Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. This episode is the first of a three part series about first love. Specifically, the messy, inconvenient, heartbreaking chaos that first love often inspires for people in high school as well as all the sweetness, optimism and exciting feelings of discovery both about ourselves and that special someone. Mi…

Enjoy this bonus episode of the podcast series Nuances: Our Asian Stories. Hosted by Lazou, Nuance's latest season is titled Queering Premodern Asia and each episode explores different aspects of sexual diversity in premodern Asia with commentary and personal stories from guest scholars and artists. Lazou reached out recently and, because our podca…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. You graduated high school. You packed up all your things and you’re moving into a dorm room or your first apartment. Finally, you have the chance to define life on your own terms. For many queer people, leaving our family and getting our own place is the chance to finally seek out the experiences we’ve al…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. These days, thanks to technology, it’s easier than ever to hook up; but no app can provide the rush you feel when you lock eyes with someone in person and you know, without any verbal communication, that there is a mutual interest. In this episode, our interviewees share first-time stories of cruising as …

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Let’s end Pride 2024 with a bang! For this episode, Dave is taking a break from his series on First Times and he’s selected a few of his favorite moments when interviewees shared profound thoughts about queerness, community, identity and, of course, there are a lot of things to say about sex. So put your …

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. There’s a tendency to devalue first times that come as a result of the internet. There’s no meet-cutes; no love at first sight. The getting-to-know-you window happens on your device. Most of them are one-offs we will never see ever again. But, like it or not, this is the way most of us find first time par…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. As I was editing this second high school hookup episode, I realized that many of the stories I have collected over the years have striking similarities. People who grew up thousands of miles apart, often in different decades, had coming of age experiences that had a lot in common. So I decided to create a…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. For queer people, our sexuality is not something that just switches on one day. It reveals itself over time - usually during adolescence - and the experience is often internal and private. Our first explorations into physical intimacy with other people often serve as a kind of test to see if we like it an…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Who was your first crush? That first intense infatuation with someone special? A famous actor? A singer? An Athlete? Or was it someone you knew like another student at your school, a hot neighbor or a teacher who gave you extra attention? Whoever it was, first crushes are often the first indication that w…

Help support independent queer media. Get exclusive access to an UNCUT version of this episode with more than 30 extra minutes of stories by joining Fruitbowl’s Patreon community. Learn more at fruitbowlpodcast.com/donate Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Note: the descriptions of this episode were altered to avoid censorship by the major…

Patreon members get exclusive access to an UNCUT version of this episode with 20 extra minutes of stories. Learn more at fruitbowlpodcast.com/donate Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Many of us grew up in families and communities that never once acknowledged the existence of queer people: no exposure to queer authors, filmmakers, artists.…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Now we’re getting down to the nitty gritty. For this first episode we’re going back to the beginning of our coming of age when we had no clue what sex was or what it even meant. Maybe we heard about it from our parents, our friends or maybe we even went to a library. Many of us got the wrong information o…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Femininity and queerness go hand in hand; that’s the conventional wisdom, anyway. So it follows that our mom’s should be supportive, non-judgmental, embracing of our idiosyncrasies and accepting of children who don’t conform to conventional expectations of gender. But it doesn’t always work out that way. …

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. There are as many cliches about fatherhood as there are about queer people. Dads are little league coaches, the leaders of prayers, the final word in family debates, trusted voices of wisdom who guide their children through adolescence and prepare them for adulthood. Join Dave as he introduces a chorus of…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify. Welcome to Season 5 and a new episode format! Instead of just one person’s story, Season 5 episodes will present a variety of different stories and anecdotes from the Fruitbowl archive centered around a common theme. In this inaugural episode we focus on stories about families and hometowns. Adam describe…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Breona is a professional sex therapist and author who lives not far from her hometown of Mt. Vernon, WA: home to the annual tulip festival. Growing up, Breona didn’t have many resources to answer her questions about sex. An early investigation of online porn was discovered by her parents and inspired her m…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify John C. has had an unpredictable professional career and sexual history. He grew up in the deep south with racist family members and neighbors. Sexual experimentation with a friend happened early on, but, later, in college, things got complicated when a coworker raped John after a night of drugs and drinki…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify When I was preparing to record my intro to Zachery’s episode, I started to compose a long reflection on the recent tragedy in Colorado Springs where a 22 year old monster with a rife decided to murder 5 innocent people in a gay bar, but every attempt I made trying to articulate my rage and sadness seemed t…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Fruitbowl’s creator and producer, Dave Quantic, provides his first full-length Fruitbowl interview in this “very special” episode hosted by editor Ryan Weadon. Dave’s sexual orientation came into focus early on while growing up in small-town, suburban Kansas in the late eighties, but the only place he coul…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Steven grew up in his “shit-kicking” town of Tucson, AZ and even though it was liberal compared to the rest of the state, he was still a target for bullies because of his lisp and his habit of staring at other guys in the locker room. But summer adventures with his Dad in Ojai, CA taught him that a wondrou…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Lizzie grew up in super-liberal Seattle with super-cool, neo-hippie parents who had lots of queer friends and didn’t bat an eye when Lizzie let them know that she was … not straight. Lizzie took the lead when it came to her first time with a guy and you’ll enjoy hearing about her other adventures with a gi…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify On this special Getting Fresh episode of Fruitbowl editor Ryan Weadon takes the reins as host and introduces a conversation Dave had with Eric, a medical assistant and Monkeypox survivor who lives in Portland with his partner Dave. Eric describes what it’s been like dealing with the virus and the challenge…

