UnMuted: the TransMuted Podcast

I really hope you’ll enjoy this final episode of UnMuted.

Karen and I recorded a thoroughly enjoyable six hours of audio over three separate days in hopes of Saying All The Things That Need Saying. Then came the anguish of excising more than half of it. Karen is a gifted thinker and talker who somehow does both at once, and I couldn’t in good conscience whittle it down any skinnier than the two and a half hours I’m delivering here.

We won’t be offended if you break it up like we did, but I hope you’ll eventually make it to the end and be rewarded with a full-length rendition of William A. Ferguson’s “Chaos is Guaranteed,” a song that wasn’t written just for the UnMuted podcast but fits like it was —and I love it the most, so. William’s original music really took this joint up a few levels, and I’m very grateful for his talent and generosity.

Links:

Stella and Mia interviewing Jonathan Kay: “What Happened to Canada”

My interview with Dr. Stella O’Malley, UnMuted Episode 49

My interview with Dr. Miriam Grossman, UnMuted Episode 37

Karen’s Substack piece A Perfect Storm: How the Stars Aligned to Create the Environment Where Medical Transition Became as Common as Pierced Ears & As Easy to Get, Hippiesq’s Newsletter, March 2024

Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast with David Cross on YouTube, April 2026

The Fifth Column podcast with Sarah Isgur (paywalled), June 30, 2026

Kat Highsmith’s post: The Best Defense of “Trans” You’ll Ever Hear, featuring video of Nebraska legislator Michaela Kavanaugh

Lisa Selin Davis’s post about the Brian Lehrer Show with Michael Shermer, Broadview, January 2026

Credits:

All music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

Final thought: the jokes may write themselves, but the comments don’t! I would love to hear from you.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

If your family was stricken by gender ideology prior to 2020, it might have felt like an apocalypse had come just for you. The world outside acted as if everything was normal! It was always the case that some people were born in the wrong bodies, and we’ve all known this for like, ever. Well today your child was discovered to be a wrong-bodied person too! All your friends and neighbors will now join you in celebration while multidisciplined experts apply their special knowledge to the task of authenticizing your daughter’s body and mind. Thereafter, his marvelous, invisible birth defect will be history — just not the kind of history that can ever be spoken of.

I know I sometimes exaggerate but I haven’t yet done so today. The impact of this bespoke apocalypse on parents calls for words I don’t think exist, but “brutalizing” and “isolating” will do for a start. The lucky ones will have had at least one other adult, ideally a spouse, as a trusted confidante and ally, but even the strongest, most sympathetic spouse would never defeat an apocalypse.

No, that would be a job for a turbo-charged red-headed Irish psychotherapist with a very particular skill set, a highly disarming laugh and a pair — metaphorically speaking — of giant brass balls. It’s a massive honor to have Stella O’Malley here for what will be the penultimate episode of this podcast.

Even if all she gave us were those excellent 205 “GWL” episodes, Stella would have earned a spot on my personal Mt. Rushmore now and forever — but the podcast was only the beginning. Next she took on WPATH (the World Professional Association for Transgender Health), the faux medical society that had effectively hypnotized institutions of trust across the developed world with the aim of reprogramming humanity to submit to the misanthropic nihilism of Queer Theory. WPATH had plenty of help from the tragically confused kindness brigade, plus untold millions of dollars and a 20- or 30- year head start. Stella had no army and no resources other than her training and knowledge of human psychology plus common sense, compassion, resolve and courage to spare.

Notes from the discussion:

Genspect.org has information and resources for anyone confronting gender ideology in any of its forms

The Gender Framework is available in paperback and highly recommended.

This is my draft poster for the event I’d love to see at Genspect’s next conference. Leave a comment if you agree its time has come!

The last link needs no introduction — just a gift from me to you. You’re welcome!

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

Photo: Amy and me following her talk at WDI-USA’s 2024 conference in Atlanta

It’s a real thrill to have Amy Sousa on the show. The night before we recorded this I stayed up until 1am re-watching her TwiX and YouTube videos until I had to force myself to quit for the night. I’ll interject audio from two of my favorites into this episode.

