Beyond Gender

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

Dr. Lisa Duval, a clinical psychologist with 35 years of experience, argues that gender dysphoria often stems from a fear of adulthood. She critiques current treatment methods, likening the use of puberty blockers to avoiding bridges for those afraid to cross them. Duval discusses how societal pressures and a fragile self-identity can lead to misconceptions about gender. She highlights the need for a compassionate, evidence-based approach that confronts underlying fears instead of reinforcing avoidance, advocating for honest communication in supporting both youth and their families.

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.