You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist

Épisodes

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  227. Cognitive Warfare, Moral Inversion, and the War on Children with Simon Esler 17.08.2026 1h 12min

  I'm welcoming back filmmaker Simon Esler, who first appeared on this podcast back on episode 54 to discuss his documentary Cut: Daughters of the West. This time, we're diving into his new docuseries You Are Here, which explores the landscape of cognitive warfare—the idea that human cognition itself has become the most contested territory in modern conflict.We start with the chilling case of Barry Neufeld, a Canadian school board trustee who was fined $750,000 for refusing to believe that children can be born trapped in the wrong body—what the judge's ruling called "existential denialism." From there, we explore how Canada's human rights laws and conversion therapy legislation have embedded gender identity ideology into the legal framework, silencing detransitioners and punishing dissenters. Simon and I discuss how our minds are conditioned by narratives we've never examined, how meta-perceptions warp our view of political opponents, and what Iain McGilchrist's work on brain hemispheres reveals about Western cognitive vulnerability. We also get into the concept of cognitive entrenchment, moral inversion, and the historical parallels between modern ideological capture and ancient child sacrifice in Carthage. Simon shares what's next for his series and talks about the Reclaiming Birth Conference, where he's working to empower families to take back sovereignty over pregnancy and birth.Books mentioned in this episode:The Screwtape Letters by C.S. LewisRange: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David EpsteinThe Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchristSimon Esler is a committed defender of families & the lost art of free thought. A winding career path as an actor, theatre maker, ordained minister and mindfulness entrepreneur lead him to becoming a professional content creator & independent filmmaker. His latest docuseries, You Are Here - Reconnaissance for the War on Perception, is now streaming at dauntlessdialogue.com. The rest of Simon’s work can be found at simonesler.com, where he hosts an array of films, series, courses & resources focused on leveraging the pressures of modern war to foster personal growth and collective resilience.To partner with Simon’s Leaving the Line Studio for content creation, filmmaking, and brand strategy check out his full portfolio.Reclaiming Birth Conference: reclaimingbirthconference.com — a conference in Canada in September focused on empowering families around natural birth; Simon is emceeingX (Twitter): @SimonEslerInstagram: @simon_esler1111Substack: Simon Esler / Subversive Clarity[00:00:00] Start[00:01:27] Cognitive Warfare as the New Battlefield[00:03:10] Barry Neufeld and the SOGI 123 Curriculum[00:05:15] Fined $750K for "Existential Denialism"[00:07:57] Gender Identity as Compelled Religious Belief[00:10:11] Canada's Human Rights Laws and Bill C-16[00:13:18] Gender Identity as a Shield Against Accountability[00:19:17] Detransitioners Silenced in Canada[00:24:33] Recognizing Our Own Cognitive Conditioning[00:28:06] How Media Narratives Mirror Personal Anxiety[00:29:45] Meta-Perceptions and the 400% Violence Gap[00:35:32] What Is Fifth Generation Warfare[00:40:01] Moral Inversion Through Cognitive Manipulation[00:47:25] Cognitive Entrenchment and Thinking Outside Your Domain[00:49:18] When Ideological Capture Endangers Children[00:53:31] Child Sacrifice in Carthage as a Modern Warning[00:59:05] Collective Morality and Centralized Culture[01:02:34] The Reclaiming Birth Movement[01:08:47] Finding Purpose in Defending Free ThoughtROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast ...
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  226. Clever Parenting: Faith in Your Teen's Soul, with Kim O 10.08.2026 1h 24min

  I'm so glad to welcome back my friend Kim O for her third appearance on the show. Kim is a relational soul coach and author who works directly with ROGD-affected teens and their parents — one of a very small handful of people doing work that closely mirrors my own. In this conversation, we dig into what it actually looks like to believe in your child's soul when everything about their behavior is screaming at you to panic.Kim shares how shifting from fear and worry energy to genuine belief in her own son's potential transformed their relationship — and how she now coaches families to do the same. We explore what I call strategic and what Kim calls clever: non-threatening, indirect approaches that plant seeds of growth without triggering the ego defenses that gender ideology has shored up in these kids. We talk about the power of fun and play in rebuilding connection, the danger of suggestion-based parenting, setting real boundaries around devices, and why personality typing tools like the Enneagram can actually give girls a healthier outlet for the same identity-seeking impulse that gender ideology exploits. Kim also introduces her new parent and teen workbook journals, designed to create structured moments of connection and self-reflection for families who don't know where to begin.Kim O is a Relational Soul Coach and author. She utilizes Conscious Principles, Presence, and Authenticity Mapping to awaken you to your greatest power, your Conscious Authentic Self. Through inner child work and profound mindset strategies from the stoics and sages, unhealthy coping mechanisms diminish, leaving your empowerment and high relational intelligence in the wake. As a coach, she provides personal, alchemical stories of trauma turned into gold. If she did it, so can you! Contact and find her resources at linktr.ee/heartworkuKim's workbooks:My Role as the Parent of a Teen: a Journal that Guides YOU to Lead & Create ConnectionWho Am I? a Teen’s Journal of Self-Celebration & Connection [00:00:00] Start[00:02:10] Shifting From Fear to Belief Energy[00:06:45] Celebrating Teens and the Teen Brain[00:10:15] The Weekly Check-In and Connect[00:16:15] Practicing Belief When Your Kid Is Nasty[00:20:35] Rupture, Repair, and Strategic Apologizing[00:25:00] Untangling Emotion From Gender Identity[00:32:15] Parents Who Never Rebelled[00:35:00] Rebellion as the Spirit of Adventure[00:40:00] Guilt, Self-Forgiveness, and Planting Seeds[00:45:00] Social Media and the Immature Brain[00:49:06] Fun, Play, and Suggestion-Based Parenting[00:55:45] Chores, Boredom, and Preparing for the Road[01:01:00] What Is the Role of the Teen and Parent[01:07:53] Coaching Under a Different Name[01:11:19] Personality Typing as an Alternative to Gender[01:18:15] Myers-Briggs and Breaking Gender StereotypesROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  225. Teens and Screens, Part 2: The Case Against Moral Panic with Dr. Will Dobud 03.08.2026 1h 41min

