'Speaking fluently on nonsense'. What a star. Go Helen, the voice of common sense.

Helen's comment about Matt Walsh at 37:43 is one of the most articulate insults I've ever heard in my entire life. 💀

As an Irish 🇮🇪 woman, I am SO PROUD OF HELEN and HER WORK for CHILDREN'S PROTECTION, HEALTH, SAFETY, and WOMEN'S RIGHTS. 💪 👏 ❤️

I am a parent of a gay boy caught up in this and I spoke to Helen for her book. My son is not a woman he is text book gay, subjected to homophobic bullying and then trans propaganda at school. We still have a close relationship and he knows I disagree with him medicalising, as does his Dad. I still hope he will find his tribe and leave this behind but, in the meantime, he has my love.

I have been uncomfortable with the tension between trying to be open minded and feeling there was something really wrong going on around this topic. Many thanks to Helen Joyce for taking a sane and compassionate deep dive into the subject.

Thank u 4 featuring Helen Joyce, my new Super Hero. She is the beating voice of sanity amongst the current noise of insanity.

I’ve been suffocating and this was a 2-hr deep breath of fresh air. Thank you.

26:41 - 27:14 Those who control the meaning and the use of words, control the discourse.

I'm a gay man (out for nearly 60 years) and an atheist (for 30 years.) Thank you for your rational and compassionate thoughts and conversation.

About a week ago I was trying to explain to my 17 year old son how men are stronger than women after puberty. I'm a 38 year old woman who is stronger than I look. I'm only about 5'3" but I have a good amount of muscle mass and have what's called "fast twitch muscle fibers" which helps me gain muscle quickly. To illustrate this point we decided to arm wrestle. I held my own for quite a while against him, but he defeated me within 1 minute. (It hurt my shoulder for about an hour afterwards, but now a week later I'm perfectly fine). He was fully convinced that due to my older age I was stronger. He was fully convinced that there are no differences between men and women. This kid doesn't have much muscle on him, just standard couch potato young man muscle, he doesn't work out at all or anything like that. I work out and I struggled against him. Arm wrestling my youngest son, (9) is a completely different story. It's like battling a feather against my 9 year old. There's very huge differences between male and female. I think he (my 17 year old) understood my point after that.

I am so in love with this woman! The relief to hear sense being spoken!!!! Xox

I WAS a high school teacher and I saw this transition from kids with autism, asperger's, body image issues, low self esteem, and BPD with self harm and ideation. I also saw the brigades of helicopter parents grow in ranks and force who wanted to do all they could for their kids for better and much worse. Each year since 2014 I saw kids who were much more child like and not in touch or in tune with sexuality. We had a few kids come out as LGB but dozens each year were changing pronouns and names. It was mostly girls saying they were trans. They were very into anime manga and tumblr and those who did not come out as trans were the most vocal about making us all exist in their fantasyland. Older people are completely unaware of the real depths of gamer culture, streamer porn, soft porn, and to what degree they are direct and indirect influencers. These people are in a constant fantasy drama with hyper outrage syndrome, dehumanization, lack of empathy or consequence. EDUCATION should take a lot of blame. It went from this idea of student driven education, followed by pushing the idea of inclusion without concern for the need for boundaries and discipline. If you do not have facts and knowledge how do you know which way to drive your project? By last year everything had to include trans or race and with it came a lot of cyberbullying from kids you would think are sweet bright kids face to face. The media needs to be called out big time because they are pushing it hard than ever. WHY? is it really inclusion? Or an easy marketing plan to use rainbows?? Or is there a long game of desensitizing people from their bodies making it less of a jump to transhumanism. We can look forward to when we all exist in our cyber fantasy mind, without the need for the flesh shell. scary and with that in mind, maybe the pronouns are more problematic than would appear since it perpetuates the escapism.

Delighted to know some Skeptics are still skeptical, logical and rational! Helen Joyce is a joy to listen to. How can anyone not see the sense, logic and danger Gender Ideology poses to women, children, LGB and everyone’s rights and freedoms?

