I’m honored to have Wesley Yang here today. Wesley became a publishing sensation when his first book of essays, The Souls of Yellow Folk, came out in hardback in 2018 to much well-deserved acclaim. Not long after that, he learned just enough about the gathering storm that was gender ideology to become well and thoroughly peaked. Instead of keeping his head down to preserve his status as a media darling favored by the gatekeepers of the New York publishing world, he chose the precise opposite path and began speaking and writing furiously about the issue that brings us all here, using language that was eloquent, clear, urgent, and refreshingly un-sugar-coated. For an early ‘trans’ skeptic like me, Wesley’s position carried extra weight. Here was a respected cultural observer sounding the alarm absent any direct personal stake in the story. If anything, he had a stake in pretending there was nothing to see here, in the manner of almost all his peers in publishing and media. So few people in any profession were speaking up that Wesley’s fearlessness made him a hero among parents like me.I connected with him on Twitter in 2021 and went on to write two pieces for his Substack, Year Zero. The first one concerned my mostly one-sided correspondence with Chris Hayes of MSNBC. That piece became the catalyst for my own Substack, TransMuted, which can’t have done much to turn the tide but has done a world of good for my own personal sanity. I’ll always credit Wesley for that early encouragement and more broadly for the sacrifice he made to speak up for our daughters and sons before almost anyone one else would.
We cover a lot of ground, including the pending Supreme Court cases, Lia Thomas vs. what’s-before-your-very-eyes, DIAG vs. Illinois, Fox Varian’s big win, Moulton, Newsom, and my current obsession: Brian Lehrer and WNYC vs. Michael Shermer and “Mabel from Trenton.” Enjoy!
Links:
Read The Souls of Yellow Folk, by Wesley Yang, in paperback —or listen to it on Audible
What is Chris Thinking?, written by me for Year Zero with an intro by Wesley
Lisa Selin Davis’s Broadview post with the link to the Brian Lehrer show audio. Listen all the way to the end, then come back and comment here, because this is a safe space.
Be Wesley’s 175, 815th follower on X!
Credits:
Theme music by William A. Ferguson
UnMuted logo art by Anne Gibbons
“This is not a heroic second coming of Jackie Robinson.” —Wesley Yang
