Rich Burns Says the Quiet Part Out Loud That Gay Men Over 40 Have Been Thinking for Years

Gay men over 40 have been watching themselves disappear from screens, from conversations, and from their own community's narrative for decades. Rich Burns got fed up and built the antidote. The Humanitas Prize-winning creator and star of "The Disappointments" turned personal professional failure, romantic wreckage, and the specific ache of gay male invisibility into a series with over 4 million views and a global audience that stretches far beyond the LGBTQ+ community. Rich and Rick go deep on why older gay men are still being erased, what it actually costs to tell the truth on screen, and why humor is not a coping mechanism but a weapon. Key Takeaways:

Why gay men over 40 are still invisible in media and what one man did about it
How Rich used personal humiliation and career setbacks as creative rocket fuel
The financial reality most gay men live with that Hollywood keeps airbrushing out
What 4 million views taught Rich about the universal power of gay male experience
Why humor is not softening the blow but telling the whole truth

About Rich Rich Burns is the writer, star and creator of the Humanitas Prize-winning digital series The Disappointments. He also created and serves as the head writer for the Netflix original series Mermaid Magic which debuted August 2024 at #1 on Netflix Kids, with a second season coming. He developed and wrote on the Netflix reboot of the animated series Winx Club - The Magic Is Back. He served as head writer on two other recent Netflix chart toppers: DreamWorks’ Spirit Riding Free and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Additionally, Rich was a staff writer at Walt Disney Feature Animation, scripting successful sequels to Brother Bear (Annie Award-nominated for Best Feature - Screenplay), The Fox and The Hound and The Little Mermaid, among others. His screenplay The Dunes of Overveen, based on a true story about a gay artist in Amsterdam who led a resistance raid against the Nazis during WWII, won an Outfest Award. Connect With Rich & Watch The Disappointments Website Instgram - The Disappointments Instagram - Rich Hey Guys, Don't Forget! Join the 40 Plus: Gay Men Gay Talk, monthly chats. - Learn More! Also, join our Facebook Community - 40 Plus: Gay Men, Gay Talk Community

Denne episoden er hentet fra en åpen RSS-feed og er ikke publisert av Podme. Den kan derfor inneholde annonser.

Episoder(300)

Eric Hodgson on LGBTQ+ Travel, Safe Spaces, and Using Gay Vacations to Connect

There is something that happens when a group of gay men travel together on a ship where everyone belongs. Walls come down. Generations connect. History gets personal. Eric Hodgson is the founder of ...

9 Okt 40min

Future-Proof Your Gay Self: Dwight Allen O’Neal on Reinvention, Self-Love, and Knowing When To Evolve

Twenty years in the beauty industry teaches you a few things about reinvention. Dwight Allen O'Neal learned them the hard way and then wrote the book. Death of the Field Team is his unflinching look a...

2 Okt 39min

Stop Being Fabulously Broke: David and John Auten-Schneider on Gay Men, Money, and Retirement

Gay men are great at living fabulously. Retiring fabulously is a different story. David and John Auten-Schneider went from $51,000 in credit card debt to financial independence and now spend their tim...

25 Sep 47min

John Ball: The Closet Gets A Better Outfit

John Ball came out years ago. That was not the hard part. The hard part was the second closet he built after, the professional one, where he learned to shrink, soften, and stay palatable so nobody in ...

18 Sep 38min

25 Years In: What Love Actually Looks Like for a Gay Man Over 40 – Rick Clemons

Twenty-five years ago, during the week the world changed, I met my husband. This episode is not a highlight reel. It is an honest look at what it actually takes to build a life with someone, the silen...

16 Sep 18min

Tyler Wasson: Loneliness Is Lying To You

Tyler Wasson spent years running from every uncomfortable silence, awkward date, and rejection, convinced escape was the only way to survive them. Then he found Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and l...

11 Sep 52min

Stop Reacting, Start Listening: Joshua Johnson on What Gay Men Get Wrong About Difficult Conversations

Most gay men do not have a conflict problem. They have a conversation problem. Joshua Johnson spent 25 years in journalism learning why people cannot talk to each other, then turned it into a TED Talk...

4 Sep 55min

David Lauterstein: Why Fun is Not The Same As Happy

David Lauterstein co-founded Nasty Pig, one of the most unapologetically sex-positive brands in queer history. Everyone expected his first book to be about that. Instead he wrote Sodomy Gods, a love s...

28 Aug 41min