PODCAST · society
Isn't It Queer
by Isnt It Queer
A weekly LGBT talk show on community radio station WDBX 91.1 covering news and topics of interest to Southern Illinois LGBTQ communities.
Episodes
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IIQ-2026-10-14 - La Luna Meets AI Robot
Jonny interviews Mackie Obando who just released his first original queer-themed song and music video, "Desprederse de la Luna." You can check out the video here. In the back half of the show Jonny is joined by Heather to talk about the wild lies coming up as October Surprises and how they really...
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2026-10-07 -- Books Banned and Cases Discriminating
Jonny and Heather lean into Banned Book Week with some contemplation about what illusion of control book bans give. In the back half of the show, they discuss the court cases on the Supreme Court's fall docket that are likely to impact the LGBTQ+ community. They find some hope that when these...
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2026-09-30 - "White Shoes"?
Jonny and Heather check back in on the Trumpfoolery. Is it the end of the nation or the end of this authoritarian grab? White shoes? In this stormy political wheather, they check in on the double whammy LGBTQ+ students received this week as the Department of Education removes Title IX protections...
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2026-09-23 - LGBTQIA+ History Month...In A Closet?
Jonny and Heather welcome Juniper Oxford to the show. Juniper is the coordinator for Southern Illinois University's Paulette Curkin Pride Resource Center and responsibe for planning the university's events for LGBTQIA+ History Month. We take this opportunity to check in on how the Resource Center...
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2026-09-16 - Dan and Rey's Second Visit from Texas
Jonny and Heather welcome back Dan and Rey, who are visiting Southern Illinois again from Texas. They share their enthsiasm for the queer supporting communities of Southern Illinois and offer some insider perspectives on various political struggles in Texas. The four of them discuss…
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2026-09-09 - Death, Birth, Feminism
Jonny and Heather honor the legacy of Gloria Steinem. They note her significant contributions to women's rights as well as some slower points of development in her inclusivity with that struggle. They then turn from mourning Steinem to celebrating the birth of Heather O'Malley -- 58 years old, 25...
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2026-09-02 - "Find Out Who You Are And Do It On Purpose"
Jonny amd Heather lament the recent loss of Dolly Parton, Tim Curry, and Peter Cullen. They review the significant contributions these performers have made to LGBTQ+ advocacy and identity. In the back half of the show, Jonny taps into Heather's military expertise to explain the consequesnces of...
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2026-08-26 - Yes, An...nimation
Jonny and Heather celebrate the 16th Birthday of Isn't it Queer (8/24) by leaning into the queer joy of our community. They extend an invitation to others to come on the show and share their passions and interests and informations about events and organizations. In the back half of the show,...
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2026-08-19 - Charged Without Real Evidence
Jonny interviews local, former SIU research Professor, Kyle, who was the target last year of a Libs of TikTok smear campaign. With only Libs of TikTok's doctored screen shots, Kyle was put on administrative leave and charged by local police with indecent exposure. Locals community members made a...
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2026-08-12 - Could be worse. Could be better.
Jonny and Heather bid farewell to summer, at least on an academic calendar. They posit that while things aren't great for the LGBTQ+ community in the US right now, there are plenty of places around the planet that demonstrate things could be worse. They then use this frame to examine how assaults...
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2026-08-05 - A Mixed Bag of "Facts"
Heather is back from a very busy, very exhausting, very good weekend at Gen Con. She and Jonny touch base about the amazing out and proud queer and trans presence at the con. They then turn to the assertions of the current administration that don't stand up to evidentiary tests--from vandalism in...
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2026-07-29 - Patriarchy's You Problem
Heather and Jonny are barely surviving the latest heatwave in Southern Illinois. They seek comfort in some international Pride celebrations, despite the violence at the Berlin Pride March. In the back half of the show they demonstrate how pretty much all protests, legislation, and bigotry against...
