Claim OwnershipBeyond Gender
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© Stella O'Malley, Mia Hughes, Bret Alderman
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What’s really going on with gender—and how does it connect to wider cultural shifts? Psychotherapist Stella O’Malley, researcher Mia Hughes, and psychologist Bret Alderman explore how debates around gender, identity, psychology, and medicine open up bigger questions about culture, society, and mental health. With guests ranging from doctors and therapists to parents and detransitioners, they offer honest, thoughtful discussions—no jargon, no ideology.
Support the show: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/beyondgenderpodcast/subscribe
Support the show: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/beyondgenderpodcast/subscribe
46 Episodes
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At 34 years old, Sall Grover thought she was creating a simple solution to a common problem. After years of sexual harassment as a screenwriter in Hollywood, she and her parents developed Giggle—a women-only app for roommates, freelance work, and lesbian dating. Using facial recognition technology, the app verified users were female before granting access. Apple and Google approved every build throughout 2019 without question. Then came February 7th, 2020, and Sall’s life became a legal nightmare that would span five years and counting.
At 13 years old, Jonni Skinner was diagnosed with a fake endocrine disorder and put on cross-sex hormones. At 14, he was misdiagnosed with "tall stature" and given higher doses to stunt his growth. The same doctors who threatened to remove him from his home if his mother didn't comply also falsified his medical records and sent him to sex shops for "treatment supplies." Eight years later, Jonni is speaking out about a medical scandal that turned vulnerable children into experimental subjects. This isn't just malpractice—it's systematic abuse disguised as healthcare, and Jonni's story exposes how the gender medicine industry operates in the shadows.See Jonni at The Bigger Picture: https://genspect.org/the-bigger-picture-albuquerque/Jonni Skinner spent eight years believing he was transgender after being medicalized at 13. Born in rural Michigan to a religious family, Jonni was diagnosed with high-functioning autism at 4 and struggled with being a feminine boy in a conservative environment. When puberty began triggering severe body dysmorphia and religious guilt about his attraction to males, his mother sought help at the University of Michigan's gender clinic. What followed was a systematic campaign of medical abuse that would steal Jonni's adolescence and leave lasting physical and psychological damage.
The gender medicine house of cards is collapsing in American courtrooms, and one lawyer is helping to pull it down brick by brick. While activists scream about "trans rights," Glenna Goldis is methodically exposing the fraud, deception, and child abuse hiding behind medical credentials. From Supreme Court victories to explosive document discoveries revealing WPATH's lies, the legal landscape has shifted dramatically against pediatric transition. But winning in court is just the beginning - Goldis wants Nuremberg-style trials and medical licenses revoked. She wants the people who did this to children to pay. In this conversation with Stella and Mia, she maps out how the law is finally catching up to the gender medicine scandal and what needs to happen next to ensure it never returns.See Glenna in Albuquerque. In-person & livestream tickets available: https://genspect.org/the-bigger-picture-albuquerque/
Why do so many fathers vanish from their children's lives? Adam Coleman argues it starts at birth - without holding their babies in those first crucial months, men never develop the chemical bond that keeps them present. The result: boys without fathers become men who can't regulate emotions, swinging from zero to a hundred over minor slights, filling prisons and chasing external validation through money and women. This conversation explores the uncomfortable truth that teaching boys emotional regulation might be a father's most critical role - and why figures like Andrew Tate appeal to a generation of men who never learned the difference between internal worth and external validation.
1Dr. Gordon Guyatt revolutionized modern medicine. As a professor at McMaster University, he coined the term "evidence-based medicine" in 1991, created the hierarchy of evidence that every medical student learns, and wrote the User's Guide to the Medical Literature that taught physicians worldwide how to critically evaluate research. For 48 years, he's been the gold standard for rigorous scientific thinking in healthcare.Then came his systematic reviews of pediatric gender medicine. His team found only low-quality evidence for youth interventions. When twenty U.S. states used his work to restrict access to these treatments, Guyatt called it "egregious, unconscionable misuse of our work." But in this explosive interview, he admits signing a statement endorsing "medically necessary care for gender diverse youth" without reading it carefully. "That was not my paragraph, and I didn't read carefully enough," he confesses. When pressed further: "I was a dope. Okay. I'm sometimes a dope."
