In the mid-1980s, at 24, Luke Adams was told he had two years to live. Forty years on, he's a psychologist, ACT UP veteran and recent political refugee from the United States, now living in London.

Luke Adams was 24 and living in Santa Cruz, California, when a test came back positive for what doctors then called HTLV-III. His nurse, Ed, gave him two years to live, then brilliantly made Luke furious enough to act.

Luke channelled that fury into decades of AIDS activism: building safer-sex education programmes with student volunteers, joining ACT UP alongside Larry Kramer, and watching Anthony Fauci go from adversary to convert. He survived the brutal monotherapy era of AZT, a near-fatal AIDS diagnosis in 1996, and the addiction that followed years of grief, before getting sober with help from a friend at the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics.

Now 63, and more troubled by arthritis than HIV, Luke has recently left the United States for London, describing himself as a political refugee after his activism, his marriage to a Latino man and his support for trans rights drew scrutiny from the Trump administration.

The conversation closes with his verdict on today's PEPFAR, USAID and UK foreign-aid cuts, and a moment of remembrance.

• [00:02:04] Becoming a political refugee: why Luke left the United States for London
• [00:08:03] Nurse Ed's blunt delivery of a positive HIV result, and the fury that followed
• [00:11:27] What ACT UP actually was, and why Larry Kramer built it
• [00:14:26] A reunion with Larry Kramer at the NIH — and a young doctor named Anthony Fauci
• [00:21:08] Fighting Lyndon LaRouche's ballot initiative to intern people with HIV
• [00:31:20] Compound S to AZT: inside the toxic monotherapy years
• [00:38:19] A T-cell count of 30, and a summer he wasn't expected to survive
• [00:46:01] Crystal meth, grief and finding sobriety through the Haight Ashbury Free Clinics
• [00:53:33] A moment of remembrance for his friend Doug Rasic

Luke Adams is a psychologist and HIV activist who tested positive in Santa Cruz, California, in the mid-1980s. He helped build early safer-sex education programmes, worked alongside Larry Kramer in ACT UP, and co-wrote community materials on HIV prevention. Now 63 and sober for decades, he recently relocated from the United States to London, describing himself as a political refugee. He continues to practise psychology and campaign against HIV stigma.

• Terrence Higgins Trust – UK support and information for anyone living with or affected by HIV.
• National AIDS Trust – campaigning on HIV stigma, discrimination and the law.
• Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence – the drag activist order Luke references, still fundraising and educating worldwide.
• Diseased Pariah News – background on the zine co-founded by Luke's housemate, Beowulf Thorne.
• ACT UP Historical Archive – records and capsule history of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power.

If you've been affected by anything discussed in this episode, support is available through the Terrence Higgins Trust.

Content note: this episode discusses domestic abuse and suicidal thoughts.

In 2016, Emma McAnally was diagnosed with HIV in a Scottish sexual health clinic while in an abusive relationship. This episode follows how that diagnosis led her to challenge outdated NHS maternity guidance and become an HIV educator in Scotland today.

Emma McAnally was diagnosed with HIV in 2016, in a Scottish sexual health clinic, while in an abusive relationship. Isolated and convinced she was the only person in Scotland living with the virus, she reached her lowest point before falling pregnant gave her a reason to leave.

Motherhood brought fresh battles: she was denied a water birth because of her status, discouraged from breastfeeding, and, by 2023, discovered that Scotland's maternity guidelines for women living with HIV hadn't been updated since the early 1990s. Her research helped change them.

Emma later met her partner, Paul, through a wild swimming group, and found in their mixed-status relationship the acceptance she'd feared she'd never get.

Now a mental health nurse turned Senior Learning and Engagement Officer at Waverley Care, she delivers HIV-awareness training to health and social care staff, the same profession that once told her, wrongly, that HIV could be caught by sharing a toothbrush.

The conversation closes with a moment of remembrance for the teenage HIV educator Krista Blake.

