Gay storytelling podcast
Allison King (The Phoenix Pencil Company) feat. Jeff Hiller, Guest Gay Reader
Host Jason Blitman talks with author Allison King about her debut novel The Phoenix Pencil Company, June's Reese's Book Club selection. They scout themes of memory, the importance of preserving and sharing stories, and yes—pencils. Later, Jason is joined by Guest Gay Reader Jeff Hiller (HBO's Somebody Somewhere), who shares his current reads and discusses his new memoir Actress of a Certain Age. Allison King is an Asian American writer and software engineer based in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In technology, her work has ranged from semiconductors to platforms for group conversations to facts privacy. Her concise stories have appeared in Fantasy Magazine, Diabolical Plots, and LeVar Burton Reads, among others. She is a 2023 Reese’s Book Club LitUp fellow. The Phoenix Pencil Business is her first novel. Jeff Hiller is an player, writer and comedian who has appeared on TV shows such as Somebody Somewhere, American Horror Story: NYC, Nuts Ex-Girlfriend, 30Rock, and Law and Order: CI, among numerous others. His motion picture roles include Greta, Morning Glory, Ghost Town, and Position it Up, and he has performed
The Podcast
Explore the LGBTQ+ trailblazers and stories featured in our 100+ episode archive.
Listen HereResources for Educators
Bring LGBTQ+ history into your classroom with teacher-created lesson plans.
Learn MoreOur Mission
Making Gay History (MGH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that addresses the absence of substantive, in-depth LGBTQ+-inclusive American history from the public discourse and the classroom.
By sharing the stories of those who helped a despised minority take its rightful place in society as full and equal citizens, MGH aims to encourage connection, pride, and solidarity within the LGBTQ+ community—and to provide an entry point for both allies and the general public to its largely disguised history.
Please support MGH’s mission.
DonateOr combine MGH’s Patreon community to access exclusive bonus content.
Become a MemberOur History
In 1988, journalist Eric Marcus got a phone call from an editor friend at Harper & Row who asked if he’d consider writing an oral history of the gay and lesbian civil rights movement. Eric was working at CBS News at the time, but as an out gay man, he knew there were limits on his career there, so he left
The Podcast
Since 2016 the Making Gay History podcast has been mining Eric Marcus’s decades-old audio archive of rare interviews—conducted for his award-winning oral history of the LGBTQ+ civil rights movement—to construct intimate portraits of both known and long-forgotten champions, heroes, and witnesses to history. In addition, we’ve also produced documentary series that explore milestone events and developments in LGBTQ+ history sourcing content from other archives. Explore the stories and people we’ve featured below.
Dismantling a Diagnosis
A three-part miniseries in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the American Psychiatric Association’s 1973 choice to remove homosexuality from its diagnostic manual of mental disorders.
Start with the first episode.
Coming of Age During the 1970s
A six-part season exploring the heady years of post-Stonewall gay liberation and the backlash that followed against the backdrop of Eric Marcus’s coming of age as a gay teen.
Start with the first episode.
Coming of Age During the AIDS Crisis
A six-part audio memoir in which Eric Marcus explores his memories of the prior years of
Episode 12 - [Ryan] Sex + Reunion
"So I'm favor I need to speak to you. You dependency to drive out to LA...we have to speak. And she said 'Are you okay? What's going on? Are you in danger'? And I told her 'No, no, it's not like that'. I just NEED to chat to you." ------------------------------------------------------- Exceptional reunion with Ryan, a friend that I grew up with since we were in 2nd grade. After so many years of navigating through our own separate journeys in discovering our identity as gay men, we enter together and reflect on the past. Join us on a roller coaster while we have a raw conversation from the anxiety of coming out, to strange feelings of attraction towards our upper school teachers, to the lack of role models & sexual resources that would have helped us prepare more for adulthood. ------------------------------------------------------- Notes/resources: Sexual health and education for the LGBTQ+ community is still lacking. Back when we were growing up, it was almost non existent and we were constantly bombarded with what was considered the "normal" male & female sexual advocacy. We saw it everywhere from TV, our families, movies, school,