Jess Rothschild Brings Fire Island’s History to Life in New Podcast

Finding Fire Island, an eight-episode docu-podcast series that brings to life how a sleepy, 19th century beach town became a modern-day queer mecca for artists and the New York City theatre community, is now available via Broadway Podcast Network.

Queer history has often been told through the lens of loss and disappearance, but Fire Island has transcended that to survive as a stunning fantasy world and cultural touchstone. Created and executive produced by Jess Rothschild, Finding Fire Island takes listeners behind the curtain of the mystique, legends, and lore of the area’s LGBTQ communities from folks who experience their evolution from the 1950s to today.

“As a New Yorker, Fire Island was intrinsically formative to my identity as a gay person,” Rothschild says. “As my obsession with the history and culture of Cherry Grove and the Pines intensified over the years, I began collecting interviews with notable Fire Island figures, past and present. While working on this project, I realized that this is one of the rare pieces of media about Fire Island from the perspective of a woman.”

Since 2019, Rothschild has published and hosted the podcast Hot Takes & Deep Dives, which centers on queer pop iconography and New York City culture. She has received acclaim from The Huffington Post and The New York Times for her interviews with iconic celebrities including Rosie O’Donnell, Sandra Bernhard, Isaac Mizrahi, and Melissa Etheridge, and she was a founding writer for Autostraddle, the largest independent LGBTQ website still in existence.

Rothschild took some time to talk more about the podcast, which features a variety talent including Joel Kim Booster, Margaret Cho, Matt Rogers, DJ Lina Bradford, screenwriter Paul Rudnick, and Cherry Grove legend Bob “Rose” Levine, with OFM.

Let me begin by asking, how excited are you for Finding Fire Island to premiere?

Ecstatic! This has been an idea in my head for about a year and a half, and I’ve been actively interviewing and producing the episodes over the last six months. So, I’ve just been existing with it in a bubble all this time with my sound editor (laughs). I am so curious and excited to hear reactions and see what people think, as well as if they’re shocked by some things because there’s so much information about the history, and of course, it’s also wrapped in entertainment. I’m just dying for the response.

Without giving too much away, can you tell us a little more about what listeners can expect?

I would say it’s almost like going to Fire Island School, in a sense, if you were taught by drag queens, Matt Rogers, Joel Kim Booster, and Margaret Cho. As if they were your instructors teaching this class in college. It’s really a hybrid of the history, the mystique, and the lore of Fire Island, mixed with comedians telling their personal stories. I have people who’ve been there from the 50s, 60s, and 70s, and these people are like stalwarts. They are key community members. On July 4, there’s always the Invasion of the Pines event, and I have two people who were part of the very first invasion in 1976 telling the story. So many people go to the invasion, but they don’t know what it’s really about. I think to have the story told from the originals is pretty magical.

As the podcast’s creator and producer, how did the idea for this project come to fruition? Why did you want to do it?

I have been hosting a different show, my own show, called Hot Takes & Deep Dives, for about four or five years now. In that show, I interview a lot of people who were formative to my identity as a gay person around my college coming out era. People like Rosie O’Donnell, Margaret Cho, and Sandra Bernhard, and through doing that, a familiar thread that I would pull on, was to actually ask performers about their time on Fire Island, if I knew it was, like, a New York person. They would light up because nobody’s asking about their experiences.

So, I began collecting a lot of these little, short bits about Fire Island, and as time went on, I became much more entrenched in the community of Fire Island, Cherry Grove, and the Pines. There really wasn’t that piece of media out there that, I think, married the history with the modern-day experience. These things have been going on since the 60s and 70s, but a lot of the media out there is either too historic or not accessible.

There’s a movie called When Ocean Meets Sky, but it’s not available. Not even on Amazon. Then, of course, there’s the movie Fire Island, but that is very party forward. It barely mentions the history. As somebody who is Fire Island obsessive, this is the culmination of all the facts, trivia, and lore that I’ve been able to compile by speaking to anyone connected from back in the day.

Can you talk more about how Fire Island has been intrinsically formative to your identity as a gay person?

