Matt Baume
Wouldn’t it be nice if you could design a career that fits your interests, no matter how diverse? What if you could build a business around your passions, even if those passions are as disparate as Dungeons & Dragons and Drag Queens? What if I told you that you could Choose Your Own Adventure and make a living—at the intersection of the things you love? Matt Baume has done just that. Let’s find out how.
He ‘makes stuff for the internet’ based on his interests in gaming, literature, movies, music and the LGBTQ community. As a writer, Matt Baume has had work appear regularly in publications such as Rolling Stone, Vice Magazine and NPR. He is also the host of two popular podcasts, Queens of Adventure and The Sewers of Paris. Matt has delivered presentations at South by Southwest, Gaymer X and The Los Angeles Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association, among many other venues, and he is the author of Defining Marriage: Voices from a Forty-Year Labor of Love.
Today, Matt joins us to share his interest in identifying unexpected connections among very different groups of people. He explains why the LGBTQ community gravitates toward arts and entertainment and offers insight into the current state of queer culture. Matt discusses his take on marriage equality, the challenges of our community moving forward, and the value of ‘adding stripes to the rainbow.’ Listen in for Matt’s advice on getting our message to the geographically isolated and learn how he makes a living doing what he loves!
Listen Now:
Topics Covered
What inspires Matt Baume to create diverse content
- Interest in unexpected connections between groups
- Favorite example: Dungeons & Drag Queens
Matt’s advice around turning your interests into a business
- Build launchpad while working a stable job
- Do unpaid work to build connections, learn industry
- Be deliberate about what the audience wants
How Matt’s content attracts a diverse audience
- Culture Cruise explores LGBT themes in pop culture
- Queens of Adventure introduces drag queens to gamers
Why the queer community gravitates to the arts
- Natural human interest in storytelling
- Express feelings we don’t have words for
Matt Baume gives insight on the current state of queer culture
- Much freer to tell stories that don’t end in tragedy
- Can be the hero of own story (and others)
- Queerness, differences give us strength
Matt’s take on marriage equality
- Sympathetic to the critique of marriage as an institution
- Legal equality is moral imperative
The challenges of the queer community moving forward
- Support allies in need of help right now
- Trans in the military, defunding of HIV/AIDS
- Access to adoption, dismantling of ACA
Matt’s view of entertainment as an escape
- Give permission to shut off thinking side of the brain
- Use arts to forge connection = superpower
How to get messages of commonality to the geographically isolated
- Age-appropriate resources for schools
- Engage with families left behind in small towns
Matt’s insight on representing all colors of the rainbow
- There are people PRIDE has failed
- Counterproductive to ask people to accept too much too soon
- Listen and address misunderstandings, concerns, and fears
Matt’s take on the LGBTQ community and charitable giving
- Confronted by many choices, may not give at all
- Consider Gill Foundation, Victory Fund, Lambda Legal or ACLU
