This month sees a rerelease of the classic ‘80s film The Goonies, which is about to turn 40. In honor of that milestone, we’re heading into the Sewers archives to hear my 2018 chat with Andrew Putschoegl, whose childhood mirrored that of ‘80s films where groups of neighborhood kids are thrown together into unstructured days of outdoor exploration. In those movies, each kid tends to have one unique trait that sets them apart, and marks them as an outcast. For Andrew, that trait was that at the age of 9, he suddenly woke up to find his hair falling out. It was a medical mystery that made his already-awkward teenage years even more difficult.

We’ll have that conversation in a moment. And I also want to give you a quick heads-up that there may be some breaks between episodes of the podcast. I just learned that I’ve sustained some damage to my spine — nothing too serious and I’m getting treatment, but I might need to step away from my desk now and then for medical appointments and rehab. I’m expecting to make a full recovery, it’ll just take a couple months to get back to 100%.

The short version of what’s going on is that one of my lower vertebrae has slipped slightly to the side, and it’s pressing on a nerve that’s causing blindingly bad pain all the way down one leg. But there’s good news! As these things go, it’s the least severe grade of damage; I’m on some wonderful painkillers at the moment; and I have a team of experts helping with my recovery. As I’m typing this, my pain is at a 2 out of 10, which is a huge relief after a few days of not being able to move! It’s looking pretty good for me to get better, but I’ll have to be patient as it won’t happen overnight. In the mean time, the painkillers should add to the unhinged chaos of my weekend livestreams.

I’ll be posting about my recovery process on Bluesky, so give me a follow there if you’d like to see how things are coming along. As a little tease, right now you can see an ultrasound image of my left butt cheek!

My guest this week is Danny Roberts, one of the stars of Real World: New Orleans, which originally aired on MTV in 2000. Danny was planning to become a teacher and wound up on the show through a series of coincidences, accidents, and last-minute changes of plan, so he was a little unprepared for the fame that he soon found thrust upon him. To say nothing of the weird — and sometimes awful ways — that fame took control of his life. But fortunately, he was able to find a way to take control back.

Check out Danny’s work with History UnErased at https://unerased.org/

I recorded this interview with Danny for a video that I’m working on about The Real World’s cultural impact. That’ll be coming your way on YouTube a bit later in January, so stay tuned for that — and subscribe to my free email newsletter to get a heads-up when it goes live, at mattbaume.com.

It's the 500th episode of the Sewers of Paris, and to celebrate James and I are doing a special Q&A with questions sent in by listeners! Huge thanks to everyone who sent questions, and let me know if you'd like to hear more episodes like these!

And as requested by patron David, here are some of my favorite early episodes for anyone who wants to get started with the podcast, or jump back and re-listen:

Camp is like Pornography (Ep. 1: Eurovision)

I was Quite Happy to be the Villain (Ep. 2: Julian and Sandy)

Not a Fan of Hanging Around in Reality (Ep. 36 - Steve Kmetko)

The Person I was in Namibia and the Person I am Now (Ep. 44 - Desperate Housewives)

The Joke of Being Gay (Ep. 45 - Polyester & Arrested Development)

I Embrace Being High-Strung (Ep. 50 - Louis Virtel & Jeopardy!)

You Don't Want to See Minnie Mouse Take Her Head Off (Ep. 63 - Ben DeLaCreme)

A Kid Who Had Powers in Japan (Ep. 79 - Sailor Moon)

A Need to be Doused in Black Culture - (Ep. 95 - Sonari Glinton)

A Big Purple Man in a Loin Cloth (Ep. 96 - Gargoyles)

My Life is Drama -- Make me Laugh (Ep. 100 - Dan Savage)

Failed Mystics (Ep. 114: Buffy, X-Men, He-Man, and Lwaxana Troi)

My guest this week is Sean Hemeon — an actor, writer, painter, and former Mormon drug dealer. Sean’s currently working on a memoir that details just how deep he fell into a violent, and at times deadly world of dealing crystal meth. And how an arrest, a lucky break, and a love of acting helped pull him out.

