🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Sacha PVJ is a Liverpool DJ, content creator, and founder of Ready to Replay, with residencies at Campus Liverpool and Zen, regular gigs in Ibiza, and a growing following across TikTok and Instagram built on being completely, unapologetically himself. His name is his middle name and two surnames put together, and yes, he has to explain that constantly. Recorded in the Kitchen Disco at Campus on Victoria Street, which also happens to be one of his residencies, so he does know the camera.

Sacha joins John to talk about how the DJing started: a drunk reply to an Instagram story at a night out in Walton Village, a lesson he wasn’t sure he’d actually go to, and a set of decks arriving at home that his mum was not expecting. Eight years on, he has played in nightclubs, on open top buses, on floating paddle courts, and in a dentist. No two gigs are ever the same, and that is very much the point.

The conversation gets into what it actually takes to build a career as a DJ, why reading the room matters more than any planned set list, and how the content side of things took off once Sacha stopped trying to look cool online and started just showing his life as it actually is. The nan videos are discussed at length. She still falls for it every time.

There’s also a really honest thread about body image and insecurity, the fourth and hopefully final set of veneers, the strange pressure of showing up as the version of yourself people expect when you’re not always feeling it, and why Sacha has learned to share that rather than mask it. And a brief shared history of Hollyoaks, from two very different angles.

It’s fast, fun, and exactly what you’d hope for from someone whose TikTok bio reads: music, lifestyle, chaos and real-life talk.

Follow Sacha at @sachapvj on Instagram and TikTok.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Richard Angell is the Chief Executive of the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s leading HIV charity, and was born, as he points out himself, just a month after it was registered as a charity in January 1984. He joins John at home during Labour Party conference week in Liverpool, which does at least mean he was already in the city.

Richard begins with the history: how Terry Higgins became the first named person to die of an AIDS-related illness, how his partner Rupert was turned away from his hospital bed because their relationship wasn’t recognised, and how the friends who founded THT in response were initially rejected by the Charity Commission because queer causes weren’t considered charitable at the time. Forty-four years on, Richard leads the organisation working to end new HIV transmissions in the UK by 2030, and he talks through what that actually means in practice, from automatic HIV testing now rolling out across nearly half of England’s A&Es, to the Formula Milk funding that took thirty years of asking to secure.

The conversation gets into the parts of the work that don’t always make the headlines: the people living with HIV who aren’t taking their medication because of stigma, the communities where new transmissions are rising and which are less connected to LGBTQ+ spaces and services, and the blood donation rules for people on PrEP, where Richard is candid about the nuance involved and why a safety-first approach sometimes means advocating against positions some of his own community holds.

There’s also a genuinely brilliant story involving Boris Johnson bursting into a Ministry of Defence meeting, hair ruffled, to announce a policy change that THT had spent years engineering from the outside, and which the people in that room had absolutely no idea was coming. It ends with the ban on people living with HIV serving as military pilots being lifted, just three years later than intended, but lifted.

It’s one of the most informative conversations Proudly Said has had, and one of the most quietly impressive people John has sat across from.

Follow Richard on Instagram at @richardangell and find out more about the Terrence Higgins Trust at tht.org.uk.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Emma Miller McCaffrey is an LGBTQ+ advocate, community volunteer, and one of those people who seems to be involved in approximately everything simultaneously, to her own detriment as John puts it, and entirely for everyone else’s benefit. Recorded at home on a Friday afternoon, tired but very much still going.

Emma joins John to talk about growing up under Section 28, in a religious household with no language for who she was and no visible role models outside of Elton John and George Michael, and how those experiences became the reason she has spent her adult life making things easier for the people coming after her. She traces a career and voluntary life that has taken in Mermaids, LGBTQ+ education in schools, the LGBT Fund at Consortium, volunteer leadership with Adoption UK’s LGBT support group, and most recently joining the board of Comics Youth in Liverpool.

There’s also a viral proposal story: Emma’s partner Ann, a naval officer, getting down on one knee on stage at Liverpool Pride in full number one uniform, Merseyside police flags waving in the background, and some very interesting calls with Navy comms to follow. They got married at St George’s Hall registry office and held their reception at HMS Eaglet as the first same-sex couple to do so.

The conversation then moves into the heart of the episode: Emma and Anne’s journey to become parents. IVF attempts, a blighted ovum that left Emma’s body convinced it was pregnant for eight weeks when it wasn’t, the decision to adopt, the long process of being approved, finding their daughter Dee on a digital matching platform, and then being within weeks of bringing her home when COVID hit and everything stopped. They finally met Dee in person on a Friday. She was living under their roof by the Wednesday.

It’s warm, honest, and covers more ground than almost any episode of Proudly Said yet. A conversation about community, chosen paths, and the particular kind of determination that comes from knowing exactly why the work matters.

Follow Emma and family on Instagram at @familm_m

🗣️ Why Listen?

If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Rosa Harrison is a Liverpool-based singer, professional vocalist and queer mum to a four-year-old, recorded at home just before a gig, in a flat that John describes as having very much fallen down a rabbit hole into Wonderland. She is exactly as warm, funny and disarmingly honest as that setting suggests.

