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Pastor and counselor Chris Legg returns to talk about something he sees in nearly every grad student who arrives for training at Aletheia Family Counseling Center: fear. After 25 years of training new therapists from seminaries, secular universities, and everything in between, Chris says most show up convinced a lawsuit is coming the moment anyone learns what they personally believe. We start with the phrase "check your values at the door," and Chris shows why it collapses under its own logic. He tells the story of a local university that stopped sending students to Aletheia after an intern wrote that she was glad she wasn't required to counsel same-sex couples, and what happened when he asked the professors whether a survivor of assault should be required to treat abusers. We also look at what the record actually shows about therapists getting in trouble for declining certain clients, why the process is so often the punishment, and why some talented clinicians are giving up their licenses to work as coaches. I explain why I kept my license but do my work as a coach. Then Chris speaks directly to grad students and interns: you matter to the therapeutic process, and you don't have to practice in constant fear. What does it look like to expose your faith without imposing it? And where can counselors with conservative or religious values find mentorship? Pastor Chris Legg, LPCs, and his wife Ginger have been living out the parable of God’s love for His people since 1993 and have been blessed with five great kids. He is the Lead Pastor at South Spring Baptist Church in Tyler, TX (www.southspring.org) and is also the founding owner and clinical director of Alethia Family Counseling Center (www.alethiacounseling.com), which offers training, counseling, speaking and business consulting in several locations in Texas. He and his son, Mark, are the authors of the book Sex and Marriage, which is intended to restore to marriages the power God intended. Learn more about SSBC at www.southspring.org. More about Alethia at www.alethiacounseling.com. Contact Chris, read any of his articles, and look for other resources at his website at www.chrismlegg.com and at https://chrismlegg.substack.com/ [00:00:00] Start[00:03:35] Why Grad Students Fear Their Own Values[00:08:08] University Cuts Ties Over Same-Sex Couples Policy[00:11:34] Competency, Referrals, and Therapist Boundaries[00:20:43] Do Therapists Really Lose Licenses Over Refusals[00:24:55] Board Complaints: The Process Is the Punishment[00:30:44] Aletheia's Bylaws: Therapy as Protected Speech[00:32:44] Why Therapists Trade Licenses for Coaching[00:42:12] Chris's Message to Anxious New Therapists[00:55:07] Imposing vs. Exposing Values in Therapy[00:59:53] How Conversion Therapy's Meaning Shifted[01:02:17] Advice for Therapists in Blue States[01:10:27] Cross-State Licensing Laws and PSYPACT ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Katy Faust returns to the podcast, and this time the conversation goes somewhere I didn’t expect. Katy founded Them Before Us to defend children’s right to their mother and father, and she opens by laying out the three principles that drive her work: children have a right to life, children need their mom and dad, and children should not be bought and sold. Those convictions put her at odds with almost everyone at some point, which is exactly why I wanted to talk with her again. What makes this episode different is how personal it gets. Katy asks me, as a therapist, whether children ever really get over losing a parent. That question opens into a long exchange about ego strength, earned secure attachment, and why a twenty-year-old can’t yet see what a forty-year-old can about the childhood in their rear view mirror. I share more about my own psychic foundations than I have before on this show, picking up on the personal disclosures in my recent conversation with Soad Tabrizi.  We also get practical. Katy shares what it took to help the son they adopted at age two to finally feel secure after neglect and abandonment. Katy explains the “no flinch rule” from her book on parenting, why self-esteem comes from doing hard things rather than hearing praise, and why American parenting has the freedom-to-constraint ratio backwards. And we talk directly to parents who built their families through donor conception or surrogacy: how do you hold the complexity of loving your children while staying open to what they may be grieving as a result of your choices? Katy Faust is Founder and President of Them Before Us, a global movement defending children’s right to their mother and father. She publishes, speaks and testifies widely on why marriage and family are matters of justice for children. Her articles have appeared in outlets including Newsweek, USA Today, Fox News, The Federalist, Public Discourse, WORLD Magazine, First Things, and the Blaze. She is on the advisory board for