  This is Part Two of Teens and Screens, and it's the counterweight. Last episode, Dr. Johann D'Souza made the case for keeping toxic screens out of your teenager's hands entirely. Today I'm joined again by Dr. Will Dobud — social worker, researcher, and co-author of Kids These Days — who thinks the story we tell ourselves about phones and youth mental health is far bigger than the evidence behind it.I open by naming my own bias: I work with the families where it went wrong. Porn addiction, gaming addiction, failure to launch, daughters pulled into dark corners of social media. Will names his: he's oppositional by temperament, and he wrote a book making fun of how adults talk about kids.We get into why the meta-analytic effects between screen use and youth mental health are so small they're arguably not worth publishing, what a third variable does to correlational data, and why Australia's social media ban is failing six months in. I push back repeatedly — on whether "do what feels right" is useful advice to parents who don't know what modern pornography even is, on the candy-bin problem of unregulated access, and on whether calling the phone a symptom of family dysfunction slides into blaming parents.Then Will gets on his soapbox about school, and the conversation turns somewhere I didn't expect: youth self-harm and ER data that tracks the school calendar. Up during term, down during holidays. Highest on Mondays. What if we've been pointing at the wrong thing?Books mentioned in this episode:Kids These Days — Dr. Will Dobud, with co-author NevinThe Anxious Generation — Jonathan HaidtDr. Will Dobud is a social worker, researcher, and educator who has worked with adolescents and families in the United States, Australia, and Norway. Will is from Washington, D.C., and divides his time between the United States and Australia each year. He is an award-winning researcher and educator recognized for excellence in research, teaching, and crime prevention. Dr. Dobud is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Charles Sturt University, Australia's largest social work school. His research focuses on improving therapy outcomes for teenagers and promoting safe, ethical practices. He has investigated and written about America's Troubled Teen Industry, especially wilderness therapy. He has worked alongside advocates, survivors, researchers, and clinicians to protect youth from institutionalization and harm. Will is the co-author of the award-winning book, Kids These Days: Understanding and Supporting Youth Mental Health (2025).Links 🌐 Website: www.willdobud.com📖 Book site: www.kidsthesedaysbook.com📘 Facebook: @WillDobudPhD🐦 X (Twitter): @WillDobud📸 Instagram: @WillDobud / @Kids_These_Days_Book💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-dobud-5209ab74/✍️ Substack: https://substack.com/@willdobudPrevious appearance: Episode 202, "Label Mania: How Diagnosing Every Kid Is Backfiring on a Generation"Candice Odgers TED Talk[00:00:00] Start[00:02:51] Where the Screen Narrative Outruns the Evidence[00:06:40] Australia's Failing Social Media Ban[00:12:15] The Third Variable Behind Rising Diagnoses[00:16:26] What Violent Video Games Got Wrong[00:20:24] Is There a Case for Teens on Social Media?[00:24:09] Pushback: Most Parents Don't Know the Risks[00:32:29] Advice for Parents of Kids Six, Eight, and Ten[00:38:45] Designed to Be Addictive: Netflix, Books, Phones[00:41:31] The Meta Trial and the Word Addiction[00:49:46] Is the Phone a Symptom or the Cause?[00:53:41] The Candy Bin and the Endless Buffet[01:05:31] Forty Years of Scaring Parents[01:09:19] Measuring Youth Mental Health at Scale[01:16:36] Autism Diagnoses, Funding, and Toxins[01:22:45] Will's Soapbox on School[01:26:56] Suicide Rates Follow the School Calendar[01:35:56] Why the Youngest Kid Gets DiagnosedROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Ha...
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  224. Teens and Screens, Part 1: The Case Against Teen Smartphones with Dr. Johann D'Souza 27.07.2026 1h 30min

  This is Part 1 of a two-part series on teens and screens, and I'm starting at one end of the spectrum on purpose. Today I welcome back Dr. Johann D'Souza, a clinical psychologist specializing in OCD and behavioral addiction, for an unapologetically hardline conversation. His position: never give your child a smartphone — and say no to the three "toxic screen uses" of video games, social media, and pornography.We dig into why each harms kids differently: how video games train boys toward "failure to launch" by rewarding minimal effort, how social media consumes an average of 36 hours a week from teenage girls during the years their identities are forming, and why Johann believes pornography is the single biggest problem facing young men today. He lays out his four takeaways for parents: embrace your parental authority, never give your child a smartphone, build up real life, and find one friend in the battle.We also get into the family dynamics driving early device use — what Johann calls the pattern of anxious moms and passive dads — and I bring my own framing on boundaries and why your adolescent with a smartphone is like a toddler with a candy bin.In Part 2, coming up in episode 225, you'll hear from Dr. Will Dobud, who argues close to the opposite: digital integration rather than prohibition. Hear both before you decide. The question this series explores is what a real childhood requires — and whether that means protecting kids from these technologies or teaching them to live alongside them.Dr. Johann D'Souza is a clinical psychologist with an unequivocal message: Smartphones are destroying young minds, pornography addiction is epidemic among teenage boys, and social media is driving girls to suicide. His solution? Never buy your child a smartphone. Period. With 20+ peer-reviewed publications, Harvard affiliation, and his book Saving Teens from Toxic Screens, Dr. D'Souza has the credentials the establishment can't dismiss. Former employers tried to cancel him. He's still speaking—hosting the podcast, traveling nationwide, and helping families fight back. Listen to his podcast, Virtuous Leaders, on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. Check out our previous conversations here and here.[00:00:00] Start[00:02:19] What Is PsyPact Licensing[00:07:15] Never Give Your Child a Smartphone[00:08:04] Why Video Games Harm Boys[00:11:00] Replacing Games With Real Life[00:20:46] Reinforcing Limits and Consistency[00:23:45] Embrace Your Parental Authority[00:27:00] Slot Machine Syndrome and Extinction Bursts[00:33:28] Parents Who Can't Model Self-Control[00:35:07] Anxious Moms and Passive Dads[00:41:15] Social Media and the Teenage Girl[00:45:36] Pornography as the Biggest Problem[00:54:26] Why Sweet, Shy Kids Are Vulnerable[01:04:15] What Age Is Safe for a Smartphone[01:16:39] Raising Kids Hungry for Real Life[01:22:42] Non-Toxic Screen Use and Tech-Savvy KidsROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  223. The HIV Money Trail Behind Global Transgender Health Policy | Róisín Michaux Returns 20.07.2026 1h 51min

