Featured : BRANDY SCHILLACE, The Intermediaries: A Weimar StoryIt’s me! Bringing you the fascinating history of a daring team of sexologists who built the first trans clinic in the shadow of the Third Reich. Set in interwar Germany, The Intermediaries tells the forgotten story of The Institute for Sexual Science, the world’s first center for homosexual and transgender rights. Headed by a gay Jewish man, Dr. Magnus Hirshfeld, The Institute aided in the first gender-affirming surgeries and hormone replacements, acting as a rebellious base of operations in the face of rising prejudice, nationalism, and Nazi propaganda. Schillace presents a scintillating narrative, introducing readers to Dora Richter, an Institute patient, whom we follow from early desperate years to gender affirming care and her right to live as a woman.. She offers an example of queer resilience in the face of punishing cultural constraints. The Intermediaries charts the interdependent relationships between nascent sexual science, queer civil rights, and the fight against fascism. It tells riveting stories of LGBTQ pioneers, a surprising, long-suppressed history, and offers a cautionary tale in the face of today’s oppressive anti-trans legislation. Joining me will be Eric Garcia, because it is hard to interview yourself! A free event, let’s take a look at how then… is often now.

Episode was recorded live June 26, 2025.

Email: peculiar@bschillace.com

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The author of Black Chalk, "the smart summer thriller you've been waiting for" (NPR), returns with a mesmerizing new novel about a dangerous secret society at Oxford University, and the first-year Literature student whose life begins to unravel in its shadow.When Ali McCain, an eighteen-year-old from Los Angeles, is accepted at Oxford, it’s a chance to fulfill his dreams. To study English literature in England; to meet true intellectuals; and to glimpse the life he might have lived had his father—British rock star Gel McCain, legendary frontman of the Pale Fires—not abandoned him and his mother when he was a toddler.But not long after he arrives at the storied campus, Ali is drawn into a dark, disorienting world where events grow more and more curious by the day. Trading on his father’s name, he gains entry into one of Oxford’s oldest and most selective secret societies, the Saracens. As he immerses himself in this rarefied world, he inadvertently sets in motion a series of events that might culminate in disaster.

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Welcome to the Peculiar Movie Club, a bonus podcast linked to our main show the Peculiar Book Club through common themes in media. This week, in honor of the book Tap Dancing on Everest, we are reviewing our first documentary Sherpa.

Join Davey Berris and Darren Cross as they take a deep dive into this real life tragedy. We'll discuss the themes of capitalism, the relationship between the Sherpas and the climbers, and is the icefall really the best route for everyone to climb.

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