The Waves: Gender, Relationships, Feminism · Slate Podcasts

How a Drag Queen Recreated the American Dream

·38 min·3 clips

Mrs. Kasha Davis reveals her seven-year sobriety while drag faces attacks in states like Florida and Tennessee.

This episode of The Waves features host Daisy Rosario in conversation with drag performer Mrs. Kasha Davis, the persona of Ed Popil. Mrs. Kasha Davis is a RuPaul's Drag Race alum known for her "international celebrity housewife" character and her work with Drag Story Hour. She discusses her recent talent show performance on All Stars, which was a protest song addressing social issues like school shootings, racism, and attacks on drag. The episode details her seven-year involvement with Drag Story Hour, which began at a local theater in Rochester and expanded to a popular YouTube series during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mrs. Kasha Davis explains that her character is a retro housewife, a tribute to glamorous women like her mother and grandmother, and a celebration of her 20-year marriage to her husband, Stephen Lovins. She shares her personal journey, including coming out later in life after previous marriages to women, achieving eight years of sobriety, and leaving a corporate career to pursue drag full-time in her forties. A surprising insight is her view that protests against drag events are often more about race and transphobia than the performances themselves. She emphasizes that drag is a varied art form, comparing it to music or theater, where content is tailored to the audience. The conversation reveals how her blended family, including her stepdaughters and her husband's ex-wife, actively supports her work, making it a family affair. Mrs. Kasha Davis frames her public life as demonstrating a possible version of a happy, queer American dream. The tone is warm, conversational, and deeply personal, blending anecdotal storytelling with advocacy. Listeners interested in LGBTQ+ family dynamics, the cultural debate around drag, or personal stories of late-in-life career transformation will find this episode compelling. Those seeking a purely debate-focused or political analysis of drag bans might find the personal narrative focus less aligned with their interests.

As heard by us

A warm, clear-eyed case for drag as performance, memory, and resilience.

This piece lands because it treats drag as more than style: it is memory, self-making, and a way to live in public. Mrs. Kasha Davis's housewife persona gives the discussion its strongest thread, especially when it sits beside the TV couples and glamorous women that shaped him.

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Why you'd press play

If you want drag politics with a human face, this one starts there.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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