• [00:01:43] Diagnosed with HIV in 2016, inside an abusive relationship
• [00:05:05] Googling the symptoms in the clinic waiting room, and the moment the penny dropped
• [00:12:22] Reaching a lowest point, and finding purpose in pregnancy
• [00:13:18] Denied a water birth because of her HIV status
• [00:17:51] Fighting outdated guidance to win delayed cord clamping for women living with HIV
• [00:24:07] Meeting her partner, Paul, through a wild swimming group
• [00:30:50] Told, wrongly, by a nursing lecturer that HIV could be caught by sharing a toothbrush
• [00:37:02] A moment of remembrance for teenage HIV educator Krista Blake
• [00:44:14] A postcard to her newly diagnosed self: "HIV can be your superpower"

Emma McAnally is a mental health nurse and HIV advocate from Scotland, diagnosed with HIV in 2016. She successfully campaigned to update outdated NHS guidelines on childbirth for women living with HIV, and now works as Senior Learning and Engagement Officer at Waverley Care, delivering HIV-awareness training to health and social care staff. She is a mother of two and lives with her partner, Paul.

• Terrence Higgins Trust – UK support and information for anyone living with or affected by HIV.
• National AIDS Trust – campaigning on HIV stigma, discrimination and the law.
• Waverley Care – Scotland's HIV and hepatitis C charity, and home of the HIV Informed training Emma now delivers.
• Prevention Access Campaign – the research behind Undetectable = Untransmittable (U=U).
• In Memory of Krista Blake – background on the teenage HIV educator Emma remembers in this episode.

If you've been affected by anything discussed in this episode, support is available through the Terrence Higgins Trust.

For over a decade, Veda Lady was the most recognisable drag queen in Dublin. They talk to Dan Hall about a childhood spent dodging the word "AIDS", the partner who begged them not to tell, and the 2019 disclosure that led to Ireland's first podcast made by and for people living with HIV.

Veda Lady has spent three decades as Dublin's reigning drag mother, but for a long stretch of that career they were keeping the biggest secret of their life.

Growing up gay in 1970s and 80s Catholic Ireland, they were accused of having AIDS at twelve, years before they understood what it really meant. It was a fear that resurfaced when they received their own HIV diagnosis in the early 2000s. Veda describes the deal they made to stay silent, and then the 2019 disclosure timed to a new marriage and a song, "I Came Out One Night".

Veda also traces the drag lineage behind their activism, from San Francisco's Trannyshack to Dublin's Alternative Miss Ireland, and explains how a lockdown drag show streamed from their kitchen grew into Poz Vibe, the podcast and social enterprise they now run with Doctor Robbie Lawlor for people living with HIV across Ireland.

• [12:06] Introducing Veda — three decades a fixture of queer Dublin, and the first podcast made for and by people living with HIV
• [16:48] A grey childhood in Catholic Ireland — bullied, and accused of having AIDS at twelve
• [21:26] Dropping out of Trinity College — for the door of a Dublin cabaret club
• [26:52] San Francisco, 1996 — a first night in drag at the club now known as T*Shack (its original name has since been retired), run by the late Heklina
• [33:21] Alternative Miss Ireland — drag family, chosen sisters, and a tribute to Thom McGinty, "The Diceman"
• [42:44] The double life — an HIV diagnosis, a frightened partner, and a promise to tell no one
• [45:34] Atripla, insomnia and anxiety — years spent blaming her mental health for the medication
• [51:16] Coming out in 2019 — "I Came Out One Night," the Irish charts, and the kitchen drag shows that became Poz Vibe

Veda Lady is a Dublin drag artist, broadcaster and HIV activist who has performed across Ireland for over three decades. Diagnosed with HIV in the early 2000s, they kept their status private until 2019, when they came out publicly and co-founded Poz Vibe Podcast and Poz Vibe Tribe with Doctor Robbie Lawlor — now one of Ireland's largest peer-led HIV communities, over 100 episodes deep.

If you have been affected by the themes in this episode, support is available at Terrence Higgins Trust and HIV Ireland.

• Poz Vibe Podcast
• HIV Ireland
• Terrence Higgins Trust
• National AIDS Trust
• Prevention Access Campaign — U=U
• I Came Out One Night (SONG)