38. Trans-sister Radio: Synth Icon Wendy Carlos

History is Gay

If you’ve ever enjoyed disco, EDM, changed your voice with auto-tune, or danced along to Daft Punk, you’ve got the subject of today’s episode to thank! In this episode of History is Gay, Leigh is joined by guest host Hannah van Rhee (they/them) of the QueerSounds Podcast to talk about Wendy Carlos, electronic music pioneer, synthesizer queen, film soundtrack composer extraordinaire, and trans woman! We’ll get into all the exciting details, like weird stories about Stanley Kubrick during A Clockwork Orange, comedy albums with Weird Al Yankovic, living inside a faraday cage, and more cats than you can shake a dangly, shiny stick at.

Our wonderful guest host for this episode, Hannah van Rhee, can be found on twitter at @duchessofdeer, and you can follow their podcast QueerSounds on twitter @queersoundspod, Instagram @queersoundspod, and at www.queersounds.com.

Outline 00:00 – Introduction 5:01 – Main Topic: Trans-sister Radio: Synth Icon Wendy Carlos 7:09 – Socio-Historical Context 13:06 – A Note on Sources 14:23 – Who were they? Bio Time. 48:09 – Why do we think they're gay? 52:15 - 52:58 — Content warning: Descriptions of dysphoria and internalized transphobia 53:23 - 54:07 — Content warning: Suicidal ideation 1:07:36 – Word of the Week 1:20:46 – Main Takeaways and Final Conclusions: Wendy Carlos’ Legacy 1:28:54 – How Gay were They? 1:31:34 – Closing and Where to Find us Online

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