logo
episode-header-image
Jun 2022
53m 12s

The war on trans people

Vox
About this episode
Vox’s Emily St. James talks with Chase Strangio of the ACLU about the assault on the rights of trans Americans taking place in many states across the country. They explain why laws that recently passed through state houses in Florida, Texas, and Alabama imperil trans people — or, in some cases, even criminalize their very existence. Chase and Emily discuss t ... Show More
Up next
Nov 17
How to survive awkward encounters
We all know what awkwardness feels like. It's that jolt of discomfort when the social script breaks down, and no one knows what to do next. But what if awkwardness isn’t a flaw to fix but a window into how we live together?  Sean’s guest today is Alexandra Plakias, associate p ... Show More
56m 52s
Nov 10
Truth in an age of doublethink
We use “Orwellian” to describe everything from campus dust-ups to authoritarian crackdowns. But what did George Orwell actually stand for, what did he get wrong, and what can we learn from him about our age of surveillance capitalism and distraction? Sean’s guest is Laura Beers, ... Show More
52m 16s
Nov 3
The case against free will
We all think of ourselves as authors of our lives. The difference between our happy ending and someone else’s tragic one are the choices we each make. But what if none of that’s true? Sean’s guest today is Robert Sapolsky, a biologist and neuroscientist at Stanford University and ... Show More
58m 50s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2023
Reclaiming the Trans Narrative w/ Chase Strangio and Miss Peppermint
Chase Strangio is Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, and a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights. Miss Peppermint is an actress, musical performer, and she nearly won season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag race. She's become the ACLU’s fir ... Show More
54m 21s
Mar 2024
Trans Athletes Fight For Rights
<p>The federal government announced on Thursday some upcoming changes to the next Census. The form will consolidate two existing questions about race and ethnicity into one question. There will also be a longer list of race categories for people to select from, along with the abi ... Show More
24m 23s
Mar 2022
The Waves: The GOP’s All-Out Assault on Trans People
On this week’s episode of The Waves, we’re talking Texas. Slate community manager Evan Urquhart and author and co-host of Slate’s Outward podcast Jules Gill-Peterson dig into the Texas governor’s directive to treat gender-affirming health care for transgender youth as child abuse ... Show More
44m 56s
May 2023
The Weeds, Live – Anti-trans legislation, explained
In recent years, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of anti-LGBTQ bills introduced in state legislatures across the country. The ACLU is currently tracking 474 such bills, the majority of which target transgender rights. Meanwhile, trans people are over four times mor ... Show More
45m 30s
May 2021
How Anti-Trans Bills Evoke The Culture Wars Of The 90s
Proponents of trans female athlete bans struggle to cite examples of trans women or girls gaining an unfair advantage in sports competitions. But amid a lot of debate about fairness, there's been less attention on science. NPR sports correspondent Tom Goldman spoke to a pioneerin ... Show More
15m 23s
Dec 2023
Transgender Marxism Against the Backlash (A Spectre Live Presentation)
Join trans theorists and activists for a discussion of how "Transgender Marxism” can explain the backlash and help guide the resistance. This event took place on July 16, 2023. The right has launched a systematic backlash against trans people. It has introduced hundreds of anti-t ... Show More
1h 16m
Apr 2023
Trans Liberation and Solidarity with Alyson Escalante
<p class="MsoNormal">Our transgender comrades are under attack — not just by incendiary reactionaries on the right, but also by many of those on the more liberal or even left side of the political spectrum. The attacks come in many forms, from outright violence, to genocidal lang ... Show More
1h 8m
Jun 2023
Carving a Path to Equality for Transgender People
Control over the rights of transgender children continue to leave folks in a frenzy. Janet Mock discusses her work on the groundbreaking FX series “Pose” and reflects on being the first transgender woman of color to write and direct for a TV series. Plus, Jessica Williams speaks ... Show More
38m 21s
Oct 2023
We Need Better Narratives About Gender
<p>It’s a time of contrast and contradiction for gender queerness in America: At the same time that about 5 percent of Americans under 30 identify as transgender or nonbinary, over 20 states have passed some sort of restriction on gender-affirming care for children. In 2023 alone ... Show More
1h 5m