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Podcast: Private Parts Unknown: Sex & Love Around the World
Episode: Drag Before RuPaul’s Drag Race: The Cultural History of NYC Drag with Elyssa Goodman
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For the 248th episode of Private Parts Unknown, host Courtney Kocak welcomes journalist and author Elyssa Goodman.
Elyssa is the author of Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City, a sweeping look at more than 150 years of drag—from 19th-century male impersonators and mafia-run clubs to the rise of RuPaul’s Drag Race and today’s political backlash. Through rich archival research and interviews with contemporary performers, Elyssa reveals drag as not just spectacle, but survival strategy, community lifeline, and radical art form.
In this episode, we talk about the forgotten history of drag kings, how queer communities c...