Queerly Popular

Welcome to this week's episode of Queerly Popular. Today, we are going to talk about the 2021 book The (Un)Popular Vote. It's a story about a trans guy who decides to run for student council president and the various complications that come up because he is the son of a transphobic congressman.

It is a really fun book, but do note that there is homophobia and bullying and that Mark's dad is a transphobe who deadnames and misgenders Mark consistently. There is also a certain amount of religious trauma involved in the story. In fact, I take...

Welcome back to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2025 book Crash Test which is about 2 race car drivers who meet and fall in love. This episode will be a little different in that I look at the events in chronological order, not the order that they are presented in the book, which includes flashbacks. I promise, you'll understand why I did it this way.

Our next episode will be on November 5th and will be about the book (Un)Popular Vote.

As always, please rate and review the...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 2024 book The Rules of Royalty by Cale Dietrich. The book is about two boys, Jamie and Erik, who meet when Erik is asked to teach Jamie how to be a prince. It's a really fun book and I think you'll really enjoy it.

Our next episode will be about the book Crash Test.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You can follow the podcast on Instagram or Threads (@queerlypopular) or Bluesky (@queerlypopular...

Welcome back to Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the book Father Material, which is the third book in the series which includes Boyfriend Material and Husband Material which we talked about a little over 3 years ago. The book is about Lucien and Oliver completely settled down and living their lives together. The book really is the perfect ending to the series.

I forgot to mention this in the episode, but the narrator of the audiobook is Joe Jameson, who was Charlie in the audiobooks of Nick & Charlie and This Winter.

Our next episode w...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2026 film Masters of the Universe.

This film does not have queer characters, but there is a lot of homoeroticism in it and other queer elements, including a systematic critique of toxic masculinity. It is a fun and lovely film that does not take itself too seriously. It is cheesy and it knows it. It embraces the cheese and is all the better for it. I really cannot recommend this movie highly enough.

Skeletor's "Crescendo" speech- https://youtu.be/ggJ7UtddIvo...

Hello everyone and welcome to this week's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we have a conversation between myself, Katrina, Jacob, and Glen about Heartstopper, what it has meant to us, favorite characters, and so much more. This is a really fun conversation and I know you will enjoy it.

Katrina has a webtoon called "Chaotic Good and the Banned Bookmobile" which you can read here.

Jacob is a film director and has a short film called "My Dear Watson" (@mydearwatsonfilm) which will be released to the public in December. He is also the director of "...

Welcome back to Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the movie Heartstopper Forever which closes out the Heartstopper saga. Because this is a movie and not a series of a tv show, the review will be shorter than previous Heartstopper episodes.

Please do stick around after I say good-bye because I recorded some thoughts that I added onto the end of the episode reacting to reviews of the movie from other podcasts.

You can read my written reaction here.

Our next episode will be my conversation about Heartstopper with Katrina...

Welcome to the mid-season finale of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2022 book And They Lived.... by Steven Salvatore. The book is about 2 college freshmen who meet and how they change each other's lives. It is quite a good book, but I do want to issue the following warning:

There is homophobia, fat shaming, mental health issues, descriptions of eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and suicidal ideation in the book. It is still quite good, but it may be triggering for some people.

Our next episode will be in early August. Please...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular. Today, we are going to talk about the book The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa. It is a book about a non-binary teen pirate who finds out that their father made a deal with El Diablo and ends up working with another teen pirate and a demonio to free their father's soul as well as the crew of the other pirate's ship.

It is quite the fun book and has a second book in the series, The Diablo's Curse, which talks about the further adventures of the demonio from...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we're going to be talking about the book Out of the Blue by Jason June. It is about a merperson (Crest/Ross) who becomes human and meets a teen boy (Sean) and they fall in love. It is a very fun and very cute book that I really enjoyed. 

Our next episode will be on June 18th and will be about the book The Wicked Bargain by Gabe Cole Novoa.

