OUTCAST WORLD
OUTCAST WORLD

OUTCAST WORLD

Graeme Smith

Overview
Episodes

Details

Queer politics • sex • cultureOutcast World is a queer politics, sex and culture podcast hosted by multi award-winning broadcaster and podcaster Graeme Smith, alongside adult-industry expert and columnist Topher — a deliberately unlikely pairing. Confident, polished and opinionated, it offers progressive political takes rarely heard in a podcast world dominated by right-wing reactionaries.Each week features an eclectic mix of guests. Journalists, comedians, academics, authors, activists and artists appear alongside cult internet figures like the late Sophie Anderson, queer stars from the BBC’s groundbreaking I Kissed a Boy, and familiar faces from global reality franchises including Married at First Sight and TOWIE. The show also features authors of some of the biggest-selling queer books of recent years, leading UK queer academics, and comedians such as Manchester comic Dan Tiernan, alongside long-time regulars like Nick Charles. As The Independent noted, the line-up is “eclectic” by design.Reactive, candid and often funny, the show unpacks UK and US politics, sexuality and culture through discussion and debate. While rooted in a queer perspective, its cultural analysis and political commentary resonate well beyond LGBTQ+ audiences.A gold winner at the British Podcast Awards and nominated for Best Interview Podcast in 2025 — alongside Louis Theroux and The News Agents — Outcast World has been recommended by The Guardian and The Independent, and was named a must-listen queer podcast by The Independent.Now entering its fifth year, with listeners around the world including a strong US audience, it has established itself as a trusted space for frank, progressive conversation. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recent Episodes

Queer Fans, Hung Parliament: World's hottest politician Carl Cashman Explains...LIVE
FEB 17, 2026
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14 MIN
Queer Data: When Being Counted Becomes Dangerous
FEB 5, 2026
Queer Data: When Being Counted Becomes Dangerous
We’re joined by Kevin Guyan — one of the UK’s most compelling thinkers on queer life, power and systems. Kevin is a leading academic at the University of Edinburgh and the author of Queer Data and The Rainbow Trap, two books that have become essential reading on how LGBTQ+ lives are shaped, sorted and managed by institutions.It’s about data. Not as numbers, but as power.Kevin asks the question most of us never think to ask until it’s too late: what actually happens when queer people are counted? Because being counted doesn’t automatically mean being protected. Sometimes it means being exposed.We unpack the seductive promise of visibility — the idea that if the state knows we exist, we’ll be safer. Kevin explains why data is never neutral. Every statistic hides decisions about who felt safe enough to answer, who stayed silent, who was answered for, and who disappeared entirely. Once those numbers exist, they travel — into headlines, policy, algorithms and systems far beyond our control.Using the UK census as a starting point, Kevin shows how queer communities globally are trapped in a brutal bind: counted badly, our numbers are weaponised; not counted at all, our existence can be denied. Either way, data doesn’t just describe us — it acts on us.The conversation darkens as we look at history and the future. Data collected in one political moment doesn’t vanish when politics change. It waits.We also explore the algorithmic systems already deciding who you are without asking — sexuality inferred from clicks, gender guessed from behaviour, profiles built silently while you scroll.What happens when the system knows who you are — and you can’t take it back?---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.
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27 MIN