The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan

Dana is a retired surgeon, a mother, a trans rights advocate, and the former executive director (and current board member) of Gender Rights Maryland. She’s also been on the boards of two Jewish LGBT organizations, A Wider Bridge and Keshet, and has blogged extensively for HuffPo. We’ve been friends for a long time, and I thought it could only help the debate a little to have a spirited but also humane debate about trans issues — as they have been, and as they are now, in a “critical theory” world. We need to talk about this civilly. We need to air genuine questions. As this subject is close to under siege in the West, I’m going to try and air it out every now and again, with a variety of guests, trans and non-trans, gender-critical and woke. (You can listen to the episode right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app” — which will connect you to the Dishcast feed. To listen to three excerpts from my conversation with Dana — on the mysteries of gender and the science of sex; on the tensions within “LGBTQ”; and on the excesses of queer activism — head over to our YouTube page.)Coincidentally, last week we got an email from a long-time reader who identifies as a “gender critical trans person”:As you know from previous correspondence, I have been critical of “cancel culture” being much of a threat to society, since it seems to only be an issue in certain small corners of academia and the pundit class. Additionally, many of the canceled writers moved to a self-publishing model which left them at least as popular as they were before, so who cares?But last week I had a “then they came for me” moment.One of the latest journalists who has been canceled is a largely apolitical wargaming- and simulations-focused writer who made the mistake of asking a question about gender in an article about an in-game radio host being removed due to the performer’s alleged real-world transphobia. Apparently that was enough for him to also be declared transphobic, and for his column of 12 years to be suspended. No doubt he will find another place to write — or maybe he won’t — but as a long-time subscriber of the publication who canceled him, I am deeply frustrated at the summary dumping of an otherwise respected writer for not implicitly knowing that to breathe the words “gender critical” is now considered taboo.Please keep writing about this. Personally I still think you focus too much on “wokeness” as the core problem. I don’t think that’s fair. Many of the views in that arena are perfectly reasonable and deserve to be aired. The real problem is silencing of any opposing views. That can only serve to radicalize ordinary people who inadvertently get caught in the crossfire.That reader also contributed to a Dish thread in 2014 called “Engaging The T” (for transgender), dissenting against my initial view that it was perfectly legitimate to ask cover-girl Laverne Cox about whether she had had reassignment surgery:I underwent sex reassignment surgery in my early 20s. For the subsequent 15 years, I have had to field questions about the most intricate details of my sex life and the function and appearance of my new plumbing. Complete strangers have offered me money to see or touch my vagina. Other men propose sex “so I can see what it’s like”. This is the harsh reality of being a MTF trannie — we get to experience all the lecherous advances that regular women do, plus the even more brazen and thoughtless objectification from those who see us as little more than fetish toys. I can completely understand high-profile trannies not wanting to go there.The truth is, although getting surgery seems like the most important thing in the world during transition, after it’s over it becomes such an insignificant part of who we are. We are not defined by our junk. Post-transition we are just normal people with normal lives and everyday problems. I don’t want to talk to strangers about my genitalia any more than any other woman — or man — would. I’m no prude, but honestly, there are way more interesting things going on in my life.As a general rule, I agree with you that the trans-whatever community has become overly neurotic and that it spends way too much energy policing language and trying to distance itself from “gay culture”, but wanting to take the public focus away from surgery is not a part of that. Sure, gay guys f**k other men, but they aren’t asked in high-brow interviews what it’s like to take it up the ass. Why should transsexual women be asked what it’s like to have a vagina? Leave that for the tabloids and the medical journals.I replied to that email at the time:I’m really grateful for my readers explaining this in more detail and I better see now why a trans identity is what matters, not how radically that identity has been implemented physically. And of course I can see how those questions can seem invasive and violating. I get it better now. Which is why a provocative but sincere debate as we’ve been having here can lead to greater understanding. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