Premieres Thursday
Soren Aldaco was 11 when she discovered online fandom spaces where roleplay identities could become real identities—and 19 when a double mastectomy at the notorious Crane Center left her with massive hematomas the surgeons denied were happening. Now a detrans woman, graduate student, and Independent Women's Forum Ambassador, she's fighting for her case against Texas medical malpractice laws to reach the Supreme Court. In this conversation, she unpacks how "fantasy and reality" merged online, why every provider who pushed her toward medicalization had trans-identified family members, and what it means to survive both the physical complications and the ideological capture that enabled them. Soren will be speaking at Genspect’s upcoming Bigger Picture conference in Albuquerque.Support the show.
From Father Ted to losing 400,000 Twitter followers, comedy writer Graham Linehan explains how his stand against gender ideology cost him his career, marriage, and friendships. Fresh from the Joe Rogan Experience (20M listeners), he discusses WPATH controversies, cancel culture, and the silencing of dissent. Once a celebrated sitcom creator, Linehan became branded a “bigot” overnight—yet remains defiant, exposing what he calls a scandal everyone sees but few will confront.Support the show: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/beyondgenderpodcast/subscribe
With 35 years of clinical experience, Dr. Lisa Duval argues that gender dysphoria is best understood as a fear of adulthood—not an identity. She explains why using puberty blockers is the opposite of proper therapy, exposes how medicine shifted from evidence-based to “rights-based,” and reveals the psychological patterns clinicians overlook. From adolescent anxiety to the role of therapy, Duval shows how professionals can truly help young people in distress.Support the show: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/beyondgenderpodcast/subscribe
Dr. Lisa Duval episode coming this Thursday.
Before social media, before gender clinics in every city, before anyone knew what "gender identity" meant, Cori Cohn saw transsexualism on afternoon TV and thought he'd found the answer to his problems. At 19 in 1994, he had genital surgery. Three decades later, he's helped pass laws banning youth medical transition in 26-27 US states. In this remarkable conversation, Cohn reveals how he "doctor shopped" until finding a third psychologist who'd approve surgery, why he feels "subhuman" ("I'm definitely not a man and I'm not a woman"), and how the Episcopal Church now calls supporting pediatric transition part of their "baptismal call." His most haunting revelation: "If you physically can't return that passion because you have an injury from the surgery, your ability to sustain a relationship is extremely impaired." From testifying against clergy prayer circles supporting youth transition to explaining why "almost all the boys who transitioned...do OnlyFans," this is the testimony of someone who lived the experiment before it became an industry.
From founding North America's first pediatric gender clinic in 1975 to being fired by activists in 2015 (and winning an $800,000 settlement), Dr. Ken Zucker has witnessed—and shaped—the entire evolution of gender medicine. In this remarkable conversation, the architect of gender dysphoria diagnoses in DSM-3R, 4, and 5 reveals how "gender identity disorder" became "gender dysphoria," why social transition flips desistance rates from 80% to 12%, and how activists "put the gender identity tail on the sexual orientation dog." His most striking revelation: Christina Olson's new data shows 88% of socially transitioned children persist—compared to only 12% persistence in his Toronto clinic. As Zucker observes: "When it comes to sex and gender, nowadays people stop thinking." From the paradox of homosexuality leaving the DSM while GID entered it, to WPATH's "talking out of both sides of their mouth" (claiming it's both natural diversity AND medically necessary), this is the insider account of how gender medicine transformed from careful assessment to "treatment on demand."
Navy-trained plastic and reconstructive surgeon Dr. Patrick Lappert breaks ranks to expose what he calls his field’s “source of great shame.” With 40+ years of surgical experience, he dismantles the myth of “gender-affirming care,” arguing it is cosmetic surgery for body dysmorphic disorder. From phalloplasty and vaginoplasty complications to chest masculinization and the lack of evidence, Lappert reveals why surgeons are failing patients while claiming a standard of care.Support the show: https://creators.spotify.com/pod/profile/beyondgenderpodcast/subscribe
What drives someone who helped found the UK Gay Liberation Front in 1970 to co-found LGB Alliance nearly 50 years later? Bev Jackson's journey spans from being the only woman at GLF's first meeting (19 gay men and her) to secretly gathering 70 people in 2019 because gay rights organizations had been "taken over by cuckoos." In this powerful episode, Jackson explains why she believes gender ideology is "the opposite of homophobia," reveals how Stonewall's Ruth Hunt betrayed lesbians by adding the T after promising not to, and recounts the courtroom victory when Mermaids spectacularly failed to strip LGB Alliance of charitable status. From her pivotal moment at age 11—standing up as the only Jewish student in an antisemitic classroom—to watching organizations meant to protect gay youth become their "biggest danger," Jackson's story illuminates how the movement she helped birth got hijacked. Her warning: young lesbians on dating apps now find "20, 30, 40 percent are men calling themselves women."