Here’s some bio taken from Amy’s website:

As a modern-day gender abolitionist and women’s rights activist, it’s my mission to educate, protect, & inspire others to question the norm, create healthy boundaries, and to trust their instincts.

As an educator, writer, and creator, I am dedicated to helping women and others build emotional and psychological skills to support a confident, grounded life.

​I hold a Master’s degree in Depth Psychology* and I’ve spent years studying the internal landscapes that shape how we think, feel and navigate the world. My work focuses on instincts, embodiment, safeguarding, and emotional skill-building. I cleanly translate complex topics into clear, practical tools anyone can use.

To quote LGBCC’s Bev Talbott, Boy howdy! Does she ever.

Readers, I respect that some of you strongly prefer reading to listening, but I urge you to make an exception this time and skip the transcript in favor of this lively, fully-embodied conversation. We recorded it four days ago on February 11th, and I hurried to get it ready to post while the awful-yet-unsurprising news events we discussed are still front of mind and not yet exhaustively biopsied. Amy has a way of pointing out facets of human behavior and motivations that hadn’t yet occurred to us.

Links:

Follow Amy Sousa at her website The Known Heretic

Video: Canadian Trans School Shooting The Known Heretic Substack 2/11/26

Video: High School Girl [Wrestler] Sexually Assaulted The Known Heretic Substack 2/10/26

Video: Parent Consent in Schools! The Known Heretic Substack 2/3/26

Related written post: The Glamorization of Violence Against Women The Known Heretic Substack 3/17/23

Written post: My Journey with Breast Cancer: Breast Cancer as a Lens for Embodiment vs Dissociation OR Sex-Based Medicine vs "Gender Affirming Care." The Known Heretic Substack 7/1/24

Gender Nihilism and the Revolutionary Impulse, the eerily well-timed guest article in Reality’s Last Stand (2/10/26) by Brooke Laufer that’s getting a lot of well-deserved attention

Be Amy’s 64,267th follower on X!

Be my 119th follower on X!

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

I’m honored to have Wesley Yang here today. Wesley became a publishing sensation when his first book of essays, The Souls of Yellow Folk, came out in hardback in 2018 to much well-deserved acclaim. Not long after that, he learned just enough about the gathering storm that was gender ideology to become well and thoroughly peaked. Instead of keeping his head down to preserve his status as a media darling favored by the gatekeepers of the New York publishing world, he chose the precise opposite path and began speaking and writing furiously about the issue that brings us all here, using language that was eloquent, clear, urgent, and refreshingly un-sugar-coated. For an early ‘trans’ skeptic like me, Wesley’s position carried extra weight. Here was a respected cultural observer sounding the alarm absent any direct personal stake in the story. If anything, he had a stake in pretending there was nothing to see here, in the manner of almost all his peers in publishing and media. So few people in any profession were speaking up that Wesley’s fearlessness made him a hero among parents like me.I connected with him on Twitter in 2021 and went on to write two pieces for his Substack, Year Zero. The first one concerned my mostly one-sided correspondence with Chris Hayes of MSNBC. That piece became the catalyst for my own Substack, TransMuted, which can’t have done much to turn the tide but has done a world of good for my own personal sanity. I’ll always credit Wesley for that early encouragement and more broadly for the sacrifice he made to speak up for our daughters and sons before almost anyone one else would.

We cover a lot of ground, including the pending Supreme Court cases, Lia Thomas vs. what’s-before-your-very-eyes, DIAG vs. Illinois, Fox Varian’s big win, Moulton, Newsom, and my current obsession: Brian Lehrer and WNYC vs. Michael Shermer and “Mabel from Trenton.” Enjoy!

Links:

Read The Souls of Yellow Folk, by Wesley Yang, in paperback —or listen to it on Audible

What is Chris Thinking?, written by me for Year Zero with an intro by Wesley

Lisa Selin Davis’s Broadview post with the link to the Brian Lehrer show audio. Listen all the way to the end, then come back and comment here, because this is a safe space.