Matt Yglesias, contrarian progressive, joins the Dishcast to discuss the fallout of the 2020 election and his new book, “One Billion Americans,” a patriotic case for making America greater by inviting more immigrants. In the episode we talk about the 2020 election, wokeness and media, the cancel culture on the right, the progressives who find patriotism hokey, the black voters who support Biden more than white liberals do, Matt’s dissent over my use of “Christianists,” the importance of real diversity in newsrooms, and the lack of it in places like the NYT. Matt also describes how taken aback he was by the progressive backlash over his piece, “Black Lives Matter activism is working,” which celebrated the fact that police shootings of black Americans declined after Ferguson. To listen to that excerpt, along with another one discussing pro-Trump minorities, head to our YouTube page.(You can listen to the episode right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app” — which will connect you to the Dishcast feed, allowing all future episodes to come right to your smartphone.)Thanks for all the reader feedback over the Dishcast so far. At first we had some complaints over the volume levels, since podcasts tend to run quieter as an industry standard, and it’s awkward talking directly into mics, but we’ve adjusted some things and hope this new episode hits the sweet spot. As with everything Dish, the podcast is a work in progress. Here’s a reader responding to the episode with Coleman Hughes:Best part of the podcast: When you interrupted Coleman. You corrected him and said it was “LGBTQ-PLUS, you bigot!” That’s good times! And it was dialogue. More back-and-forth with the podcast would be nice. At times, it seemed like the conversation was a taking-turns of 4-minute monologues.2nd best part: You talked about how every gay person is born almost with a tabula rasa of what life is like as a gay person in America. And because of that, there's little cultural/historical gay culture passed down to you. And because of that, individual gay people have a unique individual perspective of America’s treatment of minorities.And that got Coleman excited. You could tell his mind perked up at this novel insight. Which led to his best part of the podcast: talking about how it’s not quite the same for a young black person as it is for a young gay person, but it is becoming more so. The level of racism he faces is less than his father faced, which was less than his grandfather faced, etc.Anyway, good job in your 2nd podcast. Advice: More debate. Think of your favorite debates with Hitch. Push your guests’ views. Advice: More lefties. Leftist ideology needs to be challenged, and I nominate you as a champion to do it. Get Ezra. Get Maddow. Get Maher (not a Lefty lefty). Get MSNBC people. Get people with whom you disagree strongly.Good advice, and stay tuned. Hopefully my conversation with Yglesias assuaged this next reader a bit: Your podcast with Coleman Hughes was enjoyable, and I agree with your views around the “woke” movement and how the term “white supremacy” has permeated our society in a way that is damaging to our democracy. However, I kept thinking how powerful the podcast would have been if you had had a moderate progressive voice to add to the conversation. I don’t mean someone like AOC, but maybe Pete Buttigieg or Andrew Yang, or a center-left voice from a red state I haven’t heard of. Lately, I have been drawn to the center right so I can listen and reflect on some persuasive arguments. I am sick and tired of the extremes and just recently canceled my subscription to the NYT. You, more than a lot of people I listen to, could build that bridge between the center left and the center right. We need a movement in this country, and its voices like yours that contribute to that debate.As always, keep the feedback and dissent coming, as well as recommendations for guests and topics: dish@andrewsullivan.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

Brian Muraresku is the author of the new book The Immortality Key, currently the #10 audiobook on the NYT Best Seller list and the #9 hardcover on Amazon’s non-fiction list. A collection of reviews can be found on Brian’s website. My own review is here. The Immortality Key, his first book, examines the pivotal role that psychedelics may have played in the origins of Western civilization, first among the ancient Greeks and then early Christians. This is not some kooky-ass book from some hippie who has decided that Jesus was tripping. It is a book of rigorous scholarship, textual analysis, botanical chemistry — you name it — all the skills of modern science to try to understand something that humans have always understood and has been part of humanity forever. I cannot recommend this book enough. And we had a wonderful conversation.(You can listen right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app” — which will connect you to the Dishcast feed, allowing all future episodes to come right to your smartphone. If you want to first listen to a four-minute teaser of Brian’s episode, go here.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

Coleman Hughes is a brilliant young writer at Quillette on issues related to race, a contributing editor at City Journal, and the host of the podcast Conversations with Coleman. He famously faced off against Ta-Nehisi Coates at a congressional hearing on reparations.In this episode, I begin by wondering what I got wrong about Trump and how the electorate actually views him. We discuss what kind of authoritarian he actually turned out to be, how woke overreach cost the Democrats big this year, and how vulnerable a president Biden could be to the pressures of the identitarian left. After I go off on a rant about “LGBTQ+”, and Coleman, who is half Puerto Rican, tackles the “Latinx” idiocy, we do a deep dive into the philosophical implications of wokeness. (You can listen right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app” — which will connect you to the Dishcast feed, allowing all future episodes to come right to your smartphone.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe

Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, New York Times best-selling author, host of the Making Sense podcast, and creator of the Waking Up App. He’s also an old friend, jousting partner, meditation role model, and all round wonderful man. In thinking who might be an ideal first guest for the first Dishcast, and on the eve of an election, Sam came up immediately. Exactly four years ago, in an episode of his podcast titled “The Lesser Evil”, we had a rambling discussion that went viral, where we confessed how deeply we loathed Hillary Clinton and how vital nonetheless it was to vote for her against the far greater menace of Donald J Trump. In this episode — the inaugural episode of The Dishcast — Sam and I pick up the conversation from 2016 by delving deeper into the incomprehensibly foul nature of Trump and the inability of his cult followers to care, and the danger of woke authoritarianism in the wake of Trump. I hope you have as much fun listening as we did chatting. (You can listen right away in the audio player embedded above, or right below it you can click “Listen in podcast app” — which will connect you to the Dishcast feed, allowing all future episodes to come right to your smartphone.) This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit andrewsullivan.substack.com/subscribe