Public Trans is a new podcast for trans people by trans people. An informal conversation between your hosts, Mac and Ave, Public Trans talks about what it means to be trans in the public eye, taking the structure of your morning commute. Through the Morning Cup of Gender, the Commute, and the Platform, we talk about the questions we often ask each other, such as: how do you pass if you don't identify as a binary gender? How do we raise children with or without gender? What challenges does the modern dating landscape confront trans people with? What are the failings of mainstream androgeny?
These questions raise different issues for trans people with varying gender identities, and though we attempt to explore the intersection of identity with these issues as much as possible, we acknowledge our viewpoints can be limited. That is why The Platform ends every episode. The Platform is a section of our show dedicated to contributions from our community and serves as a space for trans people to contribute their voices and thoughts about our episode's topic.
Our wonderful Platform contributors for episode one include: Cass Adair (he/him), a radio producer, former academic, and Animorphsexpert (find Cass and his work here!); Lucy Brown (they/them), a rising third year at Oberlin College who is passionate about working with the Jewish community at Oberlin and making Reform Jewish youth spaces more accessible for trans youth, as well as playing ultimate and working to make that community a better place for trans players; Gregory Rosenthal (they/them), an Assistant Professor of Public History at Roanoke College who works with LGBTQ+ history, including trans history; and the Transmasculinidad project, which explores gender and masculinity throughout Latin America where gender roles are strict and machismo is unforgiving, headed by Sarah Barrett and Carmen Graterol, who travelled from Chile to Mexico documenting trans masculinity as they went (check them out here!). The excerpt from Transmaculinidad you will hear on episode one features Matias and Joaquin, from Peru.
Check us out on Instagram as public.trans.podcast, on Twitter as @trans_podcast, on Facebook as Public Trans, and on Patreon!
Public Trans is made possible by our audio editor and producer, Savannah Tracy (she/her), and our music producer Alexander Fiorentini (he/him). Alexander is a sweet tune mastermind located in Providence, RI and making hip-hop, pop, and everything in between - find him here or here. Your hosts are Mac Maclean (they/them), a writer and artist based out of Boston, and Ave Bisesi (they/them), a scientist and educator working in the Cleveland area.