the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship. She detailed her philosophy of worldview transmission in her book, Raising Conservative Kids in a Woke City. Her third book, Pro-Child Politics was published September 2024. She is spearheading Greater Than which aims to retake legal marriage on behalf of children. She and her husband have raised their four children in Seattle. Katy previously appeared on this podcast in episode 145. Putting Children’s Needs Before Adults’ Desires with Katy Faust. Substack: Them Before Us | Katy FaustFacebook: Them Before UsInstagram: @them_before_usPodcast: Them Before Us PodcastX: @ThemBeforeUsWebsite: Them Before UsX | @Katy_FaustFacebook |Katy FaustWebsite |Katy FaustInstagram |@katyfaustofficialBooks mentioned in this episode: Them Before Us: Why We Need a Global Children’s Rights Movement — Katy FaustRaising Conservative Kids in a Woke City — Katy Faust, co-authored (the co-author is referred to only as “Stacy” in the transcript)Pro-Child Politics — Katy Faust, ed. (a collection of 19 subject-matter experts writing on policy through a child-first lens)[00:00:00] Start[00:01:59] Right To Life, Mother And Father, Not Bought And Sold[00:13:07] Adults Should Do Hard Things For Children[00:19:25] Children Who Lost A Parent By Adult Choice[00:22:32] Ego Strength And Honest Reflection[00:31:00] Earned Secure Attachment[00:32:56] Adopting A Son Starved Of Everything[00:36:16] Parenting From Guilt And Weak Boundaries[00:40:10] American Parenting Has It Upside Down[00:47:12] Where Self-Esteem Actually Comes From[00:51:09] Emotional Intimacy And The No Flinch Rule[01:00:04] Advice For Parents Who Used Donors Or Surrogacy ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow u...

I'm eager to welcome back Lynn Chadwick, a retired NICU nurse and founder of Themis Resource Fund, to discuss the critical landscape of detransition lawsuits and legal accountability in medical transition. We dive deep into the first detransition lawsuit victory—the Varian v. Einhorn case—where a therapist was found 70% culpable, and what this landmark decision means for mental health professionals. Lynn shares how Themis is supporting detransitioned individuals seeking litigation assistance, the major barriers they face (including the statute of limitations crisis that prevents most cases from moving forward), and how the FTC investigation into fraudulent billing practices is changing the legal landscape. We explore the difference between autonomy and medical ethics, why expanding statute of limitations laws is critical work that needs grassroots advocates, and how parents and professionals can support this effort. Most importantly, Lynn articulates a vision of evidence-based medicine—one that prioritizes healing and truth over harm, and recognizes that young, healthy people deserve protection, not procedures that damage their bodies for life. This conversation tackles the intersection of parental advocacy, legal justice, and the path forward for families navigating detransition. Lynn Chadwick is a retired NICU nurse who became a parent advocate after two of her children medically transitioned. She founded Themis Resource Fund to provide detransitioned individuals with litigation assistance. ThemisResourceFund.orgX: @ThemisRFLynn's previous episode on my podcast: 182. From Estrangement to Advocacy: Lynn Chadwick on Parental Identity After Your Child TransitionsROGD Repair article mentioned: The Belief That Builds Its Own Cage: The Causal Chain of Consequence in Trans Ideation Special Offer for Listeners: Donate $500 or more to Themis Resource Fund and forward your receipt to [email protected] to receive lifetime access to ROGD Repair as a thank you gift from Stephanie. [00:00:00] Start[00:01:33] Understanding Detransition Lawsuits[00:03:45] Politics & Humanity Divide[00:07:00] Medicine Requires Evidence-Based Practice[00:10:00] Mental Health Data Contradicts Narratives[00:31:00] The Regret & Remorse Timeline[00:33:30] Statute of Limitations Crisis[00:40:30] FTC Investigation & Billing Fraud[00:43:00] Litigation Barriers & Legal Strategy[00:48:30] The Coming Wave of Cases[00:52:30] Family Therapy & Reconciliation[01:01:00] Expert Witnesses & Professionals[01:05:00] Themis Resource Fund Support[01:08:15] Camille Kifer Settlement Success ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

