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Outward: Slate's LGBTQ podcast: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Slate Podcasts
Outward, Slate's queer podcast, is a whip-smart monthly salon in which hosts and guests deepen the audience’s understanding of queer culture and politics, delight them with unexpected perspectives, and invite listeners into a colorful conversation about the issues animating LGBTQ communities.
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- Oct 9, 20261 min
When We All Get to Heaven: 2026 Signal Listener's Choice Award Finalist
If you’d like to support our podcast and show everyone how important and impactful this story is, we hope you will take a moment to vote for us for The Signal Listener’s Choice Award by going to vote.signalaward.com/publicvoting.When We All Get to Heaven tells the story of one of the first LGBTQ-positive churches, the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco (MCC-SF), and how it faced the personal, social, and political trials of the AIDS epidemic, including the deaths of hundreds of its members. This 10-episode series uses historical tapes rescued from the church to bring listeners into the heart of a community struggling to live while struggling with faith. The first two episodes are available here at Outward on October 15. This show is produced by Eureka Street Productions. Our theme song, “When We All Get to Heaven,” was written by Eliza Hewitt and performed by MCC-SF’s congregation and choir. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jun 24, 20261h 8m
So Long Outward, Long Live the Gay Agenda!
Eight years ago, Slate editor Bryan Lowder and writer Christina Cauterucci, with the help of producer June Thomas, kick-started a new podcast that aimed to enrich and expand the conversation around the biggest cultural and political stories affecting the LGBTQ community. Whether it was marriage equality, trans visibility, or gays buying guns, nothing was off limits. For this final episode, Bryan and Christina welcome back June to reflect on all the pride and provocation and provide one final update to the Gay Agenda. They’re also joined by a few familiar voices before sending this show upward and outward. Stay Gay! Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Apr 24, 20261 min
When We All Get to Heaven Just Won a Peabody Award!
Slate and the team at Eureka Street Productions are so honored by this award and want to thank everyone who has listened to and supported the show. This series tells the story of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco, one of the first gay-positive churches in America, and how its congregation faced the AIDS epidemic, including the deaths of hundreds of its members.At the heart of the series is a remarkable discovery: 1,200 cassette tapes of sermons, memorials, and music recorded inside the church during the worst years of the crisis. A church member rescued them after they'd been thrown away. What you hear isn't people reconstructing the past from memory, it's the actual voices from inside the crisis, preserved on tape and brought to life across 10 episodes. It's a story about resilience, the strength of community, and finding beauty and hope even in the darkest of times—a message with powerful resonances decades later.To celebrate this award, Lynne Gerber, the host of the show, recorded a special note to listeners, and we are bringing back the trailer to introduce new listeners—who are just finding When We All Get to Heaven from the Peabody Award—to the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Jan 23, 202659 min
Beyond Gay Marriage
Our friends at Selects bring you this documentary from 2010 looking at the debate among LGBTQ folks in San Francisco around the fight for gay marriage and the cost of that fight borne by other parts of the broader community. The Selects Podcast is a free, twice-monthly show that is bringing you unearthed audio works that we’ve found buried in web archives, radio streams, and early podcasts. It’s hosted by Mitra Kaboli, whose work you may have heard on Welcome to Provincetown and The Heart. In addition to the free podcast, there’s a whole collection with exclusive shows and robust show notes looking at the history of these works and how they fit into the bigger audio landscape.The Selects Podcast aims to preserve work that is being lost to digital time - these are award-winning documentaries made by some of the best in the medium, but they are getting lost in web archives and defunct podcast feeds. Listening helps give these works a new life, something that can help make the audio industry more sustainable.Learn more about Selects at https://selects.supportingcast.fm/Beyond Gay Marriage was hosted and produced by Lisa Dettmer and co-produced bt Elena Botkin-Levy. Financial support was provided by Astraea Foundation and Making Contact at the National Radio Project. Lisa Dettmer is a radio producer with the feminist radio show "Women’s Magazine" at KPFA Radio in Berkeley, California, which can be heard at kpfa.org/program/womens-magazine. Learn more about Selects at https://selects.supportingcast.fm/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Dec 17, 202529 min