  Today I welcome back Róisín Michaux — the Irish writer based in Brussels who covers women’s rights and free speech in the context of the transgender movement — for her second appearance on the show. When I booked this interview I had no idea what we’d cover; I simply trusted her to bring something worth digging into. What she brought is her ongoing investigation into the new World Health Organization guidelines for global transgender healthcare, and I’m hearing most of it for the first time right alongside the listener.Róisín walks me through how a 2019 reclassification in the International Classification of Diseases — moving gender identity out of mental health and into sexual health in order to “depathologize” it — created a conundrum: how do you get hormones and surgeries reimbursed for a condition that’s no longer a condition? That question, she argues, is the thread that connects the WHO’s guideline development group to a much larger story about HIV funding, the Global Fund, Open Society Foundations money, and decades of AIDS-elimination targets.We get into the “third gender” populations of India, Thailand, and Latin America; why so many of these vulnerable young men end up in prostitution and at high risk of HIV; and how offering the hormones and surgeries people want became a mechanism for getting them into clinics and onto antiretrovirals. We also cover the insurance-coding sleight of hand happening closer to home — mastectomies billed as “scar repair,” girls documented as males with gynecomastia — and what it all means for the parents and therapists trying to make sense of what their kids and clients are actually saying.The question the episode keeps returning to: if the price of ending AIDS is medicalizing vulnerable kids and reframing whole populations as trans, is that a victory worth claiming?Róisín Michaux is an Irish writer based in Brussels, Belgium. She writes about women’s rights and free speech in the context of the transgender movement. She is specifically interested in LGBTIQ activism, activists’ relationship to EU/European bureaucracies, the funding they receive, and how it has all led to deep and anti-democratic policy capture. She has 2 kids and a cocker spaniel. Follow her on Substack at Peaked or on X @RoisinMichaux. Listen to our previous conversation: 206. The Intersex Lie: Róisín Michaux on How Queer Theory Hijacked a Rare Medical Condition.[00:00:00] Start[00:02:54] The WHO Guidelines and the ICD Reclassification[00:12:34] Third Gender Populations and the India Model[00:20:25] Open Society Foundations and "False Consciousness"[00:32:31] Prostitution, HIV Risk, and Marsha P. Johnson[00:37:34] GATE, Global Fund Money, and Legal Gender Recognition[00:47:17] Mainstreaming Trans Healthcare Into Public Systems[00:54:16] Insurance Coding, Endocrine Disorder, and Scar Repair[01:07:11] "End the Wait, End AIDS" by 2030[01:27:17] PrEP, Decriminalization, and the AIDS Infrastructure[01:36:38] Autism, Rescuers, and How Girls Get Roped In[01:43:33] Conversion Therapy Bans and Criminalized TherapistsROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  222. Unprofessional Conduct: The Vague Phrase That Can End Your License | Diana Lutfi 13.07.2026 1h 32min

  I’m welcoming back Diana Lutfi — independent legal expert, healthcare regulatory and bioethics consultant, and coalition builder — for a conversation about just how broken the American healthcare system has become, and how that brokenness is now colliding with the fight over therapist speech.I open with a personal on-ramp: my own recent ordeal getting diagnosed and treated for SIBO, and everything it revealed about a system that pushes drugs and procedures while ignoring underlying causes. It’s a story about having to be your own advocate — doing your own research, demanding your own testing, declining the wrong prescription, and fighting for the right one — and about everyone who doesn’t have the skills or resources to do that.From there, Diana and I widen the lens. We talk about “standards of care” as a phrase that sounds authoritative but is often anything but, from WPATH to gastroenterology. And we get into the heart of the episode: Colorado. Why is it, in my view, the worst state to be a parent — and increasingly, to be a therapist? We unpack Chiles v. Salazar, the new HB 26-1322 (Civil Actions for Conversion Therapy Survivors), and the deliberately vague “unprofessional conduct” language that lets licensing boards discipline speech.The questions we explore: What actually counts as being “required to affirm”? How does vague law create a chilling effect? And what would it take to fight back?Diana Lutfi, JD, MSHCM, CPHQ is an independent legal expert, healthcare regulatory and bioethics consultant, and coalition movement builder. She emerged in the center of two national movements unmasking healthcare abuses (health freedom and detransitioners), and became the tipping sphere after writing the Larger Detransitioners community amicus (cited in U.S. v. Skrmetti). She bridged 100+ detransitioners and activists supportive of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and authored the counter-letter signed by 5,000+ academics and physicians supportive of Robert F. Kenendy Jr. She ignited a third wave of intellectuals and built a think tank dedicated to ‘Healing Science’ to push back against the mislabeling of ‘science’ and ‘data’ used as justification for public health laws and social control. She enjoys teaching and empowering people to know their healthcare legal rights and constitutional rights, and actively champions stronger protection for bodily integrity.Links:Think-tank: healscience.orgConsulting: outofmedicalegypt.comFor legal research projects, Diana focuses on defamation, healthcare licensing, and legislative writing. Contact her at diana@outofmedicalegypt.comListen to our previous conversation here: 138. United States v. Skrmetti: Detransitioners Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Case with Diana Lutfi[00:00:00] Start[00:01:57] A Personal Healthcare Saga[00:03:47] The SIBO Diagnosis Nobody Raised[00:06:22] Refusing a Black-Box Antibiotic[00:13:45] Being Your Own Advocate[00:16:08] Reforming a Broken System[00:26:09] The Fraud of "Standards of Care"[00:27:47] The Chart: Skrmetti and the Science Wars[00:34:30] Lawfare and Professional Speech[00:43:40] Colorado, Speech Censorship Capital[00:45:47] Getting "Required to Affirm" Right[00:53:38] Unprofessional Conduct as a Weapon[00:59:53] Chiles v. Salazar Explained[01:06:18] HB 26-1322 and Its Vagueness[01:12:50] Suing Therapists After a Suicide[01:22:34] How Healing Science Fights BackROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  221. Ryan Rogers: Gas Station Opioids, Faith-Based Recovery, and Honest Therapy 06.07.2026 1h 13min

  My friend Ryan Rogers returns to the podcast for our third conversation. He's an addictions counselor in Texas, host of Reality Therapy, and now the author of two books — The Woke Mind and his new release, The Carpenter's Recovery, a Christian guide to 12-step recovery. We start with what's being called "gas station heroin": a chemical called 7-OH, extracted from kratom, that's roughly thirteen times stronger than morphine and sold legally next to the 5-Hour Energy drinks at the checkout counter. Ryan walks me through how legal loopholes have produced a generation of accidental addicts, including church kids and high-conscientiousness adults who'd never touch illegal drugs. I share my own "little old lady" story — how my elderly mom was given a 10mg THC gummy by her stoner massage therapist — as a warning to anyone navigating this new landscape with vulnerable elders. From there we go into cannabis-induced psychosis, cannabis use hyperemesis disorder, fentanyl displacing heroin, and what's actually working in addiction treatment. Ryan explains why he wrote a Christian recovery book and why naming Jesus in AA meetings still gets people shut down. We close on the state of the therapy field: woke ideology, AI psychosis, the rise of niche experts over licensed therapists, and why "live your truth, king" is the worst possible response to a client telling you they're about to relapse.Follow Reality Therapy podcast | Follow Ryan on X @ryanmcrogers[00:00:00] Start[00:02:06] Gas Station Heroin: What Is 7-OH?[00:05:55] Kava, Feel Free, and Designer Drugs[00:11:25] How 7-OH Hits the Opioid System[00:14:30] The Little Old Lady THC Gummy Story[00:25:30] Methadone vs. Suboxone for Detox[00:35:56] The Carpenter's Recovery: A Christian Approach[00:40:32] Why AA Pushes Back on Christianity[00:48:15] Reality Therapy and the State of the Field[00:53:42] AI Psychosis and the Future of Therapy[00:58:40] Tough Love and "Live Your Truth, King"[01:04:30] Honoring Who Teenagers Are BecomingROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  220. The Corporate Vibe Shift: Tanya de Grunwald on Why This Isn't Working 29.06.2026 1h 33min