What happens when a pediatric endocrinologist watches gender medicine evolve from underground experiments to mainstream practice—and fights back? Dr. Quentin Van Meter has been there since the beginning: treating his first trans-identified child in 1993 when no guidelines existed, witnessing John Money's perverse theories firsthand at Hopkins, watching WPATH transform into what he calls "a cult religious group with a bibliography of scientific trash." In this explosive episode, he reveals how puberty blockers cause dementia risk, why 98% of blocked kids proceed to cross-sex hormones, and the moment Money tried to castrate a baby who had normal testosterone.
What happens when the world's most influential newspaper spends two years investigating youth transition but refuses to ask what gender identity actually means? Leor Sapir dissects the New York Times' "Protocol" podcast, revealing how they avoided every foundational question while positioning unscientific assessment as the "reasonable middle ground." He shares explosive revelations from his own interview with Laura Edwards-Leeper (who admitted gender identity is based on stereotypes), exposes why detransitioners got 30 seconds while Jamie Reed got attacked, and explains the strategic choice ahead: let medical leaders blame WPATH for misleading them, or face Trump administration investigations. His verdict: "Imagine endocrinologists treating a condition they can't define without circular reasoning. That's what's happening here."
What happens when extreme trauma, tech culture, and gender ideology collide? Sascha Bailey's journey from nearly transitioning in Tokyo to becoming a leading voice on male detransition reveals uncomfortable truths about control and identity. Diagnosed with "gender dysphoria" in 10 minutes, prescribed HRT on the spot, Bailey escaped Japan overnight—and slowly unraveled everything he thought he knew. Now expecting a child with his partner, he's decoded the "transmaxing" movement, exposed how tech rewards transition, and discovered why mice in utopia start acting like humans in crisis. His message: "I don't know what gender dysphoria means anymore." As society strips away male social roles, Bailey asks: What happens when you can't be anything, so you try to be someone else?Shownotes
What happens when a lifelong Democrat lawyer discovers her daughter's school is secretly transitioning her child? Erin Friday's journey from concerned parent to leading legal warrior reveals how California became ground zero for parental rights battles. When Child Protective Services knocked on her door for questioning the school's actions, this mother transformed into an unstoppable force. Watching her daughter spiral from a pink-loving girl to believing she was born wrong, Friday did what few parents dare: she fought back with boundaries of steel. Now, with her daughter thriving again, she refuses to stay silent. Her message to parents: "You have strength and power—use it." As she prepares to present on lawfare at Genspect's Albuquerque conference, her warning is clear: "If we can stop this in California, we can stop it everywhere."
What happens when a gay rights activist discovers his country has become what he calls a "dystopian dark gender Gilead"? Eldur Smári Kristinsson's journey from questioning why gay men must accept "girl dick" to facing criminal prosecution reveals how Iceland—population 400,000—became the world's most captured nation. As kindergarteners come home asking if they can change sex and BDSM is taught as a sexual orientation, Kristinsson watches his progressive paradise transform into something unrecognizable. Now facing his third round of hate speech charges for criticizing male breastfeeding, this lone voice refuses to be silenced. His message to the world: "I need the world to see what is going on."
What happens when an evolutionary biologist examines gender theory through the lens of 4 million years of human evolution? Gary Clark's journey from living with Aboriginal peoples in Australia's Western Desert to studying sexual dimorphism in ancient fossils reveals how post-modern theorists claiming to "deconstruct" Western ideas are actually imposing them. As major universities embrace the notion that biology is "right-wing," Clark watches academia deny the very sex-based differences that structure every known human society. From his unique vantage point spanning primatology, paleoanthropology, and Jungian psychology, this scientist explains why denying biological sex isn't progressive—it's anti-scientific.
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What a nincompoop. Very happy that Stella stopped his twaddle at a certain moment to set him straight. Psychiatry seems to be full of charlatans and his intellectual capacities don't seem to be distinctive enough to wiggle himself out of that suspicion. I fear Mia was tricked all those years of admiration for him. There are many such men who ramble along and love to hear their own voices. Sometimes they say some wise(y) things, yeah. Mostly I find them sooo tiring.