Informed Dissent

About This Episode This episode contains audio recorded inside Session 1240 at the 2026 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, held Saturday, May 16, 2026. The session was a Continuing Medical Education offering titled Transgender Psychiatrists Speak: Reflections From Training, Patient Care and Professional Practice . It ran from 1:30 to 3:00 PM Pacific Time in Room 202...

INFORMED DISSENT — Special Edition Monday, May 19, 2026 About This Episode This episode contains audio recorded inside Session 1193 at the 2026 American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco, held Saturday, May 16, 2026. The session was a Continuing Medical Education offering titled Transgender Care: Update on Evidence Base and Clinical Practice of Primary Care Child and Adolesce...

Montana has passed some of the most clearly sex-realist legislation in the country — and its courts are using one of the most expansive state constitutions in the country to block it. This week, Jamie sits down with Derek Oestericher, Chief Legal Counsel and Director of Government Affairs at the Montana Family Foundation, for a deep dive into three active cases that will shape not just Montana law...

About this episode Lauren Leggieri, Jamie Reed and Cori Cohn interview Ben Kawaller. Ben Kawaller is a journalist, playwright, and gay man whose writing and video reporting have appeared in the New York Post , Racket News , The Times UK , and The Free Press , where he hosted the sociopolitical interview series Ben Meets America . He’s a Harvard sociology graduate based in New York and a former Blo...

On This Episode PAS 2026 met in Boston at the end of April. On Sunday, a panel of four researchers and clinicians presented findings on pediatric gender medicine to 106 attendees. Before the session began, the PAS Program Chair informed the audience that every clinician approached to serve as a counterpoint speaker had declined to participate. The panel’s CME accreditation had been flagged for rev...

This week Lauren Leggieri, Cori Cohn, and Jamie Reed have a lot to get through — and we mean a lot. So take a page from the old NPR Saturday playbook: make something, drive somewhere, tend your garden, and let this one unspool over a few days. We brought three guests, and every one of them earned their seat at the table. We open with the New York Times story about a man who identifies as transgend...

This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, and Lauren Leggieri are joined by guest Dr. Julia Mason to discuss the landmark Finnish cohort study on psychiatric outcomes in gender-referred youth and SEGM's methodological appraisal of the Utah evidence review. Dr. Mason is a board-certified pediatrician, Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, and founding board member of the Society...

This week on Informed Dissent, Jamie Reed and Lauren Leggieri are joined first by LGB CC Head Writer LeAnne Owen for a behind-the-scenes conversation about substantive writing, the stories driving this movement, and LeAnne’s belief that the work we are doing now will serve as the historical primary source documents for tomorrow. Then we are joined by two guests from Colorado — Erin Lee and Dr. Tra...

This week Jamie Reed, Lauren Leggieri, and Cori Cohn are joined by Kevin Kellar — a trial lawyer with thirty years of experience handling large-loss tort cases and litigation of all types, all over the country. Kevin specializes in dropping into cases as trial approaches, and he consults and advises on medicalized gender care litigation nationally. He is drawn to this work by his sympathy for the...

Jamie Reed, Cori Cohn, and Lauren Leggieri open the episode with a wide-ranging conversation about the gap between what people say online and what they actually do in real life — and the platforms that shape both. Cori has quit X. Jamie has questions about Tumblr. The hosts dig into the psychology of online activism versus real-world action, anchored by a recurring hypothetical: a young anarchist...

What the ASPS position statement on pediatric gender surgery actually says — and what it means. A listener’s guide to our episode for March 21 2026; names, the history, and what’s at stake. On February 3, 2026, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons issued a nine-page position statement recommending that surgeons delay all gender-related surgery — breast/chest, genital, and facial — until a pati...

This week on Informed Dissent, Lauren Leggieri, Cori Cohn, and Jamie Reed break down a week that managed to be both absurd and consequential — sometimes at the same time. The first is a new paper out of the Amsterdam clinic — the team that invented the Dutch Protocol and launched a generation of pediatric gender medicine worldwide. De Rooy, Dekkers, Steensma, Popma, Kreukels, and de Vries looked a...

This week, Jamie and Lauren are joined by three guests pushing back against ideological capture in law, psychology, and education. Cori will be back next week. 🏛️ SCOTUS: Mirabelli v. Bonta The Supreme Court issued an emergency order vacating the Ninth Circuit’s stay of a district court injunction — protecting parents from California’s gender-identity nondisclosure policies in schools. Justice Bar...

