Episode 38 - WE'RE A YEAR OLD! Also, Trump bibles are a thing now

Transcending Humanity is a year old!

Taryn and Jess join Vanessa to recap the past year and chat about current events!

The show is refocusing, working less on the trans experience and more on humanity in general. In the future you can expect content to be focused more on politics, current events, interviews with various experts, and other stuff. We will still have the occasional trans-focused episode, but we covered just about everything in Season 1. It's time for us to branch out!

Now, we're a show hosted by both trans and cis folx, and we want to reflect that in our content!

Transcript

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Vanessa: 0:00

Here's hoping that it works well so and I'm probably not going to insert like a stolen song at the beginning of this one like I did last time that that episode never be monetized, but that song was stuck in my head. So I'm like I'm throwing throwing a video version and audio version of it in on the episode, so. Okay, you too ready?

Taryn: 0:24

I'm ready to go.

Jess: 0:26

Ready?

Vanessa: 0:26

I'm ready. Okay. Welcome to Season Two of transcending humanity. We are now but we will be in a couple of days, one year old. We started off as just a group of people that had met on LinkedIn, our hosts have come and gone throughout the years. We love them all. For the most part, I had an issue, but that's what the black thing is for. But Vanessa is a chaotic neutral asshole. It was pretty much what it what it boils down to be and I love it. Thank you. Taryn and Jess are here with me today, Jess, this first episode was episode eight, our trans mask episode. And terrines first episode was episode nine, our trans femme episode, which those are fine, I still want to get another big gaggle of trans girls for one and trans guys for another one, just to just talk about everything. But I'm refocusing the show. For this season, I think we've covered just about everything when it comes to trans stuff. And I want to open up the show to be a little bit more inclusive of other audiences to just focus more on the humanity aspect of the show. So I want to be able to bring on more hosts as well. Different guests have all sorts of things just focusing on, you know, trying to any marginalized community that's just trying to get through life. So I mean, this shows still going to be have a number of trans hosts, like you see three of us right now. So they'll definitely be a trans perspective. But I think all of us can agree that being trans is really the least interesting part of our lives. We're all humans in different ways. We all have different life journeys, life paths, and all that so that yeah, we are now a year old, we have 30. So this is episode 38. Now, I think, and we've covered everything, just do a quick recap. You know, we started off as talking about how we built up a community on LinkedIn. And then we talked about bathrooms. We talked about how to be an ally, how to parent either as a trans person and parenting trans, NB, offspring. We've done some trans Joy episodes, we've talked about how people need to stop asking what's in our pants, even though I talk about what's in mine all the time. We have episodes about employees and how companies can be accepting. We have our trans mask episode, which is amazing. We have our transform episode, which is amazing. We've had episodes where we just shoot the shit we have shipped to ship part one and part two. We have episodes about pronouns we have one with Leo Caldwell talking about trans equity in the workplace, and more parenting episodes. We tried to have we tried to give as much info as we could and advice that we can for parents and those are episodes that if you have if you come across parents of trans kids, send them episodes like 16 1715 to help them because you have insights from trans people or from people that have trans kids and I know it helps I've sent it to people before and they've told me that it's helped them a lot. We've talked about job hunting while trans. We've talked about gender being a binary gender diversity with shape irons. We've talked about dealing with an accepting families. We've talked about anti corporate activism, and we've talked about names. We've talked about bottom surgery. We have gone over we did a drag episode with Landon Reed and that's one of my favorites. That one was so much fun. Landon also known as student Rogers, we've talked about getting out and voting. We've talked about pointless gendering and languages. We've talked about how conservatives are complete fucking morons. I had a I had Dr. AB Mendelssohn on to talk about vocal feminization and tracheal shave he He does one where he goes in behind the lip. And so you don't get a scar like what I have. I did not have mine done with his method, I had it done the old method. So I had this scar here, but it's still better than having an Adam's apple for me. We had author Lisa bunker on the show, we've had tips for traveling. We talked about my disqualification from running from office, which was fun. We had some guests from the UK where you can us so just going back and forth as who can be worse to trans people. We had another separate episode. And we had our really impactful episode on next Benedict, which I'm sure Terna Jess will probably want to chime in on here again, because there is new news there. And our last episode was burnout with Kate bridal. And that was our first one where we're kind of moving away from to trans focus. So we've covered a lot on the show. We've had a lot of fun. And the friendships that I've gained from this. I mean, the three of us have not met in person, but you know, we're similar. Yeah, yeah, not yet. We will we eventually, hopefully, we'll have like a transcending humanity convention or something like that. But you know, we should do it in California. Yeah, yeah, I would be happy to go to California. Let's go to Napa. Never come home, I'll just go and stay. So but you to tell me about your journey with the show.

