I had the pleasure of being interviewed by Matt and also having him on my podcast, The Ivory Tower Boiler Room. Matt's infectious analysis of cinema and pop culture keeps me on the edge of my seat to see who he's bringing onto The Sewers of Paris. This is a must listen for all arts and culture lovers!

Over the pandemic I came across some of Matt’s YouTube videos and loved them. Seriously, I am obsessed. I recently heard about the podcast and decided to check it out and so far it doesn’t disappoint. I love how Matt draws his subjects out. I also love seeing deeper dives into queer lives, this sort of representation was sorely lacking when I grew up. The Carl Bishop episode was compelling and I loved hearing about his musical influences. He sounds like someone I’d love to sit and have a beverage with hearing more stories from his life. I’ll be putting this podcast on my weekly listening rotation.

A great premise and a great podcast. Matt is a great interviewer and a great listener. I also love that he interviews “regular” people and not just celebrities.

Usually I can not listen to a full podcast but this podcast I can listen to every episode every day which is rare for me I also love Matt Baume’s YouTube channel to.

I love Matt Baume’s YouTube channel and this podcast is great! It’s funny, and informative, and sometimes really sad, but always entertaining and very heartfelt.

I am a listener from Queens of Adventure and transitioned to listening to this podcast as well. I absolutely love this concept and have found it so informative. I just finished reading the novel from Victoria Lee because of your episode on her. This podcast has helped me normalize and relate to so many different queer people. It makes me feel so connected to the community at large and I am so grateful for it. Thank you for all that you do, Matt!

Wow, wow. Matt Baume is an incredibly insightful and kind interviewer, always making smart connections and posing the perfect questions to his guests, while equally making sure to treat everyone compassionately (and make sure they're compassionate to themselves, too). Sewers doesn't shy away from rough topics, but it's never cruel. It's a sorely needed, unique look at the rich creative lives and interior histories of gay men (with occasional gay others!), and it means a lot that it's out there.

These interviews make my day every time I listen to them. Keep bringing us this great content!

I've listened to every one of Matt's episodes and he's an amazing interviewer, somebody who makes smart connections between pop culture and the person joining him each week. This is a great podcast with lots of energy and heart. Thank you Matt!

My title says it all. This podcast is a treasure. It should be taken from the beginning and every episode heard. It is evergreen, so older episodes are still worthwhile. This is a valuable historical resource for those who want to know the many ways gay men's minds are "molded".

I love this show! As a person who loves to listen to people's stories, no matter how boring, this is the perfect podcast. It's the perfect blend of storytelling and a "you should watch this" show. Thank you Matt Baume, thank you!

I love this podcast. Its nice to hear stories from people with similar experiences. Listening helps me remember how much I love the topics discussed and sometimes gives me ideas for new things to try. Definitely recommend!

I came to the show through Queens of Adventure and I’m so glad I did. Matt has such a natural, conversational interview style and let’s his guests share their experiences in an open, honest way. Is Matt Baume a national treasure? Listen and see for yourself!

Such a lovingly crafted show with an unique and fascinating concept. A truly fabulous podcast with fabulous guests. I love it.

Is there a more important question for gay men than “What media has helped shape who you are today?” You’ll be surprised to find the very broad diversity of answers to this question in this poignant, insightful, and unapologetically queer podcast. This delightful show is lovingly crafted by producer and host Matt Baume, and each of his guests brings something new to the rainbow table each time.

Matt’s interviews with a wide variety of cool gay men are often insightful, funny, brilliant, heartbreaking, empowering, educational—sometimes all in one podcast. Since starting to listen on my commute to work four months ago, I feel better about life during these trying times. Sewers of Paris makes me feel smarter and more connected as a gay man in an often fragmented world. Keep up the great work Matt!

