Panache, Persistence and Truth: Writer and Photographer Elyssa Maxx Goodman (a.k.a. Miss Manhattan) on Her Love of Drag, Unheard Stories, and NYC Culture

People at the Core

Ever wondered how someone builds a life around what they love? Elyssa Maxx Goodman offers a masterclass in turning passion into purpose. Born to New York natives transplanted to Florida, Goodman always felt the magnetic pull of the city where "the weirdos" gathered. By sixteen, she was already saving for her inevitable migration.
The path wasn't always smooth. After losing an office job just months after moving to New York at twenty-one, Goodman faced a pivotal moment. Rather than retreat, she began cold-emailing editors and professionals she admired. "I wanted my life to be my work," she explains, a philosophy that guided her through fifteen years of successful freelance writing for publications including Vogue, The New York Times, and Vanity Fair.
Throughout our conversation, Goodman reveals how her approach to journalism—particularly when covering subcultures from drag performers to sex toy testers—stems from a deep belief that knowledge dispels fear. This perspective shaped her bestselling book "Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City," which chronicles 160 years of drag history with both scholarly precision and personal passion.
What makes this episode particularly illuminating is Goodman's historical perspective on today's anti-LGBTQ+ backlash. Rather than seeing current challenges as unprecedented, she identifies them as part of a recurring cycle throughout history—one that, despite its difficulties, has seen the community gain more allies with each iteration.
Whether discussing her long-running Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading Series, her own performance work, or the writers who've influenced her, Goodman offers wisdom about creating authentic work and community. As she beautifully puts it, we're all "collages" who find tools in others' work but make them distinctly our own—"You go and get a hammer, but then you put rhinestones on it."
Listen now for an inspiring conversation about persistence, storytelling as bridge-building, and finding your own rhinestone-covered tools.

Elyssa Maxx Goodman:

Website

Glitter and Concrete: A Cultural History of Drag in New York City by Elyssa Maxx Goodman

The Miss Manhattan Non-Fiction Reading Series

Mentions:

The Last Resort (2018)

Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil & Gillian McCain

Hypocrite in a Pouffy White Dress: Tales of Growing Up Groovy and Clueless by Susan Jane Gilman

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פרקים

1. From Greenpoint Palace Bar: Intro (00:00:00)

2. Meet Alyssa Max Goodman (00:02:06)

3. From Florida to New York City (00:05:40)

4. Breaking Into Freelance Writing (00:11:05)

5. The Miss Manhattan Reading Series (00:19:15)

6. Drag, Performance and Identity (00:27:35)

7. Cycles of Visibility and Backlash (00:38:40)

8. Books That Change Lives (00:44:45)