OUTCAST WORLD

Graeme and Topher meant to record a serious episode but then got side tracked on a half hour series of glorious tangents. The best of which is right at the start: Valentines day has been and gone....What did you do? Topher had a date pop round and he had a very specific request ... (googles F3LCHING....) It's one of those episodes. Enjoy. ---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.

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 CULTURE On 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 more seedy and common world than many imagine. 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 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, Youtube 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 Charlies 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, Youtube 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 Jax Feeley, author of the brand-new book Do It Scared, 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: 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: TOWIE Junaid 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. 🎙️ Outcast World is the award-nominated LGBTQ+ interview podcast hosted by Graeme Smith. New episodes weekly. Keywords: Junaid Ahmed, TOWIE, Queer Muslim, LGBTQ+ Podcast, British Pakistani, ITV2, ITVX, Reality TV, Representation, Mental Health, Graeme Smith, 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.

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 in their dressing room, talking why Pride is still vital, and whether they ever imagined double denim would be their legacy. It’s Pride, politics, and pop all wrapped up in one very Manchester 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.

“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.