I can’t believe I’m doing this.  My friend Soad Tabrizi — therapist, founder of Conservative Counselors, and a returning guest — asked if she could reverse-interview me about my own story, and I said yes. What came out was far more than I planned to share, and even if you’ve been following my work for years, it’s probably all new to you. I talk about growing up a white girl near Compton and Inglewood in the 1990s, the racial scapegoating I faced as a child, and the nutritional and emotional neglect that shaped my body and nervous system for decades. I describe the father I’ve called an autistic narcissist, a mother who loved me but couldn’t see me, and the bullying that pushed me into a punk, anarchist, runaway adolescence. I trace the path from a near-fatal drinking incident at fourteen through cults in Hawai’i, the Hare Krishnas in LA, and finally a near-stranger’s intervention that sent me to college and, eventually, into this profession. Why tell any of this? Because so much of what I teach parents — about willful children, suicide threats, meeting kids where they are, forgiveness, and how to apologize well — comes straight out of what I lived through, and went without. This is the person behind the professional, and the deficits that became my life’s work. Podcasts are not therapy, and I’m not your therapist — but I hope my story helps you see your own kids, and yourself, with a little more grace. Watch the full episode here on Substack. Click here to find it on your podcast listening platform of choice. Click here to find it on YouTube. Soad Tabrizi is a licensed marriage and family therapist with more than 15 years of clinical experience. She runs a telehealth private practice from her office in Orange County, California, and is the founder of Conservative Counselors, a directory connecting clients with reality-based mental health professionals who share their values. Soad is a contributing opinion writer for Human Events and publishes a subscriber-supported Substack focused on the corruption and ideological capture of the mental health field, as well as commentary on culture and politics. She is known for challenging woke orthodoxy in mental health and encouraging conservative professionals to stop hiding their values and start speaking openly about them. She previously appeared on episodes 65. Conservative Patients in Therapy with Soad Tabrizi and 103. Truth, Hope, & Mental Health | Michael DC Bowen, Pamela Garfield-Jaeger & Soad Tabrizi. www.soadtabrizi.comwww.conservativecounselors.comhttps://x.com/SoadTabrizihttps://www.facebook.com/soadtabrizihttps://www.instagram.com/soadtabrizi/[00:00:00] Start[00:05:22] Warmth, Coldness, And Humility[00:10:00] Ego Strength And Online Scapegoating[00:13:45] A White Girl In Compton[00:19:30] Childhood Nutritional Neglect[00:25:45] The 1992 Riots And Racial Scapegoating[00:32:00] Having An Autistic Narcissist For A Father[00:44:19] Middle School Humiliation[00:57:29] Punk Years And The Masc Mask[01:06:45] Handling Teen Suicide Threats[01:09:20] A Teenage Overdose[01:18:14] Burning Out And Escaping To Hawaii[01:22:45] One Cult After Another[01:29:45] A Surprise Intervention[01:36:15] Finding Belonging In Santa Cruz[01:42:26] The Question Of Forgiveness ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

The psychedelic renaissance is here — money is pouring in, states are legalizing, and a federal executive order has fast-tracked ibogaine research for veterans. But if you’re a conservative, a skeptic, or just politically homeless, is there room for you in this movement? In this episode I welcome back therapist Karen King (last heard in episodes 81 and 97) alongside her co-author Wesley Smith, a small-c conservative who stumbled into psychedelics through a paragliding accident. Together they’ve written Sensible Psychedelics: Why the Psychedelic Renaissance Needs Conservatives, Skeptics, and the Politically Homeless. We dig into what Karen witnessed firsthand in the very first therapist training cohort: a week spent dismantling privilege and naming genders rather than discussing consciousness, clinical skills, or facilitation. We talk about why that ideological capture isn’t just annoying — it’s dangerous. When a patient’s mind is cracked wide open in a psychedelic state, a facilitator who imprints their own politics is committing something close to abuse. Wesley shares the veterans angle, where an anti-colonial culture hopes to turn warriors into pacifists. But this isn’t a cynical conversation. We explore the genuine healing psychedelics can offer — Karen’s work helping a dying woman conquer her fear of death, Wesley’s reconciliation with his late father — and ask the questions this movement keeps avoiding: Why does psychedelic culture skew so far left? Where are the liberals whose journeys made them more curious about people they’d dismissed? And can a self-regulating, transparent ecosystem — maybe even one built around churches — grow up outside the captured certification boards? Are you an ROGD parent looking to do some deep, inner work for healing? A trusted friend has a special small-group offering called “Parents Heal Together” which might be a good fit for you. To learn more, please sign up here for a free informational webinar. Books mentioned in this episode: Sensible Psychedelics: Why the Psychedelic Renaissance Needs Conservatives, Skeptics, and the Politically Homeless — Karen King & Wesley SmithHow to Change Your Mind — Michael PollanKaren King, MS, LMHC, LPC is a psychotherapist with more than 20 years of experience helping adults navigate trauma, anxiety, grief, and