Taryn: 6:41

I'm just gonna go first, do you want me to go first. Ladies first. Like I always say that it's a privilege to have a platform, right? There's so many of us that don't have a platform. They don't have, you know, they might have not have love acceptance they might have, there's a whole bunch of stuff, like each one of us is different. And I never take the ability to have a platform for granted. I've done a lot of media appearances in the last couple, probably last year and a half. And I, I accept my privilege, and that's right. And it's a privilege for me to be here with you all, and to share the stories and share their viewpoint and to talk about what um, you know, what it's like, and what we go through and some tips and tricks to help people might in acceptance or, you know, just to give them an alternative right to doing stuff that might be more transphobic by giving them a path forward. You know, I think I've done I don't know, 678 episodes or something. But I've kind of like liked each one for different perspectives. But I have to say for me, the one that you just there's so three of us did with next Benedict, that was probably the most intense one for me. There was a lot to unpack there. And, you know, that's about it. I said, thanks for sharing that. It was it was confirmed the next head died of suicide, or I don't know, what is the proper terminology for that now.

Vanessa: 8:14

It's an alive is I think that's come from tick tock, because the word suicide gets censored, but the show isn't monetized. So doesn't matter.

Taryn: 8:26

But just underlining themselves, right, based to the situation that they had, with that situation directly impacted by the choices that their government made in Oklahoma. So I felt like that I was fortunate to to do that one. And then with Lisa, you know, with the interview was was really that was a lot of fun, too. I think that's the first time gave me the rings, where I could just do it myself. But it was like that was a lot of fun too. But I felt like the next one really resonated with a lot of people. And I felt just looking at my social engagement on it. I feel like it resonated with a lot of folks. Just Haven't you.

Jess: 9:01

Yeah. Well, I mean, I've just very much like you as well, Taryn. And like you as well, Vanessa, I'm sure I've just loved having this group of people on this podcast to be able to, you know, have a platform to be able to kind of extend what was already some online networking into a lot more layered and kind of complex friendships and relationships. And then what's kind of, I think we've had a lot of really interesting conversations on the podcast that, you know, I've been a part of it, and I haven't, but I also think that our, you know, just willingness to create some community with each other even through our Discord. You know, the discord that Vanessa started with this has been really great and given us, you know, I've gone to that venue with some more. Some things that I didn't really want to put on blast asked on big public social, you know, but I did want to be able to talk to people in the trans community about it, you know, people that I have some trust with. And that's just, I mean, that's been really helpful. Like, that's been really helpful for my mental health honestly. And, and being able to have this platform and preamp provide some, you know, some trans voices, and just get a chance to talk about some of these topics has been really helpful. I also really, I thought that the next episode was very impactful, I felt like, it was good for us to provide some perspective on that situation from within the trans community. You know, obviously, it's something that was reported on quite a bit from outside media, you know, from big media, also, from smaller media, I know, we mentioned under the desk news has done a really good job of, of kind of going deep into the story, which is really great. But I think it's really, I think that the angle that we were taking it from kind of from the community angle, and looking at some of the systemic issues around it, and not just the events that occurred that, of course, are very important, and, and I think will be will end up being, you know, something that that people remember for a long time. And just kind of as we had hit on before, you know, unfortunately, trans people being on a lived is not uncommon, but with necks, the thing that made it unique, was that it was, you know, initially, it was an event that happened at a school that, that a deaf, you know, preceded that event very, very closely. And, and that, because of the bullying, and because of the school policies, I think that really pushed the systemic issues to the forefront. So I think that episode was, was really important for us to do. I just really appreciate from you, Vanessa, just the chance to talk about other stuff, too. I really like to be able to have Shea Barnes on I just really enjoy their, their research and expertise on on gender and you know, looking at different cultures and kind of bringing that to the forefront that is so often ignored from American, the American perspective, only focusing on America, and a lot of it focusing on white America. So I really appreciated that. And also, I mean, I thought it was good for me a little hairy, but like good to talk about the gender creative parenting episode. That's like, a thing that I don't even talk about on social media, because I do not really, I mean, I've mentioned it like a couple times around that episode, but I don't talk about it regularly, because I don't have the spoons to deal with the backlash and the like ridiculousness that I would get around it. But at the same time, like I know that it's a thing that is important to, you know, some people who are interested in having a, you know, at least considering a different perspective on on raising kids and considering how gender roles, you know, factor into that. So I just thought that was a really good one to do as well, and just really appreciate that. But yeah, those are my highlights. Oh, and also all the trans Joy episodes that we've had kind of scattered throughout. I think that's really good for our mental health, too.

