In our 10th episode, we welcome back one of our first ever guests: Lisa Williams! Lisa is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, who researches patterns of recreational drug use over people’s life courses. We chat with Lisa about the relationship between raving and ageing, and she shares insights from her various research projects over the years, including from one of our favourite named academic articles ‘One Foot in the Rave’, which looks at ageing ravers’ transitions to adulthood. We also discuss the implications of ‘life course’ vs ‘life cycle’ as a means to think productively about each of our journeys through space/time.

In this episode, we discuss one of the most controversial topics when it comes to humans’ relationships with drugs: addiction. Join us as we chat with Fay Dennis, a Research Fellow at Goldsmiths, University of London. In the interview, Fay shares her thoughts on addiction from the perspective of someone who has worked and researched in the substance use field for fifteen years. She discusses the limitations of ‘addiction’ in conveying the nuances of people’s drug using experiences, and puts forward the notion of ‘habit’ as having greater productive potential.

In this episode, we are finally talking about masculinity! This one has been a long time coming. Join Giulia and Alex (@yourfaavepal) as we chat with our colleagues and friends Kristian Møller (@kristianmj) and Jamie Hakim (@hak_jam). Jamie is a Lecturer in Culture, Media and Creative Industries at Kings College London. His research focuses on intimacies in physical and particularly digital spaces, care and embodiment, and queer masculinities. He also explored chemsex in his work. Kristian is Associate Professor in Media and Cultural Studies, with his work focusing on digital, chemical and queer intimacies, particularly but not limited to drugs and chemsex.  In the interview, we talk about encountering masculinity in nightlife, queer / cis masculinities and the politics of space, sexualities and intimacies.

In our 7th episode, we have two extra special guests! Listen to Casil McAuthur  (@casil_the_goat_lord), model and general icon, interview the equally iconic Amara Gisele Jones Velasquez (@amara.xtravaganza) about transness and nightlife in London and New York. Casil and Amara discuss trans family, safety, and what it means to be a ‘doll’.

Join Alex in conversation with extra special guest Knives (@ghost.them), a London-based freelancer doing a mix of set design, modelling, and working in nightlife.In nightlife contexts, Knives works as a welfare officer for various club nights, including queer, kink, and private parties. Alex and Knives both work as welfare officers at Riposte, a queer techno night in London. Alex asks Knives about their journey into welfare work, about the functions of welfare officers in nightclubs, and the challenges that can arise when attempting to keep clubbers safe from sex/drug-related harms. Alex and Knives also reflect on the toll welfare work can take on the individuals who do it.

In our fifth podcast, Giulia and Alex interview Rosalind Stone (@rosalindst0ne), who is co-organiser of The Semantrix Sessions (@semantrix_sessions) - a series of sessions that explore the relationship between language and perception through discussion and exploration of psychedelic drugs. Rosalind’s academic background is in literature, and we loved hearing her reflect on the tensions that emerge when considering the meaning of psychedelic experiences under capitalism. We also asked Rosalind about the medicalisation of psychedelics and their potential therapeutic value.

In this episode, Giulia is in conversation with special guest journalist and author Mattha Busby (@matthamundo; @unchartedterritorypod). Mattha has written widely on drug and health policy, human rights, society and the environment. He authored multiple excellent articles about psychedelics and politics for both mainstream publications like The Guardian and VICE, and specialist magazines like Double Blind Mag. He is also the author of ‘Should All Drugs Be Legalised’?  In the interview, Giulia asks Mattha about the impact of medicalisation and corporatisation on psychedelics, particularly as they were once a symbol of countercultural expression and resistance.

Our third interview of the season is with North London based DJ and organiser of the party Yes Babe! - David Ramsey (@drms_85)! Taking the idea of authenticity as our starting point, we ask David about his connections to various club scenes in London, what it means when smaller, more peripheral parties move into the mainstream, and how whiteness and masculinity organise/shape nightlife spaces. David also reflects on what has been important to him in organising and promoting Yes Babe!

We are back with another episode of the People and Dancefloors podcast! This time, we tackled authenticity in clubs with extra special guest Dr Danielle Antoinette Hidalgo (@missanthrope10). Danielle is Associate Professor of Sociology at California State University.  Danielle is really interested in gender and sexuality, and her research focuses on dance music spaces. Her book Dance Music Spaces: Clubs, Clubbers, and DJs Navigating Authenticity, Branding, and Commercialism  ‘examines the production of physical and digital spaces in dance music, and how the players—clubs, clubbers, and DJs—use authenticity, branding, and commercialism to navigate them. An in-depth study into three women DJs—The Blessed Madonna, Honey Dijon, and Peggy Gou—reveals a new concept, “authenticity maneuvering.”’  Danielle’s book recently won a prize, which is testament to the significant contribution of Danielle’s thinking in the field of club studies and sociology.

We are so excited about our first podcast interview on afterparties, featuring Dr Lisa Williams and Dr Karenza Moore. Lisa is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Manchester, who researches patterns of recreational drug use over the life course. Her most recent project visually documents aspects of drug taking through photography, with a particular focus on how people store drugs in the home. Karenza is a Reader in Sociology at Newcastle University. Her research explores recreational drug use in settings like raves, nightclubs, festivals, and afterparties. In the interview, we ask Lisa and Karenza how they define afterparties, what happens at them, and what their functions are. We reflect on the kinds of drugs people tend to use in afterparty settings, and on the difficulties researchers might face in accessing afterparties due to their ‘hidden’ nature.