You mentioned in the Japan episode that the previous times you had been there, you were not openly gay. What was it like for you to travel there now that you’re out?

“It’s awesome. I feel so fortunate to have gotten to go there multiple times for work, and to get to go and be out and explore the LGBTQ scene there was so fun, which is obviously something I felt like I couldn’t do in the past anywhere. It’s nice to have my life now. I was interested in how there was this sort of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ vibe [in Japan] mixed with this amazing queer district, Ni-chōme, in Tokyo.”

You also said that you had been terrified to go to Ni-chōme in the past. Why?

“When you’re closeted, you’re always existing in that anxious space of, ‘Oh, I can’t do that because...’ you know? I’d barely been in a gay bar at that point in my life. It was more the fear you have that comes with being closeted.”

In the Japan episode, women who like sexually-driven manga are referred to as “fujoshi,” which translates to “rotten women.” Do you think there’s a similar word for women and their sexual preferences in the U.S.?

“I’m sure there are. I feel like women being freely sexual is an issue for people.”

Which country surprised you the most?

“I think the intensity of some people’s situations somewhere like Jamaica, for example, was a really devastating thing to see. So the difficulty for people struggling there specifically was probably the most alarming and upsetting and jarring.”

What specifically?

“We spent time with homeless youth there, and every day for them is about survival. They suffer. One of the girls we were interviewing had plastic burns on her body. She had been shot days before and still had the bullet in her side. Recently, they were squatting in this vacant lot, and people had come and burned down their little huts they built while they were sleeping. So they were living under blue tarps, and you could see all the burnt debris. It’s that bad.”