Vanessa: 13:35

Yeah. Trans Chile's Erica saying we have met Erica on in a while, I hope. I hope to see her again soon. And but you know, we've had hosts come and go. I think a lot of it is just kind of attributed to burnout to tell you the truth. And I know a lot of us have been unemployed for a long time. And so it's hard. It's very hard. We are, I'm looking at the stats here. See, you know, which were the most popular episodes. We we initially were doing episodes once a week, and that was that was that get hard pretty quickly. So

Jess: 14:24

burnout.

Vanessa: 14:25

Yeah. But I mean, our first episode has 142 downloads. Right now, what's that?

Taryn: 14:37

Are you in Buzzsprout?

Vanessa: 14:38

Yeah. How do you now because my face lit up for my music.

Taryn: 14:45

I use Buzzsprout for my boss's boss.

Vanessa: 14:48

Oh, yeah. I love Buzzsprout it's super easy, and it's not that expensive and you can also donate to the website through Buzzsprout. And it the first money that comes in, they actually take it out of my bill for the show. And so we have enough sponsors on there right now that our Buzzsprout hosting is free, which is amazing. So do

Taryn: 15:16

you. I mean, sorry, this is gonna be really to listening or watching. Gonna be somewhat technical. But do you also tally up the youtube please use separately?

Vanessa: 15:27

Yeah, I track all that separately.

Taryn: 15:30

Because I didn't know that. I think it was in the second month of my podcast. I was like, What do you mean, YouTube isn't included on this? I was like that I had to go out there and do the tally.

Vanessa: 15:39

Now, because the YouTube ones are a little bit harder as well. Because while we have like, like the next Benedict episode, has 164 views. But just because it has 164 views, doesn't mean 164 People watched it.

Taryn: 15:58

A couple seconds, right? Yeah,

Vanessa: 16:00

yeah, the average view duration is five minutes and four minutes, five minutes and 40 seconds. And so, like only 5% of the viewers made it to the end of that episode. So I don't put a lot of stock into our YouTube views just because that platform is completely different. I like to focus more on the audio podcast because it shows them on a downloads and that's across all the platforms.

Jess: 16:34

Yeah, I was gonna ask to buds Buzzsprout does like a compilation of the different platforms.

Vanessa: 16:40

Yeah, yeah. So Apple podcasts is are definitely our most popular 140 8% of our listeners, listen through Apple podcasts. 70% listened through Spotify. And then the others just actually, people 5% of people actually goes, Listen to it straight from our website, which is kind of fun. But yeah, that's the last five episodes. But still, we are getting about each episode gets between 80 and 90 downloads. And I really want to see that number get up to 234 100. That's why I'd want to expand the expand the show to reach a wider audience. I really want to start getting more guests. I have a couple of dream guests that I would love to have. I'd love to have be from under the desk news. I'd love to have chasing as on she would be a lot of fun. Those are two people you should definitely be fathered following on Instagram and Tiktok. Because they they would actually Jason has actually talked today about how she would love to do a show on MSNBC with V because MSNBC tried to bring on a right wing nut job. And apparently all of the hosts in one show after another denounce that decision, which is pretty fucking awesome.

Taryn: 18:07

I mean, I saw Rachel Maddow denouncement on the plane last night. I was just like, oh my god, I'm like go girl. Yeah. I mean, she's the Republican in question was the former head of the RNC. So run running around Rona. I think it's run on whatever, McDaniels Romney channels and yeah, I mean, I watched I saw I hate Chuck Todd. Like, I've never liked that guy. There's just something about him. But even his takedown was like masterfox Like, wow. So I'm glad they did the right thing. Eventually. Yeah, me too. No, like they didn't make do the right thing first, but they came around

Vanessa: 18:46

by a number one dream guest on an ally friend to the community is Adam Conover. Are you too familiar with him? No. sounds

Taryn: 18:55

vaguely familiar.

