This is The New Yorker Radio Hour, a co-production of WNYC Studios and The New Yorker.

This is the New Yorker Radio Hour. I'm Adam Howard, in today for David Remnick.

Fellow Travelers is a mini-series premiering on Showtime, set during a period that's not widely

remembered now.

We know the story of Joseph McCarthy going after supposed communists and the government, but

alongside the Red Scare was a witch hunt that cost thousands of gay people their jobs.

The president is going to issue an EO, whatever that is.

Executive order. Come here. And they're worried, Eisenhower is going to issue an E.O. Whatever that is. Executive order. Come here.

And they're worried Eisenhower is trying to undermine them with it.

By taking the lead on the anti-communist crusade?

I think so. Senator McCarthy wants to ignore it, but Roy thinks that they should...

Roy? On a first-time basis?

Mr. Cone thinks the smarter move is to make people think that they, McCarthy and Cohn,

are behind the order.

That they forced Eisenhower to do the right thing.

It was a grim situation. An investigation at the time claimed that, quote,

one homosexual can pollute an entire government office.

Fellow Travelers is based on a novel by Thomas Mallon.

It describes real events through two fictional characters working in the government.

They start a secret relationship while their lives in the Capitol brush up against the likes of McCarthy and the infamous Roy Cohn. Thomas Mallon spoke with David Remnick.

Tom, the relationship at the center of the book is a romance between two men, and this is Washington,

D.C. in the 50s. Talk a little bit about what it meant to be gay back then, and maybe particularly in D.C.

...