life’s deepest transitions. The former founder of a multidisciplinary behavioral health clinic, she specializes in contemplative and psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy. With Wesley Smith, she co-authored the forthcoming Sensible Psychedelics: Why the Psychedelic Renaissance Needs Conservatives, Skeptics, and the Politically Homeless, which explores how psychedelics can bridge cultural divides rather than deepen them. Find her therapy practice at NewMindTherapy.com. Karen also hosts the Nuanced Therapist Network, a private, vetted community for heterodox therapists. Wesley Smith is a “small c” conservative psychonaut and writer working to bring the psychedelic renaissance out of the counterculture and into the living rooms of average Americans. After a head injury led him to explore nontraditional paths for healing, he found that psychedelics can deepen the values conservatives hold dear — faith, family, duty, and personal responsibility. His co-authored case in Sensible Psychedelics pairs evidence-based research with a culturally grounded argument for humility, gratitude, and moral clarity. [00:00:00] Start[00:03:15] Trump's Executive Order and State Psychedelic Laws[00:06:57] A Conservative's Accidental Path to Psychedelics[00:14:45] Karen's Path Through Ketamine-Assisted Therapy[00:18:50] Ideological Capture in Psychedelic Training[00:21:52] Imprinting Values, Vulnerability, and Veterans[00:29:07] Ketamine Case Study and Personal Growth[00:35:56] Why the Psychedelic World Skews Left[00:44:52] How Psychedelics Broadened Wesley's Empathy[00:48:33] Therapy as Dismantling Civilization[00:52:23] Regulation, Transparency, and Psychedelic Churches ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my L...

Retired Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Justice Elspeth Cypher returns to the podcast (her first appearance was episode 183) to map the legal landscape of the gender turf wars, fought on four major frontiers: prisons, schools, sports, and therapy. As president of the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), Elspeth walks me through the Chandler case challenging California’s SB 132, which eliminated all gatekeeping for men seeking transfer into women’s prisons, and the protective orders finally winning women in federal facilities some measure of relief. We discuss the aftermath of Skrmetti, Mahmoud, Chiles, and the BPJ sports ruling — and why a Supreme Court victory on paper doesn’t translate smoothly into changed practice on the ground. We also explore how women’s speech has been silenced across millennia, from the scold’s bridle to modern cancelation; what “radical feminist” means to her; the ethics of surrogacy; the falsification of birth certificates; WoLF’s remarkable new executive director, Jasmine Faulk, who escaped Saudi Arabia; the FTC’s fraud case against WPATH; and why parental authority has to be established early. This conversation asks: when nearly 200,000 women are incarcerated in facilities an unknown number of men can now enter, who is defending their right to safety, privacy, and dignity? Elspeth B. Cypher retired from the Supreme Judicial Court in Massachusetts in 2024. She is president of the board of directors of the Women’s Liberation Front (WoLF), a nonpartisan radical (meaning "root") feminist organization dedicated to the rights of women and girls. She is also a founding member of the Gender Critical Law Society. Follow her on X @ebclaw or here on Substack Elspeth Cypher. Email: [email protected]. [00:00:00] Start[00:03:51] How Women's Speech Gets Silenced[00:12:23] What Radical Feminism Really Means[00:17:23] The Ethics of Surrogacy[00:24:01] Falsified Birth Certificates and Identity[00:28:27] WoLF's New Executive Director[00:32:03] Chandler Case: Men in Women's Prisons[00:39:15] Protective Orders in Federal Prisons[00:47:30] Skrmetti, Mahmoud, and Chiles Rulings[00:54:29] Supreme Court on Girls' Sports[00:57:12] Four Frontiers of the Gender Battle[01:00:30] Counting Women in US Prisons[01:09:30] Gender Identity in School Curricula[01:14:06] Parental Authority Starts Early[01:19:08] FTC Fraud Case Against WPATH[01:24:10] Final Words of Wisdom ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SUBSTACK to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

