The Dorothy Project

The Dorothy Project

What’s the connection between certain women - from Lady Gaga to the Queen Mum - and queer society? This interview series, hosted by DJ and LGBT activist Alice Beverton-Palmer, explores the Dorothy in ‘friends of Dorothy’. Expect fresh, frank and funny interviews with famous names and unsung heroes, a new angle on the queer zeitgeist, and history you won’t have learned at school. Get involved on Twitter - we want your stories, and your guest suggestions. Tweet a name @Dorothy_Podcast and we'll try to make it happen. We're especially keen to talk to more women of colour.

Episodes

S3 Ep8: Tony Gill: Fashion lecturer and PR

March 11, 2022 • 31 mins
For our last episode of season three, we meet another Friend of Dorothy: fashion lecturer and PR Tony Gill. Tony’s British Asian upbringing gave him a whole different set of gay icons to the ones host Alice grew up with - and the conversation may give you an appetite to work back through decades of Bollywood classics… 

Creator & host: Alice Beverton-Palmer
Producer & editor: Laura...
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S3 Ep7: Paula Akpan: Historian and journalist

March 2, 2022 • 43 mins
Any history nerd will be excited to hear about Paula Akpan’s research into Black queer women in - and beyond - the British Women’s Lib movement. 

Paula is also currently working on her first book, When We Ruled: The Rise and Fall of Twelve Queens. Billed as “a book that will give voice to the women warriors and regents across the African continent often demoted to a footnote in history”, it will be ...
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S3 Ep6: Rita: Club Kali co-founder

February 23, 2022 • 30 mins
Today’s interviewee, Rita, has proven the power of nightlife for the queer community better than maybe anyone else I’ve met. 

In the combination of her own life experiences, her career as a psychologist and in LGBTQ domestic abuse services, and with the groundbreaking queer Asian night Club Kali, Rita has created something very special indeed.

That’s an incredible legacy ...
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S3 Ep5: Queer Women in Fiction

February 10, 2022 • 23 mins
This one's a little bit different... In summer 2021 we brought together a panel of debut authors, all female, all writing about queer topics or characters, along with the broadcaster and literary judge Simon Savidge. We talked representation, what's changed, and what's next in queer fiction. Prepare to go away with a long 'to be read' list.

This panel was first published as a LIVE Twitter Spaces con...
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S3 Ep4: Dr Fern Riddell: Historian of sex

February 3, 2022 • 32 mins
Dr Fern Riddell is a historian, podcaster, and the author of - among others - the brilliant book Sex: Lessons from History.

If you haven’t read it yet, its fairly revolutionary perspective is that not only have people always been obsessed with sex, but that British people in the past weren’t necessarily as narrow minded about sex, sexuality, and gender as you might think. Which I found a really hope...
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S3 Ep3: Judge Rinder: Barrister and TV personality

January 26, 2022 • 26 mins
This week’s interviewee made his name as the UK’s answer to Judge Judy, and on Strictly Come Dancing, but there’s much more to him than that. 

From his upbringing in North London (in a future celebrity enclave, not far from Rachel Stevens and Amy Winehouse) to his crowd of adoring female fans, the Rinderettes, Rob Rinder had so much to say. 

A rare male interviewee, we re...
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S3 Ep2: Lisa-Jayne Lewis: Sexuality and Christianity

January 13, 2022 • 37 mins
Meet Lisa-Jayne Lewis. A well-known figure in the queer Christian world, she is on the leadership team of Two:23 and The Gathering Space, both safe spaces for queer people to be themselves within their faith. Lisa-Jayne is also a trustee of OneBodyOneFaith, the oldest LGBT Christian organisation in the UK and formerly known as the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM). We talked about her journey through her sexuality and ...
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S3 Ep1: Bishi: Musician

January 5, 2022 • 44 mins
The Dorothy Project is BACK. Every Thursday, we’ll be introducing you to another iconic woman and her impact on queer culture. First up, it’s Bishi - the mononymic and multi-talented musician, artist, performer, composer and curator.

A true Renaissance woman, Bishi found herself on the London queer scene at a very young age, and became part of the legendary club kid Leigh Bowery’s band Minty. She ha...
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Victoria Scone: Drag Race UK queen

September 29, 2021 • 21 mins
Drag Race UK is back, and it’s making herstory thanks to Victoria Scone. Yes - The Dorothy Project is back for a special one-off episode, meeting the first ever cis female drag queen to star on RuPaul’s Drag Race worldwide. 

Cardiff queen Victoria is the drag daughter of season two’s Tia Kofi. Inspired by pantomime dames and gay icons, her drag is as British as afternoon tea. But this camp classic a...
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S2 Ep10: Olivia Andrews: 'Dear White Gays' blogger

July 11, 2020 • 29 mins
What does a self-described ‘outspoken black lesbian’ have to say about Prides and the UK's queer nightlife scene? The Dorothy Project meets Olivia Andrews, author of two recent viral articles about racism within the LGBTQ community. 

