Helen Pluckrose is a political and cultural writer and commentator, addressing current affairs from a liberal humanist perspective. Her particular focus is current Critical Social Justice (woke) scholarship and activism. Helen took part in the Grievance Studies Affair (along with Peter Bogossian and James Lindsay) which submitted shoddy, ridiculous and ideologically biased papers to academic journals known for publishing Critical Social Justice scholarship. In 2020, she co-authored Cynical Theor...
Mar 10, 2024•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 86
Alex Byrne is a professor of Philosophy at MIT. A few years ago he started working on philosophical issues relating to sex and gender. And he just published a book on the topic called “Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions”. Pick up your copy here: http://www.alexbyrne.org/trouble-with-gender.html
Mar 03, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 85
NJada is a detransitioned man who began social transition in 2013 at the age of 19, and HRT the following year. He ultimately detransitioned in 2015. Since then he has been gradually working through stages of self-acceptance. After taking a break from the whole topic of gender for a time, he began to get in touch with other detransitioners in late 2018. In 2022 he began to write and speak publicly about his experience on Twitter and Substack. He hopes to share what he's learned about the draw to...
Feb 25, 2024•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 84
Courtney Coulson is an Australian detransitioner and YouTuber exploring the real psychological and social motivations behind gender dysphoria. In this conversation, Courtney discusses a topic not nearly covered enough on this podcast, which is the role of online fandoms in Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria and motivating adolescent females to transition. A note to listeners: Courtney is a quick thinker and this conversation takes a lot of interesting turns. So if you’re like me and often listen to po...
Feb 18, 2024•1 hr 41 min•Ep. 83
Tamara Pietzke is a whistleblower from Washington State whose story was published by The Free Press last week. Tamara has a Masters in social work from the University of Washington. She's since worked with older adults, pregnant and postpartum women, the chronically mentally ill, those in inpatient centers, and she's spent the last six years doing outpatient community mental health. She told us that she never sought out to be a whistleblower but she believes whole-heartedly in having a voice whe...
Feb 11, 2024•44 min•Ep. 82
Eliza Mondegreen researches online trans and detrans communities, where she explores the ways questions and doubts are handled. She also writes about gender medicine for Substack, UnHerd, and other outlets. We had Eliza back on the pod to discuss Friday's New York Times article on detranistioners (featuring Aaron K! and others) as well as her latest WPATH conference experience. The New York Times article discussed: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/02/opinion/transgender-children-gender-dysphoria....
Feb 04, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 81
Ray Alex Williams is a detrans philosopher who wrote a book on trans feminism and philosophy when he was still identifying as trans. After detransition, however, he started a YouTube channel to share his experiences and educate people on gender issues suppressed in mainstream discourse. Ray's YouTube - youtube.com/@RayAlexWilliams Ray's Twitter - twitter.com/RayAlexWilliams
Dec 03, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 79
Helen Joyce is author of “TRANS: When Ideology Meets Reality”, (recently reissued as “Trans: Gender Identity and the New Battle for Women’s Rights”). TRANS was published in July 2021 by OneWorld and has been in paperback since May 2022. A Times of London and Spectator book of the year, it is a UK and Amazon top ten bestseller. It received rave reviews in publications ranging from the Telegraph to the New York Times, and endorsements from, among others, Daniel Dennett (“A sane, humane book”), Lio...
Oct 09, 2023•1 hr 42 min•Ep. 78
Anastassis Spiliadis is a psychotherapist and psychologist based in London & Athens, working with individuals couples and families. He works clinically in private practice and as an Education Lead in the NHS. He has worked for many years with people of all ages affected by eating disorders, gender-related distress, relationship challenges and often enduring mental health difficulties. Anastassis worked in the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS) at The Tavistock Clinic as a clinician a...
Sep 24, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 77
Amanda Kovattana is a biracial, tri-cultural writer who grew up in Bangkok, in a pre-industrialized Thailand before immigrating to California in 1968. She was born in England to an English mother and a Thai father and lived in England during their college years. As a gender non-conforming child, living in Thailand, she benefited from the “third gender” culture of her Thai heritage. Her coming of age in the San Francisco Bay Area, as a lesbian, introduced her to the gay community and the evolving...
Aug 20, 2023•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 76
Dr. Julia Mason is a board-certified pediatrician and Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is a graduate of the University of Illinois and completed residency training in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Dr. Mason has a busy pediatrics practice; in the past several years she's encountered increasing numbers of gender dysphoric adolescents, most with neurodevelopmental challenges or psychiatric comorbidities. Last week The AAP Board of Directors voted to reaffirm their ...