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2026-07-22 - Jumping a Hypermasculine Shark
Jonny and Heather weigh in on Pete Hegseth's decision to mandate testosterone testing for all soldiers over the age of thirty and offer free testosterone therapy if they are deemed to be "low T." Yep, that is Defense Department sanctioned gender affirming therapy. But it is also pretty misguded…
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2026-07-15 - Traumas and Allegations
Jonny is back from a meditation retreat this week while Heather is off at a writer's conference in Chicago. Still, they put together a show. Jonny recounts how flashfloods in Missouri resulted in a traumatic end to the retreat. This sets the stage for a reimmersion into the news, where nominally...
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2026-07-08 - Bullheaded and Blind
Jonny interviews Carbondale native, Ben. Ben was born in Carbondale and spent a significant chunk of his early life here before traveling to Peru and then settling down in Chicago. During CoVid, he returned to Carbondale. He and Jonny discuss their preference for being a rural queers and what…
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2026-07-01 - SCOTUS Fireworks
Jonny and Heather review some of the recent Supreme Court decisions, celebating the surprisiningly good ones while also giving space to concerns and frustrations about decisions that immediately impact our lives as SCOTUS ties Title IX to "biological sex" and not gender, setting a dangerous...
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2026-06-24 - Stagnation & Flow
Jonny and Heather respond to data that suggests worldwide LGBTQ+ rights advanced in the 2010s but are stagnating in the 2020s. To put a little more hopeful spin on this news, they note how the anti-LGBTQ+ movements seem to be stagnating more recently, too. They start with the failures of the…
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2026-06-17 - You're an Insult! You're a Distraction!
Jonny and Heather offer a brief recap of their Pride on the Strip, Carbondale PrideFest experiences before moving on to other festive events that happened this weekend. One such event on the White House lawn (next to the slimy green reflecting pool!) demonstrated how our current administration…
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2026-06-10 - Church Pride
As part of Pride Month, Jonny and Heather conduct interviews with local LGBTQ+ advocates. In the front half of the shaow, Jonny interviews Father Jerry Anderson, author of Ordained by Angels; A Memoir of an AIDS Chaplain. Father Anderson, a native of Southern Illinoi and co-founder of The…
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2026-06-03 - Kicking Off Pride Month with Leah Fantasy
Jonny interviews local drag superstar Leah Fantasy about their life, their experiences growing up nonbinary and Southern Illinois, and their amazing performances in local venues. They discuss the vibe needed for this year's Pride and how to generate it. In the back third of the show, Heather and...
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2026-05-27 - A Little Goes a Long Way
Heather and Jonny track a theme across recent stories impacting LGBTQ+ communities that the smallness of a minority group severely limits its power. They examine several stories where a few people make a big difference, where a small local community beats a big cultural behemoth. They find queer...
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2026-05-20 - The Value of Shade
Jonny and Heather welcome summer on the other side of Memorial Day, remembering what this coming weekend is meant to recognize. The provide some updates on the Southern Illinois Pride plans in Carbondale for Saturday, June 13th. They then celebrate that Carbondale's Pride is not (as of now) being...
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2026-05-13 - Troll Refuting
Jonny and Heather face the summer with news of Southern Illinois Pride plans. This information has recently been circulated on local social media. In the process, of course, lots of anti-Pride community members have had...."interesting" things to say about Pride. Jonny and Heather remind them…
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2026-05-06 - No Problem? No Solution!
Jonny and Heather dive into a series of headaches for the LGBTQ+ community, starting with the DOJ's investigation of 36 school districts in Illinois for teaching gender ideology. Connecting that story to many others in the news lately, they pursue the authoritarian tactic of manufacturing…
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2026-04-29 - Trans Presentation(s)
Jonny and Heather conduct separate interviews in this episode, featuring talks with transgender writers doing presentations in Carbondale this coming weekend. In the front half of the show, Heather interviews Nico Lang, an impressive award winning journalist who will be giving a talk about their...