  We've talked a lot on this podcast about institutional capture — whistleblowers, mission drift, what happens when ideology takes the steering wheel. Today my guest takes a different angle on all of it.Tanya de Grunwald hosts This Isn't Working, a podcast about workplace dynamics, and runs This Is Working, a business community for employers. From 2018 to 2024 she ran a club for early-careers heads at companies like Google, KPMG, AstraZeneca, and the NHS — a front-row seat to peak DEI from the inside. By 2024 she'd seen enough unintended consequences, especially around the trans agenda, to walk away and start telling the story.In this conversation we trace the personal psychology underneath workplace wokeness: the embarrassment about capitalism that pushed HR toward "higher purpose," the older gay men reliving Section 28 through trans activism, the weaponized fragility that lets the loudest voice win every argument. Tanya explains the brain drain that happens when sensible people leave and "nodding dogs" stay behind — and why the private sector is now leading the cleanup.We also dig into what bullied kids fail to learn about self-protection, why "bring your whole self to work" is a mental-health disaster, and what it looks like when leaders finally take the room back. If you've been wondering whether the vibe shift is real, this episode is your field report from someone who sees the spreadsheets.Tanya de Grunwald hosts This Isn't Working, a podcast exploring what has gone wrong in modern workplaces. In 2010 - after 10 years as a features writer for Glamour, Cosmopolitan and the Guardian - Tanya founded the careers blog Graduate Fog, and became a youth recruitment strategist. From 2018-24, Tanya ran the Good + Fair Employers Club, helping big UK employers including Google, KPMG, AstraZeneca and the National Health Service to hire graduates and apprentices. Last year, Tanya founded the business network This Is Working, bringing sensible employers together to unpick their problems. She is regularly quoted in UK newspapers including the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Follow her on X @IsntWorkingPod or YouTube ⁨@This-Isnt-Working⁩ [00:00:00] Start[00:02:34] Workplace Dysfunction and the DEI Agenda[00:05:54] Inside the Peak DEI Years[00:11:23] Embarrassment About Capitalism[00:15:00] Older Gay Men and Workplace Activism[00:19:00] Weaponized Fragility in Arguments[00:29:04] Self-ID Confusion and Legal Risk[00:30:45] The Corporate Brain Drain[00:35:47] Affirming Parents in Senior Leadership[00:41:54] The Piggy Lesson on Bullying[00:52:55] The Workplace as Cultural Collision Point[01:00:32] Comfort, Challenge, and Young Workers[01:06:52] The Vibe Shift and the Private Sector[01:16:12] Bring Your Professional Self to Work[01:24:47] We Make PaperclipsROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  219. Why ROGD Teens Tune Out Parents' Warnings — and the Alter-Casting Fix 22.06.2026 32min

  Why does your teen tune you out? It might have to do with the role your message unconsciously casts her in. "Alter-casting" refers to the way every message you send implicitly assigns a role or identity to the person you're speaking with. If the role you cast your child in conflicts with how they want to see themselves, your message will be rejected — no matter how accurate, loving, or urgent it is.I walk through a concrete example: a mother warning her teenage daughter about predators online. The mother's intention is protective love. What the daughter hears is: "You think I'm a naive, helpless child." That identity is intolerable to an adolescent fighting for autonomy — and so the message fails entirely. I explain how this same dynamic plays out when parents share detransitioner videos with their kids, and why that approach almost always backfires for this exact reason.The episode also covers practical tools from ROGD Repair, including the alter-casting Venn diagram (mapping the overlap between what you see in your child, and what they see in their idealized self-image, even if aspirational); the strategic use of self-deprecating humor and strategic naivete; and the accusation audit — a technique for front-loading anticipated criticism in a way that actually invites your child into a more generous, gracious response. I close with a broader reflection on what this work really is: seeing beneath the performance to the real person underneath, and helping them become who they're meant to be.This podcast episode doubles as an ROGD Repair bonus lesson. It can be found in the course here, along with homework questions to help you personalize the material. If you're a parent navigating these issues in your family, ROGD Repair can help you work smarter, not harder, to get through to your teen. Get access to over 120 lessons like this and more. Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take half off your first month at ROGDrepair.com.[00:00:00] Start[00:01:00] What Altercasting Is and Why It Matters[00:02:15] The Teen and the Predator Warning: A Case Study[00:05:00] Why Sharing Detransitioner Content Backfires[00:07:00] How to Cast Your Child in a Role They'll Accept[00:07:45] The Altercasting Venn Diagram Exercise[00:11:00] Why Failed Conversations Make the Next One Harder[00:12:00] Strategic Naivete and Self-Deprecating Humor[00:13:00] The Accusation Audit Tool[00:15:30] Reading Your Child's Self-Presentation Without Reacting[00:18:00] Early Intervention and the Cost of Waiting[00:26:30] Accepting Reality as the Path to Self-ActualizationROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  218. Why Your Teen Thinks in Extremes — And What You Can Do About It 15.06.2026 17min