Aug 13, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Ep. 75
This episode is a little different, in that it started as an informal conversation between Aaron Kimberly, Aaron Terrell and our friend Jamie Reed from the LGBT Courage Coalition. We’re weren’t entirely sure it would become a podcast episode, so it might be a little more disorganized than even we are known for. In this recording, we’re discussing a document that some refer to as the Denton Report which was a joint project in 2019 by the Denton’s Law Firm, Thompson Reuters Foundation, and IGLYO t...
Aug 07, 2023•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 74
Anna is a Boston-based musician that has lived with gender incongruence her whole life. After trying medical transition, she decided to move away from this treatment approach for her condition, even after seeing some benefits. Regardless of her approach moving forward, she seeks to reestablish a new relationship with what it means to be a female both physiologically and socially at this very moment in her life. In this, she identifies as a feminist, and someone in solidarity with transsexual peo...
Jul 30, 2023•53 min•Ep. 73
Marc is a 40 year old, married transsexual man from Michigan. By day he’s a Senior Legal Processor at a Real Estate Law Firm. He and his wife also have an Etsy business, The Winking Owl Designs. Marc describes himself as an old hippie soul, an avid animal lover, music lover, cannabis connoisseur, and lover of all humans. He started speaking publicly about some of the things going on in the LGBT community about a year ago, because he doesn’t agree with many things being pushed by the transgender ...
Jul 23, 2023•1 hr 20 min•Ep. 72
No guest this week. Instead Aaron T makes the case for why he believes so many butch lesbians become gay transmen after taking testosterone. This is a phenomena widely observed within FtM communities, but neither the people experiencing this sexuality change, nor the clinicians prescribing the hormones, seem to understand why it is happening. A lot of sexological terms are thrown around in this episode and not defined. Here are some terms that might be useful to know: "Allo" means other, or exte...
Jul 02, 2023•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 70
Don't listen to this podcast. At least not here. Head over to YouTube https://youtu.be/UKQErjjStIk where you will find a transcript to accompany the often difficult to hear audio. In the third installment of our special series covering the 2023 National Transgender Health Summit, we bring you the recording of a task force from the American Psychological Association (APA), who were presenting their working Guidelines for Psychological Practice with Transgender and Gender Diverse People. All four ...
Jun 19, 2023•2 hr 46 min•Ep. 69
We brought Phil Illy back for the launch his book: Autoheterosexual: Attracted to Being the Other Sex. Available today as a paperback, with the ebook and hardcover available on Tuesday, June 13th. Here is what our own Aaron Terrell had to say about Autoheterosexual, "Expertly researched yet entirely accessible to any layperson interested in this topic. Illy explores the most common type of gender dysphoria with compassion and clarity...You will come away from this book with a much deeper underst...
Jun 11, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 66
In this second episode of our special series on the National Trans Health Summit, we bring you into the room for a presentation by Dr Dan Karasic. Karasic is the lead author of the mental health chapter of WPATH’s Standards of Care 8, speaking here about working with patients with autism. We’re joined by two Bay area clinicians who attended the conference, to provide commentary on the presentation. Please note that the first minute or so of the audio recording is hard to hear but does improve so...
Jun 04, 2023•1 hr 31 min•Ep. 68
Our guest this week is Dr. Diane Ehrensaft. Dr. Ehrensaft is director of mental health, and a founding member of the UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Child and Adolescent Gender Center Clinic. She is a developmental and clinical psychologist in the San Francisco Bay Area. We’re kidding. Sort of. Aaron T recently attended the Annual Trans Health Summit in San Francisco, where he met up with two similarly concerned local Bay Area clinicians - one a pediatrician and the other a clinical psychologis...
May 28, 2023•2 hr 6 min•Ep. 67
“Sophia” is a clinical psychologist with a private practice in San Francisco, CA. Her practice is dedicated to providing psychoanalytic psychotherapy to gender-dysphoric and trans-identified adolescents and young adults as well as detransitioners, and parent consultation. She, along with my co-host Aaron Terrel, recently attended the National Transgender Health Summit in San Francisco. ************* Support our work: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/GDAlliance?country.x=CA&locale.x=en_US For ...