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2026-04-22 - Kicking OUT!
Jonny and Heather review a serise of recent current events where "kicking out" rather than "coming out" rings the queer content. They look at hypocritical standards for expulsion in Congress, in the Trump Cabinet, and in the military. They also discuss celebrities like Caitlen Jenner, Pete...
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2026-04-15 - Dr. Donnie in the Shade
Heather and Jonny extend April Fools to make sense of the foolishness of the Trump Administration in the last week. Behind the clearly mockable "accomplishments" of the administration this week is a persistent theme of targeting the LGBTQ+ community. In the back half of the show they offer even...
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2026-04-08 - Hypokristi
Jonny and Heather are a bit disturbed about recording Wednesday's show before the destructive deadline Trump has set for Iran. They discuss the posturings and firings of the administration recently, worried about what they might do with the power they have and no supervision or experienced…
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2026-04-01 - Stepping Away from Conversion
Jonny and Heather are joined by T--Dr. T!--who recently defended his dissertation about leaving a local cult. They discuss the No Kings protest, the Supreme Court's decision on conversion therapy bans, and the cult like qualities of MAGA all through the lens of surviving an actual cult. Now that...
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2026-03-25 - The Destructive Reductive
Jonny welcomes Heather back from complications with a routine operation removing a kidney stone. They dive right into the hot mess that is the war/not war with Iran, noting the slipperyness of the Administration in sticking with or abanding strict definitions when it suits their purposes. They...
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2026-03-18 - Bullysh*t
Jonny is joined by Craig to discuss queer neurodivergence and bullying. In the front half of the show they focus on a TikTok video by Christopher Macken who responds to a woman who promises to be her son's first bully if he ever "acts gay." In the back half of the show they share an example of…
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2026-03-11 - Trans Liberty
Jonny and Heater interview Samantha Boucher, Founder and Executive Director of Trans Liberty, the first US political action organization dedicated solely to defending the civil rights of transgenderAmericans. In the front half of the show they explore Samantha's background and the creation of…
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2026-03-04 - Verses v. Versus
Heather and Jonny commiserate over the eruption og globala military actions and the controversyies around the Trump Administrations actions and (lack of) explanations. They posit the role of conflict in controling and manipulating others. They then take this theme of x vs. y to other conflicts...
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2026-02-25 - This Authority Ain't Absolute
After taking a break for a few weeks from the Epstein Files, Jonny and Heather return to discuss them and other stories that show the limits of trying to control what the public can know. Even so, an administration and a party desperate to control our attention continues to go to extraordinary...
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2026-02-18 - Dis Confirmation
Heather and Jonny confront two stories of mass shootings this week, one in Canada with a confirmed transgender assailant and one in Rhode Island with an alleged transgender shooter. They approach this difficult topic with a couple of key reminders: First, an inventory of their local organizations...
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2026-02-11 - Sports Cookies
Jonny and Heather celebrate an unnexpacted and probably lasting warmer rest of February. They turn their attention to the World Human Rights report that notes the USAmerican impact on LGBTQ+ rights globally. They examine several examples of this unfortunate trend in Democratic Recession. In the...
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2026-02-04 - Piecing it Together
Jonny welcomes Heather back to the show, although there is still snow on the roads and the cold is only now slowly loosening its grip. They vortex out from Southern Illinois, discussing new assaults on LGBTQ+ rights, beyound ICE protests or the Epstein Files. In the back half of the show, they…
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2026-01-28 - Speculative Friction
Jonny and Heather are both snowed in this week, but Jonny has a good mic and computer and power at home, so he offers this episode born from staying home during snow and SERIOUS cold. He begins with acknowledgement of the weather and the hypocrisy of climate change denial before moving to Trump...
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2026-01-21 - (Dumpster) Fire and ICE
Jonny is fresh back from the annual winter retreat of Gay Spirit Visions' winter gathering where the theme was protecting our joy while we live through a dumpster fire. Heather helps him unpack the necessity to be aware of the dumpster fire even as we choose to put our energies elsewhere. They...