Rosa joins John to talk about her journey as a performer, from open mics and function gigs to finding her own voice as a slow, jazzy acoustic artist who takes songs people know and makes them feel like something entirely her own. They get into the realities of the gigging life, what it takes to balance a creative career with being a parent, and why original music has been calling her back lately, with some Kraken songs waiting to be written, as she puts it.

There’s also a really candid conversation about identity. Rosa talks openly about navigating the straight to bi to lesbian pipeline, the biphobia she has encountered along the way, and the experience of having her sexuality questioned by the people closest to her even after being clear about who she is. She is thoughtful about it without being precious, and honest about how much her queer friendships have meant to her through all of it.

They also cover the Queer Student Awards, where Rosa performed at what turned out to be its final night in its current form, and why that room felt so special. Plus a very good story about singing Pink Pony Club at a lesbian wedding, and a bride’s dad who absolutely knew every word.

It’s warm, genuine, and very easy company for half an hour.

Follow Rosa on Instagram at @rosaharrison.

🗣️ Why Listen?

If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Jonathan Rippon is a queer musical comedian, singer, songwriter and former BBC television producer, who appeared on Britain’s Got Talent in 2025 performing an original song called First Time in Blackpool, earned three yeses from the panel, and has been building something rather brilliant ever since. Recorded at Clockwise offices in Liverpool with a view of the Albert Dock, during Liverpool Pride weekend, having already done karaoke at Cooper’s Townhouse that morning and a set at Hot Water Comedy Club the Sunday before. He is very much at home in this city.

Jonathan joins John to trace a career that has run on two parallel tracks for most of his life: television production on one side, from winning a competition to appear on Number 73 as an 11-year-old to producing The Saturday Show for BBC One, and performance on the other, beginning as a choral scholar at King’s College Cambridge, singing at venues including the Sydney Opera House and the Royal Albert Hall, and more recently combining his voice with stand-up comedy and original musical songs. Three years into that combination, things are moving quickly.

He talks about what BGT actually looks like from the inside, the editing decision that accidentally turned a perfectly innocent lyric about an Anton deck chair into something considerably less family friendly, and how the audition became a launchpad for everything that’s followed: a manager, a growing live schedule, his own comedy night JR’s Secret Sauce at the Top Secret Comedy Club in London, and a monthly queer comedy night at the Birdcage Bar in Brighton. He also talks about a viral cycling video that got five million views and earned him a free Swiss bike, which was not on the original career plan.

There’s also an extended and very joyful conversation about Kylie, including the story of meeting her in a BBC corridor, a pen running out at exactly the wrong moment, and Kylie getting down on her knees to empty her handbag to find another one. It became a song. Of course it did.

It’s warm, funny, and full of the kind of enthusiasm that makes you want to go and buy a ticket to something immediately.

Find out more about Jonathan at jonathanrippon.co.uk.

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If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Nikias Tomasiello is an online personal trainer, certified nutritionist, and trans man who moved from Italy to Portsmouth, then Brighton, then Liverpool, which he and his partner both loved immediately and stayed. Episode 70 of Proudly Said, filmed on a very sweaty day in late July.

Nikias joins John to talk about a fitness journey that turned out to be about a lot more than fitness. Growing up in Italy with no awareness that trans men existed, Nikias spent his teens being bullied for his weight, developed anorexia, and only began to understand why when he noticed that his experience of having the condition looked completely different to everyone else around him. It was that realisation, years later, that helped him put the pieces together about who he was. It’s an unusually thoughtful route into a conversation about identity, and Nikias tells it with real candour and a very dry sense of humour.

The conversation then moves into what Nikias does now and why it matters. Working as an LGBTQ+ focused personal trainer, he talks about the barriers trans and non-binary people face when it comes to fitness: gym anxiety, safety, being handed programmes that don’t reflect who you are or what you actually want from your body. He talks about how he approaches things differently, starting with questions rather than assumptions, and the clients whose lives have shifted through the work they’ve done together, one of whom went from training at home for three years to walking into a gym for the first time.

It’s a warm, thoughtful conversation about body, identity, and what it means to help people feel at home in themselves.

If you’re interested in working with Nikias, you can find out more at fittotransformtraining.com and follow him on Instagram @nikias_fittotransform

🗣️ Why Listen?

If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Content warning: this episode contains adult themes, explicit discussion of sex work, recreational drug use, online harassment, and mature content throughout. It is intended for audiences aged 18 and over.

Jay Mitchell describes himself as Liverpool’s number one OnlyFans creator, and in this episode he sits down with John to talk about pretty much everything.

They cover how Jay got into content creation, going from a shy lad who only felt comfortable after a few drinks to someone who has built a career being unapologetically himself on camera. Jay talks honestly about the realities of the industry, including what it actually pays versus what people claim it pays, the business of collaboration with other creators, and the constant battle with Instagram’s algorithm and shadowbanning.

The conversation gets into chemsex and drug use within gay spaces, what consent and safety look like in less regulated corners of the industry, and why Jay prefers the freedom of independent content creation over studio work.

