‘Move, I’m Gay’ celebrates 100 episodes of honest, hilarious conversations
"Move, I'm Gay" podcasts hosts Franny & Brenda give their listeners something to talk about
Looks like they made it. Francisco Ortega and Brendan Kelly Scott, better known as Franny & Brenda, cohosts of the irreverent, informative, sometimes powerfully intimate podcast Move, I’m Gay launched their show in February 2020 with no firm expectations of how long they might last.
The Portland-based duo simply dove in, with Franny dishing on the latest entertainment dirt, Brenda taking the lead discussing LGBTQ+ history and politics, and both serving up stories about their own experiences as single gay men about town.
“We started very casually,” Scott says, “then started to create a structure, and it’s just become a weekly part of our lives.” And two eventful years since they began, Move, I’m Gay is set to cast its 100th episode, an achievement worth celebrating in the increasingly crowded landscape of talk and entertainment podcasts.
“We made it all the way to one hundred when we thought we were going to do three,” says Ortega, acknowledging that their key to pushing through this pandemic and finding their audience has been consistency. “I think we’ve taken three breaks in this entire time. I mean, Brendan was in Hawaii and we still recorded. We just stay doing it.”
Franny and Brenda also stay true to their fun, easygoing dynamic as friends who’ve known one another since they were teens and still crack each other up. Although their friendship has evolved quite a bit since they first met through Ortega’s brother, who also happens to be gay.
“I was old enough to drink, so like 15 or something,” jokes Ortega. “No, I was 20 or 21 or 22, and I hadn’t come out yet, and I was hanging out with my brother. So I met all of these friends through him, which eventually got me to the point of feeling comfortable about coming out. But I was still straight Francisco at the time, which is the most disgusting era of my life. And that’s when we met.”
“I think that was another reason why we got along, too, is that I have a gay twin brother as well,” Scott adds. “So it’s an interesting dynamic. It’s kind of rarer than you would think to have multiple gay siblings in a family.”
Sharing so much in common, Franny and Brenda also have quite different personalities. The contrast is another key to keeping the conversation flowing when they’re, say, answering listeners’ questions, or, on the episode “Hog Hunters,” discussing how Brenda got catfished by a guy on Tinder.
“That was probably my favorite episode because it was so real,” Ortega recalls. “Brendan was trying to explain to me and everybody else that this person could be real, and it was just so funny to me.”
Scott agrees. “It was funny to kind of come to terms with having realized it was not a real situation, and being able to share that with the people that listen, and completely embarrass myself in that way. But that’s what I’m there for.”
The Move, I’m Gay hosts have been extremely open with their audience, not only about amusing dating app encounters, but about serious struggles as well, like the cancer diagnosis that first inspired Scott to get behind the microphone.
“I had cancer surgery in December of 2019,” he says. “Then we started a podcast immediately after, because I was like, ‘Oh man, if I have cancer, I need to do something.’ I just wanted to do something fun and creative that I’d been thinking about for a while. And it’s also a good way of creating an audio history of my stupid voice for people to hear if I ever pass away.”
The show has provided Scott with a way to navigate his cancer journey. “I talk about it all the time on the show. So I’m hoping that it’s helpful for people that have a medical diagnosis that I’m blindly navigating the medical world, which is really scary and really expensive. Talking about going to like a million doctors visits every six months, hopefully people can relate to that. I think just being vulnerable about those things in a podcasting environment, it’s just nice to be able to talk to no one, essentially, and everyone at the same time.”
Move, I’m Gay is on Audible, Apple, Spotify, Google, or wherever you find your podcasts. Follow them on Instagram at @moveimgaypodcast.
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