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Youth distrust of mainstream media is more intense than ever. Forty-eight percent of people 18 to 29 say keeping up with politics is one reason they’re on TikTok. Amid the contracting and crumbling of the media industry, we’re in the era of the YouTube video essay, the talking-to-camera headline roundup, and the independently run newsletter. Welcome to Teen Vogue’s new series, Logged On, where we talk to the people bringing you politics and news in fun and innovative ways.
On a late-September Friday night, Ella Yurman, 25, sat behind a desk with New York City Councilmember Chi Ossé, 26, chatting about Ossé’s proposed bill to ban broker’s fees for renters, the recent indictment of Mayor Eric Adams, and whether Adams secretly has nipple rings. This is the kind of political conversation you’ll only find on Late Stage Live! with Ella Yurman, a late-night talk show airing on digital platforms and on Brooklyn public access TV.
Yurman's desk — at the beginning of this episode she leapt from behind it in a manner I can only describe as like an alligator coming out of water — sits in front of the show's primary set piece, a disheveled collage of signs and scribbles featuring a trans pride flag at its center. After his interview, Ossé added his own touch to the collage: a sign that read “Eric Adams’ Nipple Rings!” with hearts dotted over the i’s.
Late Stage’s specialty is making political commentary in a Gen Z-oriented, accessible way, tackling issues such as immigration and trans sports bans, using comedy as a vessel to discuss the news. (In a promotion for the first episode, Yurman cracked, “Welcome to Late Stage Live! — like The Daily Show but if Jon Stewart was a transsexual… so exactly like The Daily Show!”) The show is an all-queer, all-volunteer, monthly production that serves up topical news in a quick, comedic format.
While coming up with the idea for the show, “I started to come to terms with the fact that there aren't trans voices in late night,” Yurman, the host and co-creator, tells Teen Vogue. “There aren't a ton of trans voices even on the internet doing politics [commentary and news].”
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In early 2023, Yurman joined forces with comedian and playwright Reid Pope, who she met through the Brooklyn stand-up comedy scene, to work together to fill that gap in coverage. “I know we don't know each other super well, but would you want to sink your whole life into making a TV show?” Yurman recalls asking Pope. “We met at a coffee shop and just talked for a few hours, and it became clear immediately that I had made the right call.”
After that initial meeting, Pope, 28, became head writer, and they and Yurman worked together to assemble a team, putting out their first episode in November 2023.
Each episode of Late Stage Live! is uploaded to YouTube without a paywall and advertised across other social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram. While the co-creators agree that the show was created with young queer people in mind, especially young trans people, they’re committed to ensuring that the writing of the show isn’t targeted toward any particular niche. Says Pope, “We don’t want to write for any one specific person because YouTube can allow us to access so many different types of people.”
Adds Yurman, “In an ideal world, we are able to take further left ideas and make them funny and palatable to a wider audience.”
The show's quick, cheeky tone comes from the writers' room, which is made up of New York-based comedians. Rima Parikh, a writer who knew Pope from the stand-up scene, praises the show for creating space to push boundaries with queer humor: “I love that this show can be what we think is funny, and that the jokes can be silly or specific or in-community. It can be queer-specific, and especially trans-specific, in a way that you can’t really do on traditional late night.”
Those queer- and trans-specific bits are peppered throughout the program — or sometimes lobbed in your face — within the format of a traditional late-night talk show. Yurman opens each episode with a monologue, seated behind her desk adorned with poppers, a vial of estrogen, and a pack of cigarettes. A sign slapped on the desk reads, “No vaping.”
A guest segment follows the opening at the desk. In the past Yurman has interacted with a number of sketch characters, all played by comedians, but the October edition of the show marked the first actual interview, with NYC Councilmember Ossé, and the first elected official to appear on the show.
Pope is visibly excited by the opportunity to feature progressive lawmakers and policies, including Ossé’s proposal to ban broker fees for renters. “I hope that everybody from all over who tunes in can look at the work that [Ossé] is doing on the local level and either get involved or support people," Pope says, "or even just look into who their city council people are.”
When Yurman asked Ossé in the interview how he was feeling and how City Hall was faring in the wake of Adams’ indictment for bribery and campaign finance violations, the council member first responded with his “political” answer: “I’m definitely concerned with what's happening in our city," he said. "We have a lack of leadership across the board, especially at the top, when it comes to who our executive is. New Yorkers need leadership.”
Ossé then followed with his “nonpolitical” answer about Adams’ criminal charges: “Thank God.”
The section concluded with Yurman asking “Do you think that Adams is going to get nipple rings like [Andrew] Cuomo?” referring to half-serious online speculation about the former governor. "I think Eric Adams already has nipple rings,” Ossé laughed.
Late Stage's creators say that young queer people interested in creating something like this show should stop waiting for permission. “My advice to a young queer person is, just start making it,” Pope says. “Ella and I have realized that any time we’ve tried to wait our turn or wait for someone to come to us, it has never happened.”
Yurman agrees: “If you want to do something, just say you’ll do it, and don’t back out.” In other words: Commit to the bit.
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