Be Wesley’s 175, 815th follower on X!

Be my 115th follower on X!

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

“This is not a heroic second coming of Jackie Robinson.” —Wesley Yang

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

Lisa Selin Davis is a woman who will need no introduction to most of you, but did you know she’s published two novels in addition to her two non-fiction books, Tomboy and Housewife? Now you do! She’s also a critically-acclaimed essayist and journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Time, The Free Press, and many others.

Lisa’s research and reporting on gender ideology have demonstrated what objective journalism looks like — or at least that’s my opinion; hers is that she’s “never been objective!”

We discuss the weirdness of watching the simplest, most obvious facts be tortured into a bizarre and incoherent litmus test for belonging. Also, the surprising clarity and doggedness that might be the upside of social isolation.

Lisa is a talented and driven chronicler of this fraught human drama we’re all struggling to bring to a close; and I’m delighted to have her here.

Links:

Lisa’s Substack, BROADview, and the post we discuss:

A few of the many LSD essays that I wish were mine:

What the Gender Issue Needs in 2026 (BROADview, 12/31/25)

A Chance to Depoliticize Gender-Affirming Care (Washington Post OpEd 12/8/25)

Gender-Affirming Care Is to Democrats as Gun Control Is to Republicans (BROADview, 12/17/25)

Women Ruined Everything. Now It’s Men’s Turn to Ruin Everything. (BROADview, 10/29/25

Be Lisa’s 11, 091st follower on X!

Be my 108th follower on X!

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

Andrew Hartz is the Founder, President, and Executive Director of the Open Therapy Institute, or OTI, whose mission, quoting from its website, is “to address socio-political bias in mental health care.”

Andrew is also a practicing clinical psychologist and was formerly a professor in the clinical psychology doctoral program at Long Island University, where he completed his own Ph.D. He did a clinical internship at Columbia University Medical Center, and he’s written about the problem of politics in mental health for the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, the Federalist, The Free Press, Heterodox Academy, the New York Post, the New York Times, and Quillette. If you’re still not impressed, he’s even been a guest on Dr. Phil, who described him as “a beacon of hope!”

All that, and now UnMuted.

We discuss the “masculinity crisis” that was the topic of Andrew’s talk, along with Ben Appel and Rob Henderson, at an event I enjoyed last month. Others are talking about it too, including Bill Maher with Scott Galloway last Friday on Real Time.

Also: artificial barriers to trust between men and women; the discomfiting subversion of social signifiers or “idioms”; the downsides of Sharia law (lol), the upsides of being ‘damaged,’ and where to look for a therapist who gets you, so you can stop self-censoring and get it all out in the open.

Links:

Open Therapy Institute’s website has tons of articles, a podcast series, links to Andrew’s Dr. Phil appearances (yes, more than one) and help finding a therapist who’s not preoccupied with woke performativity. And if you’re that therapist, go there to join their network.

Subscribe to OTI on Substack

Be OTI’s 737th follower on X

Be my 101st follower on X! (Yep, you’re reading a triple-digit TwiX sensation right now— crazy, right? I haven’t changed though.)

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

My guest today, Stephanie Winn, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who will probably be familiar to most of the parents out there. Her podcast, You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist, is, in her words, “openly and unapologetically critical of gender ideology and the intrusion of wokeness into the counseling profession” — yet in my words, the tone of the podcast is the opposite of combative. It’s consistently calm, reassuring and above all, informative. The word “consistently” does a lot of work here, as there are 185 episodes to its credit to date. According to its web page, You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist ranks in the top 1% of podcasts globally, so I’m humbled and honored to host her here in my little boutique.

If that intro made it sound like we’re going to spend an hour talking about podcasting, clear your mind of that expectation, as this guest has much more to offer.

Links:

Stephanie’s podcast, You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist, on YouTube (scroll down to view Episode 184 featuring Repair Bot)

ROGD Repair Course for parents: use discount code UNMUTED

Be Stephanie’s 33,043rd follower on X!

