Finally, we've included a debrief with these students where they reflect on their first podcasting experience!

This episode is our first QUEER CURRENTS QUIZ SHOW! We recorded this episode LIVE in front of a studio audience with contestants from UNCW's Communication Studies Department. The quiz touches on ancient history, presidential history, and literary history as well as gay touchstones such as Bette Midler, Big Freedia, Will and Grace, The Village People and so much more! Test your knowledge of queer history and culture against our heterosexual contestants!

In this episode, Queer Currents takes on queer romance. We offer a brief history of gay and lesbian pulp fiction, list some of our favorite queer romances from film, television and literature, and send a few belated queer valentines. Finally, we offer a queer preview of the 90th Academy Awards!

For our first podcast we first take a broad look at issues of space and queer community and identity in a segment we’ve decided to call QUEERS IN SPACE. Then, we reflect on the life and work of one of the premier queer media activists, Vito Russo.
We examine Russo’s influential 1981 book The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies as well as the HBO documentary adaptation which premiered in 1995. We discuss why Russo’s work on queer stereotypes in film was a landmark in queer cultural criticism and how it remains useful some 37 years after its initial publication. We also touch on Russo’s AIDS activism before his death in 1990.