Hearing the lives of other gay men, their successes, their short fallings, and their fabulous sex lives has helped me understand my own story and how I can resonate with my journey. Your host Matt interviews guests in such a way that enables them to express deep thoughts that are so often locked away. My listenings leave me empowered. Thanks!! ✨✨✨✨✨

Matt makes an intelligent and smart podcast with great guests and excellent interviews that are deep and thought provoking. It is always an interesting and enjoyable experience. I put this up there with This American Life as one of the best informational podcasts, and certainly the top of the LGBTQ ones!

The Sewers of Paris provides a dialogue between the probing Matt Baume and his guests on the influences of the queer zeitgeist on their own identity formation. This is my go-to podcast for road trips because the subject matter is simultaneously so universal to almost every gay man and also particular to each guest. The production quality extends to include clips of the discussed works of art...and by art, queer art. From John Water's films to discussing the loneliness of being a small-town gay boy who lives for their mother's LP of Judy Garland Live at Carnegie Hall! This podcast really makes both the guest and the listener introspective and creates a proud curiosity into what makes us identify as "gay."

Utterly intelligent and well informed. One of the best podcasts out there!

Matt is one of the best, most insightful hosts in the business, and his intereview are always worth a listen. I never miss this podcast. Neither should you.

He is a good interviewer but in the end the episodes seem all alike viz. another drag queen's struggle story. They weren't various enough to hold my interest. I will tune in again sometime to see if things have improved.

I can't say enough about this beautiful podcast. Start with 107, the episode with Guy Branum. Be still my heart.

Huge props to Matt, who in every interview, weaves seamlessly between the hysterically funny and the deeply intimate, the politically urgent and the culturally fascinating. The Sewers of Paris is fabulous, fierce, and fearless -- a must listen for those interested in LGBTQ culture and personal storytelling more generally (and the first podcast I've supported on Patreon!).

I'm so grateful for this podcast. It's such an insightful, perfect angle to approach the stories of gay guys. The episodes are inspiring, funny, touching, and engaging. Start with the Guy Branum episode and you'll most likely be instantly hooked.

This show has inspired me to be my own gay self. Thank you Matt Baume

I loved your interview with James Jordan. Fascinating man. Parterre Box is a wonderful opera blog for everyone.

Matt has a way of allowing the conversation to flow but acheiving the goal of truly understanding how entertainment has affected the lives of each guest. The finished product each week is done with fantastic care and elicits emotion that is hard to contain within on occasion. I'm very grateful to have this resource to learn about the lives of others, learn more about entertainers and the arts and reflect upon my own story as well.

Amazing weekly listen of gay and queer voices having great conversations about movies and adjacent media.

I have always had an aversion to NPR/ Podcasts/ & Talk Radio because growing up in Cincinnati, OH my Mother would ALWAYS keep her Car, Kitchen, & Living Room Radio tuned into Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, & G. Gordon Liddy. THEN CAME MATT BAUME! This man is one of the most intelligent & just "with it" people in our Queer Seattle Community! Yes, even moreso than others with more illustrious titles & success because Matt keeps everything SO interesting, relatable, and FUUUUNNNN & ALL with seemingly little/ no Ego! Do yourself a favor and DELVE DEEP into this Show! You won't be disappointed!!! 💖✨🌈

Always a joy to listen to, I love how different the people interviewed are and Matt does a great job keeping the conversation going.

There's a very select list of podcasts that I listen to weekly without fail, and The Sewers Of Paris is on that list. Matt Baume, the host and creator, is insightful, doesn't insist upon himself, and facilitates great conversations with gay men (mostly artists) about the culture that has influenced them, and how it made them who they are. As people, we don't create in a vacuum (and whether we are teachers, writers, cooks, politicians we ARE creating) and those who came before live on in the gay men they've influenced in very unique ways. The best episodes concentrate equally on the interviewee and his influences, and I love getting into the mind spaces of Matt and his guests. Where else but on this podcast would someone do a deep dive about the inspirational import of Miss Piggy for all of those who feel like outsiders and underdogs in a world that doesn't always appreciate their gifts?

