O&AN Adds Two New Podcasts to Its Line-Up

In May, Facebook announced that Out & About Nashville would receive a journalism grant supporting COVID-related coverage. Part of O&AN’s grant proposal was to request support for two new podcasts, Out & About After Dark and Here & Queer.  While episodes supported by the Facebook grant have a direct tie to the COVID pandemic, each of these podcasts has a scope that will carry it far beyond the current crisis.

"These podcasts will allow the magazine to profile individuals and organizations in the local community in a new way and to have conversations that we wish we could have in public," said James Grady, managing editor of O&AN.

Out & About After Dark is described as a program “all about relationships, sex, and other … adult diversions, and, this season at least, how we’ve adapted those in the time of COVID!”

The podcast’s host, James Grady, said, “I wanted to host a podcast that allows us to have open and honest conversations about sex, and other so-called vices, that we all wish we could talk about but too many of us feel too self-conscious to discuss in our day-to-day lives. Open relationships or polyamory, body positivity, divisions in the LGBTQ community, sex work, drugs and alcohol … it’s all game as we sit down and talk openly about the pleasures we too often only allow ourselves to enjoy After Dark…”

In the first episode, “Open Relationships, With David,” James interviews David about how his open relationship developed and what rules have made it work, and how COVID has necessitated a quarantine friend with benefits. They even discuss bathroom hookups and how they can lead to the altar. Click here to listen!

Here & Queer is a very different podcast, hosted by drag queen VAG—Vidalia Ann Gentry—and O&AN’s Cody Stallings. This is “the podcast where hostess Vidalia Anne Gentry gags guests and gapes the brains of some Nashville’s most interesting queer voices.”

“I think, now more than ever, it’s so important that we listen to the voices of the past, present and future to learn about the rich LGBTQ+ history and goings-on in our beautiful city. With the Here & Queer podcast, Vidalia and I hope to shed light and educate our community on current topics through fun yet informative conversation.”

“I just think it’s really cool to have a very diverse record of the queer culture in Nashville,” said Vidalia Anne Gentry, “and I’m super excited to be a part of this project.”

In their first episode, “Faces of the Frontline (Part 1),” Cody and Vidalia sit down with special guest Matt Rodgers, a medical lab scientist working on COVID-19 research at Vanderbilt Medical University, to discuss all things Coronavirus and the new normal for the LGBTQ+ community. Click here to listen!

“This is an exciting time for our audiences,” said O&AN publisher Jerry Jones, “as we add these new multimedia opportunities and additional avenues to hear more voices from our community.”