  In this solo episode, I'm diving into one of the most pervasive and underappreciated cognitive patterns I see across ROGD families: black-and-white thinking. It's the tendency to categorize everything in terms of two mutually exclusive extremes — all or nothing, perfect or ruined, success or failure — with no middle ground.I explain how this pattern is a normal feature of adolescent brain development, but becomes significantly amplified in kids with ADHD, autism, OCD, or anxiety — conditions that are highly comorbid with gender identity distress. I walk through real-world examples of how this thinking shows up in everyday family life, from refusing to go on a trip because homework isn't finished, to concluding that body discomfort during puberty means something is fundamentally wrong and must be medically corrected.I also explore how excessive screen use creates a vicious feedback cycle that stunts emotional intelligence and body awareness, leaving teenagers even more stuck in binary thinking. From there, I offer practical tools for parents: thinking out loud to model nuanced reasoning, scaffolding executive functioning through backward planning, and using "parts language" to help teens recognize and hold contradictory feelings simultaneously. I close by connecting all of it back to the gender question — because the same cognitive skill that helps a teen tolerate ambiguity in one area is the skill that can eventually let them hold space for uncertainty about their own identity.This solo episode doubles as a bonus lesson in ROGD Repair. Where this lesson is found in the course, it comes with a companion article, summary, and questions for reflection to help you personalize the material. Get this and 120+ more lessons on parenting gender-confused youth at ROGDrepair.com and use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take half off your first month.[00:00:00] Start[00:00:45] What Is Black-and-White Thinking?[00:01:45] Amplified in Neurodivergent and ROGD Kids[00:03:00] Body Discomfort Filtered Through All-or-Nothing Thinking[00:03:30] How Screens Make It Worse[00:06:30] Why Parents Must Restructure Screen Access[00:08:00] Modeling Nuance: Thinking Out Loud[00:11:00] Using Parts Language with Your Teen[00:12:30] How This Pattern Drives Gender Identity Conclusions[00:14:00] Building Tolerance for Ambiguity Over TimeROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  217. "Gender Identity" as a Shell: What the Alter Ego Does for Your Child & How to Help Them Desist 08.06.2026 14min

  In this solo episode, I share one of my favorite metaphors for understanding how desistance actually unfolds in practice — because it rarely looks the way most parents hope it will. Many parents carry a fantasy version of desistance in their heads: a tearful moment of confession, an apology, a sudden reversal. That's almost never what happens. What actually happens is slower, messier, and far less dramatic — but still hopeful, if you know what you're looking at.The metaphor I use is the hermit crab. When a hermit crab outgrows its shell, it must find a new one before abandoning the old one. That terrifying moment of exposure between shells is something the crab instinctively avoids. For your trans-identified child, the alter ego identity is that old shell — it provides psychological structure and protection, answers the question "who am I?", and is doing real work for them even when it's causing harm. Desistance doesn't happen until a new shell exists to replace it.I walk parents through what those building blocks actually look like — moments of femininity, embodiment, taste, competence, nurturance, and authentic connection — and why it's so important not to connect those signs directly to gender. The way you respond to those building blocks either reinforces them or demolishes them. I also expand the definition of identity-building beyond gender expression to include real-world skills, relationships, experiences, and sources of self-esteem. The goal isn't just for the old shell to fall away — it's for your child to become someone who doesn't need a label to answer the question of who they are.This episode doubles as a bonus lesson in ROGD Repair. Where it can be found in the course, it also comes with a companion essay based on the transcript, a summary of key points, and reflection questions to help you personalize the material and apply it to your situation. Join today for access to lots more content like this! Enroll today at ROGDRepair.com.[00:00:00] Start[00:01:00] The Fantasy vs. Reality of Desistance[00:01:45] The Hermit Crab Metaphor Explained[00:03:00] Recognizing the Building Blocks of Desistance[00:06:30] Your Role as a Parent During This Phase[00:09:45] Identity Formation Beyond Gender ExpressionROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  216. Creating Conditions for Desistance: A Parent's Guide to ROGD Recovery 01.06.2026 37min

  In this solo episode, I pull back the curtain on the work I do the rest of the week as an ROGD parent coach. Most parents arrive with one goal in mind: convince their trans-identified child to stop believing in gender ideology. I explain why that's the wrong place to put your energy, and why I won't help you do it as a first step.The belief is downstream. There are two goals that actually matter, and they have to be held in the right order. The first is preserving bodily integrity — keeping your child intact and unaltered for as long as possible, because medicalization is the part of this story that does permanent damage. The second is creating the conditions that support your particular child's desistance: helping her want, on her own, to step away from the identity and reclaim the developmental years she's losing to building up an alter ego.I walk through what desistance actually looks like in practice — rarely a dramatic confession, more often a gradual, face-saving off-ramp through ally identities, sexuality labels, or shifting friend groups. I introduce the frame from my essay "The Load-Bearing Delusion": the identity isn't a free-floating belief you can argue away, it's propping up something fragile underneath. Pull on it and your kid holds tighter.Then I get practical about leverage. So much of what parents try to control — beliefs, bodies, social worlds — isn't really theirs to control. I map out what is: the emotional climate of your home, your tone, the structure and rules, the money, your own nervous system, and your vision of who your child can become. This is the foundation for the relationship you're building for fifteen years from now.This episode comes with a companion essay derived from the transcript. If you'd prefer to read rather than (or in addition to) listening, visit my Substack.[00:00:00] Start[00:01:00] The Two Goals: Reframing the Work[00:04:00] Starving Samantha, Feeding Ryan[00:07:00] What Desistance Actually Looks Like[00:13:00] The Load-Bearing Delusion[00:16:00] Where Your Real Leverage Lies[00:27:00] Regulating Yourself and Holding the VisionROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  215. Disenfranchised Dad, ROGD Kid: When Fathers Get Sidelined in Their Own Family 25.05.2026 24min

  In this short solo episode, I introduce you to a figure who shows up again and again in my ROGD parent coaching work: the disenfranchised dad. He's usually a decent man — hardworking, opinionated, loves his kids — but somewhere along the way he ended up on the outside of his own family's emotional life, looking in. His wife is the emotional center. The kids bring everything to her. He drifts to the periphery and starts commenting on dinner from across the room, and the family rolls its eyes.I unpack how this pattern develops: a temperament mismatch between a Gen X dad and a more sensitive child, a marriage dynamic where mom gradually takes over the kids' inner lives, and a cultural script that has trained fathers to undervalue their own role. I look at what this does to children — including how it can show up in trans-identified boys who opt out of masculinity entirely, and in trans-identified girls carrying an unread longing for a father's protective love.Most importantly, I talk about repair. The way back isn't a grand sit-down conversation; it's hundreds of small moments of presence, side-by-side time, and putting down the running commentary. Moms can help by stepping out of the gatekeeper role and letting dads back in. If you've been on the edge of your family for years, this episode is for you.If you’re a parent navigating these dynamics in your own family, I created ROGD Repair with you in mind. This podcast episode doubles as an ROGD Repair bonus lesson. In the course, it can be found here, along with a companion essay and reflection questions to help you personalize the material. There’s lots more content like this for you in the program. It’s the closest thing to working with me one-on-one as a coach. ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  214. Too Buddhist, Not Self-Hating Enough: Counseling Whistleblower Suzannah Alexander 18.05.2026 1h 48min

