I listened to the last episode with interest, particularly the vignette with “Noah” a trans man. One cannot help but be struck by the connection between young women suffering gender dysphoria and anxiety/depression. Does no one understand (on the left) that all of these young transitioners are on meds? That there is no mentally healthy young person with gender dysphoria? And that transitioning does not cure the anxiety/depression? As I listened to Noah saying how “he” would have killed himself if not allowed to transition I thought to myself that this person has severe mental illness and has been deluded by the current social contagion. What makes me angry is the “health care professionals” behind this scam profiting from the mutilation of our young women.
I agree that the series is very good, measured, thoughtful and thought-provoking. But I resent, if that is too strong a word, the fact that it is only Rowling that seems to be the one asked "What if you're wrong?" Megan was so gentle and affirming in last week's interviews but never once did she display the temerity to say to the subjects of her interviews "But what if you're wrong?"
I see this unilateral approach to be highly indicative of a prior assumption, that only a person that is offering objections is the one that might be wrong.
When I first heard about this podcast, I was afraid to listen to it. I love JK and the Harry Potter series and I was skeptical that it would be fair to JK. I was in no mood to hear an "objective" piece explaining why there are two sides to every story and maybe JK is talented but the other side has a point. Was I wrong. This podcast has surpassed my expectations in the breadth of topics covered and voices heard, particularly with respect to the history of mid-to-late 20th century social movements. I was not expecting that. Best of all, there's the voice of JK herself, for whom I have more respect than ever.
This podcast did something else that was invaluable. It attracted a curious audience who thought they knew what the trans issue was about, more or less, on the sole basis of their trusted liberal media but no investigation on their own. I have some very liberal family members who are woke by default, and they had no desire to challenge the "trans kids" and "trans women are women" tropes that they absorbed in their desire to be good people on the progressive side of the issue. They listened because they were curious, because of Harry Potter, and in spite of JK. Their assumptions have been shaken up in a gentle yet profound way. Once a crack of light gets in, there's no going back. There's so much harm being done to women and children through transgender ideology's applications in medicine and politics. We still have a long way to go. Giving people permission to think is the first step.
Kudos to Phelps-Roper...and to Bari Weiss for making it possible. On behalf of an adult human female named JK Rowling, one of the great literary geniuses and warriors of the modern era, thank you.
This series has been nothing short of FANTASTIC! Well documented, heart breaking at times and most importantly thought provoking. We’ll done Megan and team!
TLDL. Sorry - even in retirement - ESPECIALLY in retirement - I simply don't have the time to listen to every podcast vying for my attention, largely because of the lack of a reliable method for vetting them. This is one I especially want to examine, but as a policy I never listen to any. Can we PLEASE have a transcript?
Wrapping up a unit on the critical importance of liberty of thought and discussion, as well as the perils of the power of the majority (after reading Jeremy Bentham, Alexis deTocqueville, and John Stuart Mill) -- this series is so good, and so on point, that I am going to open up the option to my students of using it as a catalyst to a deep dive into these broader issues. Sometimes I feel like I could simply use TFP as an essential textbook.
Events in Nashville as well as previous mass shootings involving trans people justify transphobia. As I posted elsewhere, this IS a psychopathology. Anyone able to amass weapons for the purpose of killing kids is mentally ill, and that extends to mass shooters who are trans just as much to those weren’t trans.
As the Harry Potter books were coming out, we were raising our three children in a church and school community where they [the books]were questioned for their content. As fans of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, we ourselves were somewhat ambivalent; we saw them as engaging fantasy literature. Our children went on to love the books, and we all enjoyed the movies (and revisited both with delight when we had a 4th child yrs later). We would consider ourselves “fans,” but not really the go-to-a-Harry-Potter-conference kind of fans. I say all that to put in context that after listening to this podcast, I NOW could hardly be a BIGGER fan of JK Rowling. While she and I would stand on different political aisles, I am blown away by her strength of character, her determination to and investment in understanding both the issues and her own heart, her intelligence, her courage, her integrity and her wisdom. Her compassion that is consistent with the Truth about human flourishing at every level shines through above all! If I were given the chance to say something to her, I would try to articulately convey all that and the high level of respect I have for her. I would finish with the hope I could one day be more like her and exclaim a resounding, “May your tribe increase!” Thank you a million times for this fabulous series, Megan! You are a treasure as well!
The end of free speech. I guess the anti-Rowling people can’t counter her arguments with their arguments so they are burning her books. I saw one of the movies , never read any of the books. This abuse of free speech makes me want to buy the set in protest. Wait until the anti-free speech people start having their speech trashed.
Reading comments here I see many listeners have expressed concern about Noah and rightly so. He is barely out of childhood and his mind and body not yet fully developed.
He said his transitioning journey began at age 13 and was helped along (or exacerbated) by internet posts from other trans people and by his therapist. As a 13 year old he really didn’t stand a chance.
