OUTCAST WORLD

After news of Tom Daley and Dustin Lance Black having their second child by surrogacy in the U.S. we're exploring the different ways LGBTQ+ people are starting a family. Adoption seems to be one of the most popular in the UK right now but other options are available and we're keen to hear your stories around this as more LGBTQ+ people step into parenthood.Children's author Jennie Guay and her partner the LGBTQ+ entrepreneur and podcaster Sam White have had their kids using IVF treatment. Graeme spoke to Jennie to find out more about their IVF journey.---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 CULTUREOn 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 darker and more underground world than he could ever have imagined.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 filming TV shows 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, 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 Charles 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, 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, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode of OUTCAST WORLD, Graeme Smith sits down with Jaxon Feeley, author of "Fear Proof" 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, 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:Coming out (again) — this time on reality TV and ultimately the entire internet.Therapy, trauma, and trying not to cry on national telly.The truth about undetectable = untransmittable.Dating apps, reality TV edits, and managing a mental health.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, 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:Coming out as a British-Pakistani MuslimNavigating fame, faith and familyThe pressures of visibility in both the LGBTQ+ and Muslim communitiesLife behind the scenes of TOWIEMental health, resilience, and staying true to yourselfJunaid 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, 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, 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 on the phone from their dressing room (how 90s) Keavy from the band gets into the essential stuff like whether they ever imagined double denim would be their legacy. She also has an important take on Pride and its impertinence in the current climate 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, 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, 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, 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, and TikTok @thisisoutcastworld ///// Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Church of England just met to decide the future of LGBTQ+ people in the Church — again. Still no equal marriage. Still no full acceptance. Still a fight.This week, Graeme speaks to Phillip Baldwin — a gay man, HIV-positive, and one of the few openly queer members of the Church’s General Synod. From inside the Church’s governing body, Phillip takes us behind the scenes of a system still struggling to recognise LGBTQ+ lives with dignity.It’s a raw conversation about faith, identity, and what it means to stay in the room when the institution you serve refuses to fully welcome you.---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.

What happens when you gather some of the most fabulous, fearless minds in queer media around a breakfast table? OUTCAST WORLD takes you inside the BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Breakfast Club — with legendary Attitude Editor-in-Chief Cliff Joannou front and centre.Cliff is a defining voice in queer journalism — shaping the stories, covers and controversies that have marked a generation. In this candid and wide-ranging conversation, we talk about:🌈 The power and pressure of queer media🗞️ How Attitude stays relevant in a digital world💬 Coming out journeys, culture wars & cancel culture✨ And what the next wave of queer storytelling might look likeOriginally recorded for The BOYS! BOYS! BOYS! Podcast — the global queer art and culture show hosted by Graeme Smith — this episode is a delicious crossover of queerness, curiosity and croissants.---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 this episode, Graeme Smith is joined by Stu Oakley and Lotte Jeffs — co-authors of Do Ask, Do Tell, the bold, funny, and radically honest new book that lays queer life, love and culture bare.Stu is a film publicist who’s worked on Star Wars, Harry Potter, and Jurassic World. Lotte is a genderqueer journalist, novelist, children’s author, and former ELLE editor. Together, they’re also the co-hosts of the award-winning podcast Some Families — the UK’s leading LGBTQ+ parenting show.In Do Ask, Do Tell, they take on everything from sexuality and gender to body image, mental health, HIV stigma, open relationships, queer parenting and faith. And yes — they explain what a darkroom actually is. ---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.

Bob Vylan at Glastonbury sent the outrage machine into overdrive.We’ve scoped 24 hours of GB News to bring you every pearl-clutching reaction from the self-declared defenders of free speech.But here’s the twist: our guest, sex educator and writer Topher Taylor, actually knows someone from Bob Vylan personally — and brings rare, real-life insight into the kind of person behind the noise.THIS EPISODE CONTAINS AUDIO OF RECENT NEWS EVENTS THAT SOME PEOPLE MAY FIND UPSETTING.---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.