In this mixtape of documentaries, host Sarah Esocoff takes you to rap battles, mosh pits, and songwriting sessions. We’ll explore non-binary identity through emo music and trans history through a lost VHS tape. Sounds Gay tells stories of queer people whose lives have been transformed by music.
How can sound be used as a tool of protest? The Demilitarize Brooklyn Navy Yard protest campaign employs noise demonstrations, along with other tactics, in their attempt to get two companies with ties to the US and Israeli militaries evicted from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
9 Feb 2026
Gaylors
We're back! And we have for you a years-long investigation into the sprawling, chaotic world of gaylors—people who believe that Taylor Swift is queer.
5 Jul 2023
Sandy Stone
Sandy Stone has lived many lives. She’s a pioneering recording engineer who worked with the likes of Jimi Hendrix and Van Morrison. She was part of the women’s music label Olivia Records, mixing iconic albums in spite of transphobic backlash. She’s an academic, and is considered one of the founders of the field of transgender studies. And she’s an artist, with a dynamic, multimedia practice spanning decades. In this episode, we spend four days with the hilarious and big-thinking Sandy at her home in Santa Cruz—parallel parking, flying model airplanes, and pondering sound, consciousness, and grief.
28 Jun 2023
The Pit
What’s it like in the middle of a trans mosh pit? The Pit is a place where trans people of all ages smash together, literally. A place where time expands, contracts, and explodes. At this trans punk show, The Dilators frontwoman Saoirse is turning 29. Her “gay mom” Renée is 74. One of the bands, Hardly Fits, is still in high school. But age can mean something different when you’re trans. Come with us on a journey through trans time—all in one night.
21 Jun 2023
Julius Eastman
Who has it right about the uncanny legacy of composer Julius Eastman? The musician -- Black, gay and a fixture in the minimalist classical music scene of the 1970s and 80s -- wrote songs that demanded a lot of the listener. But his life, too, resists simplified explanations. In this episode, we delve into four distinct and intersecting perspectives.
14 Jun 2023
Melanie Speaks
How did Melanie help a generation of trans women find their voices? And who was she?
7 Jun 2023
Filipemo
How do our identities get fused into the sounds we make? In this episode, we witness the birth of a song co-created by two friends. What they come up with turns out to be an intricate portrait of gender dysphoria and Filipinx identity.
31 May 2023
Battle Rap
What’s it like to be in an environment where you can say whatever you want—but so can everyone else? In this episode, we dive headfirst into the battle rap arena—a place that'll make you squirm and wince and revel in a masterful word war between two women rappers: 40 B.A.R.R.S. and QB Black Diamond. This episode is raw, revealing, explicit, and the opposite of a safe space.
24 May 2023
CCM
What does church music have to do with queer culture? We rewind back to a time in the early aughts, when Contemporary Christian Music – CCM for short – permeated popular culture and was used to press evangelical values on those who made and consumed these songs. In this episode, we hear from queer Christian musicians Jennifer Knapp and Semler, as well as scholar Caris Adel.
8 May 2023
Introducing: Sounds Gay
Sounds Gay tells stories of queer people whose lives have been transformed by music. In this limited series, host Sarah Esocoff takes you to the middle of a trans mosh pit and to a heated rap battle. You’ll go with her to the shores of the Pacific ocean to fly remote control airplanes with an 86-year-old pioneering sound artist. You’ll witness firsthand the songwriting process of two friends as they explore nonbinary and Filipino identity by writing an emo song. And together you’ll attempt to unravel the legacy of a controversial composer whose death remains a mystery. Coming May 24
Inside a recent episode
Protest Sound
Published 1 Apr 2026 · Transcript excerpt
[…] There's some pretty straightforward kind of privacy-violating things that have happened in the past few years, like New York State working on making voice fingerprint technology through using prison calls and surveilling prison calls. and moving toward a system of voice surveillance that can be data-based and searchable and tagged. Surveillance technology is increasingly ubiquitous outside prison walls too, in consumer products and in the way we exist online. Ring cameras gaze at us impassively from every other door. And we know from accounts of incarcerated people the effects that surveillance can have on a person's psyche. […]
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