  In this episode, I sit down with Suzannah Alexander — counseling-education whistleblower, writer of the Substack Diogenes in Exile, and now organizer with the National Association of Scholars. Suzannah enrolled in a Tennessee counseling master's program after 25 years as a stay-at-home parent, only to discover that what was being taught wasn't psychology at all. It was demographics, identity politics, and what she eventually came to call a totalitarian philosophy dressed up as "multicultural competency."We unpack the moment that broke her trust in the program: when she described the Buddhist practice of the non-self — focusing less on your own identity so you can extend loving kindness toward an aggressive client — three separate professors told her, within 48 hours, that this was "invalidating to other identities." She was ultimately deemed unsafe for practicum because she hadn't sufficiently absorbed the program's values around whiteness, privilege, and cultural deference.From there, the conversation widens into the structural picture. Suzannah walks us through CACREP, the accrediting body that's been quietly building a near-monopoly on counseling education, the ACA Code of Ethics that's now baked into most state licensure boards, and the consortium of organizations that decided — without testing whether any of it produces better clinical outcomes — that critical social justice ideology would be the "professional identity" of American counseling.We talk about why this matters for patients, what it does to the people who would have been excellent therapists, how we might build alternative training pathways and apprenticeship models outside the current system, and why the problems of the 21st century — including AI psychosis — will demand the kind of pioneering, free-thinking practitioners this ideology is actively driving out.Suzannah Alexander is the External Affairs Coordinator for the National Association of Scholars. She came to this work after blowing the whistle on ideological indoctrination in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Master's program at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. Since that experience, through work with FAIR, she has spearheaded OCR complaints against the counseling accreditation body CACREP and Colorado State University, where her reporting work drew attention to the Whitelash Study, documenting public humiliation of white social work students due to their race, and the disparagement of minorities as not good enough to succeed on their own. Now she is focused on policy measures to curtail accreditor and higher education overreach that are threatening free speech on campus.Substack Diogenes in Exile: https://www.diogenesinexile.comX/twitter: https://x.com/DiogenesInExileYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/@DiogenesInExileMinding The Campus: https://mindingthecampus.org/author/suzannahalexander/National Association of Scholars: https://www.nas.org[00:00:00] Start[00:04:59] What She Found In The Program[00:14:32] Steel-Manning Critical Social Justice[00:18:39] Pushed Out Before Practicum[00:24:05] The Bitter Irony Of Buddhism Rejected[00:34:37] Realizing The Problem Is Bigger[00:41:02] Counseling Futures And The Historical Roots[00:47:09] Who Gets To Be Okay?[00:56:37] What CACREP Is And Should Do[01:00:25] Microaggressions And Borderline Thinking[01:05:47] The CACREP Monopoly Explained[01:14:38] ACA Code Of Ethics And The Need For Alternatives[01:22:52] Mia Hughes Parallel And A Field Breaking Down[01:26:43] AI Psychosis And 21st-Century Problems[01:30:22] Building New Networks Outside The SystemROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  212. The Most Dangerous Moment: The 30 Seconds That Determine Whether Your Child Opens Up Again 04.05.2026 16min

  Instead of a long-form interview, this week I'm reading you an essay I wrote called The Most Dangerous Moment in the Conversation: What To Do and What Not To Do When Your Child Finally Opens Up. It originally appeared inside ROGD Repair, my comprehensive program for parents of trans-identified youth, and I wanted it to reach more people.If your child is living inside a trans identity, most of the time she shows you nothing — composed, contained, deliberately blank. And then one day, out of nowhere, a seam shows. A flash of urgency. A disproportionate demand. A flicker of alarm about who will be at a party. These are what I call fractal windows: ordinary-looking moments where the entire architecture of the anxiety organizing her life becomes briefly visible. In this episode I unpack what those moments actually are, why they matter, and how to handle them without slamming the door shut.The core tool I want to put in your hands is the empathic guess — a tentative, careful statement that names what your child might be feeling, without diagnosing, arguing, or correcting. I walk through what to say, what not to say, and why the 30 seconds after she finally says something real just might be the most dangerous point in the entire process. That's where almost every parent's instincts pull them in exactly the wrong direction — toward defending themselves, correcting the factual or ideological distortions, or winning the point. I'll explain why staying in the emotional register (instead of the logical one) is the whole game, why "permission to buy time" is one of the most underused parenting tools, and what you are actually building over many such conversations: a pattern in your child's nervous system that says: I opened up to my parent, something okay happened, I could do that again.[00:00:00] Start[00:00:25] When Your Child Finally Opens Up[00:01:33] Fractal Windows And The Cost Of A Trans Identity[00:03:24] The Outermost Knot: Why You Can't Say It All At Once[00:04:13] Introducing The Empathic Guess[00:05:05] Stay In The Emotional Register, Not The Logical One[00:06:33] When The Empathic Guess Lands: The Walls Come Down[00:07:50] The Pull To Correct Ideological Distortions[00:08:47] Why You Are Not Endorsing By Not Arguing[00:09:36] Listen, Reflect, Don't Defend[00:10:24] Permission To Buy Time[00:11:10] What You're Really Building: A Nervous System Pattern[00:11:40] About ROGD Repair And Today's Experiment[00:14:44] Closing ThoughtsROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  211. Mia Hughes: Trans as an Extreme Overvalued Belief — Cracking the Code 27.04.2026 1h 39min

