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!

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

Dr. Lauren Schwartz is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist in private practice in Oklahoma. Her recent advocacy centers on ‘gender-affirming care,’ and in just the last three years she’s made significant contributions to both the clinical and public understanding of the tradeoffs involved in the treatments. If you watched or listened to the remarkable July 9th ‘workshop’ proceedings at the US Federal Trade Commission, you will have heard Lauren speak on a panel titled “What Does the Science Actually Say About ‘Gender-Affirming Care.’

I’m delighted that she and I will both be speaking at the Genspect conference September 27-28 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Tickets selling fast - secure your seat now!)

Note: the ‘outro’ music at the end is a full-length recording of “A Woman’s Work,” one of the great new tracks by William A. Ferguson, who also composed my intro, “Moonlit Sky.” The lyrics of “Women’s Work” are not a strict thematic match with today’s episode; I just like the song, and it’s been awhile since I’ve featured a whole William AF track. Enjoy!

Links:

2024 Open Letter to the APA regarding its "Gender-Affirming Psychiatric Care" textbook, garnering over 7,200 signatures

The June 2025 open-access review of more than 50 studies, highlighting risks associated with feminizing hormones in natal males.

Dr. Schwartz’s presentation to the Federal Trade Commission on “Dangers of Gender Affirming Care for Minors” July 9, 2025.

The just-published book in which Dr. Schwartz authored a chapter: The War on Science, Thirty-Nine Renowned Scientists and Scholars Speak Out About Current Threats to Free Speech, Open Inquiry, and the Scientific Process.

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 know I just posted a long letter to subscribers about how I need to step away from Substack this summer in order to work on my presentation for Genspect, but Pamela Garfield-Jaeger published this charming new children’s book “Froggy Girl,” and because I enjoyed our first conversation so much, I decided to make time for this one.

Pamela is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who describes herself as ‘awake, but not woke.’ She earned a Masters in Social Work from New York University in 1999 before moving to the San Francisco Bay Area to work with teens in school and outpatient settings. Today she’s an author, speaker and consultant specializing in youth gender issues.

If aren’t familiar with Pamela’s story, you can hear how she came by her unique “Rip Van Therapist” perspective on gender ideology in the episode we recorded last January.

Other links:

Order your copy of Froggy Girl

Order A Practical Guide to Gender Distress: Tips and Tools for Families

Watch Pamela read Froggy Girl on YouTube

Subscribe to The Truthful Therapist on Substack

Be Pamela’s 10,376th follower on X!

Be my 89th follower on X!

Pamela’s websites:

www.froggygirlbook.com and

www.thetruthfultherapist.org

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

This episode’s opening music is (presumably) the first and will be the last song ever written about Judith Butler, the grande dame of academic queer misanthropy, composed by who else but our William A Ferguson. Listen to the whole song without me talking over it at the end of the episode — it’s a masterpiece.

Following that, I’m proud to say I got Glenna Goldis to take a break from rage-tweeting about the New York Times podcast ‘The Protocol’ long enough to give it a proper critical analysis here with me. We’re not the only ones talking about it, but we might be the only ones who had fun talking about it.

Comments?

Lotsa links:

The Protocol 6-part podcast

Sarah Barker on the doped East German athletes in The Female Category “Doped Then, Transitioned Now”

Jamie Reed’s affidavit

The Informed Dissent crew takes up episodes 1 and 2

Jamie Reed’s Informed Dissent follow-up

Glenna’s UnMuted debut episode, which goes into detail on Laura Edwards Leeper and the ‘Assessment Scam’

ML’s post, ‘Marci Bowers, evangelist’

Glenna’s articles: The Assessment Sham, The Trans Teen Illusion, Dr. Robert Garofalo treating teens in the 90s

Leave a generous tip for William A Ferguson here

Subscribe to William’s Substack

Subscribe to Glenna’s Substack Bad Facts

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Credits:

Original 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

Miriam Grossman is a medical doctor board certified in child, adolescent and adult psychiatry. She is a senior fellow at Do No Harm and the author of five books. If you’ve read her most recent book, Lost in Trans Nation, you’ll know why I call it the definitive work on the subject that brings us here: readers who feel ‘lost’ as per the title before reading it will feel not just informed but empowered on the other side. Maybe more important: parents will feel, perhaps for the first time, that someone in the world of experts and professionals on “gender” understands what we are going through and how it’s impacting us.