As always, please rate and review the podcast on whatever platform you listen to it on. You c...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the book Scraps. The book is a novelization of a screenplay for a feature film that is an expanded version of a short film. The book is about two boys who meet and fall in love in 2003 Montana. 

In addition to talking about the book, I also talk about the short film and how it differs from the book. I also talk about the audiobook and a couple of issues I have with it.

Our next episode will be on June 4t...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular. Today's episode is about the 2021 book The Ghosts We Keep by Mason Deaver. The book is about a non-binary person whose older brother dies suddenly and how they deal with it.

This book is much different than other things I have talked about so far. There is very little joy in the book, but it is very good and well worth reading. There is a suicide attempt and self harm in the book, so if those bother you, please be careful. I would highly recommend this book.

Our...

Welcome to this week's episode of Queerly Popular. Today's episode is about the book Dawn: God's United Reich by D Alexander. The book is about two boys who live in under a theocratic regime in a dystopian version of the United States who meet and fall in love. The book is quite a lovely book and is also the first book in a series.

I do have a couple of issues with the book that I talk about, but for the most part I think it was a very lovely book and I think you'll really enjoy...

Welcome back to Queerly Popular! Today, we will be talking about the 2023 book The Unlikely Heir by Jax Calder. This book came out around the same time as Red, White, and Royal Blue (movie) and when I was really getting into royal romance books. It's about an American becoming Prince of Wales and falling in love with the British Prime Minister. It's a lot of fun to read.

The book does have a lot of tropes, but that makes it no less enjoyable. However, it does make it feel like we've talked about the characters before, which...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular. Today's episode is about the 2025 movie Twinless.

Dylan O'Brien plays Roman, a man who recently lost his twin brother. He meets Dennis at a support groups for people who have lost their twins. The movie is about how their relationship develops over time. It is a dark, psychological movie with some great physical comedy. It's not my normal sort of movie, but it is a fun one.

Please don't forget that we are in the midst of the Trans Rights Readathon, where people are asked to read books...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 2025 Netflix show Boots starring Miles Heizer. The show is based off of the book The Pink Marine by Greg Cope White.

The show is about a young gay man, Cameron Cope, who goes into Marine basic training in the summer of 1990. It's not a romance or a coming out story, but the story of someone who is trying to get by in a space where they can't be out. It's a great show, but not one that really caught my interest.

Our...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the movie Wicked: For Good, which is the second act of the play Wicked.

The movie is great and the music is good, but there weren't the bangers that there were in the first movie. I did really enjoy the movie though, especially watching Glinda finally grow a backbone. It's well worth the time to watch.

I had hoped to have a couple of videos of a couple of great scenes, but I couldn't find any videos of just the scenes, only of...

Hello and welcome back to season 5 of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to be talking about the movie I Wish You All The Best starring Corey Fogelmanis, Miles Gutierrez-Riley, Alexandria Daddario, Cole Sprouse, and Lena Dunham and written, directed, and produced by Tommy Dorfman.

I do really like this movie, but I also have complicated feelings due to the number of changes that Tommy made to the book. I spend most of the episode talking about the differences and my feelings about those differences. Overall, I can say that I loved that the movie stuck close...

Welcome to the season finale of season 4 of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 2021 Netflix film Single All the Way. The movie stars Michael Urie, Philemon Chambers, Luke MacFarlane, Kathy Najimy, Jennifer Coolidge, and Barry Bostwick. It is quite the fun film and it is also a holiday rom-com filled with rom-com tropes.

I highly recommend this film if you enjoy holiday rom-coms. The fact that the three romantic leads are all queer really helped the film out. 

We will be back in February with season 5! The schedule will come out in January, b...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we'll be talking about the 2019 Netflix movie Let It Snow.

This movie is a fun and fluffy Christmas teen rom-com filled with stereotypes and tropes, but don't let that discourage you from watching and enjoying it. Is it original? Nope, but it is fun and relaxing, so enjoy it for what it is.

