Hey you. It's Tyson and Taylor here. We're thrilled to bring you back into the werkbook space for this new drop! Welcome back.

In this episode, we share a new story: What does it mean to stay soft in a world that keeps asking you to harden? For Ethan, that question stretches across continents, starting in Vietnam with lotto and parents, moves through to the United States with research work, follows into Brazil where visibility seems everywhere, and back to Vietnam, holding power and taking up space. All these with a pearl necklace sparkling their vibes.

EPISODE GUIDE
00:00 – Softness is a superpower
We’re half full… and staying soft in a hard world is its own kind of rebellion.

03:15 – Intersectional fabulous realness
Ethan talks intersectionality, living visibly, and why a pearl necklace can be both an accessory and a manifesto.

08:00 – Identities aren’t pie charts, darling
We unpack nationality, queerness, and the complicated business of belonging—to countries, communities, and ourselves.

15:58 – Growing up queer in Vietnam
From media portrayal to hát lô tô, Ethan reflects on navigating early life and culture that built their curiousity.

25:08 – Returning home as an openly queer leader
There’s something deliciously full-circle about coming back to Vietnam as your whole self—and making institutions take notes.

27:36 – The coming out story
We love a supportive family arc. Did Ethan get one?

37:19 – Claim your power, teachers
Queer people belong in classrooms, research, leadership, and policy—not just surviving systems, but reshaping them.

41:34 – Visibility isn’t free labour
Research, allyship, tokenisation, lived experience, and money all in one segment!

47:57 – Spirituality requires authenticity
From temples to trains, Ethan reflects on self-acceptance, higher powers, and why you can’t build a life on a closet door.

52:21 – Queer joy is Taylor. That is all.
Friendship, mentorship, found family; plus some traditions must endure. 🌈✨

Final vibe check:
Softness is power, identity is fluid, and queer joy is in the conversations—and a fabulous necklace 💖

* All voice clips used are done so for lighthearted entertainment and often educational purposes under the creative commons licensing. Ethan mentions Queer Eye (for the Straight Guy) and so that's a brief clip.
* Intro and outro logo combined from music by Gamemaster Audio and AM Beef.
* Background ambience includes Liquid Memoirs - Transitions, Risian - Imagine a World, and Yair Cohen - Our Home.
* Queer joy background music includes excerpts from Jane The Boy - Electric by Electric. 

Welcome to this episode of werkbook! Tyson Seburn & Taylor Veigga explore what being Queer actually looks like for eleven Queer ELT folx—across cultures, generations, religions, and life stages.

EXCLUSIVE RELEASE @ #IATEFL2026

In this episode, Ani, a Brazilian educator who identifies as travesti, shares her journey from navigating gender identity in a conservative environment to building a fulfilling life in São Paulo. Our conversation explores language, identity, queer visibility, cultural norms, and the power of representation—moving from personal struggle to joy, love, and future possibility. It’s a grounded, deeply human look at how vocabulary, community, and visibility can help us be who we are in all ways. .

EPISODE GUIDE
00:00 Intro & meeting Annie
04:05 Identity, teaching & finding a way through
05:00 Moving to São Paulo for safety and freedom
09:10 Culture, masculinity & being visible
15:00 Language, labels & reclaiming words
19:45 Religion, silence & early self-discovery
30:00 Gender roles & the pressure to perform
36:45 School, allies & early confidence
37:30 Pop culture, Gaga & representation
47:00 Allyship & asking better questions
55:00 Queer joy, love & building a future
1:00:10 Final thoughts on real allyship

Welcome to this episode of werkbook! Tyson Seburn & Taylor Veigga explore what being Queer actually looks like for eleven Queer ELT folx—across cultures, generations, religions, and life stages.

In this episode, we meet with Gaye (he/she/they), who is from Türkiye. They are pansexual and bigender. Most of us don’t grow up with the words to describe our identities that clearly; in fact, we aren’t encouraged to. In this episode, Gaye reflects on how that absence shaped their understanding of gender and sexuality while growing up in a conservative, under-resourced context. They talk about working as a queer educator in an environment where openness isn’t always possible—supporting students who are asking similar questions, often without the language to do so. Gaye also traces how access (or lack of it) to media and representation influenced that process: from discovering shows like The L Word to recognising how mainstream portrayals can both illuminate and distort queer lives.

The conversation also touches on family, particularly Gaye’s relationship with their mother, and the complicated mix of care, silence, and expectation that comes with it. Throughout, Gaye returns to the role of education—not as a grand solution, but as a daily, practical way of making space for honesty, visibility, and small shifts in understanding.

If you believe that stories like Gaye’s aren’t heard enough in ELT contexts, I’m so happy you’re here to listen to our latest episode.

EPISODE GUIDE
00:20 — Identity and labels

02:32 — Language, survival, and growing up in Türkiye

06:20 — English opens up more possibilities

08:25 — The L Word, awareness, and distorted expectations

14:04 — Performing identity in restrictive environments

19:42 — Mental health for self-understanding
22:18 — Professional life and pressure

25:02 — Grief and its relationship to queerness

28:39 — Queerness as motivation and connection
31:03 — Gaye's queer joy with students

* All voice clips used are done so for lighthearted entertainment and often educational purposes under the creative commons licensing.
* Intro and outro logo combined from music by Gamemaster Audio and AM Beef. Some background music by Diamonds And Ice. Queer joy background music by Jane The Boy. 