Vanessa: 18:56

He is he's, he gets into everything. His I believe is he's just a sis white guy, I believe hat. But he just champions. So many causes. He did a show called Adam Ruins Everything. Where he just bunks all kinds of things. It's a lot of fun. And he has a lot of like guests and stuff on it. But I do have kind of a remote connection to him. Through a reporter that reported on me from the New York Times. She's friends with him. So I don't know if it would ever be possible to get him on because we obviously can't afford to pay guests on the show. But who knows, it might be something that he might have fun doing. Something I might try to work on getting to so again, girl. Yeah.

Taryn: 19:51

Check them out. So it's Conover. Adam Conover.

Vanessa: 19:54

Yeah. And he was during his is also an actor and a writer. And so during the actors and writers strikes, he was out on the picket lines every single day, and doing live, putting on things on tick tock and stuff like that. And, I mean, he was one of the people that were there. And both of those unions fucking kicked out. So I'm proud of both of them the first sticking to their guns, because that is a brutal fucking industry. And you know that the replaceable people in all those industries are the CEOs. You know, they're overpaid. Yeah, and what do they actually do so? Fuck them. So, a quick plug for people that like the show, please share this with your friends. Post about us share our posts when you see them. We're most active social media wise on Instagram. And, you know, just click this, click the button to add it to your story. And if you have five bucks to spare, support us on Patreon. Everything is through our website, transcending humanity.com, you can support via Patreon, or Buzzsprout Patreon subscribers get access to our Discord, which is a safe space and is limited only to patriots, supporters and close and guests. So because I don't want that to be a mess. So if you sign up as a Patreon, and you don't have an input, you don't automatically get an input to the server. Let me know. And I can get that for you. So yeah, this the show has been a wild ride. So far, there's been a lot of emotions in it. And I agree that Nick's Benedict episode was yeah, it was especially knowing that he analyzed himself, which, if anything that's worse than him dying from the attack and the fact that they're not pressing charges on it, and how they're they're saying how it was like a mutual fight. I forget the term that they're using for

Taryn: 22:12

it. The DA referred to it as mutual combat. Yeah.

Vanessa: 22:15

Which is such bullshit. It was one against multiple. And the one

Taryn: 22:21

against three, I believe, right? Yeah. I don't know if their friend had interfered. But um, you know, it's like, yeah, I mean, there's there was nothing mutual about 301. Bang somebody's head into the floor. So I know, I'm sorry, go ahead. No, no. I just feel like it's, um, in the language. And I mean, we've been cautious sprite about, like what we say and when we say it, right, and just not jumping ahead of those reporting and make sure we're respectful. That's, I'm just gonna do a plug for the show here. Right. This is unlike other media that you will consume. So we do our best to have the right terminology to use the most accurate right reporting, right. I think I know, I sure know that you and I have got dings for people saying that we're misgendering you know, next when even NPR reported he had a them. Right. So it's like, and I still get good posts like that. I'm just like, alright, blocked me blocked, blocked. You know, besides just want you to know, when you listen to us. We're not just talking about our backsides. Right. We do research, we're aware of what's happening. We look at the the most recent reporting, and we put it in a perspective for you that sorry, I was really close the microphone was like, put it in a way, right, where you're armed with that fact. And that data, right? We don't use stuff from like two months ago, we can only find out what's going on. So I think when you're listening the show, you're listening to really some really good perspectives that are well researched. Right, that we're aware of what we're talking about, and we're not just riffing for rip sake. Sorry, I got only put a plug in there because we've been dealing with some trolls. I like

Vanessa: 24:02

it when plugs come from someone other than me. So yeah. It's we talked about before I start, before I hit the record button, we generally have a talk about, you know, what we're going to talk about and the implications of what we're going to say update each other on the correct things like I believe Jessie, you were the one that told us about the the he him pronouns, so and yeah. 10 and I don't just I don't know if you have to, but we've had a little bit of backlash from people just been talking about us misgendering him but we didn't his pronouns are he him? Google that shit. Google's your friend, for the most part. And if you lean on the conservative side, maybe we need to do Google go into incognito mode so it doesn't pull up all of your search history to give you a bunch of right wing bullshit. That way you don't have to see blurred out photos on my vagina. Sorry to deep cut there.

Taryn: 25:04

I probably drop into my DMs on LinkedIn saying, Hey, you might want to change your post that was like, I'm sorry, please google the NPR report from last week. Thank you have a nice day.

