The Log Books – Details, episodes & analysis
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The Log Books
Tash Walker, Adam Zmith and Shivani Dave
Frequency: 1 episode/45d. Total Eps: 42

**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 explore untold stories from Britain’s queer history.
Each episode explores a different theme from LGBTQIA+ life through log book entries, dozens of voices sharing their own memories, and conversations about being queer today.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Recent rankings
Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.
Apple Podcasts
🇬🇧 Great Britain - history
19/07/2025#84🇬🇧 Great Britain - history
18/07/2025#92
Spotify
No recent rankings available
Shared links between episodes and podcasts
Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.
See all- https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/
399 shares
- https://www.stonewall.org.uk/
52 shares
- https://genderedintelligence.co.uk/
49 shares
RSS feed quality and score
Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.
See allScore global : 94%
Publication history
Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.
Introducing... The Quilt
Season 3 · Episode 14
mardi 12 novembre 2024 • Duration 05:16
The Quilt: Living memories of queer Britain & Northern Ireland
An audio exhibition open to anyone, anywhere, at any time of day, produced and hosted by Tash Walker and Adam Zmith.
Born from a collaboration between the producers of the award-winning podcast The Log Books and the UK’s first and only LGBTQ+ museum Queer Britain, challenges who and what makes queer history.
The series takes the listener on a journey across the UK, collecting queer memories, from queer people. The Quilt weaves together all these stories and histories, into a beautiful documentary patchwork series.
The Quilt is an audio archive for the future.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Introducing: Queer Roots and Routes
Season 3 · Episode 13
mardi 4 avril 2023 • Duration 00:48
We'd love to introduce you to this new podcast we've been working Queer Roots and Routes!
Queer Roots and Routes is made by a collective.
We are queer. We are migrants or descended from migrants. And we want to tell our stories. Stories of where we’ve come from and how we move in the world today.
We don’t have a boss or a Beyoncé. So each episode of this six-part first series of Queer Roots and Routes has a different host and a different set of voices from our group. Our promise to you is that our podcast is GORGEOUS, FIERCE, SUPERGAY and... REVOLUTIONARY!
We all met through the MAUREEN project by The Love Tank, a not-for-profit community interest company that promotes health and wellbeing of under-served communities through education, capacity building and research.
An Aunt Nell Production
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“How refreshing” | Episode 4
Season 3 · Episode 4
lundi 29 novembre 2021 • Duration 55:09
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 landmark television moments for queer people from 1992 to 2003. Taking in Hayley in Coronation Street and even the calls to Switchboard following a gay storyline on Peak Practice, Tash, Adam and contributors discuss the importance of TV representation, with a few laughs along the way. We also feature a conversation between producers Stella Merz (Gentleman Jack) and Katie Carpenter (Flowers, The Bisexual, Landscapers) about their experience as queer women in the TV industry today, compared to the 90s.
Content warning: archaic language around transgender identities.
The Log Books — stories from Britain’s LGBTQI+ history and conversations about being queer today. Produced by Shivani Dave, Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, in partnership with Switchboard - the LGBT+ helpline. With thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Music by Tom Foskett-Barnes
Artwork by Natalie Doto
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Not an easy call at all” | Episode 3
Season 3 · Episode 3
lundi 22 novembre 2021 • Duration 34:09
Because Switchboard is set up to support people around matters of sexuality, volunteers sometimes take difficult calls from paedophiles and those who have been the victims of abuse. In this episode, Tash and Adam hear from Switchboard volunteers in the 90s about taking those calls, and how they supported people in these awful situations. This episode also features an interview with Oliver, a Switchboard volunteer today reflecting on taking difficult calls.
Content warning: paedophilia, rape, sexual assault, sexual violence, suicide, and archaic language around transgender identities.
The Log Books — stories from Britain’s LGBTQI+ history and conversations about being queer today. Produced by Shivani Dave, Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, in partnership with Switchboard - the LGBT+ helpline. With thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
For support around the themes in this episode, take a look at:
Music by Tom Foskett-Barnes
Artwork by Natalie Doto
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“The little darlings” | Episode 2
Season 3 · Episode 2
lundi 15 novembre 2021 • Duration 52:41
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 could not last, and that’s thanks to campaigners such as Hugo Greenhalgh and Euan Sutherland, supported by Stonewall. This is the story of their campaign to equalise the law, and of the Switchboard volunteers who helped. Tash and Adam also hear from Phil Samba, from Prepster and the Love Tank, about his work on campaigning around queer sex today.