Olivia is also a Stonewall Young Campaigner alum. During her degree at the University of Leeds, she co-organised the award-winning ‘Why is My Curriculum White: Decoloni...
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S2 Ep9: Sharmaine Lovegrove: Publisher

June 25, 2020 • 26 mins
Can books change the world? Sharmaine Lovegrove is the founder of the publishing imprint Dialogue Books, which she set up to promote stories by, for, and about queer, disabled, working class, black and minority communities. 
As a queer Black woman herself, Sharmaine believes that storytelling creates the dialogue we need to build a more inclusive world. I quite agree.

Her own life story i...
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S2 Ep8: Victoria Noe: AIDS fundraiser and ACT-UP NY member

March 4, 2020 • 25 mins
There are different ways to be an activist. Some people chain themselves to railings and get arrested, others raise money, or deliver services. “Everyone can do something” is the message I was left with after talking to veteran fundraiser and activist Victoria Noe.

After years of fundraising for AIDS causes in the 1980s and 1990s, she was ‘burnt out’, but has since returned and is now a member of AC...
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S2 Ep7: Rose Lewenstein: TV writer and cabaret performer

February 26, 2020 • 24 mins
She is currently developing several original dramas and adaptations for TV. On stage, Rose (@RoseLewenstein) performs with queer comedy cabaret troupe Sex Shells - who’ve enjoyed multiple runs at top venues including the Edinburgh Fringe, Soho Theatre and The Glory - as That Woman Rosie.

We got stuck in to being the ‘token woman’, the difference between gay (‘as in…’) and queer, and performing queer...
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S2 Ep6: Flick Thorley: HIV and chemsex nurse

February 19, 2020 • 35 mins
This week, I meet a woman who has been professionally and personally involved in the HIV epidemic since 1985. After nursing some of the first people to live and die with HIV in New Zealand, Flick came to the UK and was a Charge Nurse at London Lighthouse from 1994-1998. 

London Lighthouse - most famously visited by Princess Di - offered comprehensive, compassionate care to people dying of AIDS and t...
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S2 Ep5: Sophie Anderson: Cock Destroyer

February 12, 2020 • 28 mins
THIS EPISODE CONTAINS EXPLICIT SEXUAL CONTENT, ADULT THEMES, AND STRONG LANGUAGE. You've been warned.

This week we meet a legend among Dorothies - Sophie, the Cock Destroyer. The porn star and social media sensation, immortalised in RuPaul’s Drag Race UK’s Frock Destroyers, tells Alice about her fifteen minutes of fame - which have lasted 18 months and counting.

We talked about what makes a...
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S2 Ep4: Simon Jones: Entertainment publicist

January 29, 2020 • 32 mins
Presenter Alice Beverton-Palmer flips the script, and for the first time on The Dorothy Project, interviews a queer man about the women in his life. 

And what a way to start! Simon Jones’s life has taken him from being a teenage Madonna stan in a tiny Norfolk village, to winning a teen magazine talent search, and now shaping the careers of gay icons such as Geri Halliwell and Jade Thirlwall. In his ...
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S2 Ep3: Corinne Cumming: Drag photographer

January 22, 2020 • 29 mins
She wandered into Bloc bar one night with a camera, and hasn’t left the queer scene since. Alice Beverton-Palmer talks to music and drag photographer Corinne Cumming (@capturedbycorinne) about how drag became her creative muse, finding your queer family, and what it’s like to be a female photographer in the straight club scene (spoiler: it’s shit)

Corinne regularly shoots the world’s most famous dra...
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S2 Ep2: Shelly Chopra Dhar: Bollywood director

January 15, 2020 • 28 mins
Born into a family of major Bollywood producers, Shelly never got the chance to join them - she was “married and packed off”, and only began her own film career once her children were in school. One of those children turned out to be gay - and Shelly’s experience raising a gay child inspired her to make Ek Ladki. 

We talked about her Trojan horse tactics to bring an LGBT story with a message of acce...
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S2 Ep1: Ana Matronic: Scissor Sisters frontwoman

January 8, 2020 • 32 mins
In the first episode of Season Two, Scissor Sisters frontwoman Ana helps host Alice Beverton-Palmer choose a drag name - and has advice for single Dorothies looking for a guy.

With a gay father and godfathers, Ana is a born Dorothy. She fulfilled her destiny in lavish style - moving to San Francisco as a teenager and then later New York City, where she performed at and hosted burlesque and drag nigh...
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S2: The Dorothy Project Season Two: Trailer

January 5, 2020 • 1 min
In this trailer, host Alice Beverton-Palmer is BACK with a sneak peek of who you'll meet in Season Two of The Dorothy Project. 

The first episode, with Scissor Sisters frontwoman Ana Matronic, lands this Thursday January 9th. Subscribe now so you don't miss a second!
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