Jess: 25:15

There you go. Yeah. No, yeah, no, it's I agree. I mean, we put a lot of, you know, we put a lot of thought into it. And I'm still I'm still catching up on the news. The most recent news for next today? I haven't I, I saw the full report, and I hadn't, I didn't know how to interpret the toxicology numbers. But, you know, I hear you, Vanessa, that you've you got a little more heard some more details, or, you know, we're aware of, I was waiting until I could see a report of someone who could interpret those numbers in a way that would make sense. I think that, sorry, I was just gonna say that, you know, I think that, um, the fact that next is life was so short, you know, is just terrible. And it really is indicative of a failure in our society. Very much, you know, a failure and a failure for the kids, you know, which is, you know, it's, it's tough to be a trans adult, you know, and I just cannot, it is hard to imagine how much more intense it would be as, as a younger as a young person being trans or gender non conforming. And, you know, I know, we talked about a little bit on that episode, how, you know, for myself, and Taryn, who were both gender non conforming, when we were younger, that that was tough, then but it didn't, even even at that time. And even though it was really tough, then to it didn't, this, the political climate that exists now didn't exist, then it wasn't in that same, it didn't have the same amount of attention. It didn't have the same amount of vitriol. We didn't have social media that was accelerating the, the divisive conversations and accelerating hateful rhetoric in a way that we have that now. And I mean, I just really feel for all young people who are, you know, just trying to figure out who they are and, and survive high school. So I mean, I just think that the fact that next is life was so short is really terrible. And for me, the only way that I can kind of move forward from that, as a part of the community is to try to remember that there are 1000s of kids in school right now, who are facing those same conditions. And as much as we can't change what happened with next. You know, we can't go back and rewind the bullying that happened with next, you know, we can't like stop that. We can't stop the toll that it took on him mentally, right. And the effect of the physical altercation as well, you know, I'm, I'm certainly still not ruling that out as a major factor, but it's like I was I was incredibly disheartened and not surprised, but really disheartened to see so many people after that initial report of suicide, you know, basically kind of like, almost celebrating that, in a way that was just like, What in the hell is wrong with you? Like, I don't care what side of the spectrum you're on. I mean, I could hear a report of, you know, like, super conservative, ultra Christian, hateful teen kills himself, and I would still have pity for that person and not in any way call that a celebration, you know, like, it just people kind of coming around to be like, well, this proves you, right? And it's like, no, this doesn't, it doesn't mean, you know, it doesn't change the fact that there are major systemic issues. It doesn't change the fact that our culture is so rough on the queer community and the trans community and youth right now. You know, none of that shifts at all. But to me, it's like I've just tried to keep keep trying to think of like, what can we do to support and protect youth? What can we do to cushion I saw somebody like there was a post yesterday that I was seeing about somebody, they were talking about Caitlyn Jenner, so I'm switching topics a little bit here and they were saying they were kind of bad mouthing any trans person who they said goes up a lot. and pulls it up behind them. And I started thinking about, like, what can we do to like build more ladders? You know, it's like, I want to be thinking about it like that. Because I think that's the only way that we can move forward about this in a positive way and support each other.

Taryn: 30:18

I agree. Yeah, no, you're absolutely right. I mean, it's like, it's about providing like help for us to extend that hand down, right. So when he pulls a ladder, we're reaching down and pulling them up. You know, when Caitlyn Jenner so if you're not watching this, I'm extending my middle finger. Yeah. You and LA.

Vanessa: 30:41

She, for for non trans people listening or watching this Caitlyn Jenner does not speak for our community at all in any way, shape, or form. We still respect her phone out. It's the but we don't respect her. So she was she's an outlier. And but I know conservatives loved just grip onto the outliers, like the the clamp onto the D transitioners. And stuff like that, which what they found like five and they just traveling around the country with just millions of trans people, so

Taryn: 31:19

you're cracking me up because I'm moving arsenic brain because I think you just had another t shirt designed for merch. Oh, really? What does that it says we support Caitlyn Jenner students pronouns. Just that, are you? I mean, come on, you're like, this stuff is just rolling in from you.

Vanessa: 31:37

You just need to spoon spilled, put all that shit together.

Jess: 31:41

I had another t shirt idea. The other day too. I'll just throw it in. Now there was like, I don't know if you'll have seen the brand that came out. That's like, x x x y. This brand. So I was thinking it would be awesome. If we could just sell a t shirt that's just like x x y. On the one line. You know, I didn't hear that. That's the only other variation either, but just to kind of, you know, be a little spiteful there.

