In this podcast, now in its fourth year, therapists Stella O'Malley and Sasha Ayad take a deep dive into the psychological and cultural forces impacting the social changes around "gender." Through interviews with researchers, doctors, therapists, parents, detransitioners, and others, Sasha and Stella's podcast is a "must listen" for anyone trying to navigate the current gender landscape. With their sharp analytical minds and deep compassionate hearts, Stella and Sasha have also become known throughout many parent networks as lighthouses in the midst of some very stormy seas. Previous guests include Helen Joyce, Jesse Singal, Leor Sapir, Kathleen Stock, Jamie Reed, Peter Boghossian and more.
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This episode delves into the affirmative model of care for gender-nonconforming youth, critically examining its evolution from general affirmation to an activist-driven approach. Hosts Stella O'Malley and Sasha Ayad discuss how it contrasts with traditional therapeutic practices like Carl Rogers' person-centered therapy, its underlying assumptions of innate gender identity, and the dangers of a superficial, "nodding dog" approach. They also explore the concept creep where "affirmative care" now often implicitly includes medical interventions, highlighting the totalizing worldview and the chilling effect on clinicians who might question the model.
Parents often struggle to articulate their position when friends suggest they simply "accept" their child's trans identity. This episode explores the nuance between unconditional acceptance of a child and the critical examination of specific affirmations, particularly those involving medicalization. Sasha and Stella provide practical advice on how to communicate love and concern while highlighting the lack of scientific backing and potential harms of many gender-affirming medical interventions. They empower parents to proactively express their care, caution, and love, even when facing popular but potentially misinformed opinions.
Sasha and Stella discuss the cultural shift from mental health stigma to over-identification with diagnoses, questioning if simplified labels hinder true understanding and growth. They explore how the absence of traditional identities has led to a reliance on medical and digital frameworks for self-meaning, particularly impacting adolescents grappling with social media and fragmented connections. The episode critiques the medicalization of normal life challenges and advocates for a holistic view of identity and distress.
Sasha Ayad and Stella O'Malley address a parent's concern about their 16-year-old son exploring female clothing and drag, examining the possibility of online "testing the waters" and the sexualized nature of some interests. They delve into the nuances of individual personality types, share a cautionary tale of a man who transitioned after light experimentation, and emphasize the critical importance of investigating the child's online history to understand their true motivations.
This episode is a powerful and important conversation exposing the increasingly devastating impact of the conflation between gender identity theory and the experience of living with gender dysphoria. In this episode, Sasha & Stella speak with Rose who wishes to remain anonymous. Rose is the mother of two young sons and lives in the United States. In August of 2022, she published the piece “True Believer” on the Parents with Inconvenient Truths around Trans (PITT) Substack. She wrote “True Be...
In this episode, Stella & Sasha talk with Joe Burgo and Alasdair Gunn about the Genspect’s new direction and the upcoming first-ever live event. As you will hear them discuss, the Genspect Conference, themed “The Bigger Picture,” will bring together experts from many fields holding a myriad of perspectives: eminent scientists, researchers, lawyers, doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, psychotherapists, sociologists, educators, feminists, and some well-known detransitioners. Guest Joe Burgo...
A parent writes in seeking helping with figuring out where their son’s gender confusion originated. Sasha and Stella dig into the reality that often there is not “one big reason” or a single “smoking gun.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com
In this episode, the Wider Lens duo takes a slight detour from gender to explore teenage years from a developmental approach and how parents can better connect with and support their teen children through a challenging but powerful season of life — adolescence. Sasha interviews Stella about her latest book, What Your Teen is Trying to Tell You. The book empowers parents to distinguish between opportunities in which intervention makes sense or moments that are best left for the teens to work out ...
Sasha and Stella try to give a worried mom advice on how to speak to her teenage daughter who is displaying negative health complications that could be a result of chest binding. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com
This episode is dedicated to spreading awareness about the existence and experience of detransitioners — those who pursued a medicalized gender transition and later came to feel it wasn’t the right path for them. The detransitioner community is growing faster than ever as more young people realize they received inadequate and inappropriate healthcare. The complex experience of detransition is not at all captured by the political identity being defined in the public discourse on the topic, and th...
Victoria Smith is a regular contributor to The Critic, writing on women’s issues, parenting, and mental health. Her work has also appeared in The New Statesman, The Independent, and UnHerd. Her book Hags looks at the demonisation of middle-aged women in politics and popular culture. In this episode, Stella and Sasha chat with Victoria about the depths of body hatred and body loathing. Victoria shares her perceptions about experiences described in the context of gender dysphoria, seeming incredib...