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Andrew was a self-described baby drag queen when he was little, putting on makeup and heels and performing for his parents. So when he told his mom at age 10 he was gay, her reaction was, “I know. Do you still wanna go to the mall?” But just because Andrew was out didn’t mean adolescence was a walk in the …

Listen on Apple Podcasts Listen on Spotify Mike had a lot of variables to balance while coming of age in the 70s and 80s: the sexual revolution & liberation, drug culture, AIDS, social stigma and intimacy. And being out wasn’t an option while he was working on Wall Street for 15 years. Through all of it, Mike tried to stay true to himself while fig…

Originally from a small town in Alabama, Puddin’s coming of age was divided in two. Outwardly, he was a devout Christian of the Pentecostal tradition and aspired to be a church leader. During sermons, homosexuality was always used as an example of the worst kind of sin. Privately, though, he struggled with his sexuality and was the target of abuse …

You might assume you don’t have much in common with a 71 year old lesbian, but consider these three points: 1. Debra came of age at the dawn of the sexual revolution; 2. She’s a legend in the lesbian kink community and has some really fun kink play stories; 3. She is a total badass and a one of a kind human. Growing up in famously liberal Palo Alto…

In this Getting Fresh episode, Dave welcomes his in-studio guests: the creators of the Seattle-based Gayish podcast, Kyle and Mike and asks them about their podcast’s origin and its unique format: unpacking gay stereotypes one episode at a time. Then we listen to a listener-submitted story that describes the writer’s first time at an orgy and we di…

Kenny is the definition of a survivor. After experiencing abuse by a family member and getting kicked out of the house by his single mom while still in high school, Kenny lived in his car until he decided to move in with his first boyfriend. A move to Chicago for a job seemed like an opportunity to start fresh until he was laid off and had to turn …

Lilian grew up in Sedalia Colorado, a small community outside of Denver. Growing up, Lilian was a good little straight boy who judged other kids for having pre-marital sex. It wasn’t until college in LA that Lilian began her journey into becoming a self-described non-binary, genderfluid transgender woman who is a solo-polyamorous, relationship-anar…

Growing up in a small California town in the late 90s, Drew didn’t have any exposure to queer people or culture except for the brief mentions on broadcast sitcoms. NBC’s “Must See TV” was a particularly rich source of information. A secret relationship with another guy in his high school confirmed Drew’s budding sexuality but it wasn’t until colleg…

Ari grew up in Milwaukee until age 10 when his family moved to Tucson, AZ. The new environment brought him out of his shell in spite of being raised in a religious family. Raised as a girl, Ari had the most difficulty with his mom when it came to his family’s acceptance of his identity first as a lesbian, then as a trans man. Ultimately, Ari had to…

Introducing the premiere episode of the Getting Fresh series reboot. For season four, these episodes will feature informal conversations with interviewees whose main Fruitbowl interviews are more than a year old. In this episode Justin updates us about how his relationship with his husband has evolved during the pandemic and the accommodations that…

Raised by feminists who had strong opinions about women’s rights, pro-choice advocacy and lesbian visibility, Justin knew early on his sexuality wasn’t pre-determined. But even in liberal college-town Providence, RI he was a target of less-evolved classmates. When presented with his first opportunity for sex experimentation, he chose the D and hasn…