The emperor has no clothes, but you're not allowed to say it.

Joyce's fallacy of the beard is going straight in my toolkit. Also: the way she so roundly rails Matt Walsh is refreshing AF. Far too few criticize others who've arrived at similar conclusions via shoddy reasoning. Joyce is laser focused, unrelenting, and seems at peace with letting reason roam.

Stonewall has made the trans movement a money-making industry. As a gay man, I find it really disturbing that a lot of lesbians are having sex reassignment treatment and surgery. Nearly 70% of young people that are being referred to gender reassignment centres are on the autism spectrum. Helen Joyce is one of a handful in the UK who are really brave and stands up to the internet and cancel culture. 95% of normal people feel the trans movement is wrong on many different levels. Great podcast.

What a fantastic conversation! Thank you both for your backbone throughout the years.

I was a leftist growing up most of my life until recently. I had the impression we where the most humanist and most rational and that somehow made us morally right. Then I started to look into things more skeptically after delving into the psychology of individuals and groups. Knowing very well how people can be manipulated by their own biases especially when you think those biases make you morally right critical thought needs to be applied evenly and I've seen so many of the social justice ilk trying to bypass that. I've seen the same rational being used as any extremist homophobic church and that disturbs me.

Seeing someone like Shermer criticizing the woke is quite refreshing.

SOMEONE finally said it! I’ve been making the point for years, “When would you use a pronoun if you’re talking TO the person?”

A very interesting point is that the trans discussion always revolve around what is considered to be a woman. I am really curious why we never consider what it means to be a man/male?

I realize this is a year old but thank you both so much for this conversation and for articulating what bothers so many of us on the left. We do not want to be lumped in with the intolerant right wing but this new gender ideology fundamentalism is horrific. What I need to figure out is how we can remain compassionate allies of people who are different but still draw the line at swallowing bullshit unreality

Helen, I follow you from one podcast to the next for a couple years now. My friend saw the spine of your book Trans and immediately thought it must be hateful just from seeing the word in bold print. It's been a very touchy non conversation. Off limits no matter how fairly I try to approach it.

This conversation gives me hope that sanity may yet prevail

Prof Shermer deserves a gold medal both for his selection of this speaker AND for his work as an interviewer in this episome, No invasive humanism. Just the facts. i sometimes disagree w/ his approach but i almost always admire his choice of interview subjects.

A big Amen at 37-38 min to what she says about the problems with Matt Walsh's world view.

One of your best conversations. Well done for hosting it, Michael, and for having such an interesting and articulate guest in Helen Joyce. Just ordered Helen's book :-)

I watched a video on lobotomy and how the Portuguese neurologist who invented the therapy even got a Nobel prize for his novel therapy in 1949! When it comes to the trans ideology I feel that we are witnessing something that is akin to the initial stages of the introduction of this preudo scientific therapy that was lobotomy. Once the avalanche of detransitioners seeking justice and compensation for their destroyed lives start filling law courts and the responsible institutions, physicians and especially pharmaceutical companies get to pay bankrupting law suits, then this fad will have run its course.

I really appreciate Helen Joyce. She is brilliant, so much so, that she speaks clearly and passionately iin a way everyone can understand. That is true intelligence.

37:37 If Matt Walsh ever specified, "who's in charge, who makes the sandwiches, whose voice gets heard," I would like Ms. Joyce to provide a reliable, documented source for her claim.

It shouldn't be hard to say that men and women are alike in some ways and different in other ways and our differences matter. Its completely fine to disagree with gender roles and to call them too restrictive. That is a valuable conversation to have. It's another thing entirely to say male and female dont exist. If they dont then who is being acted on by the gender roles we're challenging?

I have just discovered you Helen and want to say thank you so much for naming so many things I had been thinking (and I'm a gay woman). Especially about commentators on the christian conservative right being just as bad as the left wing gender ideologues, just the other side of the ideology problem.

33:52 1972: "What's your sign?" 2022: "What's your pronoun?"