They also talk about the growing tension between platforms trying to restrict adult content creators and a community that sees sex work as legitimate work, as well as what viral hate looks like when a post escapes its intended audience and lands in the wrong algorithm.

It is funny, frank, and at times surprisingly thoughtful. Jay is exactly as unfiltered as you would hope.

Find Jay on Instagram at @jay.mitchellx and on OnlyFans at Jay Mitchell.

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If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Janethan Jeffery is a Manchester-born musician, content creator and self-described ‘spicy Jonathan’. His name is January and Ethan put together, and yes, he has to explain that constantly. He joins John at Brewers in Manchester’s Village, recorded on quite possibly the hottest day of the year, with cold drinks that were definitely not helping.

Janethan talks about growing up as a quiet, timid kid in Manchester who didn’t actually like music until his early teens, joined the glee club mainly to get out of PE, and then became so obsessed with understanding how the voice works that he spent years quietly building a skill nobody knew he was developing. By his own account he wasn’t particularly good for a long time, and his Caribbean mum made sure he knew that. He got there in the end.

The conversation gets into how Janethan built a following on TikTok through comedy covers of viral British cultural moments, and how that audience then discovered he is also a genuinely serious musician making original music, which people find slightly confusing. He talks about navigating a creative life with autism, the way hyperfocus can disappear you from the world for two weeks while writing a song, and why running a social media account is, for him, one of the hardest things he does.

There’s also a really enjoyable thread about the state of the music industry, what it actually takes to build a career as an independent queer artist of colour, and what Janethan wants his future to look like. He wants to be on all the stages. He means it. This conversation is a very good sign that he will be.

It’s chaotic, funny, surprisingly candid, and a great deal of fun from start to finish.

Follow Jonathan on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/itsjanethan

🗣️ Why Listen?

If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Theo UK Rose is a professional dancer and performer currently touring the UK in The Bodyguard. John catches him in a dressing room at the Liverpool Empire, squeezed in between a matinee and an evening show, which is exactly the kind of chaotic scheduling that makes touring theatre what it is.

Theo talks John through how he got here: growing up dancing to the Wiggles, training from the age of 11 at the Hammond in Chester before moving to Laine Theatre Arts in Surrey, and landing his first professional contract before he’d even finished his final year. He is candid about what life on a touring production actually looks like day to day, the logistics of shared accommodation, napping on dressing room floors with a foam roller as a pillow, the strange rhythms of two-show days, and the cast bonds that form when you spend a year living out of a suitcase with the same people across the country.

The conversation takes a more honest turn around body image and the pressure that comes with performing in costumes every night, sometimes feeling great in them and sometimes not, and what it takes to fuel a physically demanding show without tipping into patterns that don’t serve you. Theo is refreshingly open about it, including the times it has gone wrong.

There’s also the bigger picture: a growing TikTok following built on just being himself, ambitions around TV work, a future fashion brand he can visualise clearly but hasn’t quite figured out yet, and a very firm declaration that he would absolutely do a gay Love Island. He’s warm, funny, and genuinely good company, even when the room is 30 degrees and there’s another show in two hours.

It’s an easy, enjoyable conversation about what it really takes to build a career doing what you love, and what keeps it worth doing.

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If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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🎙️ What’s This Episode About?

Dr. Christopher Owen is a Canadian-born, Manchester-based liberation coach, consultant, trainer and activist, and the founder of Coliberate. He holds a PhD in intersectional systemic oppression, has worked with organisations including Starbucks EMEA, Hilton Worldwide and Booking.com, and was named a Northern Gamechanger in 2024. He is also, by his own admission, a raging homo from a hockey town with one set of traffic lights and four churches. Recorded at the Molly House in Manchester’s Village.

Christopher joins John to talk about growing up queer in rural Ontario, where same-sex marriage debates were happening in classrooms when he was eleven years old, and where the messaging from his Christian community left him telling himself, as a teenager, that it was better to be good than to be happy. He traces the journey from that to a PhD in oppression, which, he is at pains to point out, is really fun stuff, and eventually to the founding of Coliberate, which exists to help individuals and organisations figure out not just that change is needed, but how to actually make it.

The conversation gets into the real substance of what Christopher does and why: the gap between academic theory and lived experience, the difference between the invisible ways we are harmed and the invisible ways we cause harm, and why so many professionals who want to do something good feel helpless and don’t know where to start. It’s a conversation that takes systemic thinking and makes it feel genuinely actionable rather than abstract.

There’s also the personal story of moving to the UK to do a PhD because a leading expert in his field was based here, building a life in Manchester, working with LGBTQ+ youth and writing a handbook whose profits go entirely back into supporting young queer people, and why he left academia feeling like the institution was more interested in theory than in actually changing anything. Thoughtful, warm, funny at all the right moments, and genuinely one to make you think.

It’s an unexpectedly joyful conversation about oppression, liberation, and why doing things differently is the only way anything actually changes.

Find out more about Dr Christopher Owen at https://coliberate.co.uk

🗣️ Why Listen?

If you’re seeking genuine conversations that reflect the diverse experiences within the LGBTQ+ community, Proudly Said offers a platform for those narratives.

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