There is a three part documentary made in Sweden call Trans Train: Sweden’s U Turn on Trans Kids you can find it on YouTube. It is a quiet and understated documentary where older trans people talk about how they felt that the medical intervention they received was not necessary or helpful and many conclude they were just coming to terms with being gay. They talk about their reduced life expectancy due to all the hormonal treatments and they talk of mental, physical and social consequences of unnecessary surgical intervention.
And as JK Rowling so eloquently put it if she is wrong the only thing she has done is hurt people’s feelings but the trans side has a lot more to answer for with the mutilation of children.
It might have been good to have some detransitioners too but I’m not complaining and I thank the makers for this thoughtful series. It made me weep.
I have listened to chapters 1 through 6 so far, and I am looking forward to hearing Chapter 7 on the commute home this afternoon. This podcast series is exceptional. The depth of nuance is truly impressive. It has me thinking about the trans issue in new ways. The production value is extremely professional. Thank you, TFP for supporting this thought provoking content. And thank you, Megan Phelps-Roper, for your work. Your neutral/unbiased approach to this reporting is an inspiration. You give me hope that the wider media may one day be redeemed.
Ah! I love the theory of the woke mobs yearning to destroy everything and everyone so they can live their miserable ugly lives in absolute destruction but have the joy of saying, look at me, I am such a good person. Only the stupid buy someones product (in this case books) making money for the person they are hating and then burning them. Take that you rich person, I just showed you. Yeah, nice showing just how stupid you are.
Let's be honest. The entire LGBTQXYZ issue has been hijacked by socialist fools looking to destroy that very system which gives them their freedom and liberty to be idiots. You just have to admire such sheer stupidity and ignorance. Hopefully, soon they will all get bored and go back to Grandmas basement.
I think what surprised me the most is how Megan has approached this, I assumed (hoped for) a barn burning take down of TRAs and how bad they are instead what I got was a well well nuanced take on an unbelievably divisive subject, well done Megan!
We have been listening to the podcasts. In bending over backwards to show both sides, you interviewed a 16 year old transgender individual. I’m sorry, but while articulate for his/her age, a 16 year old simply doesn’t have the life experience to weigh in comprehensively on a subject like this. Furthermore, his/her response to Rowling’s concerns about the risks to women and girls was basically to say “you’re attacking us.” Couldn’t you find an experienced, adult transvestite who better understood the nuances and spectrum of human behaviors, such as that exhibited by Rowling herself?
I listened to the last episode with interest, particularly the vignette with “Noah” a trans man. One cannot help but be struck by the connection between young women suffering gender dysphoria and anxiety/depression. Does no one understand (on the left) that all of these young transitioners are on meds? That there is no mentally healthy young person with gender dysphoria? And that transitioning does not cure the anxiety/depression? As I listened to Noah saying how “he” would have killed himself if not allowed to transition I thought to myself that this person has severe mental illness and has been deluded by the current social contagion. What makes me angry is the “health care professionals” behind this scam profiting from the mutilation of our young women.
I agree that the series is very good, measured, thoughtful and thought-provoking. But I resent, if that is too strong a word, the fact that it is only Rowling that seems to be the one asked "What if you're wrong?" Megan was so gentle and affirming in last week's interviews but never once did she display the temerity to say to the subjects of her interviews "But what if you're wrong?"
I see this unilateral approach to be highly indicative of a prior assumption, that only a person that is offering objections is the one that might be wrong.
When I first heard about this podcast, I was afraid to listen to it. I love JK and the Harry Potter series and I was skeptical that it would be fair to JK. I was in no mood to hear an "objective" piece explaining why there are two sides to every story and maybe JK is talented but the other side has a point. Was I wrong. This podcast has surpassed my expectations in the breadth of topics covered and voices heard, particularly with respect to the history of mid-to-late 20th century social movements. I was not expecting that. Best of all, there's the voice of JK herself, for whom I have more respect than ever.
This podcast did something else that was invaluable. It attracted a curious audience who thought they knew what the trans issue was about, more or less, on the sole basis of their trusted liberal media but no investigation on their own. I have some very liberal family members who are woke by default, and they had no desire to challenge the "trans kids" and "trans women are women" tropes that they absorbed in their desire to be good people on the progressive side of the issue. They listened because they were curious, because of Harry Potter, and in spite of JK. Their assumptions have been shaken up in a gentle yet profound way. Once a crack of light gets in, there's no going back. There's so much harm being done to women and children through transgender ideology's applications in medicine and politics. We still have a long way to go. Giving people permission to think is the first step.
Kudos to Phelps-Roper...and to Bari Weiss for making it possible. On behalf of an adult human female named JK Rowling, one of the great literary geniuses and warriors of the modern era, thank you.
May I suggest the mostly ignored but obviously needed, Chapter Eight: "What if J.K. Rowling is right."
This series has been nothing short of FANTASTIC! Well documented, heart breaking at times and most importantly thought provoking. We’ll done Megan and team!