Because I feel I’m a woman, you must treat me as if I am one - or you are transphobic. I will participate in your groups, gatherings, or spaces. You must not talk about female socialisation, female anatomy, or female functions. It hurts my feelings. I was not socialised as a girl and I can’t know female experiences from cradle to grave, but if you speak about these things you will hurt my feelings. Your experiences as a woman should never invalidate my feeling like a woman. I’ll shame you for being female and make your body and oppression irrelevant at law, because only what I think about your body is real. -- Ruth Barrrett

I wish I could like this multiple times.

Never heard of Helen Joyce before. Great clear points, really well spoken and smart. Going to resubscribe to Audible just to buy her book.

Isn't it funny how you never see a trans male competing in male sports? Its always trans females competing in women's sports. At the Ivy League championship that Leah Thomas Yale had a trans man swimming on the team. Shouldn't he have been on the men's team ? I wonder why that is ? Maybe because he wouldn't be able to even make the team ? Ive literally seen more actual girls play on men's teams in school and they couldn't hang with the boys back then. Lets make trans males play with males and see how much they complain about that !!!! Ill bet they would say it isn't fair because the trans men cant compete against men because they are stronger and faster !!!!

This is soooo sobering. You can be or feel to be what ever you like, but don´t expect automatically to be taken seriously, no one has an obligation for that.

Well that was my first experience of Helen. What a very intelligent, well researched and eloquently spoken woman.

It's one thing for a person with testosterone and a penis to 'want to be a woman' in dress or surgery bc they don't 'identify as a man', and quite another for a person to take on the appearance of a woman then proceed to weaken or threaten conditions for girls or women that have had to deal with man-originating dangers of patriarchy for millennia. If you're going to dress or 'be' a woman, the only justification for you to attack the sex you want others to accept you as is self AND other destruction.

8:50 Some atheists are much more opinionated, belligerent and obnoxious than others, but indiscriminately using the descriptive categorization, "militant," is routinely imprecise and pejorative. Unless, of course, the insurgent atheist is also brandishing a deadly weapon.

That was truly excellent and a much-needed skeptical discussion of the very many issues surrounding gender ideology and the harms it causes. Although he's clearly far better informed than many other high-profile skeptics/humanists, I think Helen managed to peak Michael a few times in that!

Matt Walsh is absolutely correct when he says that the argument can’t be won if we submit to going along with obvious and blatant falsehoods. For example, men should not compete against women in sports. If you say that trans women are women, then you can’t make a coherent argument that it’s wrong.

I’m also a humanist & I have advocated for social justice issues for decades; I was really taken back when I was first call transphobic because I called out the grooming of the “drag” child Desmond Napoles. I became critical of the staggeringly misogynistic treatment of women’s rights & to appropriation of women’s spaces & issues. I’ve been told many many times that I was transphobic because I’ve said that trans identifying men are not biological women & trans identifying women are not biological men. The notion that women are a set of body parts, affectations, wearing makeup & women’s clothing is completely performative & ridiculous. Social media has enabled the construction of big online nefarious communities who are manipulating very vulnerable people; it’s a cult 😵‍💫🫣

Such an informative talk, and lots to think about! Will definitely have to watch a few times to digest it all. Great work.

Brilliant talk and I would definitely try to get my hands on her book. Thank you Helen for speaking up and being brave enough to say out loud common sense.

I'm a gay woman and am really offended by this entire movement. They are calling us queers have thrown us all together. It's making a lot of ppl feel shame and discomfort. They are calling tomboy non gender conforming. So many little girls play sport have boy friends we all go through stages. It has really brought put shame in many gay ppl its very sad. Years of fighting to be seen as dignified ppl and the community has really become a bit of a forceful circus. There will be a backlash to this

I became an atheist in 2009, after deploying to Iraq as a US Marine. I discovered the new atheist movement upon returning home. I was dismayed by the obvious religiosity that I found in the atheism plus “sect “ if you will. But I turned my attention to people like Denet and Hitchens, Dawkins and others. It’s heartening to see that are still people like these two, who are still holding the line. As a conservative atheist, I’m happy to see it.

