The Log Books
Channel Details
The Log Books
**Best New Podcast (Gold) at the British Podcast Awards 2020**What if you could glimpse into LGBTQIA+ life from decades ago? Since 1974 volunteers at Switchboard, the LGBT+ helpline, have written notes in the charity's log books. Hosts Tash Walker and Adam Zmith are re-opening these pages today, to...
Recent Episodes
42 episodesIntroducing... The Quilt
The Quilt: Living memories of queer Britain & Northern Ireland
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Introducing: Queer Roots and Routes
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INTRODUCING: New podcast Black and Gay, Back in the Day
We'd love to introduce you to this new podcast Black and Gay, Back in the Day which brings to life a photo archive of Black LGBTQIA+ life in Britain,...
BONUS: Tash and Adam tour the Out And About LGBTQ+ exhibition at the Barbican
In this bonus episode made for Nothing Concrete, the podcast of London's Barbican, Tash and Adam riffle through many more items from LGBTQ+ history. T...
“Thank you for being here” | Episode 10
This is it! After three seasons covering 1974 to 2003, Tash and Adam reach the final page in the log books in Switchboard’s archive. In this closing e...
“Not suitably dressed” | Episode 9
Rubber? Feet? Piss? Flogging? Role play? What’s your kink? In this episode Tash and Adam listen to dozens of dirty stories from the LGBTQI+ community...
“Interested and willing” | Episode 8
In the 90s more and more lesbians called Switchboard to ask where they could get hold of sperm. All sorts of LGBTQI+ people in the period sought to ma...
“The inability of others to understand” | Episode 7
There is still so much work to be done in making sure LGBTQI+ people with disabilities have what they need, but the 90s saw a definite shift in the ri...
“Needs support and reassurance” | Episode 6
Understanding and awareness of various gender identities grew from 1992 to 2003, and more and more trans people called Switchboard for support. This e...
“They do mean us harm” | Episode 5
On April 30th 1999, the Admiral Duncan gay pub in Soho was bombed by a homophobic Nazi. The attack followed a series of calls to Switchboard threateni...
“How refreshing” | Episode 4
Remember how you felt when you first saw the lesbian kiss on Brookside? Or *those* scenes in Queer As Folk?
This episode is a tour through the...
“Not an easy call at all” | Episode 3
Because Switchboard is set up to support people around matters of sexuality, volunteers sometimes take difficult calls from paedophiles and those who...
“The little darlings” | Episode 2
In the 90s, if two men had sex and one was under 21, both could be imprisoned, while straight people could legally have sex at age 16. This inequality...
“Multiple paradox net files” | Episode 1
The internet began to revolutionise LGBTQI+ life in the 1990s: chat rooms, emails, and of course dating websites. In this first episode of the third s...
“The queer 90s” | Episode 0
Tash and Adam are back, with 11 all-new weekly episodes covering LGBTQI+ life from 1992 to 2003, using calls made to Switchboard in that period.
...
Introducing: Making Gay History
Season three of The Log Books launches next week, November 1st, with eleven all-new episodes covering 1992 to 2003, released weekly.
FOR NOW —...
Introducing: Call Me Mother
News! We’re making season three of The Log Books because we’ve received a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
While you wait, here’s...
“Would like to stay” | Episode 11
We have so many fascinating stories for our final episode of the season: a lesbian who helped a gay immigrant to stay legally in the UK, a gay refugee...
“Crude form of censorship” | Episode 10
After a gay bookshop was raided by customs officers in 1984, the booksellers fought back. This is the story of censorship and community solidarity, an...
“No reason whatsoever to doubt” | Episode 9
From 1983 to 1991, calls to Switchboard about rape and domestic violence increased in number. So in this episode Tash and Adam hear some of those stor...
“Kiss my rump” | Episode 8
It wasn’t easy being young in the Eighties! Tash and Adam read log book entries and hear stories about growing up, looking for help, and even a teenag...
“Fatally disruptive” | Episode 7
In 1988 the British government passed explicitly anti-gay legislation. Through log book entries from Switchboard, Tash and Adam return to the scene: l...
“Right on, sister!” | Episode 6
Lipstick on the windscreen to tackle homophobia — just one of the stories in this latest episode from 1983 to 1991. Tash and Adam focus on the hostili...
“Expect extra calls” | Episode 5
Every time anything to do with LGBTQ+ life was mentioned on TV or in the newspaper in the 80s, Switchboard volunteers took extra calls. In this episod...
“A hedgehog in my kitchen” | Episode 4
Some light and laughter in our fourth episode of this season! Tash and Adam hear memories of joy and strength from 1983 to 1991, through the log books...
“Damage caused” | Episode 3
Bottling attacks and cruel newspaper editorials — this is the story of how the HIV/AIDS crisis hit the LGBTQ+ community in the 80s. Through Switchboar...
“One hell of a state” | Episode 2
Tash and Adam continue exploring the HIV/AIDS crisis through the calls made to Switchboard from 1983 to 1991, in this second of three episodes on the...
“Please be gentle” | Episode 1
This is the story of the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic as it has never been told before: through the voices and notes of the people who took ph...
Re-opening The Log Books | Episode 0
The award-winning podcast The Log Books returns for Season Two!
Our brand-new set of episodes cover 1983 to 1991, continuing where Season One l...
“Joy, friendship and also bitterness” | Season 2 preview episode
Season 2 of The Log Books is coming soon... Our unique exploration of the UK’s queer history through the pages of Switchboard’s log books will be stro...
“Just needs a chat” | Bonus lockdown episode
This strange moment in history is bringing feelings of isolation and loneliness to so many of us. The coronavirus lockdown has even slowed the product...
“How nice!” | Bonus LIVE Episode 1
We’ve taken The Log Books out of the archive for LGBT History Month! We recorded this special episode in front of an audience at an event in London on...
Closing The Log Books | Episode 9
Hello listeners, thank you for joining us through the laughter and tears of queer life in Britain from 1974 to 1982. In this final episode of our firs...
“I was an inconvenience” | Episode 8
The early log books open up a world before HIV, showing what it was like for LGBTQ+ people needing healthcare between discos in the 70s. A doctor and...
“It’s great to be gay!” | Episode 7
People often make a phone call because they are lonely and isolated, as the log books at Switchboard show. Exploring this issue, Tash and Adam hear fr...
“Anything goes” | Episode 6
In the 70s, there was no such thing as an “LGBTQ+ community”. The log books reveal how identities, labels and definitions have always been in flux amo...
“You might well be very angry!” | Episode 5
The 70s was a hotbed of activism, from lesbians fighting for child custody to gay men demanding equal laws for the age of sexual consent. Tracking the...
“Pretty policemen” | Episode 4
The log books are full of stories about raids on parties and arrests made in public toilets, as the police sought to stop men having sex with men in t...
"Let's not shy away from sex" | Episode 3
A quick glimpse into Switchboard’s log books from the late 70s might make you think that every caller wanted to know about sex. Tash and Adam hear fro...
"Huddled together in a corner" | Episode 2
Pubs and clubs have brought LGBTQ+ people together for many years—to chat, plot, dance, and hook-up. Tash and Adam listen to stories from nights out i...