Transcripts Presents: ”Do Less Harm”

Hi, and welcome back to Transcripts. We’ve taken a brief hiatus-- ok, a LONG hiatus-- and now we’re back with a new model. We’re excited to be changing up the format and hopefully making this space an accessible and creative feed for trans creators in audio!

But first, we’re bringing you a special piece from our friends at KCRW’s Bodies podcast. It’s a piece that’s both powerful and informative, and it does this thing that I really love: it’s reporting about a trans person, but it doesn’t do all sorts of unnecessary explaining about pronouns or identity. Instead, it focuses on what the person does, and their impact on the wider community.

"Do Less Harm" is about a person named Lill, who lives in Appalachian West Virginia — it’s coal country, and it’s also the overdose capital of the United States. An increasingly dangerous drug supply and a lack of safe supplies like clean syringes leave people who use drugs vulnerable to disease and death. Lill is trying to fill that gap, providing safe supplies and care all over West Virginia — even as the government tries to stop them.

And as for the next Transcripts episode, well-- it might be made by YOU! We’re soliciting audio from both new and experienced audio-makers, stuff made in ProTools and stuff made with an iPhone, whatever, as long as it’s unique and trans. We have a little budget to pay for some new pieces, too, which is cool! Full details will be up on our twitter account @transcriptspod and you can vote for the first season’s “theme” starting on October 25th. So go over and follow us if you don’t already, and get thinking about what story YOU could tell.

Learn more about Lill, and the science behind harm reduction:

• Episode Transcript
• Resources for Safer Drug Use
• CDC Recommendations to fight HIV in West Virginia
• Undoing Drugs: The Untold Story of Harm Reduction and the Future of Addiction
• Drug Use for Grown-Ups by Carl Hart