  In this episode, I welcome back Mia Hughes — director of Genspect Canada, senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute, and one of the sharpest writers on the gender scandal — to dig into the framework she calls "trans as an extreme overvalued belief." Mia walks us through the history of the overvalued idea, from Carl Wernicke in 1892 to Paul McHugh's post-9/11 application of the concept to ideologically driven violence, and explains why this psychiatric category — sitting between delusion and obsession — finally makes sense of the trans phenomenon in a way no other diagnosis ever has.We trace the Dutch origins of medical transition in the 1970s, the moment psychiatry "gave up" on these patients, and how WPATH's 2010 de-psychopathologization statement re-engineered a mental illness into a celebrated identity — triggering, in Mia's view, the social contagion that followed. I bring my clinical lens to the conversation, exploring transference and countertransference, neuroplasticity, the hijacking of dopamine through "gender euphoria," and why so many therapists get this wrong in both directions. We close on Mia's anorexia parallel and what it teaches us about loosening the grip of a pathological belief — gently, indirectly, and without the parent in the line of fire.Mia Hughes specializes in researching pediatric gender medicine, psychiatric epidemics, social contagion and the intersection of trans rights and women’s rights. She is the author of The WPATH Files, a senior fellow at the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and director of Genspect Canada. She co-hosts the Beyond Gender podcast with Stella O'Malley and Bret Alderman, available on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. Follow her on X @_CryMiaRiver. Follow her Substack @CryMiaRiver. Mia first appeared on this podcast in episode 107. Exposing Gender Malpractice: Mia Hughes on the WPATH Files, Medical Ethics, & Informed Consent. Books mentioned in this episode:• The Extreme Overvalued Belief by Tahir Rahman• Good Girls: A Study and Story of Anorexia by Hadley Freeman[00:00:00] Start[00:02:13] Trans as an Extreme Overvalued Belief[00:07:13] From 9/11 to Anders Breivik[00:11:13] Neuroplasticity and Adolescent Meaning-Making[00:18:52] Defining the Trans Overvalued Belief[00:22:52] The Dutch 1970s: When Psychiatry Gave Up[00:31:00] Countertransference and the Therapist's Role[00:38:35] WPATH's Fortress and the True Believer[00:43:20] Re-Psychopathologization Campaign[00:45:45] How HBIGDA Became WPATH[00:50:13] DSM-5, ICD-11 and the Sleight of Hand[01:02:08] Hacking Dopamine and Gender Euphoria[01:06:27] The Anorexia Parallel[01:13:13] What Therapists Get Wrong[01:28:45] Putting Cracks in the Belief[01:35:26] Helping the Part That Wants OutROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  210. Why Gender-Referred Youth Went From Bad to Worse: A Psychological Lens on the Finnish Study 20.04.2026 46min

  In this solo episode, I'm bringing you something a little different. I've been wanting to talk about the recent Finnish register study on gender-referred youth since it came out, and rather than wait until my written article was polished, I decided to open the draft I'd been working on, read it to you, and interrupt myself along the way with the commentary and speculation from a psychological lens.The study followed 2,083 adolescents and young adults who sought gender identity assessments at Finland's two centralized gender clinics between 1996 and 2019, compared against 16,643 age-matched controls. What the data show is sobering: nearly half of gender-referred youth had already required specialist psychiatric care before they ever walked through the clinic doors, and that number climbed to 61.7% two or more years after referral — whether or not they underwent medical transition. I walk through what "medical gender reassignment" actually captures (and doesn't), why Finland's gatekeeping model fundamentally changes how these numbers should be read, and what this means for the American informed-consent pipeline.The heart of this episode is a concept I've been trying to articulate for months: the untested hypothesis. It's the psychological trap in which a distressed young person becomes convinced that medicalization is the only path to wellbeing — and in doing so, builds an external locus of control so total that no outcome, approved or denied, actually improves their inner life. I close with a metaphor about a hotel room, an apartment, and why gender ideology actively disincentivizes the one thing these kids need most: getting comfortable in the body they already have.Visit my Substack for the full essay, which is read aloud with additional commentary in this video.[00:00:00] Start[00:03:15] Summary Of Key Findings[00:17:15] High Preexisting Psychiatric Burden[00:20:30] Finland's Gatekeeping Vs. Informed Consent[00:25:30] The Untested Hypothesis[00:32:45] What This Means For American Practice[00:38:15] Recap And Author's Conclusions[00:43:00] The Hotel Room MetaphorROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  209. When Schools Keep Secrets: Parental Rights, Teachers & the Supreme Court | Dean Broyles 13.04.2026 1h 28min

  Constitutional attorney Dean Broyles, president of the National Center for Law and Policy, joins me to continue untangling the legal battles reshaping how public schools handle gender identity — and what they mean for parents, teachers, and students.Picking up where we left off with Laura Powell in episode 207, Dean begins with a detailed breakdown of the Mirabelli v. Bonta case, which started in Escondido, California, when two Catholic teachers refused to comply with “gender secrets” policies requiring them to conceal a child’s gender identity from parents. Dean walks us through Judge Bonita’s landmark ruling, which found that California’s parental exclusion policies create a “trifecta of harm” to children, parents, and teachers alike — and the March 2nd Supreme Court decision reinstating the statewide injunction squarely on the side of parental rights.We go deep on what these rulings mean in practice: the secret “shadow records” schools have been keeping on students’ gender identities, the religious accommodation rights teachers can assert against California’s coercive PRISM training, and the student free speech protections guaranteed by Tinker v. Des Moines. Dean explains the difference between a parent’s right to be informed and a teacher’s legal obligation — and where the courts are headed on whether parents can block social transition at school entirely.We also address the growing wave of detransition malpractice cases, including the Varian v. Einhorn verdict, and what a pending Supreme Court case could mean for therapists’ freedom of speech in counseling. This is essential listening for parents, teachers, and mental health professionals navigating what Dean calls an Orwellian environment in today’s public schools.Dean Broyles is a constitutional attorney who serves as the president of the National Center for Law & Policy. He is a free speech, religious freedom, and parental rights advocate with extensive experience involving sexual identity issues in the courts, culture, and public schools. Dean regularly files amicus briefs at the U.S. Supreme Court in landmark cases, provides legislative testimony, and advises mental health professionals. He lives in southern California and has been married to his wife, Shona, a public-school teacher, for 36 years. Dean is the father of four adopted children and two grandchildren. Follow him on X: DeanBroyles. His blog can be found here.[00:00:00] Start[00:02:08] Mirabelli v. Bonta: Background and Origins[00:05:55] Judge Bonita's Ruling: Trifecta of Harm[00:09:25] Supreme Court Reinstates Statewide Injunction[00:13:52] Teachers' Rights vs. Obligation to Inform[00:15:45] Shadow Records in California Schools[00:24:33] First and 14th Amendment Parental Rights Explained[00:38:35] Students' Free Speech Rights: Tinker v. Des Moines[00:44:50] Orwellian Coercion of Religious Students and Teachers[00:51:20] AB 5 and California's PRISM Teacher Training[00:58:40] Teachers Win Exemptions After Supreme Court Ruling[01:00:50] The Spiral of Silence — and How to Reverse It[01:07:15] Can Parents Block Social Transition at School?[01:12:36] Desistance Rates and the Danger of Medicalization[01:18:20] Detransition Malpractice Cases: Who's Liable?[01:23:46] Pending Supreme Court Case on Therapist Free SpeechROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesPRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★
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  208. How Sweet, Sensitive Boys Enter the Porn-Addiction-to-Transgender Pipeline | Shane Cole 06.04.2026 1h 31min