Dr Grossman’s books have been translated into eleven languages. She has testified in Congress and lectured at the British House of Lords and the United Nations. I’m truly honored to welcome her here.

Note to grandparents and siblings of trans-identifying young people: Dr. Grossman would like to you hear from you. You can contact her via her website linked below.

Links:​

Miriam Grossman’s website

Buy or listen to Lost in Trans Nation, A Child Psychiatrist’s Guide Out of the Madness

Order You’re Teaching My Child WHAT?

Dr. Grossman’s April 30 PITT article and book excerpt: My Colleagues Have Failed You

The 2023 Congressional testimony we discussed

Be Dr. Grossman’s 50,390th follower on X!

Be my 76th 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’ve been a fan of Vaishnavi Sundar for over five years, and it was amazing to interview her for this episode.

Our mutual friend Sacha Jones of Terf Vibes introduced me to Vaishnavi after hearing me gush about her two gender-critical films, ‘Dysphoric' and 'Behind the Looking Glass.’ I binged all four episodes of ‘Dysphoric’ the minute I heard the film existed. By that time, 2019, I’d been living with an ROGD daughter for three years and felt quite alone and dismayed by the lack of objective information about the problem. ‘Dysphoric’ filled that void in a way that felt incredibly reassuring, plus it was a highly engaging a piece of art.

Vaishnavi’s most recent film, 'Behind the Looking Glass,’ is the first-ever documentary about the wives and children of trans-identified men. It’s been widely celebrated for its artistry and also for the dignity and respect it shows its trans-widow subjects.

We discuss le fléau sans frontières (the plague without borders) and the way it finds the peculiar vulnerabilities of disparate cultures in order to barge in and make itself at home, sporting the entitlement of the most opportunistic virus. Maybe the best antidote will prove to be the intelligent, creative expressions of truth in works of art like Vaishnavi’s.

Links:

More about Vaishnavi Sundar

Watch the 4-part series, Dysphoric

Watch the documentary, Behind the Looking Glass

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

Lisa Duval, PhD, is a licensed clinical psychologist based in Charlottesville, Virginia. She works with patients of all ages, backgrounds, and presenting issues but specializes in adolescence and personality disorders. She did her undergrad studies in English and Psychology at Yale, then earned a masters and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from two Bay Area institutions.

I will admit to feeling unequal and even intimidated by such an academic résumé, but there’s something profoundly relatable in the last sentence of her bio, which reads: “Lisa involuntarily began her education on the topic of gender ideology in 2017 and has not succeeded in thinking about much else ever since.”

Just one link, but it’s a good one:

Lisa’s memorable June 2022 interview on Gender: A Wider Lens episode 75

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

On April 5, I drove to Berkeley to join a peaceful protest outside the downtown YMCA in support of single-sex locker rooms. We stood alongside Elizabeth Kenney, a mother and grandmother who had recently confronted a large naked man in the women’s locker room of that same facility. I later recorded an interview with Elizabeth which you’ll hear in the second half of this episode.

First, I’m excited to speak with the woman who organized that protest. She’s a teacher and art enthusiast who has also figured out how to organize and lead safe, effective protest events, and I’m hoping this conversation will provide something like an instruction manual that can be replicated everywhere.

Elizabeth was the woman of the hour at the YMCA action. The courage she showed in the women’s locker room on March 26th is something that could also stand to be replicated everywhere. It wasn’t even her first rodeo, as you’ll hear!

Stay tuned for an encore William A. Ferguson joint at the end!

Links:

Contact Jane Berns for advice on organizing and socializing: [email protected]

Be WomenAreReal’s 30,229th follower on X

Be my 70th follower on X!

Subscribe to William A. Ferguson’s Substack for great original songs and writing

Credits:

Original 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

Today’s guest is a woman I first met when we both attended the Genspect conference in Denver a year and a half ago. She introduced herself as a subscriber to this Substack, so I liked her immediately! I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know her fairly well since then.

Her story is that of a stable, loving and high-functioning family in which two out of three kids — all smart and well-educated — announce ‘transgender’ identities during their college years. I wish I could say it’s an unusual story, but of course it isn’t.

One thing I’ll note is that she and I have both noticed a strong ‘trans’ incubator quality in both inpatient and outpatient adolescent mental health programs. If you’ve noticed it too, please leave a comment, as this a problem that I think needs a lot more attention.

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