One From the Vaults, again
On a relaunch
Ten years ago in a fit of pique brought on by a man who done me wrong, I came up with a scheme. I was going to make things really awkward, unbearable even. And the best way I could do that would be to fill his social media feeds with my success (Capricorn stellium, first house). With nothing but a desire for light revenge, a few trans history books, and my Macbook’s free copy of Garageband, I recorded and released the first episode of One From the Vaults — the podcast about all of the dirt, gossip, and glamour from trans history.
OFTV was an overnight success — and it did, indeed, fill this dummy’s social media feeds as every friend, acquaintance, and one time dance partner shared it. Though I quickly forgot all about the man in questions, for five years I made a steady run of episodes that transformed my life in ways I hadn’t predicted. I went from being a fairly self-serious performance and video artist to an internationally recognized expert on trans history. It led to executive producing other series like the award-winning Harsh Reality: the Miriam Rivera Story, collaborating with my dear friend Chase Joynt on the film Framing Agnes and book Boys Don’t Cry, and appearing in several documentaries, most recently HBO’s Engima (2025, directed by Zackary Drucker). Creating OFTV brought not only opportunities into my life, but the many people I now count closest to me. Despite my rudimentary audio skills, lack of an academic history background, and idiosyncratic approach to storytelling, it turned out to be one of the best and most successful projects I’ve ever made.
(And let me just say this about that: something that has become apparent to me in recent years is that I find my most success and satisfaction working for myself on unfunded projects. The minute money — and executives — come into the equation, everything fun leaves the room, projects grind to a halt, and rarely does anything good come out of it. Brilliant ideas and teams I’ve been on for a variety of film, podcast, and TV projects over the past five years have died on the vine thanks to executives who hold all the money losing interest or wanting to retool things to the most bland version possible. I come from a very punk DIY ethos, and thank God I do, because otherwise nothing would ever get done. The late 2010s was in my view characterized by a rabid pursuit of slick mainstream success that has ultimately used up and discarded many of my peers. I’m grateful to have the guiding inner sense that even if the money never comes, and str8s in Wisconsin or whatever never care about what I do, I still want to make things — for myself, for my peers, for my communities — and the only thing ever stopping me is my battle with procrastination. It might not be on a Marvel budget, but then, I find little of interest in most things that are.)
To thank the tens of thousands (!) of listeners — people who still regularly come up to me in the street or at events to say how much it meant to them1 — I’m bringing One From the Vaults out of the vault (sorry) for a special Tenth Anniversary Season! Over the coming months, I’ll be released ten brand new episodes of One From the Vaults. A mixture of classic story-telling episodes and interviews with some of my favourite thinkers in trans history today, this new season will be releasing twice a month on Soundcloud and Apple Podcasts.2
In our first episode, we’re going to focus on a woman whose entire life was upended in one miraculous year. We’ll follow her from upstate New York to the militant feminist communes of ‘70s London, then on to Amsterdam, sci fi conventions, and the world of tarot and feminist spirituality. One of the first modern trans activists in the UK, she would become one of the most widely read experts on tarot, and win nearly every sci-fi award in the English language, before becoming a beloved doyenne of trans literary culture in her later years. Join me for the story of Rachel Pollack!
Tune in to each new episode as they drop over the coming months. I’d love to hear what you think of them! And help me get the word out by sharing them with your friends and communities.
There are some other fun new projects in the works that will be announced in the coming months! But for now, enjoy the High Priestess of Poughkeepsie!
ALSO, just in case any errant angels are listening, I am very available for essay and article commissions, for acting gigs (paid or maybe unpaid if I like you enough), speaking gigs, workshops, etc. Have opinions, will travel! I hear tell that everyone who books me for something finds sudden success in love, a streak of professional luck, and £50 on the street.
Not to bragggggg.
I have no idea how to get it onto other platforms, tbh.
Rachel!!! <3
Rachel my queen