  If you have a son, this conversation is essential listening. I'm welcoming back Shane Cole, breathwork practitioner and men's coach, who first appeared in episode 149, where we broke down what parents need to know about sissy hypnosis pornography. This time, we go even deeper. One of the things I'm most passionate about tackling here is the dangerous myth that sweet, sensitive, smart boys are somehow immune to porn addiction. Shane is living proof that the opposite can be true — and that this particular profile of boy may in fact be especially vulnerable, for reasons we explore in depth.We walk through the architecture of how sissy hypnosis pornography works: how it enters through mainstream platforms using innocuous images, then systematically eroticizes male insecurity using professional-grade hypnosis techniques, binaural beats, and repeated mantras designed to take young viewers into deeply suggestible trance states. This is not content a boy can simply "turn off" — and we make the case for why that framing fundamentally misunderstands the neuroscience involved.We also get into territory I think the gender-critical community need to be taking far more seriously: the role of endocrine-disrupting chemicals in the environment and how they may be contributing to skyrocketing rates of gender dysphoria. I share my perspective — tinfoil hat and all — on why normalizing trans identity as an "identity to be affirmed" may function as a convenient cover for the very industries that are poisoning us. And I make the case that parental guilt and ideological defensiveness are getting in the way of an honest reckoning with this data.From there, Shane lays out a compelling and deeply personal vision of his alternative path, including semen retention, Qigong, meditation, breathwork, and a sense of masculine purpose directed outward toward the world. We contrast the easy-now-hard-later escape of estrogen and porn with the hard-now-easy-later path of character, and Shane speaks directly to the young men who are standing at that crossroads right now.Shane Cole is a trauma-informed breathwork facilitator and founder of Inspiratus Breathwork. After studying psychology at the University of Southern California and completing a nine-month, trauma-informed breathwork facilitator training program, he travels the country to musical festivals and retreats teaching breathwork. With Inspiratus, he creates sacred spaces for humans to cultivate purpose, positivity, and presence through his research-backed approach to breathwork. Throughout his life, he struggled with gender dysphoria and an addiction to sissy hypnosis pornography. After traditional talk therapy did not assist or even want to address the issues he faced, he turned to alternative solutions. Using breathwork, meditation, IFS therapy, psychedelic-assisted therapy, and men's work, he was able to free himself from his addiction, come back to his masculinity, and reclaim his innocence. He is now on a mission to bring breathwork practices to clients struggling with gender dysphoria and pornography addiction. To work with Shane, join the EDM Breathwork Council.Follow him on Instagram @breathingwithshane and @edmbreathworkBooks Mentioned in This Episode:-Countdown by Dr. Shanna Swan-Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill[00:00:00] Start[00:03:00] Why Sweet, Sensitive Boys Are Vulnerable to Porn Addiction[00:06:34] What Is Sissy Hypnosis Pornography[00:14:40] How the Content Escalates into Full Hypnosis Videos[00:19:25] Why "Just Turn It Off" Fundamentally Misses the Point[00:26:47] Breathwork and Reclaiming Your Dopamine System[00:28:44] Male Sexual Energy: A Powerful Force[00:33:23] Testosterone Decline and Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals[00:40:57] Semen Retention, Qigong, and Channeling Purpose[00:50:55] Why Estrogen Feels Like a Solution to Young Men[00:54:10] Reclaiming Anger as Vital Energy[00:56:26] Alexithymia and the Allure of Synthetic Emotions[01:04:53] The Anima, Autogynephilia, and Real Relationship[01:13:00] Hard Now, Easy Later: The Path of Character[01:17:24] A Message to Young Men Standing at the CrossroadsROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesTALK TO ME: book a meeting.PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.SUPPORT THE SHOW: subscribe, like, comment, & share or donate.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at
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  207. Parents' Rights vs. School Secrecy: Laura Powell on Mirabelli v. Bonta at the Supreme Court 30.03.2026 1h 28min

  Joining me today is Laura Powell, an attorney and founder of Californians for Good Governance, to break down one of the most important parents' rights cases in recent history: Mirabelli v. Bonta. We trace how California schools came to adopt policies that require staff to conceal a child's gender identity — including name and pronoun changes at school — from their own parents, and how a federal lawsuit has finally forced this issue all the way to the Supreme Court.Laura walks me through the legal history in California, from a 2014 state law that said nothing about parental secrecy to a decade of school districts acting as though it did. We discuss the December 2024 federal injunction, the Ninth Circuit's stay, and the landmark March 2025 Supreme Court opinion in which six justices made strong, unambiguous statements affirming that parents have a constitutional right to know how their children are being raised and educated.We also pull apart the arguments used to justify these secrecy policies — the abuse narrative, the suicide risk claim, and the "children's rights to privacy" framing — and show why none of them hold up to scrutiny. From a psychological standpoint, I weigh in on adolescent development, the dangers of idealization transfer, the secondary gain of trans identification, and why social transition is not a neutral intervention but the beginning of a pathway toward medicalization. We also talk practically about what parents can and should do — including why parents whose kids are already caught up in this ideology may want to be more strategic than parents who are still in a preventative position.Laura Powell is a mother, attorney, investigator, and founder of Californians for Good Governance, a nonpartisan group advocating for civil liberties and government accountability in California. Her work has gained national media coverage, been cited in federal investigations, and led to the repeal of an unconstitutional state law. A former leftist and registered Democrat, she left the party due to its shift away from classical liberal values and basic common sense.Links𝕏 @LauraPowellEsq𝕏 @CA4Governance[00:00:00] Start[00:01:35] California's Gender Secrecy Policies: The Origin Story[00:06:08] Mirabelli v. Bonta: The Federal Lawsuit Explained[00:11:06] The Supreme Court's March 2025 Opinion[00:13:08] Mahmud v. Taylor and the Parents' Rights Precedent[00:17:40] Debunking the Abuse Narrative Behind Secrecy Policies[00:28:14] The Suicide Argument: Emotional Blackmail and Irresponsible Messaging[00:33:00] Children's Rights vs. Parents' Rights: Clarifying the Conflict[00:39:41] How Secrecy Policies Leave Kids Vulnerable to Exploitation[00:44:28] Teacher Overreach, Extended Adolescence, and Idealization Transfer[00:51:01] Social-Emotional Learning and Teachers Playing Therapist[00:56:06] Is Social Transition a Form of Medical Treatment?[00:59:21] How Social Transition Leads to Medicalization[01:04:47] The Toddler at the Steering Wheel: Why Kids Need Parental Authority[01:06:10] FERPA Violations and Schools Hiding Records from Parents[01:13:53] What Parents Can Do: Practical Advice and Strategic Cautions[01:23:48] Optimism for the Legal Landscape AheadROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month.PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCoursesTALK TO ME: book a meeting.PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services.SUPPORT THE SHOW: subscribe, like, comment, & share or donate.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order.MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend!Learn more about Do No Harm.Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com.Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi.Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products.Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI.Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission.Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration.Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★