Be my 97th follower on X! (That’s me, closing in on triple digits!)

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

My guest is the author of a post I read on Substack last May that was so interesting and provocative I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

Sarah Hartman-Caverly is a reference and instruction librarian with Penn State University Libraries. Her academic interests are privacy, intellectual freedom, and human autonomy. She co-moderates the Heterodox Libraries community of Heterodox Academy and contributes to its newsletter, Heterodoxy in the Stacks, which is where I discovered her writing.

As soon as she started talking, I was so taken with her talent as a communicator that I abandoned my list of questions so I could focus on keeping up! The result is not super linear, but it felt to me like two shots in the arm —one for energy and one for courage— which happened to be exactly what I needed right now. Let me know what you think!

Links:

Purple-Haired People Eaters, an essay published 5/29/25 by Sarah Hartman-Caverly

Heterodoxy in the Stacks, a Substack about intellectual freedom, library neutrality, and libraries in democracy

Sarah’s analysis of Q-Anon, Truth Always Wins: Dispatches from the Culture War

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

My guest today is recently retired from an illustrious career with NPR, where she hosted high-profile shows including Weekend All Things Considered, Weekend Edition Sunday, and the independent documentary series Soundprint. She also brought us musical events such as the 2008 Inaugural Concert in Washington, D.C., concerts from the Aspen Music Festival, and Toast of the Nation, where she rang in the New Year live from Paris — as one does.

A Google search returns photos of her in what look like couture gowns posing with the likes of Martin Scorcese, Placido Domingo and Rufus Wainwright. All of which reveals there is at least one truly glamorous job at NPR, and for decades it was held by the woman who might be my most famous guest thus far: Lisa Simeone.

We discuss the barriers to honest reporting at NPR, the New York Times and traditional media as a whole. We vent our frustrations about all manner of frustrating people and things, and pay homage to the (mostly lesbian) women whose courage and confidence inspire us to keep talking.

Links:

Follow Lisa to get her insights and hot takes in your Substack feed

The made-for-TV movie Lisa brought up: Normal, 2003 starring Jessica Lange

We couldn’t find the viral video clip Lisa praised near the end of the conversation, but if anyone knows where to find it, please link in the comments — I want to see it!

UPDATE: a listener named Jackie found the video clip on X and it’s definitely worth your 2 minutes. Thanks, Jackie!

Credits:

Theme music by William A. Ferguson

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com

Carol Dansereau is an attorney, author, and advocate who spent 25 years working in the non-profit sector. That sector, which she now calls the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, gets its share of criticism on her eponymous Substack. So does the Unitarian Universalist Church where she and her partner, Bruce Lesnick, were active members until their views on sex and ‘gender’ were deemed problematic.

I’ve been following Carol’s Substack for a couple of years, and I finally had to reach out after listening to her audio post from Feb. 7th, 2024 titled “Speaking to My Family and Friends,” in which she explains the facts of gender ideology to her own inner circle in a measured way that communicates good faith as well as I’ve ever heard it done to an audience that may be hearing the truth for the first time. It made a powerful impression on me and I wanted to know how it was received, since I’ve been thinking hard about why and how we need to talk about ‘trans,’ even in polite company.

Carol’s partner Bruce Lesnick is a talented songwriter and performer whose recordings on Spotify are my newest downloads. With his permission, I chose a track called “Bad Guys” as the outro for this episode. It’s from Bruce’s 2004 album, “Firestorm.” I’m now a fan of the whole couple and think you might be, too!

Links:

Subscribe to Carol’s Substack, where you’ll find the posts we discuss, including:

Speaking to My Family and Friends

Behold the Progressive Trans Ally

School Boards: Grooming Kids for an Orwellian World

Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Transgender Galaxy, Part 1 of 6

There’s a lot more good, provocative writing there to check out.

Find more music by Bruce Lesnick on Spotify or on Apple Music

Credits:

‘Moonlit Sky’ (intro music) by William A. Ferguson

‘Bad Guys’ by Bruce Lesnick

UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit jennypoyerackerman.substack.com