This Week's Guest: Johnnie Jungleguts
When you need to get away from it all, how far do you go? My guest this week reached his fill of human interaction and so he did what so many of us have done: flew to South America to wander the forest for weeks while befriending a mountain lion.
And just a reminder about what's coming up for The Sewers of Paris in 2018. Starting in February, I'm going to be making monthly bonus episodes, with even more personal stories about entertainment that's changed the lives of queer people. And on top of that, I'll be hosting livestreams that you can join, creating new YouTube videos about LGBT entertainment, and more.
Of course, you'll still get a new episode of The Sewers of Paris every Thursday, just like always. The show's not changing -- there's just going to be more of it.
The Sewers of Paris is possible because of listeners like you who pledge a dollar or more to keep it going. Starting in February, those contributions will support even more content. There's also going to be rewards for people who pledge -- more information on that as we get closer to February.
To everyone already supporting The Sewers of Paris on Patreon: huge thanks. There'll be a few tweaks to the way pledges are charged, and I'll be in touch with you about that. And to everyone who hasn't pledged yet, February is going to be a great time to start. Just click "support the show on Patreon."
If you're not able to support the show financially, there’s other ways you can help -- just by listening, tweeting about the show, following The Sewers of Paris on Twitter and Facebook, and by writing reviews. All of that is a huge help and I'm very very grateful.
This Week's Recommendation: Freaks and Geeks
This week we talked about outgrowing the safety of the suburbs, and so my recommendation is to check out the show Freaks and Geeks. Produced in the late 90s and set in the early 80s, the show follows the awkward lives of teenagers learning how to be human adults.
Like my recommendation last week, The Doom Generation, Freaks and Geeks leans heavily on the discomfort of living between childhood and adulthood -- the point in a person's life when they have the most freedom to make choices about who they are, and are also the least equipped to make them.
The characters of the show make the wrong decisions far more often than they make the right ones. And unlike My So-Called Life, where the struggles of the kids accompanies the struggles of the parents, the division between teens and adults in Freaks and Geeks is so pronounced they are seldom even able to comprehend each other. The world that they're approaching is befuddling and dangerous and hostile -- and yet they crave entry to it with a fearlessness that many of us lose once we've arrived in adulthood.
So I guess my recommendation here isn't just to watch Freaks and Geeks. It's to remember what it was like to be a freak and geek.