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© 2026 Tracks of Our Queers
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Fascinating LGBTQ+ people explore the soundtracks to their queer journeys through one track, one album, and one artist. Activists, trailblazers, and icons help Andy Gott piece together the precious relationship that queer people have with music.
61 Episodes
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Mitch Brown is an advocate, father, and a former AFL player. Last August, Mitch came out publicly as bisexual in an interview with The Daily Aus, sparking a tsunami of conversations in Australia around queerness and masculinity in sport. Mitch is the only player in the AFL's 130 year history to come out. Mitch is also my first sportsperson on the pod, and we have so much fun! Follow Mitch online here, and watch his coming out interview here. It's beautiful. Tracks of Our Queers is...
Peter Tatchell is an activist and human rights campaigner. Not long after leaving Australia for the UK, Peter joined the Gay Liberation Front and became one of the co-organisers of the UK's first Pride march. He hasn't missed a London Pride since. After a brief but violently homophobic parliamentary career in the 80s, Peter co-founded OutRage! in 1990 and helped spearhead the campaign for same-sex marriage. Today, he's the director of the Peter Tatchell Foundation, and shares a weekly newslet...
Welcome back to Tracks of Our Queers. Travis Alabanza is an award-winning writer, playwright, and theatre maker from Bristol. They've sold out the Southbank Centre, toured their writing globally, and their Edinburgh Fringe-award-winning play BURGERZ is currently on it's return visit to Australia. You can catch Travis performing BURGERZ in: Sydney at the Carriageworks from January 7-18Melbourne at the Malthouse Theatre from January 21-31We recorded this episode live in Sydney – and it was so g...
Tony Award-winning actor and director John Benjamin Hickey joins me on Tracks of Our Queers. From his breakout role in Terrence McNally's Love! Valour! Compassion! to his devastating turn in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, John has been at the heart of some of theatre's most important queer work. Far from being typecast, John has appeared in hundreds of roles across TV, film, and theatre (I loved him in The Big C, and of course, the dad in Pitch Perfect). Outside of acting and directing, Joh...
William Yang is one of Australia’s most vital storytellers. For over five decades, he's documented queer life in Sydney -- its parades, parties, politics, and people -- through photography, performance, and prose. Born in 1943 in Far North Queensland, William came out as gay in the early 1970s during the wave of gay liberation, and later came out again -- this time as Chinese -- after reconnecting with his heritage through Taoism and travel. His landmark exhibitions and live slide shows...
Kate Pierson is a founding member of the B-52s: The World's Greatest Party Band, and a beacon for weirdos and queer-does since the late 70s. After decades of collaborating with the likes of Iggy Pop, R.E.M., and her Japanese side-band NiNa (more on that in the episode), Kate began writing and recording her entirely solo output in 2015. Last year, her second album Radios and Rainbows was released, and at the age of 77, Kate is bubbling with inspiration and drive to create. Between ...
Sabah Choudrey is an award-winning, reluctant activist. He's also an author, youth worker, Pride organiser, Saturday morning Fun Run participant – the list is exhausting, but they somehow found time for me and Tracks of Our Queers. Sabah has also featured on the Diversity Power List 24/25, serves as the Vice Chair of Trustees for the Inclusive Mosque Initiative, a Gay Times Future Fighters Honouree, and the writer of the book Supporting Trans People of Colour. We discuss music by Planni...
Rhys Nicholson is a comedian, actor, and judge on Drag Race Down Under. They began their stand-up journey in their teens, with regular train rides to Sydney’s open mic evenings, before launching onto the global comedy scene with a slot on Conan O’Brien. This, in turn, lead to a Netflix special, which found it’s way to one RuPaul. They’ve won countless awards, have toured globally multiple times, and are a regular panellist and host on Australian television. Their book DISH was pub...
Peppermint joins me for our 50th episode. A mainstay of New York nightlife, Peppermint burst onto the global queer scene as a finalist in RuPaul's Drag Race's ninth season. Soon after, she became the first trans actress to originate a principle role on Broadway, and has starred in dozens of television roles, most recently in Michelle Buteau's Survival of the Thickest on Netflix. She continues to regularly appear on mainstream news outlets as a powerfully articulate activist for trans fo...
Eric Schnall is a Broadway producer and author from New York. Eric grew up attending Broadway productions with his parents, leading to a professional career which saw him driving critically-lauded shows like the Hedwig and the Angry Inch revival, and Fleabag. In 2024, Eric published his first book, I Make Envy on Your Disco – a love letter to Berlin, through the eyes of a late 30s gay man exploring the city in the early 2000s, running from personal turmoil and finding solace in the concrete j...