TLDL. Sorry - even in retirement - ESPECIALLY in retirement - I simply don't have the time to listen to every podcast vying for my attention, largely because of the lack of a reliable method for vetting them. This is one I especially want to examine, but as a policy I never listen to any. Can we PLEASE have a transcript?
Wrapping up a unit on the critical importance of liberty of thought and discussion, as well as the perils of the power of the majority (after reading Jeremy Bentham, Alexis deTocqueville, and John Stuart Mill) -- this series is so good, and so on point, that I am going to open up the option to my students of using it as a catalyst to a deep dive into these broader issues. Sometimes I feel like I could simply use TFP as an essential textbook.
Events in Nashville as well as previous mass shootings involving trans people justify transphobia. As I posted elsewhere, this IS a psychopathology. Anyone able to amass weapons for the purpose of killing kids is mentally ill, and that extends to mass shooters who are trans just as much to those weren’t trans.
As the Harry Potter books were coming out, we were raising our three children in a church and school community where they [the books]were questioned for their content. As fans of Narnia and Lord of the Rings, we ourselves were somewhat ambivalent; we saw them as engaging fantasy literature. Our children went on to love the books, and we all enjoyed the movies (and revisited both with delight when we had a 4th child yrs later). We would consider ourselves “fans,” but not really the go-to-a-Harry-Potter-conference kind of fans. I say all that to put in context that after listening to this podcast, I NOW could hardly be a BIGGER fan of JK Rowling. While she and I would stand on different political aisles, I am blown away by her strength of character, her determination to and investment in understanding both the issues and her own heart, her intelligence, her courage, her integrity and her wisdom. Her compassion that is consistent with the Truth about human flourishing at every level shines through above all! If I were given the chance to say something to her, I would try to articulately convey all that and the high level of respect I have for her. I would finish with the hope I could one day be more like her and exclaim a resounding, “May your tribe increase!” Thank you a million times for this fabulous series, Megan! You are a treasure as well!
The end of free speech. I guess the anti-Rowling people can’t counter her arguments with their arguments so they are burning her books. I saw one of the movies , never read any of the books. This abuse of free speech makes me want to buy the set in protest. Wait until the anti-free speech people start having their speech trashed.
Reading comments here I see many listeners have expressed concern about Noah and rightly so. He is barely out of childhood and his mind and body not yet fully developed.
He said his transitioning journey began at age 13 and was helped along (or exacerbated) by internet posts from other trans people and by his therapist. As a 13 year old he really didn’t stand a chance.
There is a three part documentary made in Sweden call Trans Train: Sweden’s U Turn on Trans Kids you can find it on YouTube. It is a quiet and understated documentary where older trans people talk about how they felt that the medical intervention they received was not necessary or helpful and many conclude they were just coming to terms with being gay. They talk about their reduced life expectancy due to all the hormonal treatments and they talk of mental, physical and social consequences of unnecessary surgical intervention.
And as JK Rowling so eloquently put it if she is wrong the only thing she has done is hurt people’s feelings but the trans side has a lot more to answer for with the mutilation of children.
It might have been good to have some detransitioners too but I’m not complaining and I thank the makers for this thoughtful series. It made me weep.
I have listened to chapters 1 through 6 so far, and I am looking forward to hearing Chapter 7 on the commute home this afternoon. This podcast series is exceptional. The depth of nuance is truly impressive. It has me thinking about the trans issue in new ways. The production value is extremely professional. Thank you, TFP for supporting this thought provoking content. And thank you, Megan Phelps-Roper, for your work. Your neutral/unbiased approach to this reporting is an inspiration. You give me hope that the wider media may one day be redeemed.
Ah! I love the theory of the woke mobs yearning to destroy everything and everyone so they can live their miserable ugly lives in absolute destruction but have the joy of saying, look at me, I am such a good person. Only the stupid buy someones product (in this case books) making money for the person they are hating and then burning them. Take that you rich person, I just showed you. Yeah, nice showing just how stupid you are.
Let's be honest. The entire LGBTQXYZ issue has been hijacked by socialist fools looking to destroy that very system which gives them their freedom and liberty to be idiots. You just have to admire such sheer stupidity and ignorance. Hopefully, soon they will all get bored and go back to Grandmas basement.
The best podcast series I have run across. I believe it was the 3rd episode, discussing Tumblr, was simply fascinating.
I think what surprised me the most is how Megan has approached this, I assumed (hoped for) a barn burning take down of TRAs and how bad they are instead what I got was a well well nuanced take on an unbelievably divisive subject, well done Megan!
We have been listening to the podcasts. In bending over backwards to show both sides, you interviewed a 16 year old transgender individual. I’m sorry, but while articulate for his/her age, a 16 year old simply doesn’t have the life experience to weigh in comprehensively on a subject like this. Furthermore, his/her response to Rowling’s concerns about the risks to women and girls was basically to say “you’re attacking us.” Couldn’t you find an experienced, adult transvestite who better understood the nuances and spectrum of human behaviors, such as that exhibited by Rowling herself?