Vanessa: 32:09

It's fun to be spicy, spiteful. And I have changing gears a little bit Did you to see the mega Bible? That Oh, yeah, Trump is selling Bibles. The valor Bible. Yeah. I I made a post I made a comment that has like 5000 likes now, which is kind of crazy. And medics be I think that's his name SBI whatever. Where he was posting about that, and the how Trump was saying is his favorite book. And then the interviewer is like, Oh, really? Can you talk about like some of your favorite your favorite passages from it, you know, stuff that's impactful for him and Trump's like, oh, that's private. I don't want to get into that. That's all that's all private to me. But he's like, it's my favorite book and Christian values and just says face when you have to find the video. Um, the three of us have seen it, obviously. But if you haven't seen it, you have to find the video. And I made a comment where Trump is trumping the interviewer and it's very simple. Or Trump said this is my favorite book in interviewers like what's your favorite line? And Trump's like? Well, you know, talk about brown No, no. And apparently that resonated and people found it funny. So, but it's, it is so ludicrous. And apparently at the at the beginning of its, it's the United States, you know, America Bible, where it has like the Constitution and the beginning of it and the Bill of Rights and Declaration of Independence and stuff like that, coming from a guy who wants to throw away the Constitution. And it is just it's mind boggling. $60 where, you know what, what's, what's the Bible normally cost? 510 bucks, you know? I don't Yeah, I don't I would not know. Yeah, we are the wrong people to ask that for $60. He's selling bibles to pay for his legal fees. This rapist this horrible is insurrectionists this trader is selling bibles to pay for

Taryn: 34:24

the week before, like the week before his porn star. hush money try. Look. Yeah, the guy like that. Obviously. He's godly. And I'm like, dude, like he's literally going to court to defend paying hush money to a porn star because he didn't want his wife to know. Yeah, vain, nothing godly about him. But hey, look on the bright side. That constitution in the beginning of the Bible for them might be the first time that that they've actually read the Constitution.

Vanessa: 34:53

That is thinking outside the box. Right? Well done, girl. could

Jess: 35:00

be education right there. Have either of you read Octavia Butler's parable of the talents? Okay, so Octavia Butler is a famous black science fiction author who passed away. Gosh, I want to say maybe early 2000s. Unfortunately, she's no longer with us. Her body of work is really incredible. And she did a series, I believe it was supposed to be a trilogy, she never wrote the third book. The first book is called Parable of the Sower, it does have it is very much biblical references. And the second book is called parable of the talents. And I'm not sure if she like started on the third book or not. But anyway, I'm gonna give a little bit of a spoiler, but I'm doing this because this book is so. So kind of eye opening in the way that it is actually the most prescient science fiction book that I've ever read that I've ever come across. I read it a couple years ago. And when I read this particular part of the book, and I've never done this before, I actually closed the book and threw it across the room. That's how much I was like, I cannot believe what I'm reading right now. And then I went and got the book, and I flipped to when it was written. And it was written in, I think that book was written in the 90s. So you have to read the first one to kind of understand the setup for the second one. But basically, in the second book, America has turned into a very violent, very gun happy, you know, all kinds of poke post apocalyptic world, where a lot of communities are very, very unsafe. And I say all of that. And it sounds a lot like our world, although in the book, it's like, even worse, I mean, really, to the extreme. And there is a religious zealot of a conservative leader who has come to power and is running on the platform of Make America Great Again. That is verbatim, the platform that the candidate in her book that was written in the 90s that was to draw together all the gun happy religious conservatives in the country to agree to basically round up and, you know, put, like enslaved people, you know, all these different like, all these terrible things that again, haven't quite happened, but we're like, kind of leaning towards. And I actually looked it up and I did find out, you know, wasn't completely original because make America great again, was actually a Reagan slogan. But Octavia Butler had before thought that a political candidate in America from the American right, could use that again, as a unifying force. And in a lot, you know, in a lot of other ways. I mean, this this character, this political candidate, and the book is not even as bad as Trump in a lot of ways, really. But, but that book is amazing. And a lot of people talk about how you know, what we're going through right now is like The Handmaid's Tale and I know that that's like also been become really popular because of the TV show, you know, and everything. But you know, if you're interested in on this story, go read, go read the parable series from Octavia Butler, because there are a lot of parallels that are frighteningly similar to our, our current world.