Brilliant interview. Joyce is fiercely intelligent and unafraid, and Shermer allowed her to speak with just the right amount and minimal of input.

Watching old school atheists struggle with the realization that religion isn't the final boss is always fascinating.

👏 👏 SO GRATEFUL 🙏 to people like HELEN who THANKFULLY has the EXPERTISE and COURAGE TO SPEAK OUT ON THIS BERY IMPORTANT SUBJECT. THE WORLD, THE WOMEN, AND THE CHILDREN NEED YOU SO MUCH RIGHT NOW. THANK YOU FOR YOUR VOICE 🙏 🤲 and God bless you.

The media is incredibly dishonest about proposed legislation to outlaw 'gender affirming care' for minors. I saw an NPR article that declared a majority of Americans oppose such legislation. But this was based on a poll which asked if you were for or against legislation that would restrict access to health care for trans people. Well, _obviously_ if you ask it _that_ way most people would say they're against it because it suggests the legislation wants to limit access to health care in general for trans people. But that's _not_ what these bills are proposing. They're proposing prohibiting 'gender affirming care' (i e. hormone therapy and sexual reassignment surgery etc) for minors. There's no way most people are in favor of giving minors puberty blockers, chest binders, or sexual reassignment surgery.

The fetishisation of gay men by teenage girls is often born out of the idea that a man's relationship to another man will be more equal than a mans relationship to a woman. I read a story about it from a person who left that online culture. She's heteros3xual but didnt feel that women were treated equally in relationships to men so she concluded that if she was a man she would be treated better.

Exceptional conversation from well informed individuals! I learned a lot. Thank you!

Helen Joyce is my favorite person to speak about this issue. She is just so clear and intelligent that I don't see how anyone could disagree with her facts and research.

Excellent conversation, thanks. I appreciate your courage too

There's no such thing as "my truth," or "your truth." There is "the truth." There is "my opinion and my belief." But, that is not the same as the truth.

I"m glad she described the problem with that Walsh guy. It's been forgotten that there is also a loony right wing out there. It's just that the Left is having it's moment in the limelight.

Wrote masters on gender. 8 factors determine gender 1) sex organs, 2) DNA, 3) birth certificate, 4) social behaviors 5) mating preference, 6) self identity, 7) court order, 8) and gender presentation. Not so simple to determine and one can be at odds within self. Attended gender dysphoria support group for a year. Concluded it is sexist/stereotyping to believe one's physical body must match the "gender identity" and it's cruel to make people believe extensive surgery and invasive treatment is the answer. The answer is love yourself and accept yourself exactly as you are. Everything doesn't have to match! I am physically female and behave very "masculine" (stereotype, many women behave this way and it doesn't make me a man!) Love and accept yourself. You are fine being yourself and don't need to change anything.

YOU are NOT OBSESSIVE HELEN, YOU ARE THE VOICE OF LOGIC, SANITY & REASON, and COURAGE, and WE are SO GRATEFUL 🙏 for YOUR VOICE. Can't thank you enough for speaking out.

What an excellent conversation! Thank you Mike!

Great interview. I have Helen's book in paper and audio and highly recommend it 👌

Oh Joycey, I f***ing love you. We need you on mainstream prime time TV. Your intelligent, knowledgeable no nonsense style is a wonderful breath of fresh air. Thank you very much. 👏🏽👏🏽

Helen is brilliant. Her arguments coherent, concise and clear. And absolutely obvious. The extremes horrific. Misogynist and homophobic.

As a rationalist and a Christian I give so much credit to atheists who are mindful, courageous and smart enough to speak out against the modern zealots of lgbtq ideology.

Helen Joyce's book is brilliant. It brings the whole subject to light. As a gay man, it is giving children puberty blockers, and surgery, when they are not even allowed to vote, is tantamount to child abuse. I would strongly urge Helen Joyce to interview a therapist in America. The therapist really is a brave woman but she explains the whole cult.

