Listen in as co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose leap into the New Year, hear from listeners about their hopes for 2024, and enjoy an interview with author and professor Lucas Hilderbrand.

Fasten your headphones for a conversation with Professor Lucas Hilderbrand, whose latest book, The Bars Are Ours, offers a meticulously researched, scholarly and always engaging look at the history of gay bars and their place in queer culture over the decades. We talk about his life, his career, and his dedication to a subject that is as significant as ever.

About Lucas Hilderbrand 

Lucas Hilderbrand is Professor of Film and Media Studies at the University of California, Irvine, and author of Inherent Vice: Bootleg Histories of Videotape and Copyright, also published by Duke University Press, and Paris Is Burning: A Queer Film Classic.

Hilderbrand lives in Los Angeles and teaches film and media, visual, and queer studies at the University of California, Irvine. He has written on the pleasures and politics of video bootlegging, the mediations of queer memory, and the ambiguities of experimental documentary.

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose with a look back at an incredible year – the good, the bad and the meh.

Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.

Copyright 2023 MadeMark Publishing

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we hear gift ideas from Twist listeners, welcome new semi-regular contributor Billy Bob Beer Belly, and listen to an interview with Robert Kesten, Executive Director for the Stonewall Museum, Archives and Library.

Click to listen to the full interview with Robert Kesten, Stonewall National Museum

Listen in as I chat with Robert Kesten, Executive Director of the Stonewall National Museum, Archives, and Library in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. We talk about the need to preserve our history, the mission of the Stonewall Museum, and how we can sustain an awareness of our past and present in a way that informs our future.

About Robert Kesten

Robert Kesten (he/him/his) has worked globally promoting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and furthering democracy. This work has taken many forms including writing and producing an award winning documentary on learning about the Holocaust at the Concentration Camps in Poland, Working on the Ghanaian Constitution, coordinating and producing events leading to Ukrainian independence, producing events for the first AIDS day treatment center in the nation, pushing for the decriminalization of homosexuality in Ukraine (the first Soviet Republic to do so).

Kesten comes to Stonewall National Museum and Archives with national and international experience, taking ideas and bringing them to life. This position brings full circle his active engagement in the LGBTQ+ community and his commitment to using history as a tool to make sense and fashion a response to today and tomorrow.

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we add Congress to the naughty list, hear listeners’ favorite things about Christmas, and enjoy an interview excerpt with Carlos Guillermo Smith, Senior Policy Advisor with Equality Florida.

Click to hear the full interview with Carlos Guillermo Smith.

I had the pleasure of speaking with Carlos Guillermo Smith, Senior Policy Advisor for Equality Florida. Carlos was also a member of the Florida legislature for six years (D), and has extensive experience as an advocate for LGBTQ people in a state where anti-LGBTQ legislation has taken hold. I spoke with Carlos about life on the ground for LGBTQ people, how the laws are shaping reality for us and our allies, and what is being done to resist the forces working against us. Fasten your headphones for an engrossing conversation.

About Carlos Guillermo Smith

A graduate of the University of Central Florida, Carlos Guillermo Smith first joined Equality Florida in 2011 as a public policy fellow and returned in early 2015 as government affairs manager. Carlos previously served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2011-2012 as the chief of staff to former Democratic Representative Scott Randolph as well as one of Florida’s first openly gay state representatives Joe Saunders from 2012-2014. A twice-elected former chairman of the Orange County Democratic Party himself and longtime LGBT progressive activist, Carlos made history in November 2016 when he was elected to the Florida House as our state’s first openly LGBT Latino lawmaker. [Equality Florida]

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we congratulate Time’s Person of the Year Taylor Swift, share some listener voice messages, consider the worst Christmas songs ever, and listen in to Rick’s interview with Lila Szyryj, Miss Wisconsin 2023.

About our Sponsors

The Twist Podcast is brought to you by Queer We Are where you’ll find a podcast, newsletter, merch and more in the Queer We Are shop.

Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.

Copyright 2023 MadeMark Publishing

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we chat up Thanksgiving, ponder the damage done to military families by Senator Tommy Tuberville, and enjoy an excerpt from Mark’s One Thing or Another Podcast interview with author Dave Hughes. News, views, and more Twist listicles.

About our Sponsors

The Twist Podcast is brought to you by Queer We Are where you’ll find a podcast, newsletter, merch and more in the Queer We Are shop.

Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.

Copyright 2023 MadeMark Publishing

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we chat up Thanksgiving, ponder the damage done to military families by Senator Tommy Tuberville, and enjoy an excerpt from Mark’s One Thing or Another Podcast interview with author Dave Hughes. News, views, and more Twist listicles.

About our Sponsors

The Twist Podcast is brought to you by Queer We Are where you’ll find a podcast, newsletter, merch and more in the Queer We Are shop.

Enjoy The Twist on Libsyn, iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, and TheTwistPodcast.com.

Copyright 2023 MadeMark Publishing

Rob Pero, Founder of Canndigenous

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we strap back into the hotseat after a few weeks off. We chat about the House Speaker Follies, Rick’s upcoming trip to Belize, and enjoy an interview with Rob Pero, Found of Canndigenous, a Native-owned CBD company dedicated to helping the indigenous community it supports.

About Canndigenous

Rob Pero is a serial entrepreneur, savvy marketer, and proud member of the Bad River Tribe. Like preceding generations of Ojibwe people, his core values are rooted in love for family, support for community, respect for the natural world, and a commitment to doing everything, as the Ojibwe say, ‘in a good way’.

Rob Pero, Founder of Canndigenous

Join co-hosts Mark McNease and Rick Rose as we strap back into the hotseat after a few weeks off. We chat about the House Speaker Follies, Rick’s upcoming trip to Belize, and enjoy an interview with Rob Pero, Found of Canndigenous, a Native-owned CBD company dedicated to helping the indigenous community it supports.

About Canndigenous

Rob Pero is a serial entrepreneur, savvy marketer, and proud member of the Bad River Tribe. Like preceding generations of Ojibwe people, his core values are rooted in love for family, support for community, respect for the natural world, and a commitment to doing everything, as the Ojibwe say, ‘in a good way’.