A big show this week as we have the highlights from a controversial gender discussion involving Julie Bindel! We also speak to Joe Muto, the Fox News Mole, find out about developments in understanding motor neuron disorders, discover if the new Olympic chief will be good for human rights, and find out why ASDA and Tesco got some social media earache yesterday. PLUS: The latest on developments in multidimensional mathematics!
Costume Controversy (1:43) by Tannice Pendegrass The Battle Over Gender Highlights (7:20) ft Gia Milinovich, Julie Bindel, Bethany Black and Adrian Dalton Multidimensional Maths Breakthrough (15:45) by Sean Ellis The Fox News Mole (25:47) by James O’Malley (ft Joe Muto) Motor Neuron Developments (42:10) by Sandra Prow (ft Rachael Dunlop) Tokyo 2020 (53:29) by Marc Naimark The sketch at the end is by David Lovesy & Brian Two
Insults, threats and abuse have been hurled between trans activists and radical feminists for the past few years. The general public knows little if anything about the raging war between them; not the reasons for the hostilities nor the extent of the damage. Neither side is innocent.
The battle is about an idea: Gender. What is it? Is it socially constructed? Is it an innate male or female self that exists separately from one’s biological sex? Most importantly, who will get to define it? Also, are trans* activists biological essentialists? Or is it the radical feminists who are the biological essentialists? What the hell is biological essentialism anyway? And finally, can we just agree that we all hate Richard Littlejohn and get on with getting on?
Soho Skeptics attempted to find some common ground in a night of personal stories, discussion and comedy.
Adrian Dalton was born female, transitioned and is now male-bodied. He has done a variety of work from performing as drag queen Lola Lypsinka, to writing his novel Inside Lindsey’s Handbag, to life modelling, pole-dancing, transcription services and formatting reports for various companies. He currently lives in Queensway with his cat HRF Elton.
Julie Bindel is a journalist, broadcaster, author and feminist campaigner. She writes for the Guardian, New Statesman, Standpoint Magazine, The Spectator and the Sunday Telegraph, and is managing editor of Gaze – A Modern Review. Julie writes about anything horrible that happens to women and children, but also about culture, music, food, film and sexual and gender identity. She has travelled to Nevada to spend a week in legal brothels; Florida to visit death row, the Middle East to visit Syrian refugee camps and many other countries all over the world to report on a range of issues. Julie’s book, ‘Straight Expectations’ will be published by Guardian Books in 2014.
Unique, striking, cutting…An evening with Bethany Black is a one way ticket to a world you never knew existed. There are many words used to describe Bethany Black, Goth, Lesbian, trans, butch, recovering addict, vegan, Comedian, northern, roller girl. She sometimes sounds like a one woman pigeon hole generator. She’s been variously described as “Dark tinged, but magical” by the Guardian and “The living embodiment of political correctness gone mad” by one of her friends. The one thing that they all agree on is that she’s funny. She’s been a professional comedian for the last 6 years and has performed alongside some of the biggest acts in the world, Her first Edinburgh show “Beth Becomes Her” was the story of her transition from being considered male to how she really is, female, and gained critical acclaim. She currently gigs up and down the country telling incredibly personal stories to people of varying levels of sobriety.
Gia Milinovich, according to Wikipedia, “is an American film blogger and producer” (nope), “she presented TV programmes… dating back to 1995 (1992 actually), but now works largely behind the scenes” (nope). So there you go.
Kepler Retires (2:11) by Kash Farooq (ft Dr Jon Jenkins from NASA) David Attenborough’s Wrong (13:33) by Lucy Abel Post-Truth Politics (19:50) by Mark Thompson (ft Alex Marsh) Living In The Past (31:23) by Leila Johnston Taste (42:15) by Shell Grayson The sketch at the end is by David Lovesy & Brian Two
This week Trent gets angry about the outcome of the Australian election, and we speak to two others about their books: Tim Harford, who you may know from More Or Less talks The Undercover Economist Strikes Back, and Patricia Churchland, who has written a book about neurophilosophy. Plus Tom Hodden takes us back in time to the Poor Laws.
Aussie Election (1:53) by Trent Burton Macroeconomics (14:21) by James O’Malley (ft Tim Harford!) Neurophilosophy (31:52) by Liz Lutgendorff (ft Patricia Churchland) Poor Laws (48:09) by Tom Hodden The sketch at the end is by David Lovesy & Brian Two
Chemical Weapons Sold To Syria? (2:16) by Dr*T Space Ants! (9:26) by Kash Farooq (ft Prof Max Vasile) The IOC and Human Rights (21:20) by Marc Naimark Debating Religion (28:44) by Sean Slater Z-List Dead-List (36:38) by Iszi Lawrence The sketch at the end is by David Lovesy & Brian Two