A Postlude for 'When We All Get to Heaven'
As When We All Get to Heaven wraps up, Christina sits down with series host Lynne Gerber and producer Siri Colom. They discuss how the church has changed, the value of fleeting queer spaces, and what a decade or more spent working on this story has meant to—and taught—them.Get more Outward with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Outward and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Outward show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/outwardplus for access wherever you listen.Produced by Palace Shaw and Merritt Jacob. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Dec 10, 202550 min
10: AIDS Isn’t Over | When We All Get to Heaven
In the final episode of When We All Get to Heaven, we catch up on what’s happened in the many years between the emergence of effective treatment for AIDS in the late ‘90s and the fall of 2025, when we recorded this episode. We linger on a moment back in June 1999, when Jim was still pastor and called on the church to remember that AIDS wasn’t over. Because—advances notwithstanding—it still isn’t over. For more on Gilbert Baker and the history of the rainbow flag see the Gilbert Baker Foundation.For more on Prep see San Francisco AIDS Foundation, What is PrEP? “The Path that Ends AIDS: 2023 UNAIDS Global Update” outlines a possible end to the AIDS epidemic. The story of Jacob’s Ladder is in the book of Genesis chapter 28, verses 10-19.The text for “This is the Day that God Has Made” is biblical with music by Leon C. Roberts.“We are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder” is a traditional hymn.“This Little Light of Mine” – text traditional, music by Penelope Gneisen“Song of the Soul” is by Cris Williamson and was sung by her at MCC San Francisco on April 24, 2000. For images and links about this episode visit https://www.heavenpodcast.org/episode-10.When We All Get to Heaven is produced by Eureka Street Productions. It is co-created by Lynne Gerber, Siri Colom, and Ariana Nedelman. Our story editor is Sayre Quevedo. Our sound designer is David Herman. Our managing producer is Krissy Clark. Tim Dillinger is our consulting producer and Betsy Towner Levine is our fact-checker. We had additional story editing help from Sarah Ventre, Arwen Nicks, Allison Behringer, and Krissy Clark. For a complete list of credits, please visit https://www.heavenpodcast.org/credits.This project received generous support from individual donors, the Henry Luce Foundation (www.hluce.org), the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities (www.CalHum.org).Eureka Street Productions has 501c3 status through our fiscal sponsor FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds.The music for this episode is from the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco’s archive. It was performed by MCC-SF’s musicians and members with Bob Crocker and Jack Hoggatt-St.John as music directors. Additional music is by Domestic BGM.Thanks to Dr. Judy Auerbach of the University of California at San Francisco. Thanks to Sue Fulton for permission to use “This Little Light of Mine.” Thanks to Cris Williamson for permission to use “Song of the Soul.” Great thanks, as always, to the members and clergy of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco who made this project possible. Some links to good groups:The Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco – the congregation’s current website. Metropolitan Community Churches – the denomination of which MCC San Francisco is a part. San Francisco AIDS Foundation – a place to seek information about HIV. POZ Magazine – a place to learn everything else about HIV (information included).Save AIDS Research – their recent, epic 24 hours to Save Research conference with all the latest HIV research is available on YouTube through this site. LGBTQ Religious Archives Network – the place to get lost in LGBTQ+ religious history. Get more Outward with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Outward and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Outward show page on <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/o
- Dec 3, 202550 min
9: AIDS Energy | When We All Get to Heaven
In 1996 everything changed. With the introduction of antiretroviral medications called the “AIDS cocktail,” people started getting better – some dramatically – and surviving AIDS became a real possibility. In the wake of these changes, MCC found itself taking stock of what they lost to AIDS and using what they learned to address larger social issues– from medical marijuana to homelessness. Sometimes these political stances felt heroic and a way to use that collective energy, and other times it made the church very unpopular with the changing Castro neighborhood. “Freedom is Coming” is by Anders Nyberg. “All Things New” is by Rory Cooney.“Blessed Assurance” is by Franny Crosby.