Informed Dissent February 28, 2026 This week on Informed Dissent , Cori, Jamie, and Lauren break down Jesse Singal’s recent opinion piece in the New York Times and review some of the comments furiously written in the short window available. We also discuss what is happening in the state of Kansas regarding the implementation of the new sex-based driver’s license law. This Week’s Guest Dan Zakshesk...

This week on Informed Dissent , Jamie, Lauren, and Cori step into the breach — with guest Jennifer Sey. Jennifer Sey Jennifer Sey is an American author, filmmaker, business executive, and retired National Champion gymnast. She was the 1986 U.S. Women’s National Champion and 7x National Team member. She was the first gymnast to speak out about the abuses in the sport in her 2008 memoir, Chalked Up....

Informed Dissent — Week of February 14, 2026 With Jamie Reed, Lauren Leggieri, and Cori Cohn Guest: Dr. Patrick Hunter This week on Informed Dissent , Jamie, Lauren, and Cori go back to the Detransitioner lawsuit trying to parse a standard of care when the whole field went off the rails. They discuss weekly headlines and are then joined by Dr. Patrick Hunter for a wide-ranging conversation on pedi...

Informed Dissent — Show Notes This week, Lauren, Jamie, and Cori break down a cascade of developments that unfolded in rapid succession: a New York jury malpractice verdict and major medical organizations reversing course on youth gender surgeries. We also take a brief look at patient-facing spaces like Reddit to see whether families are already reporting canceled or delayed surgeries, noting that...

This week on Informed Dissent , Jamie, Lauren, and Cori reflect on a week of unexpected moments — travel, testimony, and the decision to speak up when staying quiet would have been easier. Our deep dive includes a behind-the-scenes conversation about recent legislative hearings and welcoming new voices into the movement. We’re joined by Dr. Karla Solheim , a board-certified OB/GYN living and pract...

Informed Dissent — January 17, 2026 News of the Week & Deep Dive This week’s episode moves from state-level political turmoil to Supreme Court oral arguments, with a few unexpected cultural and intellectual detours along the way. Segment One — New Jersey at a Crossroads We open with the unfolding conflict inside New Jersey’s political and advocacy landscape, where a proposed “gender health care sh...

This week on Informed Dissent we tackle the New York Times , men in women’s sports, Trans News Network, and the 37th Annual GLAAD Media Award nominees. We also discuss shoe sizes (is a women’s 11½ an outlier?), the independent media nominees all being either trans, queer, or aligned with that side of the movement, and why Jamie can’t pronoun Brad Polumbo’s name. In our second segment we were joine...

Informed Dissent — This Week for January 3, 2026 This week’s episode marks our return after the holiday break and focuses on Washington State, where sports policy, media framing, parental rights, and direct democracy are converging in real time. Jamie, Cori, and Lauren are together for the full episode, opening with a wide-ranging first segment before turning to an interview from Washington State....

Informed Dissent — This Week for December 20, 2025 This week’s episode moved fast and covered a lot of ground. Cori and Jamie opened with a wide-angle look at where things actually stand right now—before turning to a guest conversation that tested the limits of dialogue across disagreement. Policy, politics, and what’s winning Cori and Jamie begin the episode by breaking down several developments...

Informed Dissent — This Week’s Episode This week on Informed Dissent , we’re joined by Alasdair Gunn and Harrison Tinsley for a wide-ranging and deeply human conversation about health, survival, fatherhood, civic responsibility, and what it means to protect children in a culture that often resists restraint. We discuss how lived experience—serious illness, custody battles, and advocacy—reshapes mo...

Informed Dissent News for the Week December 6, 2025 Segment One — Conversation with Glenna Goldis We open the episode with Glenna Goldis and a breakdown of the week’s biggest stories: * The New York Times piece on the secretly recorded surgery consultation * Chase Strangio , taking one for the team with a public-facing optimism that change is possible within current advocacy structures — and why t...

Informed Dissent — News of the Week • Nex Dagny Benedict We cover the ongoing developments in the Nex Dagny Benedict case and the layers of narrative, reporting, and political framing that continue to emerge. • New Research Study — Covered by Ben Ryan We discuss the newly released study on youth suicidality and cross-sex hormones, along with journalist Ben Ryan’s detailed analysis of its methods a...