In 1993, the third season of MTV's The Real World brought into the lives of millions of people the unforgettable Pedro Zamora. This week we celebrate his life and honor his legacy, as we take a look into what made Pedro so special, and the lasting impact he made in the education and advocacy for HIV/AIDS awareness, prevention, and treatment. The fight is not over, and it's up to us to carry his torch.

To watch Matt Baume's incredibly informative and touching video How Pedro Zamora Used TV To Fight AIDS, click here.

This week's Special Feature is "On My To Be Read Pile" in which we talk about the Queer Liberation Library and the book The Viral Underclass. To support the QLL's fundraiser, click here.

Resources for those living with HIV/AIDS are available here.

Additional information sources for this week's episode:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pedro_Zamora

https://www.cdc.gov/hiv-data/nhss/hiv-diagnoses-deaths-and-prevalence-2025.html

https://www.unaids.org/en/resources/fact-sheet

https://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/mohammed-bilal/

https://www.clintonlibrary.gov/research/hivaids-topic-guide

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pedro-zamoras-torch_b_5700865

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7903022/#:~:text=Median%20survival%20time%20following%20AIDS%20onset%20increased,months.%20Trends%20in%20improved%20survival%20were%20diagnosis%2Dspecific.

https://www.medpagetoday.com/medical-journeys/hiv/106053

https://www.radicaldeathstudies.com/blog/2019/12/28/pedro-zamora-from-mtvs-real-world-radical-death-activism-by-justin-cook

https://glaad.org/whereweareontv23/representation-of-characters-living-with-hiv-and-aids/

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/magazine-39490507

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mariel_boatlift

Podcast music: “Couture Fantasy" and "Mid Western”, by Eino Toivanen, kongano.com Licenced under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0