In "AIDS: The Lost Voices," hosts William Hampson and Gloria take a profound look back at the often overlooked narratives of individuals affected by the AIDS crisis in the 80s and 90s.
They navigate through the archives of British newspapers, shedding light on the lived experiences that were overshadowed by sensationalist headlines. Hampson, drawing from his own harrowing experiences as detailed in his book 'The Lost Boys of Soho', highlights the personal toll of the pandemic, revealing how stigma and fear shaped the lives of countless individuals within the gay community.
Together, they aim to honour the voices that were lost amidst the chaos, providing a platform for understanding the human stories that contributed to the history of AIDS in Britain.
AIDS: The Lost Voices - Brian Carmichael 'This All Actually Happened' 2/2
HIV/AIDS and prison activist Brian Carmichael shares his experiences of state persecution and continued advocacy after his release in this interview.
31 Jul 2026TRANSCRIPT
AIDS: The Lost Voices - Brian Carmichael 'This All Actually Happened' 1/2
HIV/AIDS and prison activist Brian Carmichael shares his courageous fight for inmate care and dignity during an interview about his hunger strike and advocacy.
28 Mar 2026TRANSCRIPT
AIDS: The Lost Voices - Prison Officer Geoffrey Pearce OAM
Geoffrey Pearce O.A.M. was a prison corrections officer at Long Bay Jail in New South Wales who, shortly after completing his training at 21 with his whole life and career ahead of him, was deliberately stabbed with a needle contaminated with HIV-positive blood by an inmate from the Jail’s AIDS wing, The Malabar Assessment Unit.
There was no clear motive for the attack: colleagues and inmates alike described Pearce as a ‘gentle giant’ who came to the job “with no ego” and was genuinely committed to assisting inmate rehabilitation. Diagnosed HIV positive following the incident, he nonetheless returned to duty and turned his diagnosis and the publicity surrounding the assault into a platform for education, confronting the fear and stigma of the early 1990s by demonstrating that people living with HIV were not contagious in everyday settings and could lead relatively normal lives. His consequential advocacy left such a profound mark in a short time that he was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1998 and, in 2020, had a correctional facility named in his honour: the Geoffrey Pearce Correctional Centre.
All articles and relevant documents from this episode are available on the:
XTRA Tea Blog AIDS: THE LOST VOICES - Geoffrey Pearce OAM (https://www.thelostboysofsoho.co.uk/extratea/aids-the-lost-voices-geoffrey-pearce-oam)
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Outro Music
'If I Can Dream' by Elvis Presley
Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/track/3C6pSIVeBKIbSpCFtaw1r8?autoplay=true)
Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/gb/album/if-i-can-dream/1675583175?i=1675583434)
Amazon Music (https://music.amazon.co.uk/tracks/B07JHD1WC2?do=play&agent=googleAssistant&ref=dmm_seo_google_gkp_tracks&explicit=false)
YouTube Music (https://music.youtube.com/watch?v=26m0ny0Vy7I&feature=gws_kp_track)
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Background Music - Always On My Mind (Piano Cover by Riyandi Kusuma)
Stream Riyandi Kusuma on Spotify (https://open.spotify.com/artist/2mopkIQxw9oLxUUUd0DdxK)
Stream Riyandi Kusuma on Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/artist/riyandi-kusuma/1440319761)
Follow Riyandi Kusuma on Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/riyandikusumaa/)
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Elvis Presley - Always On My Mind (Piano Cover by Riyandi Kusuma)
Watch on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llAK1j_gHX4)
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Music / Instrumental by Aries Beats 'A Sin' + WEBSITE (https://free-songs.de/my-music/)
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Third-party media: Used under 'fair use' for the sole purpose of education, criticism and/or research relating to HIV/AIDS, featured in this podcast which has no (Zero) commercial gain. No copyright infringement intended -
British Newspaper Archives / Newspapers
Inside a recent episode
AIDS: The Lost Voices - Brian Carmichael 'This All Actually Happened' 2/2
Published 7 Aug 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] When I got out of prison in 93, the first thing I did, my dad and my sister picked me up, but I was like, boom, San Francisco. And we drive to San Francisco. And I went there because I wanted to thank the Bay Area reporter, right? Because they're the ones that first started writing them stories about us. They're the ones that kept us alive and they kept the story going. So I went there to thank them, right? So I see the guy at the desk and I was like, hey, on behalf of everybody in prison, man, I just want to tell you guys, thank you, man. […]
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