Chloe Petts is a *very* funny comedian from the UK. Her work is littered with brilliant examples of what I think of as 'soft' activism – she skilfully endears audiences with her warmth, before a one-two punch reminder of the foolishness of homo- and transphobia. Chloe is touring the UK and Australia throughout 2025, and you can find her tour dates here. We discuss music by Tina Turner, Haim, and Kasabian (!). Follow Chloe online. The other bits: Tracks of Our Queers is recorded an...
Margaret Cho. Period. A groundbreaking comedian, actor, musician, and advocate, Margaret Cho has been smashing barriers and ceilings in entertainment since the early 1990s. She's a massive queero of mine, and I was quite honestly shook to be on a Zoom with the Notorious C.H.O. herself. Margaret just released her third studio album, Lucky Gift, including punk pop girl group bangers, musings on opioid addiction, and a beautiful tribute to her mentor, Robin Williams. We discuss music by Erasure,...
Faustina Agolley is a writer, producer, DJ, presenter, actor, and all-round legend. She hosted Video Hits, Channel Ten’s flagship music program in Australia, from 2006-2011; she’s toured with Oprah Winfrey as her resident DJ, and she made her stage debut in the 2017 Sydney Theatre Company award-winning production, The Father. We discuss music by Kylie Minogue, Janelle Monaé, and Tyler, The Creator. You can follow Faustina online here. Support the show Follow the pod on Insta at @tracksofour...
David Polson AM is an advocate and educator for HIV awareness. Just 29 in 1984 when he was diagnosed in HIV himself, David is currently celebrating his 70th birthday. In 2023, he founded Qtopia, a museum in Sydney dedicated to the commemoration and celebration of LGBTQIA+ resilience. To mark his milestone birthday and contributions to HIV advocacy, the museum will open a memorial garden, dedicated to all queer Australians lost to HIV/AIDS. In this live, in-person conversation, we discuss ...
Ash Gordon is a New York-bred, LA-based songwriter, producer, and now playwright, best known for her collaborations with a galaxy of stars from RuPaul’s Drag Race, including but not limited to Trixie Mattel, Sharon Needles, Trinity the Tuck, and most prolifically, Alaska, with ten #1 albums on the iTunes charts to her name. Together with Alaska and their collaborator Tomas Costanza, Ash wrote the book, score, and lyrics for DRAG: The Musical, a high octane, high camp spectacle currently...
Bishi is an artist, composer and producer born in London of Bengali heritage. Trained in both Hindustani and Western Classical styles, she has released and composed three albums, several EPs, movie and documentary soundtracks, and tirelessly advocates for the elevation of women, trans, and non-binary creative practitioners in music and technology. From coming up in London's queer underground in the 90s, Bishi has carved out a career path precisely for herself – to be frank, she is complete...
Simon Graser is a DJ and nightlife curator based in Naarm/Melbourne, and performs as Simonetti. He co-founded the Melbourne party CONFIDE, a love letter to the roots of house, and a means for relief, release, and respect. Five points if you know the iconic Australian song it was named for. We discuss music by DASCO, Scissor Sisters, and of course, Kylie Minogue. Follow Simonetti, Club CONFIDE, and Minus 18 here. The other bits: Tracks of Our Queers is recorded and edited between Gadi...
Christy DeGallerie is a writer and interdisciplinary artist from New York. Her contribution to the Modern Love column in the New York Times took my breath away a year ago, in which she wrote about her decision to come out to her mother on the day of her deportation. It's a moving, funny, sharp dissertation on migration, queerness, and gardening, and I insist you give it a read. Christy is also an enormous music fan, and made this interview exceptionally easy by showing up with some fabulou...
Benjamin Law is a writer, broadcaster, television creator and producer, and refined homosexual about town in Sydney. He's also a former competitor on Australian Survivor – important. If you haven't already, I implore you to read some of Ben's sharp, warm, illuminating writing. There's Gaysia, an exploration of LGBTQ+ cultures across South East Asia; The Family Law, a memoir of his childhood that he adapted into three seasons of television; Growing Up Queer, a collection of stories from LGB...
Bright Light Bright Light, aka Rod Thomas, is an entirely independent pop superstar based in New York City. Hailing from Wales, Rod has rewritten the rulebook for being a singer songwriter without major label backing, mostly through tremendously hard work, and an ever-growing back catalogue of bangers. He's been backed, endorsed, and collaborated with legends like Sir Elton John, Erasure, Scissor Sisters and Ultra Naté over the years, but the latest Bright Light Bright Light album, Enjoy Y...
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