I still don't think Dawkins is shrill, or at all fanatical. Turn on cable news right now and you will see a panel of people being more strident than he has ever been. As far as "fanatical" goes, he has never suggested outlawing religion or anything like that. He would be disgusted at the idea of forcing anyone to think a certain way. He just wants to convince people to base their beliefs on logic and evidence, and he doesn't hesitate to call crazy, crazy. How atheism became all intertwined with progressive politics is somewhat of a mystery. It simply, literally means, "not religious," at least to me. I don't like how former atheists are basically creating a new political religion/cult without even realizing it, but I still don't see anything to disagree with in the statement, "There is no good reason to believe in God and doing so potentially leads to bad things." 11:32 I would have liked to hear what caused her to change her views so much to now disagree with that, because that pretty much sums up my atheism.

14:54 "There is no such thing as atheism as a worldview. It's just lack of belief in god, full stop." Beautifully said.

People over age 20- do you remember even ONE "trans" kid growing up? Me neither

I enjoyed this talk, keep it up helen and micheal, wonderful...

🎯 Key Takeaways for quick navigation: 00:57 📚 Helen Joyce introduces "One Dream," a subscription service offering educational content, including courses, tutorials, and documentaries on various subjects. 02:49 📖 Helen Joyce is the author of the book "Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality" and discusses her background as a journalist and mathematician. 05:13 🇮🇪 Helen Joyce is originally from Ireland and comes from a sporty family with a background in cricket. 08:43 🚫 Helen Joyce expresses her disappointment with the atheist and rationalist movements, citing the divide caused by social justice and the trans issue. 11:23 🙅‍♂️ Helen Joyce criticizes the concept of defining new categories for gender, challenging the idea that definitions themselves are a matter of justice. 14:04 🤔 Helen Joyce discusses the importance of distinguishing between rights, including trans rights and women's rights, and emphasizes the need to consider what is true. 19:55 ⚖️ Helen Joyce compares the current focus on trans rights to other civil rights movements and highlights the significant differences in these issues. 20:37 🚫 Many people are now hesitant to criticize the Democratic Party's stance on issues like transgender children's healthcare. 21:18 🤐 Some individuals and companies are reluctant to speak out against trans ideology due to fear of backlash and social ostracism. 23:36 📚 Author Helen Joyce recorded her own audiobook because many audiobook producers declined to produce it due to its controversial subject matter. 24:05 🤷‍♂️ There is a climate of fear and self-censorship around discussing gender ideology, where people are afraid to express dissenting opinions. 30:38 💔 The trans ideology has made it difficult to discuss the biological differences between men and women. 31:34 🎬 The film "What Is a Woman" features interviews with trans activists who often struggle to answer basic questions about gender and sex. 38:06 🏳️‍🌈 Helen Joyce emphasizes the importance of supporting and liberating gender-nonconforming children, rather than pushing them toward transition. 40:55 🌍 Helen Joyce discusses the historical context of gender dysphoria and how it's related to societal attitudes towards gender non-conformity. 42:33 🧪 Trans identification patterns suggest it's a culture-bound syndrome with a strong influence of social media and teenage girls. 