All are welcome on ‘Nancy’ podcast about LGBTQ lives
“Nancy,” produced by WNYC Studios, is just one in a new crop of podcasts rapidly crowding the industry. Hosted by Tobin Low and Kathy Tu, “super fun, super queer” best friends, the show is ostensibly about LGBTQ issues, but listen to the current 12episode season, and it’s about so much more.
Low and Tu, both Asian and queer-identifying, are a charming pair, quick with laughs and self-effacing wit about their life experiences. Equal parts thoughtful and affable, they infuse each episode with an openness that invites bingeing.
“We place a premium on being our honest, authentic selves to the stories we tell,” says Tu.
Indeed, in an interview with Time, the magazine dubbed both hosts “radically honest,” but “we’re just doing us,” insists Low.
“I think that phrase, though, speaks more to the podcasting space that we’re entering,” he says, referring to the oft-discussed homogeneity of the podcast industry. “It’s not a secret: Podcasts are dominated by straight, white male hosts. To hear two queer people who are also people of color speak from their personal experiences, how can it not be different and honest?”
Low and Tu make active efforts to share their platform and space with other stories and experiences under the figurative rainbow. “That’s our premise,” says Tu. “We let people speak for themselves, tell their own stories. If we’re curious about a story, we always approach it with an open mind.”
This is obvious when you look at a breakdown of the existing episodes. The most recent features Orlando, Fla., citizens navigating the aftermath of last year’s Pulse Nightclub shooting, released on the anniversary of that tragic event, but an earlier episode is an irreverent dissection of Professor Albus Dumbledore’s alleged queerness in the “Harry Potter” series. Another episode is cringeworthy, as a guest recounts reading love sonnets to the target of his years-long, unrequited love, while yet another episode follows the story of gay Republicans who say they’ve gained access to the Trump administration since the 2016 election.
The first episode features the hosts sharing their coming-out stories. Tu had to come out to her mother multiple times, while Low had to reckon with his dad’s obsession with “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.” That episode sets the tone and theme for the show. Not “coming out,” necessarily. No, the theme is more about the unfolding or teasing out of people’s stories, which incidentally includes Low and Tu’s newfound visibility within the LGBTQ community.
“One of the questions that we’re asked now is ‘do you think of yourself as experts?’ ” says Low. “Do we see ourselves speaking to the whole community? We own what we do but also cop to what we don’t know. We address our own biases and learn from our subjects.”
Says Tu: “We don’t think any one story on the show speaks to the total concept of queerness or the monolith of the LGBTQ experience. We’re seeking stories that speak through how people are living their own lives, on their own terms.”
“We have listeners reach out to us, asking us why we haven’t covered some stories but focus on others,” says Low when asked about their growing audience’s reception of “Nancy.” “I’ve been that person waiting for anyone to talk about being Asian or being queer. I take that kind of criticism in stride because I know what it’s like as someone that just wants to be seen.”
“This is kind of depressing,” says Tu, “but we’re only leaders by default, in that we’re POC voices entering podcasting. We’re not even the first. There have been people already doing the work.
“It’s not really that we’re taking the mantle of ‘leader.’ Our role is to provide space for people to speak. We’re just trying to listen.”