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2026-01-14 - People Suffer When Their Government Can Never Be Wrong
Jonny and Heather dive deep into the implications of an ICE agent's killing of Rene Good in Minneapolis this past week. The murder of a queer mother of three is bad enough, but the government's reactions demonstrate an accumulating pattern of response that is most disturbing. In the back half of...
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2026-01-07 - Blade Running into the Future (Some Predictions)
Jonny and Heather offer an overview of trends from 2025, linking the hard lessons learned about AI to the hard lessons learned from the first year of Trump 2.0. In the back half of the show, they turn a prophetic gaze toward the future and make some broad predictions for 2026. They dare to hope...
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2025-12-31 - A Queer Year in Review
Jonny assembes a mix tape of 2025's contributors to IIQ as well as a sampling of some of the strange stories he and Heather have discussed in the past year. The show may be queer but the year was just downright WEIRD!
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2025-12-24 - Xmas Grifts...uh, I mean Gifts
Jonny and Heather lean into the holiday season to see the various factors affecting LGBTQ+ communities as gifts--some are gifts we never wanted, some are incomplete, some come from Secret Santas, and some are true charitable contributions to the community. In the podcast, we mention our Flipboard...
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2025-12-17 - Community Heels
Jonny and Heather take a deep dive into what "community" means when we reference the LGBTQ+ community and the idea that leanng into community is how we protect ourselves from the abuses of power that threaten us. In the back (not quite) half of the show, they demonstrate how the current…
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2025-12-10 - Culture Wars and Piece Awards
Jonny and Heather prepare for a pending brutal cold streak by diving into the heat of ongoing culture wars. It's not just political power that forms authoritarian states; despots gotta change the culture! So far, that aint going so well for our would-be dear leader. Where his cult brings on the...
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2025-12-03 - The Winds are Shifting
Jonny and Heather discuss a host of current event stories that indicate the political winds are shifting. Ultimately, this is good news for the LGBTQ+ community, even if the current turbulence is still causing us torubles.Real evidence emerges that MAGA is breaking up and the Trump…
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2025-11-26 - Alternate Histories and Gratitude
Jonny and Heather welcome Thanksgiving with gratitude built on how things are and how they are not. In looking at a few recent stories in the news, they frame them through the lens of "what if things had been different?" In the back half of the show, they share a scene from the recent performance...
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2025-11-19 - The Good, The Bad, and The Weird
On the other side of auroras in Southern Illinois, Jonny and Heather dive into some weird stories--like the aurora, things they thought they would never see, at least not down here. In the front half of the show they review the more typical good and bad news for the LGBTQ+ community under the...
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2025-11-12 - At a Crossroads
In the front half of the show, Jonny interviews Junara, Grace, M, and Shelby--the director and some of the devising cast from "At a Crossroads," a performance in the Kleinau Theatre opening this Thursday. They discuss the crossroads metaphor and how the show leans into LGBTQ+ themes. In the back...
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2025-11-05 - Forest v. Trees
Jonny and Heather hike into the landscape of major media stories dropped in just the last week. We know President Trump saturates the airwaves in order to both benefit from the attention economy and distract from his administration's more nefarious moves. Using Heather's background in Army...
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Isn't It Queer have?
Isn't It Queer currently has 532 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Isn't It Queer about?
A weekly LGBT talk show on community radio station WDBX 91.1 covering news and topics of interest to Southern Illinois LGBTQ communities.
How often does Isn't It Queer release new episodes?
Isn't It Queer releases new episodes frequently with a large back catalog of 532 episodes. Check the episode list for recent publication dates.
Where can I listen to Isn't It Queer?
You can listen to Isn't It Queer on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Isn't It Queer?
Isn't It Queer is created and hosted by Isnt It Queer.
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