May 14, 2023•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 65
Cath Lloyd is the daughter of male to female trans parent. In 1987 her Dad suddenly announced that he was going to undergo gender reassignment treatment. This was a total shock to the whole family, except for her Mum who had known about her Dad's gender dysphoria for 10 years. There were no warning signs. Once Cath finally got through her bereavement process for her Dad, she wrote her book, "When Dad Became Joan" to support other people going through gender reassignment. Links: https://cathlloyd...
Apr 23, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 64
Dr Paul L. Vasey is Professor and Board of Governors Research Chair in Culture, Organization and Society at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada. His research has focused on understanding the development, evolution and psychobiology of gender diversity and sexual orientation. He has studied female homosexual behavior in Japanese monkeys for the past 33 years. This work has been described as “transformative” by leading scholars in the field. For 19 years, he has conducted annual fieldw...
Apr 10, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 63
Christina is an independent journalist who writes about gender, pseudoscience, mental health, autism and critical thinking. She advocates for early autism screening and education and a model of transition care that prioritizes thorough, individualized assessments that explore gender-related distress. https://buttonslives.substack.com/p/how-autistic-traits-can-be-mistaken ************* Support our work: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/GDAlliance?country.x=CA&locale.x=en_US For more informatio...
Apr 02, 2023•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 62
Julia Malott is a transgender woman in Ontario, Canada. After running as a candidate for her 2022 school board trustee election, she has been active in school boards across Ontario. Julia holds herself as a voice against illiberal ideologies and seeks to bridge conversations about sex and gender in a way that brings about workable solutions for everyone. Julia's podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@alottamalotta Book by Mark Yarhouse: https://www.amazon.ca/Understanding-Gender-Dysphoria-Mark-Yarhou...
Mar 26, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 61
Jamie Reed is a self described Queer woman and mom of 5. She holds a Masters of Science in Clinical Research Management and previously worked as a case manager at the Washington University School of Medicine's paediatric transgender centre at St Louis Children's Hospital. She left the position in November of 2022 due to concerns that they were harming more than helping many of their patients. Last month she published a story in the Free Press of what she described as morally and medically appall...
Mar 19, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 60
Zander Keig is an award winning clinical social worker and a female to male transsexual of Mexican heritage. His advocacy work involves serving as Welcome Ministry Board President, Transgender American Veterans Association Board Director of the Community & Fellowship Committee, Advisory Board member, and Senior Fellow for the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism. Zander is the co-founder of the LGBTQ Caregiver Center and serves on the National Alliance of Caregiving Mental Health Advi...
Mar 05, 2023•1 hr 35 min•Ep. 59
Laura Hobbs is a self described "Gay-GP", a play on Autogynephilia (AGP) with a meta attraction to men. Having once been a controversial and radical trans activist, she has learned that self awareness and acceptance, not the activist narrative, has greatly improved her overall mental health. Laura’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@UCLGOwgwMHCYy65YrtX2EHzw Laura on Twitter: https://twitter.com/CommieDGurl?s=20 ************* Support our work: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/GDAlliance?co...
Feb 26, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 58
Eliza is a graduate student researching online trans and detrans communities, with a focus on how these communities influence attitudes, beliefs, and knowledge about gender and expectations and intentions toward transition and/or detransition. She attended the WPATH SOC 8 launch conference in September 2022 and describes her some of her observations there. Her substack, Gender:Hacked - https://elizamondegreen.substack.com Twitter - https://twitter.com/elizamondegreen?s=20&t=QXEMxI7NmT6rUS4ex...
Feb 19, 2023•56 min•Ep. 56
Earlier this week, the Gender Dysphoria Alliance published a blog article chronicling the ripple-effect impact that speaking publicly has had on Aaron Kimberly's family. In this episode of Transparency, the two hosts discuss the spirit in which that article was written, reminding our audience that at the centre of everything is our humanity and interconnectedness. The blog article discussed can be found here: https://www.genderdysphoriaalliance.c... The recent article by a gender clinic insider ...
Feb 13, 2023•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 57
Phil Illy is an autoheterosexual author who, in his words, “aims to mainstream autoheterosexuality and destigmatize it so that more of his kind can jettison shame and live in union with their inner cross-gender spirit.” Prior to writing a soon to be released book about his sexual orientation, Phil received degrees in physics and mechanical engineering before retiring to Portland, Oregon, where he became best known for his skill at handstand twerking and juggling hula hoops. Phil's website: http:...
Feb 05, 2023•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 55