45:38 🤔 Joyce emphasizes that no one truly knows what it's like to be a member of the opposite sex, and that intense longings to be the other sex are complex. 56:12 👩‍⚖️ The importance of maintaining women-only spaces for safety and autonomy, and how some men may underestimate the significance. 58:16 🧬 Helen Joyce's definition of "male" and "female" is based on reproductive roles, gametes, and the evolutionary biology of sex. Surgical alterations don't change this fundamental classification. 01:01:32 🚺 Living as a woman involves more than appearance; it encompasses standing up for women's sex-based rights. 01:04:18 💭 The video mentions that approximately three percent of men get sexual stimulation from wearing women's clothes, indicating the complex nature of gender and its relation to sexual preferences. 01:05:14 🧐 When gender lacks a clear definition, it raises questions about the purpose of transitioning. 01:05:56 🔁 Judith Butler's views on gender as fluid and performative differ from modern trans ideology's notion of an innate gender identity. 01:07:22 🤔 The speaker suggests that there is a biological substrate underlying gender differences, primarily influenced by biological sex. 01:13:55 🏆 In sports, men and women have significant physiological differences, making it important to maintain separate categories for fair competition. 01:19:32 🏋️‍♀️ The absence of trans men (female-to-male) dominating men's sports demonstrates the one-sidedness of the current gender inclusion debate in sports. 01:21:36 😮 Some people may ignore straightforward facts and engage in fluent argumentation about something that is irrational or nonsensical, which can lead to misguided beliefs. 01:23:45 🌈 The idea of being "born this way" is discussed concerning the LGBTQ+ community. While it might apply to some, it shouldn't determine one's rights, and the evidence suggests that people may have diverse paths to their identities. 01:27:57 🧬 The concept of innate gender identity is challenged, with different factors like gender identities, sexuality, age, and cultural influences influencing how people identify. 01:29:09 🚫 Limited data collection in gender medicine, coupled with ideological views, may hinder evidence-based healthcare. 01:33:35 👧 Transitioning children without proper parental consent or medical evaluation is problematic, and age restrictions on certain medical interventions may be necessary. 01:38:14 🌟 Gender-affirming surgeries are not necessarily functional organs of the opposite sex, and realistic expectations are crucial for satisfaction with such procedures. 01:42:30 📚 The number of detransitioners (individuals who transition and later decide to return to their birth gender) is challenging to quantify accurately due to a lack of follow-up data by gender clinics and health professionals. 01:43:27 🏥 Detransitioners often face difficulties in seeking medical support for their detransition journey, especially if they have already undergone surgeries like the removal of ovaries or testicles. 01:44:21 🚶‍♀️ A potential social contagion in teenage girls identifying as transgender may result in a growing number of detransitioners in the future. 01:45:02 🏛️ Similar to the recovered memory movement, it may be challenging to halt the transgender social contagion through legal action due to institutionalization of trans ideology in schools and organizations. 01:50:47 👨‍🏫 Schools play a vital role in shaping beliefs and perceptions, and reversing the impact of trans ideology may take time and concerted efforts. 01:52:38 🧘‍♂️ Developing thick skin and not dwelling on negative online comments can be a strategy for handling backlash and criticism effectively.