Taryn: 38:41

So, I mean, the best fiction has some history and truth on it. Right. So I mean, The Handmaid's Tale, I think I saw an interview with her that she was looking at American politics over the last couple decades. And when she wrote it, that's what inspired her so it wasn't like she was telling the future. She was seeing the trend. similar trend line in knowing workouts right. So like, for I don't know if y'all, but I think one Jess, I know you're too young. In business, I think you're like an elder millennial, right.

Vanessa: 39:11

So yeah, I'm an example. So yeah, so

Taryn: 39:14

you didn't live through the glory of the Reagan years, but you could see that check coming from mile away, religious bright, and Jerry Falwell on those dudes in the 60s, Gunda Nixon, losing Nixon and given Reagan for eight years and the doddering old man who smiled and joked his way into like, really ruining the country. So yeah, I mean, I feel like they look back and you can see where that is. I mean, got to be an adult think you have to be a rocket scientist or a good sci fi writer for that. Ya know, we can we can look at the last 20 years and know that this was coming. Sure.

Vanessa: 39:50

And then even the author of a Handmaid's Tale. It's like, Excuse me. You weren't supposed to take my book literally, literally and actually put it into action. You know, all See play? Yeah. So

Taryn: 40:05

excited now I'm not familiar with the work now I kind of want to read it. Yeah,

Vanessa: 40:09

that's I don't read much. I am one of my 10 zillion applications that I filled out. They they asked like, what are the what are the what's the most impactful book that you've read this year, and I'm thinking I'm fucking read a book. In soul 14. I have books that I need to actually get started on, but I just don't have the spoons or the attention span to do it. I have the white women by Regina Jackson and Syrah here, you're listening this, I'm sorry, I'm gonna butcher your name, because I understand I didn't look it up How to Pronounce Sabir Rao. So again, apologies, it's bad on me, then the the EI book by Lily's Ng, and I need to read but I just can't, I just don't have it in me to actually sit down and focus on that. Maybe once I find a job, and I have this stress of being see myself homeless in three months, if that can go away, you know, I, I need that to go first. But it sounded like nowhere else going with that. I'm just I'm just hammering FTP really bad. So my brains like

Jess: 41:25

it can take up so much room to be worried about not having money to live. I mean, I was, I was on the job hunt for like, about nine or 10 months, like, you know, pretty recently, in like, a couple of years, I guess when in the last couple of years, because I'm finally coming up on my one year anniversary of my job, but it's just like it takes is it's like all consuming. Just you know, constantly worrying about that it takes up so much mental space. So

Taryn: 41:56

sorry, I had it from like, Yeah, I think I average about 910 months, when I get the layoff right to bounce back. And sometimes I have to lose something that to get the next opportunity. It's hard at thing to write for you. But it's like I said, it's a safety thing. It's a peace of mind thing. It's like, you know, because living in your car is dangerous to write. And I can imagine living in your car and I at this time it's not, you know, not going to be saved, right? So it's like, it just, it just makes everything so much more dangerous and daunting. If

Vanessa: 42:31

I get put in that position. I'm not gonna stay in Ohio. So I'm gonna go to West Coast, or something, I'm not gonna stay here because there's just no reason to anymore. So there's far more personal applications with that, that I don't want to get into publicly. But yeah, that will just, I hope I don't get to that point. But my photography business is just dead. Like, if I could get four to six shoots a week, it makes enough for me to get my own place, but I'm getting like one if that. And three quarters of my shoots have been getting canceled lately. And that's my only income. So yeah, subscribe to our Patreon. Dip into that a little bit

Taryn: 43:23

over the spotted side, plug for Patreon. Yeah.

Vanessa: 43:28

But yeah, I guess just to kind of wrap up here since it's already live. It's been an hour already. Only 45 minutes recording. But this show has been you can hear from me, Jess, and Taryn. It's been impactful on our lives. And we really want to reach more people to help more people. On the trans side, you have three people here that prove to trans kids that we do grow up. I'm hoping to be able to announce some amazing job. This shows that, you know, you can grow up and be successful. But look at Taryn and Jess, you know, they're doing well. As well as we can I imagine. But yeah, it's anybody queer. We're in a we're in a rough spot right now. But I'm hoping come November, things. Things will turn in our favor. Now whether or not the Democrats actually do anything, what's at hand? So I'm cautiously optimistic. Yeah. Same.

Taryn: 44:44

I think with regard to women too much in there's going to be this like wave of get out.

