{"podcast":{"title":"SPERI Presents...","slug":"speri-presents-7048864","podcast_index_feed_id":7048864,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/speri-presents","website_url":"https://shows.acast.com/speri-presents","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/cover/1719924975597-bd72a918010408ee53547beb7fb5091a.jpeg","author":"SPERI","episode_count":48,"summary":"'SPERI Presents…' is a podcast taking on the big questions in political economy for scholars, students and publics within and beyond the discipline. We also host 'New Thinking in Political Economy', an ongoing series with monthly episodes. Dr Remi Edwards is joined by authors of new research to explore the motivations behind, contributions and implications of their work for understanding power and politics in the global economy. The first limited series was 'Lessons in Power'. Professor Michael Jacobs and Mems Ayinla interview ministers and advisors from the New Labour administration (1997-2010) to tease out lessons on a range of issues for Keir Starmer’s newly formed Labour government. Coming soon: Crisis Point hosted by Chris Saltmarsh and Dr Dillon Wamsley. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.","last_synced_at":"2026-06-11T16:20:02.139333+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/speri-presents-7048864"},"episode":{"title":"Ground Level: RuPaul's Drag Race and Globalisation w/ Helton Levy and Mariya Levitanus","slug":"ground-level-rupaul-s-drag-race-and-globalisation-w-helton-levy-and-mariya-levitanus","published_at":"2026-03-16T07:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/speri-presents-7048864/ground-level-rupaul-s-drag-race-and-globalisation-w-helton-levy-and-mariya-levitanus","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/speri-presents-7048864","url":"https://shows.acast.com/speri-presents/episodes/ground-level-rupauls-drag-race-and-globalisation","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6683f98604b201dd34f20976/e/69a6e48aed8ba87e33ac9d29/media.mp3","summary":"Shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have brought queer TV into the mainstream of global media. Scholars of everyday political economy highlight how both producing and watching television shape global queer identities. Dominant media channels promote specific, standardised ways of being queer, often celebrated as victories of LGBTQAI+ visibility, yet at the cost of erasing alternative expressions.  Global media tend to privilege urban, Western narratives, marginalising rural, local, and Global Majority experiences. Queerness is often framed as progressive only when detached from place, tradition, or indigeneity. Popular formats, particularly in drag, have commodified queerness, smoothing over linguistic and visual differences for global appeal.  Still, alternative forms of queer expression continue to surface across TV, art, digital platforms, and community spaces, offering more grounded and resistant modes of visibility.  Concepts discussed: commodification, globalisation, queerness, visibility and invisibility, resistance.  Host: Dr Frank Maracchione , SOAS University of London.  Speakers:  Dr Mariya Levitanus is a Lecturer in Counselling and Psychotherapy at the University of Edinburgh, as well as a queer activist and psychotherapist from Kazakhstan. Her earlier research explored the everyday narratives of queer individuals in Kazakhstan, while her current work focuses on Russian queer and trans* migration to Central Asia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.  Dr Helton Levy is a London-based journalist, lecturer, researcher, and visual artist. They work as lecturer in digital and visual media at London Metropolitan University. They are the author of Globalized Queerness , and The Internet, Politics, and Ineq…","meta_description":"Shows like RuPaul’s Drag Race have brought queer TV into the mainstream of global media. Scholars of everyday political economy highlight how both produci…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":2308,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/speri-presents-7048864/episodes/ground-level-rupaul-s-drag-race-and-globalisation-w-helton-levy-and-mariya-levitanus/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/speri-presents-7048864/ground-level-rupaul-s-drag-race-and-globalisation-w-helton-levy-and-mariya-levitanus.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}