Cerebro (podcast)

Cerebro is an audio podcast hosted by writer and literary agent Connor Goldsmith. Each episode, Goldsmith talks with a guest about a single X-Men character and their entire history, going "through the byzantine maze of continuity that inevitably builds up over 60 years of storytelling," often with a queer lens. His guests have included authors, comedians, a Pulitzer winner, an Emmy nominee, as well as his own personal friends. Entertainment Weekly listed it in their article "The 10 Best Podcasts of 2021."

History

Goldsmith, a former senior literary agent at Fuse Literary, started the podcast in 2020 as a way to keep from going stir crazy during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. After encouragement from a friend, he decided to start with an interview with then-Excalibur writer Tini Howard about Betsy Braddock. The podcast is named after Cerebro, a device in the Marvel Comics universe that amplifies the user's telepathic abilities.
In April 2024, the podcast hit one hundred episodes and over 300 hours of content. Niko Stratis of Autostraddle stated, "It’s got a long backlog of episodes, but it’s a really fun, joyfully chaotic listen through a joyfully chaotic timeline of messy mutants."

Format

Each episode highlights a different character in the X-Men comics, with Goldsmith and his guest often discussing themes of LGBTQ+ and how the character relates to the X-Men's minority metaphor. Entertainment Weekly described it as them "excavat the many queer allegories that are possible with these colorful characters." He will often talk about the character's history chronologically, before stopping for a brief segment called the "Cerebro Character File" - an abridged version of the character's history - and then resuming his discussion with the guest. The end of the episode has Goldsmith and his guests answer questions from listeners.

Episodes

As of January 11, 2026, the podcast has aired 124 episodes, with a number of bonus episodes.