It also has a bunch of actors who were sort of big at the time, listen to find out which of them I knew instantly and which it took me a bit longer to...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today we are talking about the 2025 book Icing On the Cake by Christopher J. Brice. It is quite the fun romance book about a grumpy librarian and a hockey star on a college campus.

As a warning, this book talks frequently and explicitly about sex, penises, butts, kinks, and admiration for those (and other) body parts. This episode will also make frequent references to those things, so if that bothers you, please listen carefully.

The book is lovely and really enjoyable, so I hope the frank discussions of...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 1996 movie Beautiful Thing. The movie is about two teens in London who fall in love. It is a lovely and fun film with a great soundtrack that consists mostly of music from Mama Cass and the Mamas & Papas.

The film is very much a product of its time, which is not a bad thing. That being said, there are definitely elements of the movie that would still be a part of movies that are made today.

In the episode artwork, you will...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the book Paris Daillencourt Is About To Crumble, which is a book about a man (Paris) with generalized anxiety disorder (diagnosed late in the book) who is taking part in a baking competition and meets Tariq Hassan. It's a fun book, but not one of my favorites. I enjoy the characters and definitely feel for Paris, but it's not a book I'm returning to over and over again.

We start by talking about the structure of the book before getting into the story. I also...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to be talking about the 2025 book The Haunting Between Us by Paul Michael Winters, the author of Together in a Broken World, which we talked about in June.

This book is a YA romance about 2 boys and a haunted house. It also has horror/suspense aspects to it, but at its heart it is a romance between 2 boys. I found the book to be quite fun and quite enjoyable. Even if you don't particularly like horror or suspense, I think you will enjoy the book.

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 2024 book Most Ardently: A Pride & Prejudice Remix by Gabe Cole Novoa. Most Ardently is a remix of Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen where Elizabeth Bennet is now a trans boy named Oliver.

I quite love this book and have realized it will be one of my books I listen to quite often, an honor shared with Red, White, and Royal Blue, I Wish You All The Best, and The Sky Blues. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It got me interested enough to...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 2023 book A Tale of Two Princes by Eric Geron. The book is about twin princes who are separated at birth. It's a very fun book that is slightly reminiscent of Gossip Girl (the original, not the reboot!).

One potential issue: the connection to the internet kept going in and out while I was recording, so there may be some issues with the audio.

Our next episode will be on September 18th and will be about the book Most Ardently by Gabe Cole...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the dystopian duology All That's Left In the World and The Only Light Left Burning by Erik J. Brown. These books follow Andrew and Jamie as they survive in a post-pandemic America,

I found these books quite enjoyable, particularly because I enjoy dystopian fiction like The Hunger Games and Maze Runner. If you enjoy these type of books, I think you'll really love these. And if anyone has any suggestions for other queer dystopian books, please let me know.

Our next episode on Sept...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular. Today, we are going to talk about the Eating Out movie series. The series is 5 movies that came out between 2004 and 2011. They are fun movies to watch, but there is not a whole lot of substance to any of them. Something to keep in mind is that the movies are meant for adults and have a lot of nudity (including full frontal nudity in every movie) and language.

Before we talk about the movies, I talk about why I do not like the phrase "guilty pleasure" and why these movies a...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2018 book Cinderella Boy by Kristina Meister. And in something new, I am also going to talk about the audiobook read by David M. Nadalini because I had some issues with the reading. I also see it was the only audiobook he did, and I thank God for that. Listen to the podcast to hear what my issues were.

The book is about a 16-year old, Declan, who is gender-fluid and sometimes dresses up as "Layla". Layla meets Carter Aadensen and they fall f...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2024 book Together In A Broken World by Paul Michael Winters.

This is a dystopian YA romance set in the US in the not too distant future after society has collapsed and a virus has started running rampant around the world. It is about 2 teenagers, Zach and Aiden, who meet in a small town in Montana and travel together to Seattle where Aiden is headed to deliver a silver box and Zach is going to look for his family.

I love...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular!