We’ll have that conversation in a moment. First, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my YouTube videos, my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.

My guest this week is director Sav Rodgers, whose new film is Chasing Chasing Amy. It began as an exploration of the origin of the infamous ‘90s rom-com, but in the process of making the documentary, interviewing folks, and digging deeper into the movie’s message, Sav uncovered some surprising truths about himself — ones that he was reluctant to include in the documentary, but eventually realized … he had to.

Here’s a link to the online premiere of Chasing Chasing Amy on December 15, 2024, with a special introduction by Kevin Smith and a Q&A with Sav & Riley Rodgers: https://watch.eventive.org/chasingchasingamy/play/6747ce291f64c511e374f759

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. First a quick reminder — this month we’ll be hitting the 500th episode of The Sewers of Paris! And to celebrate, I’m doing a special Q&A episode, answering questions from listeners. So if you have anything you’d like to ask — about the podcast, about pop culture and queer history, or just for recommendations — please send it along to at matt@mattbaume.com.

My guest this week is pop culture writer Frank DeCaro, whose latest book is Disco: Music, Movies, and Mania under the Mirror Ball. Frank grew up in disco’s heyday, which he experienced through teenage disco parties in the New Jersey suburbs. He also experienced the anti-disco conspiracy that sent the genre into a sort of musical witness protection program for the following decade or two. We talked about the conspiracy among music critics to suppress disco in the ‘70s — and why disco’s outlived those who tried to squash it.

Also, just a quick reminder — this month we’ll be hitting the 500th episode of The Sewers of Paris! And to celebrate, I’m doing a special Q&A episode, answering questions from listeners. So if you have anything you’d like to ask — about the podcast, about pop culture and queer history, or just for recommendations — please send it along to at matt@mattbaume.com.

Before we get to this week’s episode, I have a question for you. And that question is … do you have any questions for me? I ask because we’re coming up on the 500th episode of The Sewers of Paris next month, and to celebrate I’m going to be doing a special Q&A episode where I answer questions from listeners. So if you have anything you’d like to ask — whether it’s about the show, or for recommendations, or about pop culture and queer history — please send it along to at matt@mattbaume.com.

Also, a head’s up that may be of interest: This week sees the release of Part 1 of Wicked — a musical inspired by The Wizard of Oz. And although, when I initially heard about the film, years ago, my first reaction was “oh, there’s no way that’ll be any good” … folks, I’ve seen it, and it is, in fact, very good. So to mark the movie’s release, I’m releasing special episode of my companion podcast, Matt’s So-Cast Pod, where we talk about the strange parallels between the musical Wicked and the TV show My So-Called Life — both written by the same woman, Winnie Holzman.

And also, on this week’s Sewers of Paris, we’re diving deep into the archives for a chat about why The Wizard of Oz has had particular resonance for gay men ever since the book was first published over a hundred and twenty years ago. My guest is Josh Trujillo, who was so obsessed with Oz that as a kid he attended Oz conventions, and discovered that they served as a sort of meeting-place for older closeted gay men who felt unable to meet in public or in bars.

We spoke back in 2015 — it was the third-ever episode of this podcast! So my apologies that the audio quality is at times a little peaky. Nevertheless I hope you’ll enjoy this trip back in time.

My guest today has experienced reality TV as both a viewer and a participant. Growing up in Australia, Antony’s window to the world was watching American daytime talk shows like Oprah and Ricki Lake, where he’d occasionally catch an episode with queer guests. But it was after he moved to Hong Kong that he discovered a queer community that felt like home — and then when a friend invited him to appear on a dating show called Boyscation Too, he decided to try becoming one of those queer TV personalities he caught glimpses of in his youth.

We’ll have that conversation in a minute. And by the way, if you want to watch Antony’s dating show experience, all episodes are now streaming free on YouTube with English subtitles.

Also, if you’re enjoying The Sewers of Paris, I hope you’ll consider supporting the show on Patreon. And you may also enjoy my YouTube videos, my weekly livestreams on Twitch, my book Hi Honey, I’m Homo!, and my free email newsletter. There’s links to all that in the episode shownotes, and at MattBaume.com.