Always glad to see Helen given a platform, but I was disappointed at the bad grammar concession @34 mins. To yield any part of language obfuscates the point, messes with our brains, and lends credence to this phoney ideology.

Such an intelligent woman. Love her❤

Referencing the conversation around the 1:22: 00 mark... Everyone is exactly smart enough to convince themselves of whatever they want to believe. "Dumb" people have the advantage of being surrounded by other people with the capacity to explain things better than they can explain to themselves. The curse of "smart" people is that when we've convinced ourselves of something it's hard to find someone who will offer us a better argument, a way to unravel our mistake. Everyone should be eager to employ self-skepticism, to question and doubt their own beliefs. It should be considered a responsibility like any other responsibility. For "smart" people, because the consequences are more prolific and the social correction mechanism is relatively so much weaker, the responsibility is that much greater. We are all wrong most of the time about most things even if only a little. It is our duty to consider, reveal and correct our beliefs. Self-skepicism is our friend.

Good to know that madness is being slowly fought against, if only people will pay attention.

I totally agree that there's a social contagion here and that all the interest and affirmation that kids get when they identify as trans is a significant motivation for doing so. As always, Joyce is brilliant here, with her bullshit detector working beautifully. The only thing I wish she'd talk about that she isn't is how helicopter parenting--which is worst in the U.S. but also pretty bad in Britain--has contributed to this social contagion. Think about it: my generation (born in 1963) spent many hours every week away from adults, making decisions, taking normal, critically important risks, and generally having adventures and pursuing things that interested them. This is all gone, as of the 1980s. Although culture has changed, young people haven't: they still require those adventures and that practice being independent, and their loss of it has been disastrous for them, causing the steep decline in their mental health, the obesity epidemic (yes, young people use food emotionally the way adults do), and their search for meaning and stimulation in screens, materialism, and social contagions. Why is no one drawing this connection between the making of childhood into a boring, tepid experience and the stimulation that comes from transgressing gender mores? Am I the only one who sees how destructive the childproofing of childhood has been for young people and how much it’s contributed to the trans craze?!

Having 4 kids, two of each sex, I adamantly state that, while being distinctly unique personalities, the boys and the girls are very different, along sex characteristic lines, behaviour, interests, aptitude…. It’s bloody obvious.

Having watched a large number of interviews with Dr. Joyce on this subject, I think this may be the most penetrating, wide-ranging and intelligent. Thank you.

Thank you Helen x

Jonathan Haidt also talks about the point made at 1:22 regarding intelligent people who believe stupid things. We are all post-hoc reasoners. Intelligent people are better at rationalizing beliefs that they already hold or want to believe. Still, it’s been jaw dropping to watch high intelligent people espouse these idiotic claims about gender. It’s one thing for an intelligent person to believe in god because god’s existence can not be disproven, but the realities of biological sex are so obvious and easily proven.

So grateful and relieved to see this discussion in the skeptic community. I became really disillusioned at the wokeness and lack of rationality (ironically) that spread into the skeptic and atheist 'movement' (for lack of a better word)

That was a real master class! I read Helen's book a couple of weeks ago; today this appeared in my feed and I couldn't resist; it's 5 am now but I feel I've learned so much. I particularly appreciate the fact that these are two progressive atheists talking; on Twitter there's this idea that being gender critical equates with being right wing and religious, which clearly it's not the case. Huge congrats to both, probably the best video I've seen on this topic. Also Helen's energy and vitality are so refreshing! xx

I love her assessment of Matt Walsh! She put my feeling of unease into words. I always wondered why I agree with Matt Walsh on only this one narrow thing and not much otherwise.

I'm also grateful that Joyce calls out Matt Walsh's biblical attitude toward women. He certainly is part of the problem.

She’s intelligent and tenacious enough to stand up to one of the major cancellation forces of today. Yet it’s interesting to see her vitriol also aimed at Walsh for being a man and being religious. It just shows that the people in this fight against the non-logical are of varied backgrounds and don’t necessarily like each other. And that’s what it will take to win when dealing with useful idiots and their manipulative and dangerous academic leadership. It’s Team Reality vs Team Fantasy and Team Reality has to win. The more logical combatants of all stripes, the better.

Thank you for bringing this awe inspiring individual into my awareness. I know what audiobook I’ll be supporting this week. Xox

I was very interested to hear about Helen's experience with humanists and their refusal to apply reason to gender ideology. I am a humanist myself and used to visit schools to talk about it to students (more than 3,000 overall). However, since Humanists UK promote gender self-id, I have withdrawn from the schools programme. I cannot, in good conscience, stand up in front of young people and claim that humanists believe science is the best way to understand the world in these circumstances. So glad that Richard Dawkins has endorsed Helen's book. The irony is that he is a patron of Humanists UK.

We need more discussion on the prevalence of gender dysphoria in autistic children. Autism and transgenderism appear to me to beg the question, are these conditions a stepping stone in the evolution towards transhumanism. A completely different type of being that is an amorphous amalgamation of what people like Ray Kurzweil call the singularity.

If you can be another gender, why not a different race? Because racial differences are primarily political and cultural, while gender is largely genetic since gender is in the brain/mind and the brain is a biological organ. You can't very well experience being a true member of another race if you haven't lived that experience. True transgender individuals are rare, and deserve respect, but trans activists have appropriated their experiences in an effort to deconstruct gender altogether. The transgender disconnect between brain and biological sex below the neck is extremely rare, but now it's treated like the rule rather than the exception. Now I get called transphobic for making this very important distinction.

