Many culture-war politicians are attacking the rights of trans people, and making a regressive view of gender as biology the key to their platforms. In this episode, David Remnick talks to two people who’ve found themselves at the center of the battle over transgender rights. In Nebraska, a state senator has committed to filibustering every piece of legislation to ward off a vote on a Republican-sponsored bill that would ban gender-affirming care for trans people under age nineteen. Then Masha Gessen—who fled Russia years ago as an L.G.B.T. person targeted by government repression—explains why anti-trans messaging has been effective for the right, and why discussions of trans issues can be fraught even for those who support them.
Ilana Glazer on Motherhood and Friendship, On- and Off-Screen
Love Is Blind, and Allegedly Toxic
Miranda July’s New Novel Takes on Marriage, Desire, and Perimenopause
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Isn’t Going Away
How a Tech Executive Lobbied Lawmakers for the TikTok Ban
Wired’s Katie Drummond: The TikTok Ban Is “Rooted in Hypocrisy”; Plus, Hannah Goldfield on Culinary TikTok
Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., Could Swing the Election. Who Should Be More Worried—Biden or Trump?
Israel, Gaza, and the Turmoil at One American University
Georgia’s Brad Raffensperger, Who Refused to “Find” Votes for Donald Trump, Prepares for Another Election
Jerry Seinfeld on Making a Life in Comedy (and Also, Pop-Tarts)
Judi Dench on Bond and Shakespeare
Jonathan Haidt on the Plague of Anxiety Affecting Young People
Maya Hawke on the Fear of “Missing Out,” and Jen Silverman on “There’s Going to Be Trouble”
How a Republican and a Democrat Carved out Exemptions to Texas’s Abortion Ban
The Film Critic Justin Chang on What to See in 2024
The Attack on Black History, with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Jelani Cobb
Rhiannon Giddens, Americana’s Queen, on Cultivating the Black Roots of Country Music
Alicia Keys Returns to Her Roots with Her New Musical, “Hell’s Kitchen”
Percival Everett and the Reinvention of Mark Twain’s Jim
Trump’s Authoritarian Pronouncements Recall a Dark History
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