“Gloria (Angels We Have Heard on High” is a traditional Christmas hymn. “The Potter’s House” is by V. Michael McKay. For images and links about this episode visit https://www.heavenpodcast.org/episode-9.Get more Outward with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Outward and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Outward show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/outwardplus for access wherever you listen.Production credits: When We All Get to Heaven is produced by Eureka Street Productions. It is co-created by Lynne Gerber, Siri Colom, and Ariana Nedelman. Our story editor is Sayre Quevedo. Our sound designer is David Herman. Our managing producer is Krissy Clark. Tim Dillinger is our consulting producer and Betsy Towner Levine is our fact-checker. We had additional story editing help from Sarah Ventre, Arwen Nicks, Allison Behringer, and Krissy Clark. For a complete list of credits, please visit https://www.heavenpodcast.org/credits.This project received generous support from individual donors, the Henry Luce Foundation (www.hluce.org), the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities (www.CalHum.org).Eureka Street Productions has 501c3 status through our fiscal sponsor FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds.The music for this episode is from the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco’s archive. It was performed by MCC-SF’s musicians and members with Bob Crocker and Jack Hoggatt-St.John as music directors. Additional music is by Domestic BGM.Special thanks to Tom Ammiano, Tommi Avicolli-Mecca, Stuart Gaffney, John Lewis, Dr. Jen Reck, Matt Sharp, and Dana Van Gorder for their help with this episode. Great thanks, as always, to the members and clergy of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco who made this project possible. Some links to good groupsLyric Center for LGBTQQ+ YouthThe Ali Forney CenterThe Trevor Project’s 2022 report on LGBTQ youth and homelessness Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
- Nov 26, 202557 min
8: Conversion | When We All Get to Heaven
In 1995 Rev. Jim Mitulski became HIV positive -- what's known as seroconversion. It was 14 years into the epidemic and people knew what HIV/AIDS was, how you got it, and how you could prevent it. And when Jim got sick, he got very sick. What was it like to become ill so publicly? How would the church and the community respond? And what could Jim possibly preach about on his first Sunday back?“My Soul Doth Magnify” is from Camille Saint-Saens’ Christmas Oratorio, Op. 12, 1858.“The 23rd Psalm (Dedicated to My Mother)” is by Bobby McFerrin. The biblical story of the death of the prophet Elijah is in Second Kings, chapter 2. For images and links about this episode visit https://www.heavenpodcast.org/episode-8.When We All Get to Heaven is produced by Eureka Street Productions. It is co-created by Lynne Gerber, Siri Colom, and Ariana Nedelman. Our story editor is Sayre Quevedo. Our sound designer is David Herman. Our managing producer is Krissy Clark. Tim Dillinger is our consulting producer and Betsy Towner Levine is our fact-checker. We had additional story editing help from Sarah Ventre, Arwen Nicks, Allison Behringer, and Krissy Clark. For a complete list of credits, please visit https://www.heavenpodcast.org/credits.This project received generous support from individual donors, the Henry Luce Foundation (www.hluce.org), the E. Rhodes and Leona B. Carpenter Foundation, and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities (www.CalHum.org).Eureka Street Productions has 501c3 status through our fiscal sponsor FJC: A Foundation of Philanthropic Funds.The music for this episode is from the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco’s archive. It was performed by MCC-SF’s musicians and members with Bob Crocker and Jack Hoggatt-St.John as music directors. Additional music is by Domestic BGM. Thanks to Ed Wolf and Frank DePelisi for talking us through the issues around HIV status and sero-sorting in the mid-1990s. And thanks to Bobby McFerrin and Linda Goldstein for use of “The 23rd Psalm (Dedicated to My Mother).” You can see McFerrin conducting his VOCAbuLarieS singers singing the piece here. Great thanks, as always, to the members and clergy of the Metropolitan Community Church of San Francisco who made this project possible. Some links to good groups:National Resource Center on HIV and Aging – resources for older adults living with HIV. Surviving Voices – an oral history documentary project on how different communities have experienced HIV and AIDS. The most recent focuses on lifelong and long-term HIV survivors. Let’s Kick Ass – AIDS Survivors Syndrome – support for long-term HIV survivors. Get more Outward with Slate Plus! Join for weekly bonus episodes of Outward and ad-free listening on all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe from the Outward show page on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or visit slate.com/outwardplus for access wherever you listen. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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About Outward: Slate's LGBTQ podcast
Outward, Slate's queer podcast, is a whip-smart monthly salon in which hosts and guests deepen the audience’s understanding of queer culture and politics, delight them with unexpected perspectives, and invite listeners into a colorful conversation about the issues animating LGBTQ communities.
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