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As the end of the year approaches, it’s important to take a retrospective look to appreciate the challenges overcome, goals achieved, and lessons learned. In doing so, we can use the knowledge gained to build a stronger foundation for the year ahead.
In this episode, we're revisiting some of our featured guest episodes from 2024!
Related Episodes:
Described by many as fun, flexible, and fabulous, Travis McMaster (they/them) is a champion of visibility, authenticity, and diversity.
Travis is the host of Caffeinated N’ Queer, a caffeine-fueled series with an LGBTQ+ focus. With books being banned and history not being taught, Travis pushes back with a caffeinated beverage in-hand providing a source of LGBTQ+ history, information, and recommendations.
As a public speaker and presenter, Travis inspires by sharing their personal experiences and lessons learned from navigating their queer identity in parallel to pursuing their career as a multimedia and marketing consultant for more than 14 years. Travis encourages listeners to take take action to better the communities where they reside.
Travis is board member for Alder Health Services, a non-profit improving the health and wellbeing of individuals living with HIV/AIDS and members of the LGBTQ+ community in south central Pennsylvania. In this role, they serve as the co-chair for the Resource Development committee.
Erick DuPree, PhD is a literary anthropologist specializing in the intersection of literature and how it impacts culture. His research examines how literature shapes human experience, identity, sexual politics, and kinship.
With their writing and speaking for DebtFreeGuys.com and Queer Money® podcast, David & John Auten-Schneider help queer people (and allies) live fabulously not fabulously broke. As certified LGBTBEs, they are the queer voice in both personal and business finances.
David and John have been featured on Oprah, Variety, and CNBC. They have been named the Street’s ‘2023 Finfluencer to follow’, NerdWallet’s ‘2023 LGBTQ+ Finfluencer to follow’ and Go Banking Rate’s ‘2023’s 12 Best Personal Finance Blogs’. Their work has appeared on Forbes, Yahoo!Finance, NBC’s Squawk Box and The News with Sheppard Smith, ABC News, Rachel Ray Show, and Good Morning America to name a few. They’ve partnered with some of the best in financial services, including Capital One, Experian, MassMutual, American Express, and Prudential. They’ve partnered with some of the best LGBTQ+ organizations including, The Trevor Project, Callen-Lorde, The William Way Foundation, One Colorado and LGBTQ+ centers nationwide.
Their goal is to connect LGBTQ+ people with the information and tools they need to reach financial security.
Matthew Simko is a style & lifestyle expert and experienced host based in Boston Massachusetts. Regarded as the go-to for laid back, unpretentious "every guy" style. A notable figure on Boston's social scene sharing his experiences on social media under the handles @SimkoSays.
Matthew hosts a bi-monthly segment on MassAppeal on NBC 22 and is a regular contributor on The Rhode Show and CT Style. Along with hosting, Matthew has been featured in The Boston Globe, Boston Herald, and The Improper Bostonian. A writer focusing on men's style, travel, and notable Boston events, Matthew always adds in a healthy dose of personal opinion regardless of the topic.
Matthew's charity of choice is Goodwill Boston which helps individuals with barriers to self-sufficiency to achieve independence and dignity through work.
Rod Lujano is a bookstagramer living in Mexicali, Mexico, with his husband and his three dog babies. He loves M/M romance and spicy books with happily ever afters. Rod works full-time as an engineer and reading is his happy place. He is always happy to engage with other people, make new friends, and talk books.
Jose Nateras is an L.A.-based Actor, Writer, & Filmmaker from Chicago. A graduate of Loyola University Chicago, Jose has his MFA in Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC). A screenwriter, playwright, and freelance journalist, Jose’s debut novel, Testament, was published by Ninestar Press. One of his feature-length screenplays, Zero Feet Away, was included on 2021’s Bloodlist and is in development with Village Roadshow Pictures/Brillstein Entertainment Partners while another, Departing Seniors, made its world premiere at Frightfest UK before premiering domestically at the Chicago International Film Festival and is now available via VOD.
