As you may have noted in my other podcast reviews, I feel that there may be a certain segment of the population that is under served (everyone except sci-fi geeks) by the current podcast offerings. That is to say, people who can’t find podcasts they like should go out and start one. I fully support DIY (unless done by rednecks) but I also reserve the right to lay a scathing comment or two down in response.

On first glance at the Itunes section titled “Gay and Lesbian” it looks like we have ALOT of choices. Then, you figure out which ones are video podcasts, a distinction which always manages to elude me until I actually try to listen to it. That cuts out about 20. Then you have to figure out which podcasts (like Feast of Fools, Gay Pimpin’, and Lucky Bitch) are done by gay men who find themselves HILarious, whose friends all tell them that they should have a podcast, and so they sit around in their living room with another HILarious gay man and talk for an hour a week. Lesbians do this too. It’s called The Lesbian Mafia. I made it through about 5 minutes of 90 minute episode. How long can you bitch about your exes for to strangers? For real.

That is only funny when you are there. It is no fun to listen to. That cuts out another 15.

I have found 3 good gay podcasts. That is not a huge number, but it’s more than I’ve found of say, reliably good long form fiction.

Big Gay News is a daily quick hit newscast with basic headlines and a little bit of story. The coverage is fairly mainstream, with no commentary.

Gay USA is a more in depth newscast, with about 30-45 minutes worth of news and commentary once a week. I really like how much they cover with this show, from local, to national to world, AIDS news and everything in between. If somebody in your high school called you a fag, it was on this podcast. I don’t like how cynical the hosts are, though. I know, they’re New Yorkers. I know, they read the news all day. But even the positive stories end with a “well, we’ll see how long that lasts.” And everything, EVERYTHING, is fucking anti-gay. People getting busted naked in a park? Homophobia. Never mind that you don’t have to get naked in a park to be gay anymore. These commentators are the reason that conservatives think we want special rights.

Hot Gay Comics is an interview show with a different out and up-n-coming queer comedian every week. I LOVE this show. Dave Rubin talks about himself a lot, but I also think that he has had a lot of therapy, because these interviews go deep. They are funny, on the surface, but you also get deeper than that to some things that seem to me like they would be really hard to talk about, comedian or not.