For a lot of us queer folks, our only way of connecting with queer culture when we’re younger and/or before we’re “out” is through books, movies, etc… It’s affirming & delightful to hear about that varied & powerful connection from so many different voices. (I just wish there was a version of this for gay women!) And it’s adding SO many things to my reading/watching/everything else lists.

The Sewers of Paris is far and away the most informative and entertaining LGBTQ podcast I've come across. Matt Baume is exceptionally knowledgeable and funny, and his guests are always top notch.

I need Sewers in my regular rotation again, because he unveils the wit and smarts and LIFE that spark the work his subjects do.

Matt is a fantastic interviewer. The guests are interresting, and the stories entertaining. So many times when I listen I get reminded of great entertainment that I loved in my own life.

Matt's guests are always fascinating to hear. You have to check this out.

Matt has the conversations you want to have but are sometimes difficult to come by: deep, engaging, comprehensive. What's more, each episode expands the venn diagram of the gay experience. There are so many commonalities (Sondheim and Soloflex commercials) in the gay community and so much diversity (punk?!). Sewers of Paris explores the gambit of gay cultural touchstones and will show you how much we share, and how much there is to explore.

I absolutely love this podcast! I never fail to connect with whomever Matt interviews, and consistantly think of my own life and what has made me into the proud gay man I am today!

This is now my favorite podcast. I just found it a couple of weeks ago, when I listened to the excellent (hilarious, poignant) interview with flawless drag queen Robbie Turner. That episode and others have led me to rediscover pieces of culture that have been important to the gay men featured here: Turner’s favorite movie “The Women,” Madonna, Strauss’ opera “Salome.” This podcast is helping me piece together my own history as a gay man. Much appreciated.

Imagine a gay, male Terry Gross.

I got hooked on this podcast early on, and I quickly fell in love with it! It is great to hear from other men about what their early lives were like and how media connects us all! I love hearing about both how diverse and how similar we are, as gay men and as humans. I would LOVE to have some lesbian and bi representation as well, even just as a special series!

Wonderful cultural experience

In a world with too much culture and content to consume The Sewers of Paris works to help curate. As exciting as it is to hear others express a love of a piece of culture that I too had change my life the best part of each episode is discovering something new while listening to Baume thoughtfully probe his guests to share their stories beyond the surface level.

What a great show. The guests and topics, movies and music bring such nostalgia. I imagine what I would talk to Matt about if I'm on the show. Brilliant show.

I appreciate this geeky gay podcast very much. I feel less alone. There's a comforting nostalgia to these interviews. My middle-school self is giddy from this shared experience, 20 years never-too-late.

I came to this podcast through mention on Linoleum Knife, but my expectations weren’t high: what would I, a straight woman, find interesting about the stories of gay men and their relationship with entertainment? Turns out, a lot. Without fail, the stories told are touching and relatable, sometimes to the point of tears (theirs and mine). Matt guides their telling with grace and tact, never interrupting or barging in with his own story. Skilled interviewers are rarer than than they should be, yet Matt is one. Finally, I cannot gauge the joy the phrase “He looked like Captain Crunch without the hat” gave me, and I’m eagerly awaiting there next installment with Mark Finley. This is a great podcast.

I look forward to this podcast coming out all week long. Great host, great guests. So much of gay media somehow manages to turn every topic into a endless dick joke and this is not another manifestation of that phenomenon.

First, kudos to Matt for being a good journalist and interviewer. Just enough follow-up and making sure his guests give enough explanation for an audience that might not be familiar with the particular subjects they're talking about. I've learned a lot about a variety of authors, movies, etc. And unlike so many podcasts, Matt doesn't make it about him. Very enjoyable. Then, to the guests and format: I love hearing these stories. Even some of the hardest events of people's lives don't get brushed aside, but shown to have their contexts in the guests' lives and who they are today. I enjoy the variety of guests, they're not all one age or occupation. Every story has parts that are relatable and Matt's very good at sussing those parts out.

This feels like the gay cultural history course I never got to take on college. So good!