Thank you very much. We have a similar situation in Switzerland.

"it [activism] is not something that can combine well with journalism" THANK YOU! Now, can someone tell the US press this? FFS

Greatly enjoyed listening to Helen, love her clarity of thought in cutting through all the nonsense required to become an ally and/or member of the trans movement. I'd been so worried and busy for the past few years fighting the encroaching authoritarianism of the right that this whole toxic movement caught me by surprise in the last couple of year or so. I really didn't know how deeply rooted it had become as the new Human Rights quest by the left at large - where you either conform with the dogma & validate the delusions or suffer the consequences, which can be pretty dire. Likely why so many liberals refrain from saying anything even if they have to know this pseudo religious ideology is nonsensical to its very core. Which is why I too have come to the conclusion that enough is enough no matter the blow-back. My turning point came when I started reading about what they are doing to children that is so repugnant as to make Dr. Mengele proud. Since I started opposing the irrationality on social media I went from life-long liberal to transphobic bigot in a matter of days, with the ensuing bleed of followers by the hundreds. That only makes me more determined to keep at it as this isn't - or rather, shouldn't be - a political issue but one of common sense. Sex is immutable thus it cannot be changed no matter how many surgeries are done or hormones consumed - much less with the woke duality woo where people say they can change gender by fiat, and then sex is nonchalantly discarded. Which is the sleight of hand the TRAs use to issue the tautology: "a trans woman is a woman". Never mind that it results in ludicrous stories such as the one Michael mentioned, where a man can call himself a woman & then claim to have lesbian sex with his wife. That they are experimenting with kids, and attempting to erase women, are the real Human Rights issues at stake. As for The What Is A Woman exposé, while I concur with Helen re: Matt Walsh and his own dogmatic agenda, I think his movie can be watched as a primer and an eye-opener for the millions of people that are mostly unaware of the TRA lobby & how powerful and insidious it has become. And you can do that without validating Matt's own anti-feminist take, which, to be fair is hardly featured in the film but rather insinuated as Dr. Joyce points out. I've recommended it to friends and family that are part of the demographic I mentioned before: largely unaware of what is happening - they are still at the neutral stage of live and let live when it comes to the trans movement because either they don't know any trans activists hellbent on policing speech, or doublethink hasn't affected them or their children directly yet. And the responses have been unambiguously positive along with incredulity & large doses of both fear and anger for what lays ahead. In closing, I'd be remiss not thanking Michael for bringing and conducting this interview for all of us - I've read and followed him from the early 90s during my hard core atheist days. Like Helen I've also let go of my activism for mostly the same reasons - as my user name suggests I am not much for corseted agendas of any kind. All the best to both.

I found this video quite by accident while surfing on KZfaq to kill the time. I’m glad I did it was really interesting and worth watching. I’m a 76 year old white male (the real kind), agnostic, Conservative Democrat, fair-minded, reasonable, mild mannered, patriotic (veteran) I find this weird stuff going around repulsive 🤮 and scary. I think most folks my age agree.

Fascinating. Thanks for this.

Great talk. Refreshing.

You can always rely on Helen to be a voice of sanity!

Animal rights still need activists. Big time.

Brilliant and fascinating interview. Thanks Michael

One of my colleagues who is both a psychiatrist and a lawyer had this to say recently: "American psychiatry has been slow to respond to various examples of mass hysteria (like "recovered memories ", "multiple personality disorder", "satanic cult abuse", and "sudden onset gender dysphoria") and that's a good thing. Trouble is that, in the meantime, poorly trained "therapists" and advocates occupy the field speaking psychobabble. They convince well-meaning courts and legislatures that a fad, driven by social contagion, is a serious form of individually experienced distress "ignored by the patriarchal medical profession". Eventually, the boat turns right side up when the right people start getting sued for the right things. We're on track for that turning point in the transgender social movement."

The complete and uniform denial of risk regarding transitioning by itself gives reason to be extremely.skeptical.