This episode features a voice that will be familiar with Fruitbowl fans: our very own host with the most, Saira B.! After just a few minutes of listening, you’ll soon learn why Saira (who, BTW, uses ALL the pronouns) is the perfect person to represent the amazing diversity of experiences of Fruitbowl interviewees. Raised in Wilmington, Delaware to …

Adam grew up in what he describes as a “Rated R household.” Prince was an early emissary of carnal pleasure who made a deep impact on Adam as a future professional musician. His parents split when he was age 2 but his mom remarried and both his dad and his stepdad represented two different versions of masculinity. But homosexuality was still a tabo…

As a first generation Vietnamese-American, Mike felt an obligation to make the most of his opportunities that his immigrant parents fought so hard to provide him. But even though his family was part of a robust Vietnamese community in Sugarland, TX (a suburb of Houston), Mike still felt like an outsider. Unlike most of his friends, he wasn’t fluent…

As a kid, Donovan loved to dance and even took lessons beginning at age 9, but growing up in San Diego, he soon realized that the many military bases in the area fueled a toxic culture of masculinity and homophobia and any behavior outside the norm put a target on his back. Once, after seeing a movie, he was called a faggot and assaulted. So even t…

Andre can’t remember a time when people thought he was straight. Raised as a girl by an independent single mom who took a “tough love” approach to parenting, Andre grew up with a rich inner life but had few friends. “Lesbean” was the preferred insult in grade school, so Andre made up a fictional boyfriend in order to avoid talking about sex. Even a…

Dan grew up just north of Seattle and his adolescence was uniquely queer-positive in that it featured supportive parents and plentiful queer friends even in high school. But Dan had his share of challenges including insecurities about sexual performance, penis size and a long journey to discovering his preference for polyamorous relationships. An e…

Karilla’s story, in so many ways, reflects the common stages of personal growth that so many queer people go through: in our early years, insecurity about our bodies and sexuality and adults who fail to help guide us; during high school, sitting on the sidelines and watching as our friends perform all the typical hetero coming of age rituals; in co…

For those of us who are more, ahem, “mature”, being out and proud during our adolescence was just not an option - especially in Colorado where Ryan spent most of his coming of age years. In his interview, Ryan does a good job of articulating what it’s like when your body tells you you’re gay before you can even admit it to yourself. Sometimes surpr…

Nathan's story is, at once, extremely unique and totally relatable in that he comes from an Egyptian-American family but was raised in an insular Christian community in New Jersey where being gay was a red line that was not to be crossed. The youngest of his family with two much-older sisters, Nathan didn’t always fit in as the leader of his high s…

You'd think living 2 hours from LA would provide plenty of opportunities for a queer kid to explore queer culture; but when you live in a trailer on an abandoned citrus orchard with limited introductions to other people and spotty internet, eighty miles can seem like a million. Nonetheless, Patrick eventually learned about sex and found other queer…

Elliott was raised in Caspar, Wyoming and has packed a lot of living in their 27 years including their own coming out, marriage, divorce, navigating their gender journey as well as figuring out their relationship to their faith, kink and the apps. Elliott also has a lot to say about the act of "squirting" and how to achieve it with a willing partne…

Alex grew up in Huntington, NY on Long Island for the first part of his adolescence and, at first, it almost seemed like a fairy gay-mother was watching out for him: a gay-friendly sex education class; a meaningful introduction to a trans woman; and a promising acknowledgement of gay life from his mom were all early examples of acceptance of gay li…

Erik came out early to a supportive family and an older sister who was also gay, but it took him a while to find his queer crew: one that honored creativity and alternative options for a gay kid who didn’t necessarily fit into the typical identity of musicals and Madonna. Instead, Prince was an early influence on Erik’s queer life in addition to hi…

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Shavit was raised on a jewish Moshav in Israel and knew from an early age that he preferred men. When he came of age, his dad took him on a week-long road trip in Europe in order to have “the talk.” The week ended in a Roman hotel room with access to porn. But even though sex wasn't stigmatized in his communal community, being gay was definitely no…

Raised in Connecticut, Tai was often singled out by other kids because of his Chinese heritage. His parents split up when he was young and his mom came out as a lesbian which, predictably, made his own coming out pretty smooth with his mom and her partner but not so easy with his dad. Even though he knew he was gay pretty early on, Tai didn't have …

Salvador (who identifies as genderqueer and uses he, she and they pronouns) was raised in Whittier, California, between LA and Orange County. Growing up, he didn’t know that their twin was also queer, so most of her sexual explorations were conducted in secret: checking out queer erotic fiction and books about gay sex at the library and cruising th…