Kevin O'Connor is the author of Two Floors above Grief. His career spans over fifty years as a writer, teacher, principal, curriculum designer, and university instructor. He authors content and provides training in mathematics instruction, principal leadership, support for substitute teachers, LGBTQ advocacy, Sexual Health/Family Life, self-publishing, and marketing.
Kevin enjoys chronicling the stories of families and friends through tracing genealogical histories, writing and picture collections. His prior writing includes personal letters, articles in professional publications, dissertation, anthologies and presentations delivered at conferences, seminars and webinars.
Kevin sings and performs in theaters, and is active with SMART Ride, a bicycling group that rides annually from Miami to Key West, raising funds for HIV awareness, treatments and education. He was an elementary teacher, principal, professor and curriculum coordinator in California, Illinois and Florida from 1973-2020.
In his final educational position, Kevin authored content and provided training in areas including support for substitute teachers, LGBTQ advocacy, and Sexual Health/Family Life. He resides in Ft. Lauderdale with his husband, Leon. Their family includes five sons and seven granddaughters.
TQ Sims writes stories that center Queer characters in extraordinary situations. In their first novel Godspeed, Lovers, two men fall in love while using their psychic powers to battle sentient storms and an evil corporation that wishes to control them. It is a story about mental health, post-traumatic growth, and found family. TQ’s story “The Ritual” was a finalist in competition at the Tennessee Williams and New Orleans Literary Festival in 2022. Their work has appeared in Louisiana Words, Beyond Queer Words, and The Queer and Trans Guide to Storms. They live in New Orleans with their partner and a growing number of cats.
Max Austin has many passions: his husband, his two children, his writing and his work as a nurse. Oh, and not to forget the family dog of course! Through his writing and lived experiences, Max wants to give a voice to silenced and marginalised LBGTQIA+ groups. He is honoured and humbled that his biofictional memoir ‘How Can We Be Wrong?’ has found
a home with Spectrum Books; a dedicated LBGTQIA+ publisher. Max has been a keynote speaker at LBGTQIA+ inclusion conferences. For Max, kind inclusiveness in health care and indeed our broader society is as vital as breathing. When not working as a nurse or writing, he loves nothing more than spending time with his children and husband. Most weekends, they can be found covered in mud whilst being led through the park by their rather boisterous but friendly black Labrador!
Tyrell Brown is a Long-time Philadelphia community organizer. They were appointed Executive Director of the radical social justice organization Galaei after serving previously as the organization’s deputy director. They have had a wealth of community activism experience in Philadelphia; they helmed local organizational efforts for Bernie Sanders’ campaign for president and carried out mutual aid and community organizing work with Reclaim Philadelphia. They have worked as a preschool teacher, directed the Wynnefield Residents Association’s camp programming, and co-developed children’s programming for the Philadelphia Trans Wellness Conference. Through their leadership at Galaei, they co-organized the 50th annual pride festivities in Philadelphia including Pride march and festival in 2022.
Tyrell is a compassionate leader who cultivates environments that are both resourceful and restorative in the pursuit of justice for marginalized peoples.
Amin Ghaziani is Professor of Sociology, Canada Research Chair in Urban Sexualities, and co-editor of Contexts, the public-facing magazine of the American Sociological Association. Amin has written and edited 6 books and over 60 academic articles, book chapters, and essays. He’s won several awards for his work, including a Lambda Literary Award Finalist for Best Book in LGBT Studies. Amin’s been featured in places like The New York Times, The New Yorker, Time magazine, British Vogue, BBC Radio 4, and CBC Radio, among others. His latest book “Long Live Queer Nightlife: How the Closing of Gay Bars Sparked a Revolution” was published in the US on March 26, 2024.
Anthony DiPietro is a gay sex poet and arts administrator originally from Providence, Rhode Island. He has lived throughout New England and in California, New York, Oregon, and Tennessee. A graduate of Brown University with honors in creative writing, he also earned a creative writing MFA at Stony Brook University. Now deputy director of Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, he resides in Worcester, MA. He composed his 2021 chapbook And Walk Through (Seven Kitchens Press) on a typewriter during the pandemic lockdowns. kiss & release (Unsolicited Press, 2024) is his debut collection.