Content warning: homophobic language.
TV clips from Age of Dissent, directed by Will Parry.
The Log Books — stories from Britain’s LGBTQI+ history and conversations about being queer today. Produced by Shivani Dave, Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, in partnership with Switchboard - the LGBT+ helpline. With thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
For more information about the themes in this episode, take a look at:
Music by Tom Foskett-Barnes
Artwork by Natalie Doto
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Multiple paradox net files” | Episode 1
Season 3 · Episode 1
lundi 8 novembre 2021 • Duration 36:03
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 season of The Log Books, Tash and Adam pull out stories from the archive at Switchboard - the LGBT+ Helpline about people who called to talk about how the internet was changing their experience of sexuality and gender. They hear memories of early online photo searches and hook-ups arranged via chat rooms. And YouTuber Jake Edwards who grew up making videos about their transition and coming out as non-binary, explains their experience on the limits of the internet at making genuine connections today.
The Log Books — stories from Britain’s LGBT+ history and conversations about being queer today. Produced by Shivani Dave, Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, in partnership with Switchboard - the LGBT+ helpline. With thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute and the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Music by Tom Foskett-Barnes
Artwork by Natalie Doto
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“The queer 90s” | Episode 0
Season 3
lundi 1 novembre 2021 • Duration 08:44
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.
In this opening teaser episode, Tash and Adam visit two special locations to explain what’s coming up in the season. They also play clips from the forthcoming episodes, from the lesbians looking for sperm donors to the kinky group for people who like dressing up as babies.
The Log Books — stories from Britain’s LGBTQI+ history and conversations about being queer today. Produced by Shivani Dave, Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, in partnership with Switchboard - the LGBT+ helpline. With thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute. Supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Music by Tom Foskett-Barnes
Artwork by Natalie Doto
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Introducing: Making Gay History
Season 2 · Episode 13
lundi 25 octobre 2021 • Duration 16:58
Season three of The Log Books launches next week, November 1st, with eleven all-new episodes covering 1992 to 2003, released weekly.
FOR NOW — just before our third season begins — we want to share one of our inspirations. Making Gay History. This is such a special podcast to us at The Log Books, for showing us how to bring LGBTQI+ history to life sensitively, now working on its tenth season.
To give you a taste of Making Gay History, we’re dropping one of our favourite episodes right here. In this episode, host Eric Marcus interviews Edythe Eyde, who started a newsletter for lesbians in 1947 through illicit use of her typewriter in her office job as a secretary. Edythe even sings for Eric from her porch — one of her witty ditties about cute butches...
You can find Making Gay History wherever you get your podcasts or at www.makinggayhistory.com. We hope you enjoy this amazing podcast and come back for The Log Books season three.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Introducing: Call Me Mother
Season 2 · Episode 12
mardi 20 avril 2021 • Duration 27:22
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 an episode of Call Me Mother, another podcast, featuring an interview with Sandra Caldwell, a 67-year-old actor who was forced to hide part of herself for 40 years. We loved hearing Sandra tell her story to Shon Faye, with such warmth and wisdom, and we think you will too.
We’ll be back with the third season of The Log Books later in 2021... See you soon.
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
“Would like to stay” | Episode 11
Season 2 · Episode 11
lundi 25 janvier 2021 • Duration 41:42
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 who fled Syria, an Indian who learnt that cruising is different in India, Canada and the UK, and a British Indian who built mixed dance nights for London’s range of cultures.
Tash and Adam hear about the people who phoned Switchboard for advice on how to live, love and work in the UK, and from a range of contributors with different perspectives on borders, cultures and LGBTQ+ identity.
The Log Books — stories from Britain’s LGBT+ history and conversations about being queer today. Produced by Shivani Dave, Tash Walker and Adam Zmith, in partnership with Switchboard - the LGBT+ helpline. With thanks to the Bishopsgate Institute and the BFI National Archive.
‘Louise’ voiced by Cathy Tyson
'Sami' voiced by Aso Sherabayani
Clip from Here and Now: Gay Black Group used with permission from MACE, the Media Archive for Central England at the University of Lincoln. First broadcast on June 26th, 1983.
For more information about the themes in this episode, take a look at:
Legal advice from the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants
Peter Tatchell Foundation : Speaking out for Human Rights
Lesbians & Gays Support the Migrants
UK Lesbian & Gay Immigration Group
Music by Tom Foskett-Barnes
Artwork by Natalie Doto
Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/thelogbooks.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.