Sasha and Stella respond to a parent’s question by exploring how some kids are socially vulnerable and can get swept up in all kinds of “make overs.” This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.widerlenspod.com
Hannah Barnes is Investigations Producer at the BBC’s flagship television news and current affairs program, Newsnight. She has spent the last 15 years at the BBC, specializing in investigative and analytical journalism for both television and radio. Hannah led Newsnight’s coverage of the care available to young people experiencing gender-related distress at the UK’s National Health Service’s (NHS) only youth gender clinic in England and Wales, the Gender Identity Development Services (GIDS) at t...
Many young people who first claim to be bisexual will later identify as pansexual and then trans. Sasha and Stella discuss this common but contemporary pathway to trans identification and analyze why this might be happening and what it could mean subconsciously. They offer parents some ideas for how to engage their child during this time of exploration. Sasha and Stella both have parent coaching membership sites that offer an expansive catalog of resources curated to support and empower parents ...
The development of the Dutch protocol, and the research conducted from its practice, has become the basis for gender-related medical intervention in children all over the world; specifically, using drugs to block children's puberty and subsequently using cross-sex hormones and surgery to medicalize their 'transition.' The Dutch model has the reputation of being the “gold standard of care” for youth transgender medicine and is often cited when defending the use of puberty blockers and surgeries i...
On this episode of Gender: A Wider Lens, Stella & Sasha sit down with Dr. Michael Biggs, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of St Cross College. Dr. Biggs has been key in uncovering vital information that led to the independent Cass Review on GIDS at Tavistock. Biggs has since turned his laser-like focus on the Dutch Protocol and in this episode, he discusses many of the issues with this flawed model. His distinguished body of work includes articles on ...
Sasha & Stella take a walk down “memory lane,” recalling the evolution of events and circumstances that lead them each towards a deeper concentration on gender identity exploration in their work. With very different stories to tell, they each share their observations of society at large and describe their individual experiences within the culture of their communities and in their workspaces. They explain what intrigued them and led them to explore deeper questions about identity development,...
This episode is being rereleased as part of our Top 5 Episodes of 2022 Countdown! Wesley Yang, an essayist and public intellectual, has written extensively about 21st-century America and the liminal position of the non-black, non-white person. Coining the term "successor ideology" in 2019, Wesley has carefully analyzed this particular kind of ideology among left-wing movements that is centered around identity politics. Wesley has recently turned his attention towards gender issues and, in this e...
This episode is being rereleased as part of our Top 5 Episodes of 2022 Countdown! We have completed eleven interviews and today we analyze the second half of our Pioneers Series. Stella and I discuss the psychological and emotional impact of some recent interviews. We review the shocking discussions we’ve had with several of our guests and reflect on the flawed Dutch Protocol, which is often held up as the gold standard in childhood dysphoria medical treatment. Dr. Anne Lawrence’s reflections on...
This episode is being rereleased as part of our Top 5 Episodes of 2022 Countdown! Jesse Singal was instrumental in shining a light on the defamation of Dr. Ken Zucker in 2016. Then, two years later, he became even more widely known in the gender world for his seminal, long-form piece in the Atlantic, “When a Child Says She’s Trans.” In this conversation, we discuss flaws in the science of gender dysphoria treatment and the misrepresentation of research findings in the media. We also look at the ...
This episode is being rereleased as part of our Top 5 Episodes of 2022 Countdown! If you’ve ever asked yourself: how is this happening? How are so many institutions completely captured by contemporary gender beliefs? How are medical bodies, educational institutions, and courts operating in ways that seem crazy? Well, then you really need to listen to this insightful and clarifying discussion with Leor Sapir. Leor is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. A driven researcher with a Ph.D. in Politic...
This episode is being rereleased as part of our Top 5 Episodes of 2022 Countdown! Bio: Steensma Thomas D. Steensma, Ph.D., is a health psychologist, principal investigator and part of the outpatient management team at the Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria at Amsterdam UMC, The Netherlands. Trained as a child and adolescent psychologist, his clinical work is focused on the counseling and treatment of people of all ages with gender incongruence and Differences in Sex Development (DSD). As pr...
In this last episode before our break, we begin with some important and exciting announcements about what listeners can expect in 2023 from Gender: A Wider Lens. We then launch into one of our most important interviews yet: “Teiresias” was a patient at the notorious Dutch clinic. Unlike the common misconception that the Dutch used an air-tight method for correctly identifying kids who would benefit long-term from transition, Teiresias’s detransition reveals the truth about childhood gender medic...
StoicMom is a certified life coach and former classroom teacher who has some unique ideas about parenting and education. Like other moms whose lives have been altered when their teens adopted a trans identity, StoicMom was initially determined to rescue her daughter from this dangerous ideology. She quickly recognized what she was up against and sunk into desperate fear and rage. StoicMom did “all the things” to get her daughter to desist — she even moved her family to a small town in a red stat...