Welcome to this episode of werkbook! We explore what being Queer actually looks like for eleven Queer ELT folx—across cultures, generations, religions, and life stages. Thank you, from hosts Tyson Seburn and Taylor Veigga, for caring and sharing inside and outside our communities!

In this episode, we share space with Chad Langford, a Queer American, who is a language teacher living in France for forever. Warning: there may be a little spicy language, but only until we reclaim it for ourselves.

EPISODE GUIDE
0:23 🧙🏻‍♀️ Tyson & Taylor say heyyyy
2:08 🧙🏻‍♀️ Ty & Tay are pronunciation queens
3:27 🧙🏻‍♀️ Chad clocks himself
5:14 🧙🏻‍♀️ Language bites until you don't let it
14:03 🧙🏻‍♀️ Growing up in our hometowns
17:50 🧙🏻‍♀️ Parking lots, bookstores, and balls
25:29 🧙🏻‍♀️ Bullying wasn't equal for everyone
30:52 🧙🏻‍♀️ Coming out, pt. 3
33:36 🧙🏻‍♀️ Queer rep in the 80s
37:46 🧙🏻‍♀️ Did we date in highschool?
42:30 🧙🏻‍♀️ French Queerness as an adult
46:20 🧙🏻‍♀️ Chad on lost solidarity
49:11 🧙🏻‍♀️ Witchy Queer joy boy

Chad refers to Consenting Adult (1985) and Tyson talks about The Golden Girls, S2E11 "Isn't It Romantic?" (1987).

* All voice clips used are done so for lighthearted entertainment and often educational purposes under the creative commons licensing.
* Intro and outro logo combined from music by Gamemaster Audio and AM Beef. Inserted micromusic clips include "Blame It on the Edit" by Rupaul and "Ein Lied für Barbara" by Heideboys. Queer joy background music by Jane The Boy. 

Welcome to this episode of werkbook! We explore what coming out to family actually looks like—across cultures, generations, religions, and life stages. Tyson and Taylor include personal reflections on coming out to parents in Canada and Brazil shaped by religion, fear, and love, and situate these stories in and out of the broader contexts explored by the nine guests we get to hear from.

From there, we hear a range of voices: people who lived double lives to survive at home, those who are selectively out due to culture or language, those who never got to come out to a parent who passed away, and others whose families quietly “already knew.” The episode closes with joyful, affirming stories of support—while still acknowledging that coming out is rarely a single moment, but a series of ongoing negotiations shaped by safety, timing, and love.

Section 1 - This common experience with parents

00:10:05 — Ani (Brazil)
Growing up evangelical, living a double life, and finding school—not home—as a safe space.

00:15:39 — Kanako (Japan)
Not being out to family, managing visibility on social media, and the limits of selective disclosure.

00:26:16 — Gaye (Türkiye)
Grief, generational limits, and coming out to a parent only after their death.

Section 2 - It's understood

00:29:59 — Elizabeth (UK)
A matter-of-fact, almost accidental coming out where queerness was already assumed.

Section 3 - We love you.
00:35:47 — Chad (USA)
Coming out first to an aunt, then to parents—and reflections on the paths we choose to do so.

00:41:03 — Giovanni (Italy)
A joyful, theatrical family “intervention” that ends in laughter and relief.

00:44:49 — Ethan (Vietnam)
Immediate parental affirmation and the privilege of unconditional support.

Section 4 - Out isn't just to parents.

00:50:10 — David (Canada)
Later-in-life coming out within a marriage, moving from queer theory to lived clarity.

Section 5 - Rounding things out
00:58:30 — Mitts (Brazil)
His mom was the gay beard until she wasn't and then she was again.

* All clips used are done so for educational purposes under the creative commons licensing.
* Intro music clips by Gamemaster Audio and AM Beef. Background music includes Aryeh "I Love You", Oded Distalmen "Coucou", and Dreamy Drums - Rhythmic Chop Beat.

Welcome to our first episode, where we come out together as a community, podcast hosts, and podcast editors! Taylor says it best when she describes the stories we include as being "unpolished". 

Taylor & Tyson discuss the origin of this project, the meaning behind the name (it's not incorrect spelling, we swear!), coming out stories, the phrase itself, and ways in which media has shaped the view of coming out. We attempt to show how we're merging two worlds: queerness and education.

Episode breakdown:
A - 0:00 Introductions
B - 5:02 Why werkbook is needed
C - 11:15 Coming Out Day history
D - 13:50 Taylor & Tyson discuss coming out stories
E - 18:57 Coming out vs Inviting in
F - 21:15 Heartstopper
G - 29:00 Elliott Page
H - 34:40 Preview of S1E2

* We refer to Human Rights Campaign and National Coming Out Day. Find out more here: https://www.hrc.org/campaigns/national-coming-out-day
* All media clips used are done so for educational purposes under the creative commons licensing.
* Intro music clips by Gamemaster Audio and AM Beef. Background music includes Like a Father.