Vanessa: 44:49

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, when it comes to Trump, you know, you have his former supporters like people that worked with him, very vocally denouncing him like I didn't pence say like, I can't support somebody that tried to have me killed. He said something along those lines. And that was his vice president. I don't like pants, but I liked what he said there. So

Taryn: 45:15

there were a moment of him showing some components.

Vanessa: 45:17

Yeah, exactly, exactly standing up to the big bad, but I don't know. I, I appreciate everyone that listens to the show. And I really want us to grow. That's why I'm trying to bring it I'm branching out who we are, who we reach. If you have suggestions for guests that you think would be good on the show, let me know. Or any of us. Or if you know, someone that might be a good host occasionally on the show, you know, let me know. I'm always looking for to try to fill up our host roster because we all have crazy lives here. A lot of times, like Rachel was supposed to be here today. And she sent a message, like five minutes beforehand, saying that she just got puked on I'm like, okay, yeah, Rachel, go do your thing. So we have things like that come up a lot. But parents stuff happen. Yeah. Yeah. So I mean, all three of us are parents so but my and I actually right now I'm home alone. My my son's other mothers in Arizona, and my son is at his grandparents, which is me and the dogs and it is the fucking best I, I started playing WarCraft again. My bestie got me a couple of months subscription and I am I, I got the expansion. And I play on one wrist accord server. If anyone wants to look me up, I'm deaf, Nika. And it's wild to be back in that again, doing it for my mental health. Since I've beat Baldurs Gate three, and I beat Vinny origin Original Sin two, I need something to focus on. That's not my depression. And Warcraft is where I met my best friend in 2009. Christopher. And, you know, he's, he's my, he's my brother. He's my, he's my he's my everything, you know, in friendship. And I wouldn't have met him without that. So, you know, I will cut off in the tension here, but to either you to have any closing thoughts before I pee my pants.

Taryn: 47:32

Yes, you go first.

Jess: 47:34

Oh, wow. Um, yeah, I mean, only closing thought Yes, please. Just one more plug, like, by, you know, toss in five bucks. It's, it's worth the coffee. Anybody who can spare it, please. We really love we'd love to keep keep the show going and keep it strong and let it be more broad and bring more folks in. Yeah. And other than that, yeah, take care of your mental health. And don't forget to vote.

Taryn: 48:07

Yeah, no, that's perfect. Because it's like, the money that we're asking for, right? So the Patreon support goes to supporting and keeping the lights on on the show, right? So it's not like it's, it's where we're recording money. We're making money. We're just trying to keep afloat, right? So for the price of a really crappy cup of Starbucks coffee. Like maybe, let's say a grande flat, like, I'm a coffee snob, but you know, you can support the show and help us continue to, you know, to run the servers and to have the Buzzsprout subscription and everything else that goes into our podcast. So please do that. And always remember, prioritize yourself. Set those monitoring and boundaries.

Vanessa: 48:51

Yeah. And actually want to call it 10. And Jesse both, but my financial support into the show. Certainly in in others, Tara has as well. But Taryn, you, you're kind of keeping the show running right now. So I just want to personally thank you for that, because my credit cards don't like it.

Taryn: 49:08

But I can do to help because it's important, right to have this platform. And, you know, we've heard from from viewers and listeners, right, that, you know, that what we say helps them or, you know, add somewhere to go, it takes a burden off, right. So like, I think we're making an impact. And it's a privilege and power and like, for me, it's a privilege. I appreciate the opportunity to support.

Vanessa: 49:30

Yeah, I'm pretty sure that we might have cracked some eggs to tell you the truth. There's someone that I know that I think it might be their egg might be cracking, I'm not sure but kind of interesting to to find that says people are cracking. Before trans people come out. We're known as being in our egg and when it cracks is when the light is starting to shine through like oh, oh, and then we break out of our egg when we come out. So if you're wondering what that term means, It's essentially just you know, being born into who we are. So thank you, everyone for listening. And we love doing the show. I can't wait for another amazing year of it. And yeah, if you want, we I want to have guests of a whole spectrum of, you know, life coaches and business coaches and, you know, dei professionals and parents, and it'd be amazing to have a group of kids on here to talk about queer kids talk about what they deal with every day in school because a lot of us can't even understand how that works. As you were YouTuber saying next was just one there are millions 1000s millions of kids like next out there suffering every single day. And they need support they, they need support. So thank you, everyone for listening and watching. We love you. Keep strong. I know it sucks out there. But yeah, we'll see you next episode with whatever it's going to be. We have no idea per usual. Have a good day. Bye. I