This week we’re joined by author and journalist Casey Parks! Casey is a Washington Post reporter who covers gender and family issues. She spent a decade at The Oregonian, where she wrote about race and LGBTQ+ issues and was a finalist for the Livingston Award. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, Oxford American, ESPN, USA Today, and The Nation. In this episode, Casey recounts her childhood as a charismatic youth, winning a trip to Alabama for leading so many people to the Lord (that’s right, soul-winning champion!), coming to grips with her sexuality, and all the ways that her family, friends, and fellow church-goers coped with that reality. Casey also has a new book out called “Diary of a Misfit,” which is about her long, difficult quest to learn about a man named Roy from her grandmother’s town that was supposedly kidnapped as a little girl but grew up live as a man. At its core, the book is a family saga about forging connections across the gulfs that divide us. Find out more about Casey and her work on her website (www.caseyparks.com), follow her on Twitter (@caseyparks) and Instagram (@caseyparksauthor), and buy “Diary of a Misfit” wherever books are sold!