I grew up on Long Island, about 50 miles from the ferry, and even in my 20s, I was always going out for day trips. I would always see Sandra Bernhard there, Margaret Cho at the Ice Palace, and then what happened was, I was in a very long-term relationship. It was, like, an eight-year relationship, and our summer life was actually in the Hamptons. That relationship had sort of an abrupt end right before the pandemic, and she, ironically enough, hated Fire Island. So, I would often be skipping off by myself to go with friends for a night or two.

Then the summer of 2020, with the pandemic and this breakup, I found myself still trying to continue that life that I had with my partner in the Hamptons, but it only intensified my loneliness. When I was in Fire Island that summer, I felt this intense inspiration, number one, but also this community really taking me in. I was running into people that I knew from the city, like random friends. That was a real refuge for people that summer, and that was when I really became entrenched in the communities.

By interviewing all these notable Fire Island figures, past and present, and hearing all these stories, what did you personally find to be the most interesting or surprising?

I found what’s playing out in the political climate right now very interesting. Race and socio-economic issues are playing out across the country, and even on Fire Island, this remote community in the United States, where you have to take a ferry to get there, it’s not an easy journey, and the same issues are playing out on this tiny little scale. Issues of race and people who can’t afford housing. To so many people, it’s economically impenetrable.

I talked to people about going to tea, but how would you describe the demographic of people that are surrounding you? Just in a nutshell, it’s interesting to see what plays out in the United States on this grand scale and across the world also plays out in these tiny villages. These tiny gay villages, of all things. It’s still just a microcosm for the rest of the world.

There are a lot of people in the LGBTQ community who are still hesitant to visit Fire Island because it does have a certain kind of reputation. Are you seeing that change?

One hundred percent, and that is heavily explored in this series. When people think of Fire Island, particularly the Pines, it has a reputation of being relentlessly cis, gay, white, and male. People will see in the series that it has that reputation because this is a cyclical place. How people associate with it, those are the people who come. Trans people, Black and brown people, Asian people, they’re like, “Oh, that’s not a place for me,” but it actually is. Several of the people I interviewed, who are now homeowners, are people of color, Asian folks, and trans folks.

What’s so important to them is to keep bringing those younger people out of those minorities so they can see that it’s a place for everyone. Don’t let the stereotype be a barrier to entry. Compared to a decade ago, it is night and day. I can’t wait for people to hear DJ Lina Bradford’s story. She’s the centerpiece of episode four called “Title T,” and she talks about how when she first arrived, it was all white gay men. She was one of the very few women of color, but when she arrived around 2005, that’s when the colorful people started coming out to the Pines because they were following her.

Ultimately, what do you hope audiences take away from Finding Fire Island?

I think it’s a choose your own adventure. You can take a beautiful walk, wake up in the morning with a cup of coffee, walk the boards, go for a run, and you can also meet a stranger at tea or have these dalliances with people in these new and surprising ways. If you want to party until four in the morning, that’s available to you as well. There are also thriving sober communities in Cherry Grove.

It’s not perfect, but it’s also not a monolith. Think of it as a choose your own adventure, and I actually talk about this very point at the end of episode one with Matt Rogers. It can have high highs and low lows, if you let it, but ultimately, you are in control of your experience. Navigate your path. It’s for everybody.

Now that Finding Fire Island has premiered, what’s next? What more do you hope happens with it?

Wow, I am open to anything. If Andy Cohen wants to knock on my door, I’m going to answer (laughs). I’m just as curious as you are, and I am open to any possibilities. I truly believe in this project. There is so much diversity in the voices, ages, and demographics. There’s an icon of Cherry Grove; he’s been a performer since 1955 and he just turned 90. His name is Bob “Rose” Levine, and he’s still performing in drag. At one point, you think he’s going to burst into song in the series. So, what’s next? I’m all ears.

Before we wrap up, are there any other upcoming projects or anything else you’d like to mention or plug?

Certainly. I’d just like to plug my other show, Hot Takes & Deep Dives, which is a weekly show. Recent guests include Lady Bunny, Rachel Dratch, songwriter Kara DioGuardi, so there’s a nice balance. Listeners of that show will think Finding Fire Island will make complete sense because I’ve done a lot of Fire Island stuff on that show. They’ll be like, oh, we saw this coming.

Finding Fire Island is available on all podcast streaming platforms and visit findingfireisland.com for the latest news and updates. Connect with Rothschild by following her on Instagram @jessxnyc.

Photos courtesy of Jess Rothschild