ABOUT CRUISING PODCAST
CRUISING PODCAST SEASON 1 (2021-2022):
3 queer women, 1 Honda SUV, and the last lesbian bars in America. In 2021 there were less than 25 of these spaces left in the country. Season 1 of Cruising follows creators Sarah Gabrielli, Rachel Karp, and Jen McGinity on a cross-country road trip to visit each of these bars. Through interviews with staff, owners, and community members, Cruising tells the stories of the humans that own these bars and the humans that call them a home.
CRUISING PODCAST SEASON 2 (2023-2024):
Since Cruising launched in 2021, EIGHT new lesbian bars have opened across the country. In Season 2, Cruising takes listeners to each of these new bars and travels back in time to explore lesbian bars of decades past. From 1930s San Francisco to 1990s New Orleans to present day Chicago, Season 2 brings even more stories from the humans that call these spaces home.
Cruising is deeply committed to honest and unbiased journalism.
WHO IS CRUISING PODCAST FOR?
Cruising is a podcast for everyone. We are a TERF-free, anti-racist zone. We have zero-tolerance for transphobia and racism. Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary people. Gender is a spectrum.
WHAT IS A LESBIAN BAR?
Our working definition of “lesbian bar” is: a space that is created by and for queer folks of historically + presently marginalized genders.
MEET THE TEAM
SARAH GABRIELLI (she/they)
Sarah Gabrielli is a podcast producer and journalist.
Sarah works as an audio engineer and story editor for Well+Good podcasts, and has also edited the podcasts "Shame Spiral," "Sweetbitter," and "Cult America." She has also produced segments for various public radio stations including WBUR and KUT Austin and has worked as a researcher for VICE Media, and for Barry Levine on his most recent book "The Spider: Inside the Criminal Web of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.”
Sarah holds a Master's degree from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY.
On Cruising, Sarah serves as producer/writer/host. In her free time, she loves biking, skateboarding, and Survivor. The light of her life is her cat, Scout.
RACHEL KARP (she/her)
Rachel is a NY-based producer, writer, and director. She comes from a background in theater and television and is thrilled to be making her first podcast.
Rachel has served as an Associate Producer on various unscripted television projects including "Sometimes When We Touch" (Gunpowder + Sky/Paramount+) and "Customer Wars" (Meetinghouse TV/A+E). She has also directed various indie-theater productions including a multi-camera livestream of “The High Priestess” by Andrew Martini (Permafrost Theater Collective) and a gender-bent adaptation of Tom Stoppard’s “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” (3DaysPrior).
On Cruising, Rachel serves as producer/writer/social media + marketing manager. In her free time, Rachel enjoys growing vegetables and doing home improvement projects.
JEN MCGINITY (she/her)
Jen is a NY-based line producer with 20 years of experience. She currently serves as Line Producer at Conde Nast. Jen has worked on a multitude of projects spanning news, reality television, and digital media for networks such as Food Network, HGTV, VICE, TLC, A&E, Animal Planet, and ABC News.
On Cruising, Jen serves as producer/road-trip driver. In her free time, Jen likes to bake bread, play softball, see live music, and watch the cardinals—the ones that live in our yard, not the baseball team.