Drag Race, elections, and exes – oh my!
Those are just a few of the topics RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars season four winner Monét X Change is tackling in her new podcast, Monét Talks. The series is the most recent hosting gig for the artist, who also led the WEBBY Award-Winning podcast Sibling Rivalry with Bob the Drag Queen alongside other projects of her own.
Monét just can’t stay away from hosting, she says, as she’s always found “all facets of human existence very interesting.”
“I find people very fascinating,” Monét tells The Advocate. “I love talking to people about the things that other people may not find interesting, but I think that my spin on it and my interest in it makes it an interesting thing.”
To the drag queen, hosting presents the opportunity to bring a new level of authenticity to her audience. It’s about capturing the conversations with her friends and colleagues that would usually happen away from the camera, but that she would later “wish I had a microphone” for. Part of the reason Monét is so drawn to the role is that she’s able to learn “so many interesting things about people that I thought I knew so well, either parasocially or personally.”
“When I chat with someone like Adore Delano, for example – just discovering so many things that I didn’t [know before],” she explains. “I thought I know Adore super well, I’ve known Adore for a very long time, and finding out that she identified and existed as a trans woman throughout high school, I was like, ‘Wait, what?’”
Monét Talks will feature a variety of guests, from Drag Race queens to politicians. Monét says that people from her personal life will also come on – including even an ex-boyfriend “or four” – though those conversations may not be as spicy as fans expect.
“Even for my younger self, I existed in a world that when you break up with an ex, that is someone that you have to hate forever, you can’t be friends with them. And for some people, I get that is true, because why you break up is a big part of if you can be friends and exist as friends after. And in my situation, yeah, there was some stuff that went on, but I did not think it was something that was so reprehensible that I could never befriend this person again,” she says.
“So, we get into all the things in our relationship – how it started, how it was going, and why it ended – and talk about becoming acquaintances or friends or enemies after that and where we are now today. I think that’s just an interesting conversation that people would want to hear.”
Monét’s conversations with politicians will center specifically around those in the LGBTQ+ community, and “how we can activate these people to serve us, the public better.” They’re some of the chats the artist is most excited about, as she didn’t ever expect to see an out queer politician in her life, let alone speak with several on a national stage.
“I’m trying to have honest conversations with these people who we have elected to be our public servants. … We live in a society where, did I ever think I would seek queer politicians in my lifetime? No, I didn’t. But now that I am seeing them, I’m so interested in the pathway there,” Monét says, adding, “These politicians I’m talking to, they’re trying to get to bigger places. And I’m wondering if in our lifetime, will we see a gay president of the United States of America? I don’t know, and that sucks.”
Monét is also one of the artists behind Drag Pac, the first political action committee led by drag queens, which aims to encourage young people to vote – though not just for president. Monét also emphasizes the importance of local politics and voting down ballot, as “these are the people who are in charge of your streets, who are in charge of allocating the funds to get better lighting, or the things that you encounter more on a daily basis.”
“It’s the local elections that are informing these decisions for you. It’s so easy to just think of the big picture because we’re so inundated with senators and congresspeople and the presidency. But your alderman is so important, your council person is so important,” she says. “These people are informing the things that you really deal with every day, and activating your one vote to affect change locally is just as important as the big ticket items like senators, representatives, and the president.
With the November elections just around the corner, Monét highlighted again the importance for people to show up, insisting they not let themselves be duped by the “biggest lie” infiltrating politics today.
“The message I want to send to the younger folk – the millennials and Gen Z specifically, because we are gonna be the biggest voting blocks in this election and the ones to come – is that as an everyday citizen, we often forget how much power we hold,” Monét says. “I think it’s so easy to feel maligned and to feel like you exist in this space where your one vote doesn’t matter, but a bigger lie has never been told. Your one vote is so goddamn important, especially when we mobilize and use all of our one votes together. We can affect a lot of changes.”
Monét Talks episodes will air weekly every Thursday on all major podcast platforms, and the video versions will stream on her YouTube channel the same day.