Today, we are going to talk about the 2018 movie "Reach" starring Garrett Clayton and Jordan Doww. As much as I like both Jordan and Garrett, I cannot say that I particularly liked this film. While the acting was good, the story itself was not great. It felt like they were trying to cram a bunch of tropes together and it left way too many plot points dangling or questions unanswered.

It was an ok film, but not one I feel like I could particularly recommend. If you watch...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2024 book The Last Boyfriends Rules For Revenge by Matthew Hubbard.

It is a book about 3 high schoolers who start off trying to get revenge on their ex-boyfriends and end up fighting against an oppressive system set up by their homophobic school superintendent. It is a very fun book and is well worth reading. That being said, I do spend quite a bit of time on a few things that annoy me because this book happens to have a few things which are c...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the books The Darkness Outisde Us (2021) and The Brightness Between Us (2024) by Eliot Schrefer. They are a duology that is a mix of science fiction, romance, and dystopian fiction. I find them both to be fascinating books and well worth the read.

But before we talk about the books, I talk for a few minutes about the announcement about the future of Heartstopper and a couple of mistakes I made in the episode about Babylon 5. Because of these, the episode is a touch long...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are having a special episode which will air on both Queer PoliFaith and Queerly Popular. We are talking about the 1993-1998 sci-fi series, Babylon 5. It was an awesome series, one of the best in my opinion, and very different from Star Trek, which was in its heyday during this time. I love both, but I believe that Babylon 5 is better.

We start off with by placing Babylon 5 within the context of its time in relation to Star Trek and the various shows and movies that aired while Babylon 5 was on. I...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we are going to talk about the 2024 film Wicked, Part One. It is based off of the first half of the 2003 musical which is based off of a 1995 book that tells the story of how Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West from The Wizard of Oz.

We start with a talk about the background of the film and musical. We then move to the characters and plot. We then talk about the queer themes present in the movie and how the movie speaks to the situation we f...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular. It's my birthday, so I am talking about two of my favorite movies growing up: Escape To Witch Mountain (1975) and Return From Witch Mountain (1978). I also talk about the books of the same name (1968 and 1978) and how the books differ from the movies.

I do have a deep love of both movies, but particularly of Return From Witch Mountain which I watched all the time when I was younger. I do also talk a little about subsequent movies, neither of the ones I saw which held a candle to the ori...

Welcome to this week's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, I am talking with my friend Caitlin about asexuality in Heartstopper. In other words, we're talking about Isaac's journey and her thoughts about that journey. We also talk a little bit about Agatha All Along.

During the episode, we mainly end up looking at various scenes of the show that highlight Isaac and his journey. Here are those clips. These clips are from the YouTube account FandomVids, which is an account that has videos of various characters and ships from various tv shows. They break everything down into...

Welcome to season 4 of Queerly Popular! We're starting the season off with an episode about the MCU series on Disney+, Agatha All Along.

Before we get into the show, I talk a little about some different things I am doing this season. Then, I talk about why I stopped watching things in the MCU and why I watch this show. Then we talk about the episodes and my thoughts about the characters and how queerness is present in it.

Here are some of the clips I talked about:

Teen Uses His Magic

Welcome to the season finale of Queerly Popular! Today, we are talking about the 2020 Lifetime holiday film The Christmas Setup. 2020 was a pretty big year for queer films because it had several major networks/streamers release holiday films with queer main characters, which I talk about near the end of the podcast. It was also taped during the beginning of the pandemic, which shows in the reduced number of characters present.

The movie stars a married couple (Ben Lewis and Blake Lee) who remeet after not seeing each other for years and are pushed together by Hugo's...

Welcome to today's episode of Queerly Popular! Today, we're going to talk about the 2009 film, Make the Yuletide Gay. It is a movie that is very much a product of its time and is definitely dated in some fairly obvious ways. That said, it is a fun movie and one that is worth watching.

I start off with some thoughts about the necessity of telling coming out stories, while also making sure we are telling the stories of people who are already out. I think both are needed at this time. I also talk about a couple a...