Samenvatting van de aflevering
In the mid-1980s, at 24, Luke Adams was told he had two years to live. Forty years on, he's a psychologist, ACT UP veteran and recent political refugee from the United States, now living in London. Summary Luke Adams was 24 and living in Santa Cruz, California, when a test came back positive for what doctors then called HTLV-III. His nurse, Ed, gave him two years to live, then brilliantly made Luke furious enough to act. Luke channelled that fury into decades of AIDS activism: building safer-sex education programmes with student volunteers, joining ACT UP alongside Larry Kramer, and watching Anthony Fauci go from adversary to convert. He survived the brutal monotherapy era of AZT, a near-fatal AIDS diagnosis in 1996, and the addiction that followed years of grief, before getting sober with help from a friend at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. Now 63, and more troubled by arthritis than HIV, Luke has recently left the United States for London, describing himself as a political refugee after his activism, his…
In the mid-1980s, at 24, Luke Adams was told he had two years to live. Forty years on, he's a psychologist, ACT UP veteran and recent political refugee from the United States, now living in London. Summary Luke Adams was 24 and living in Santa Cruz, California, when a test came back positive for what doctors then called HTLV-III. His nurse, Ed, gave him two years to live, then brilliantly made Luke furious enough to act. Luke channelled that fury into decades of AIDS activism: building safer-sex education programmes with student volunteers, joining ACT UP alongside Larry Kramer, and watching Anthony Fauci go from adversary to convert. He survived the brutal monotherapy era of AZT, a near-fatal AIDS diagnosis in 1996, and the addiction that followed years of grief, before getting sober with help from a friend at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. Now 63, and more troubled by arthritis than HIV, Luke has recently left the United States for London, describing himself as a political refugee after his activism, his…
Afleveringen
Luke Adams: Activism, Addiction and Asylum
BeluisterdIn the mid-1980s, at 24, Luke Adams was told he had two years to live. Forty years on, he's a psychologist, ACT UP veteran and recent political refugee from the United States, now living in London. Summary Luke Adams was 24 and living in Santa Cruz, California, when a test came back positive for what doctors then called HTLV-III. His nurse, Ed, gave him two years to live, then brilliantly made Luke furious enough to act. Luke channelled that fury into decades of AIDS activism: building safer-sex education programmes with student volunteers, joining ACT UP alongside Larry Kramer, and watching Anthony Fauci go from adversary to convert. He survived the brutal monotherapy era of AZT, a near-fatal AIDS diagnosis in 1996, and the addiction that followed years of grief, before getting sober with help from a friend at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics. Now 63, and more troubled by arthritis than HIV, Luke has recently left the United States for London, describing himself as a political refugee after his activism, his…
Emma McAnally: Stigma, Strength and Superpower
BeluisterdContent note: this episode discusses domestic abuse and suicidal thoughts. In 2016, Emma McAnally was diagnosed with HIV in a Scottish sexual health clinic while in an abusive relationship. This episode follows how that diagnosis led her to challenge outdated NHS maternity guidance and become an HIV educator in Scotland today. Summary Emma McAnally was diagnosed with HIV in 2016, in a Scottish sexual health clinic, while in an abusive relationship. Isolated and convinced she was the only person in Scotland living with the virus, she reached her lowest point before falling pregnant gave her a reason to leave. Motherhood brought fresh battles: she was denied a water birth because of her status, discouraged from breastfeeding, and, by 2023, discovered that Scotland's maternity guidelines for women living with HIV hadn't been updated since the early 1990s. Her research helped change them. Emma later met her partner, Paul, through a wild swimming group, and found in their mixed-status relationship the acceptance…
Veda Lady: Secrets, Sequins, Solidarity
BeluisterdFor over a decade, Veda Lady was the most recognisable drag queen in Dublin. They talk to Dan Hall about a childhood spent dodging the word "AIDS", the partner who begged them not to tell, and the 2019 disclosure that led to Ireland's first podcast made by and for people living with HIV. Summary Veda Lady has spent three decades as Dublin's reigning drag mother, but for a long stretch of that career they were keeping the biggest secret of their life. Growing up gay in 1970s and 80s Catholic Ireland, they were accused of having AIDS at twelve, years before they understood what it really meant. It was a fear that resurfaced when they received their own HIV diagnosis in the early 2000s. Veda describes the deal they made to stay silent, and then the 2019 disclosure timed to a new marriage and a song, "I Came Out One Night". Veda also traces the drag lineage behind their activism, from San Francisco's Trannyshack to Dublin's Alternative Miss Ireland, and explains how a lockdown drag show streamed from their…
Adrian Hyyriläinen-Trett: Parliament, Pills and Powerlifting
BeluisterdIn 2015, Adrian Hyyriläinen-Trett became the first openly HIV-positive parliamentary candidate in UK history, standing for the Liberal Democrats in Vauxhall. This episode follows their 2004 diagnosis at Camden's Mortimer Market Centre through twelve years on AZT, a complex PTSD diagnosis, and a new life as president of the LGBT Powerlifting Union. Summary Adrian Hyyriläinen-Trett was diagnosed with HIV on the 3rd of June 2004, at Camden's Mortimer Market Centre. Twenty-five and living in Beckton at the time, they made the journey home alone on the DLR, before waiting six months to tell their parents, on Boxing Day, that they were both gay and HIV positive. Eleven years on, standing as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Vauxhall, Adrian chose to go public about their status ahead of the 2015 general election, becoming the first openly HIV-positive parliamentary candidate in UK history. This conversation follows that journey through twelve years on AZT to a new single-tablet regimen, a 2016 mental health…
Nathaniel Hall: Secrecy, Shame, Standing Ovations
BeluisterdAn actor and activist who was diagnosed with HIV at 16, kept the secret for 15 years, turned it into a one-man show that earned 53 five-star reviews, and was cast in It's a Sin while still performing at the Edinburgh Fringe. Summary Nathaniel Hall grew up in Gatley, a suburb of Stockport. He was a straight-A student, head boy, and quietly realising he was gay in a school where Section 28 was still in force and the only mention of homosexuality in his entire education was a video of a man dying from AIDS in a PSHE lesson taught by his maths teacher. He wanted to wear a cream tuxedo to the prom. The hire shop didn't have one ready, so he sat on a bench in a park playing Snake on his phone. A man with bleach tips in his hair came and sat next to him. That summer fling - possibly grooming, a question he still works through in therapy - ended when Nathaniel's parents found out. On holiday in Menorca, in a 45-degree heatwave, he fell violently ill. It wasn't the water. It was seroconversion. Two weeks before his…