Alan Cumming replaces Will Young as co-host of The Homo Sapiens podcast

While we’re sad that Will Young has stepped away from the Homo Sapiens podcast, we are overjoyed that the outspoken Alan Cumming has joined co-host Chris Sweeney for the fourth season.

Inspired by BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour program, but for the LGBTQ community, the show has welcomed comedians and singers, actors and activists to the digital airways for a chitchat.

But while all their past guests have been legendary in their own right, this season is themed around icons.

Patti Smith, Sadiq Khan and Armistead Maupin will be filling the guest spots this season as well as some newer faces like Australian comedian Hannah Gadsby and American playwright Jeremy O Harris.

 

Hosts of the Homo Sapiens podcast: Alan Cumming and Chris Sweeney

“It’s all over the map. I think people think that to be an icon you have to be old and/or dead but all the people we interview are very much alive and some of them are very young,” Alan Cumming tells Attitude.

“By being their authentic selves they change the world. That is what I have really learned from the notion of being an icon.”

The first episode of the new season was boosted by the wit of Stephen Fry. The trio touch on everything from gay sex, mental health and male grooming – Stephen recommends castile soap! And we were shocked to learn of his prison days (scandal!) before he reinvented himself at University.

 

Stephen Fry with Alan Cumming and Chris Sweeney for the pre-COVID-19 recording

The second episode welcomes Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon, who of course gives us the low-down on her 2018 campaign for Governor of New York, but Chris Sweeney tells us that his favourite moment from the whole series was Cynthia discussing parenthood.

“It was a bit intense, but we were interviewing Cynthia Nixon, who has a kid who is trans and she was speaking about an article that she read”, says Cumming.

“The article said you can either chose to have a dead son or an alive daughter and that is what the real choice is if you have a kid who is trans and is struggling with that.

 

Cynthia Nixon with Chris Sweeney and Alan Cumming for the pre-COVID-19 recording

“And I just thought to hear her say that, someone who has been through that and been an icon in so many ways for human rights, is incredible.”

A new segment on the show is called Agony Uncles, wherein Alan and Chris try to solve listener’s problems – even if they admitted they disagree about the proper solution more often than not.

New episodes are released every Thursday, one week they have a pre-recorded guest interview followed a week later by an extended Homo Sapiens Extra: Lockdown Edition in which Alan and Chris discuss the previous week’s interview, read fan’s reaction letters and have a general catch up about life in lockdown with Alan currently in New York and Chris in the UK.

You can listen to the Homo Sapiens podcast free on acast, Apple and Spotify. homosapienspodcast.com