I'm welcoming back filmmaker Simon Esler, who first appeared on this podcast back on episode 54 to discuss his documentary Cut: Daughters of the West. This time, we're diving into his new docuseries You Are Here, which explores the landscape of cognitive warfare—the idea that human cognition itself has become the most contested territory in modern conflict. We start with the chilling case of Barry Neufeld, a Canadian school board trustee who was fined $750,000 for refusing to believe that children can be born trapped in the wrong body—what the judge's ruling called "existential denialism." From there, we explore how Canada's human rights laws and conversion therapy legislation have embedded gender identity ideology into the legal framework, silencing detransitioners and punishing dissenters. Simon and I discuss how our minds are conditioned by narratives we've never examined, how meta-perceptions warp our view of political opponents, and what Iain McGilchrist's work on brain hemispheres reveals about Western cognitive vulnerability. We also get into the concept of cognitive entrenchment, moral inversion, and the historical parallels between modern ideological capture and ancient child sacrifice in Carthage. Simon shares what's next for his series and talks about the Reclaiming Birth Conference, where he's working to empower families to take back sovereignty over pregnancy and birth. Books mentioned in this episode: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. LewisRange: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David EpsteinThe Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World by Iain McGilchristSimon Esler is a committed defender of families & the lost art of free thought. A winding career path as an actor, theatre maker, ordained minister and mindfulness entrepreneur lead him to becoming a professional content creator & independent filmmaker. His latest docuseries, You Are Here - Reconnaissance for the War on Perception, is now streaming at dauntlessdialogue.com. The rest of Simon’s work can be found at simonesler.com, where he hosts an array of films, series, courses & resources focused on leveraging the pressures of modern war to foster personal growth and collective resilience. To partner with Simon’s Leaving the Line Studio for content creation, filmmaking, and brand strategy check out his full portfolio.Reclaiming Birth Conference: reclaimingbirthconference.com — a conference in Canada in September focused on empowering families around natural birth; Simon is emceeingX (Twitter): @SimonEslerInstagram: @simon_esler1111Substack: Simon Esler / Subversive Clarity[00:00:00] Start[00:01:27] Cognitive Warfare as the New Battlefield[00:03:10] Barry Neufeld and the SOGI 123 Curriculum[00:05:15] Fined $750K for "Existential Denialism"[00:07:57] Gender Identity as Compelled Religious Belief[00:10:11] Canada's Human Rights Laws and Bill C-16[00:13:18] Gender Identity as a Shield Against Accountability[00:19:17] Detransitioners Silenced in Canada[00:24:33] Recognizing Our Own Cognitive Conditioning[00:28:06] How Media Narratives Mirror Personal Anxiety[00:29:45] Meta-Perceptions and the 400% Violence Gap[00:35:32] What Is Fifth Generation Warfare[00:40:01] Moral Inversion Through Cognitive Manipulation[00:47:25] Cognitive Entrenchment and Thinking Outside Your Domain[00:49:18] When Ideological Capture Endangers Children[00:53:31] Child Sacrifice in Carthage as a Modern Warning[00:59:05] Collective Morality and Centralized Culture[01:02:34] The Reclaiming Birth Movement[01:08:47] Finding Purpose in Defending Free Thought ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast ...

I'm so glad to welcome back my friend Kim O for her third appearance on the show. Kim is a relational soul coach and author who works directly with ROGD-affected teens and their parents — one of a very small handful of people doing work that closely mirrors my own. In this conversation, we dig into what it actually looks like to believe in your child's soul when everything about their behavior is screaming at you to panic. Kim shares how shifting from fear and worry energy to genuine belief in her own son's potential transformed their relationship — and how she now coaches families to do the same. We explore what I call strategic and what Kim calls clever: non-threatening, indirect approaches that plant seeds of growth without triggering the ego defenses that gender ideology has shored up in these kids. We talk about the power of fun and play in rebuilding connection, the danger of suggestion-based parenting, setting real boundaries around devices, and why personality typing tools like the Enneagram can actually give girls a healthier outlet for the same identity-seeking impulse that gender ideology exploits. Kim also introduces her new parent and teen workbook journals, designed to create structured moments of connection and self-reflection for families who don't know where to begin. Kim O is a Relational Soul Coach and author. She utilizes Conscious Principles, Presence, and Authenticity Mapping to awaken you to your greatest power, your Conscious Authentic Self. Through inner child work and profound mindset strategies from the stoics and sages, unhealthy coping mechanisms diminish, leaving your empowerment and high relational intelligence in the wake. As a coach, she provides personal, alchemical stories of trauma turned into gold. If she did it, so can you! Contact and find her resources at linktr.ee/heartworkuKim's workbooks: My Role as the Parent of a Teen: a Journal that Guides YOU to Lead & Create Connection Who Am I? a Teen’s Journal of Self-Celebration & Connection  [00:00:00] Start[00:02:10] Shifting From Fear to Belief Energy[00:06:45] Celebrating Teens and the Teen Brain[00:10:15] The Weekly Check-In and Connect[00:16:15] Practicing Belief When Your Kid Is Nasty[00:20:35] Rupture, Repair, and Strategic Apologizing[00:25:00] Untangling Emotion From Gender Identity[00:32:15] Parents Who Never Rebelled[00:35:00] Rebellion as the Spirit of Adventure[00:40:00] Guilt, Self-Forgiveness, and Planting Seeds[00:45:00] Social Media and the Immature Brain[00:49:06] Fun, Play, and Suggestion-Based Parenting[00:55:45] Chores, Boredom, and Preparing for the Road[01:01:00] What Is the Role of the Teen and Parent[01:07:53] Coaching Under a Different Name[01:11:19] Personality Typing as an Alternative to Gender[01:18:15] Myers-Briggs and Breaking Gender Stereotypes ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

This is Part Two of Teens and Screens, and it's the counterweight. Last episode, Dr. Johann D'Souza made the case for keeping toxic screens out of your teenager's hands entirely. Today I'm joined again by Dr. Will Dobud — social worker, researcher, and co-author of Kids These Days — who thinks the story we tell ourselves about phones and youth mental health is far bigger than the evidence behind it. I open by naming my own bias: I work with the families where it went wrong. Porn addiction, gaming addiction, failure to launch, daughters pulled into dark corners of social media. Will names his: he's oppositional by temperament, and he wrote a book making fun of how adults talk about kids. We get into why the meta-analytic effects between screen use and youth mental health are so small they're arguably not worth publishing, what a third variable does to correlational data, and why Australia's social media ban is failing six months in. I push back repeatedly — on whether "do what feels right" is useful advice to parents who don't know what modern pornography even is, on the candy-bin problem of unregulated access, and on whether calling the phone a symptom of family dysfunction slides into blaming parents. Then Will gets on his soapbox about school, and the conversation turns somewhere I didn't expect: youth self-harm and ER data that tracks the school calendar. Up during term, down during holidays. Highest on Mondays. What if we've been pointing at the wrong thing? Books mentioned in this episode: Kids These Days — Dr. Will Dobud, with co-author NevinThe Anxious Generation — Jonathan HaidtDr. Will Dobud is a social worker, researcher, and educator who has worked with adolescents and families in the United States, Australia, and Norway. Will is from Washington, D.C., and divides his time between the United States and Australia each year. He is an award-winning researcher and educator recognized for excellence in research, teaching, and crime prevention. Dr. Dobud is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work at Charles Sturt University, Australia's largest social work school. His research focuses on improving therapy outcomes for teenagers and promoting safe, ethical practices. He has investigated and written about America's Troubled Teen Industry, especially wilderness therapy. He has worked alongside advocates, survivors, researchers, and clinicians to protect youth from institutionalization and harm. Will is the co-author of the award-winning book, Kids These Days: Understanding and Supporting Youth Mental Health (2025). Links  🌐 Website: www.willdobud.com📖 Book site: www.kidsthesedaysbook.com📘 Facebook: @WillDobudPhD🐦 X (Twitter): @WillDobud📸 Instagram: @WillDobud / @Kids_These_Days_Book💼 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-dobud-5209ab74/✍️ Substack: https://substack.com/@willdobudPrevious appearance: Episode 202, "Label Mania: How Diagnosing Every Kid Is Backfiring on a Generation"Candice Odgers TED Talk[00:00:00] Start[00:02:51] Where the Screen Narrative Outruns the Evidence[00:06:40] Australia's Failing Social Media Ban[00:12:15] The Third Variable Behind Rising Diagnoses[00:16:26] What Violent Video Games Got Wrong[00:20:24] Is There a Case for Teens on Social Media?[00:24:09] Pushback: Most Parents Don't Know the Risks[00:32:29] Advice for Parents of Kids Six, Eight, and Ten[00:38:45] Designed to Be Addictive: Netflix, Books, Phones[00:41:31] The Meta Trial and the Word Addiction[00:49:46] Is the Phone a Symptom or the Cause?[00:53:41] The Candy Bin and the Endless Buffet[01:05:31] Forty Years of Scaring Parents[01:09:19] Measuring Youth Mental Health at Scale[01:16:36] Autism Diagnoses, Funding, and Toxins[01:22:45] Will's Soapbox on School[01:26:56] Suicide Rates Follow the School Calendar[01:35:56] Why the Youngest Kid Gets Diagnosed ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Ha...

This is Part 1 of a two-part series on teens and screens, and I'm starting at one end of the spectrum on purpose. Today I welcome back Dr. Johann D'Souza, a clinical psychologist specializing in OCD and behavioral addiction, for an unapologetically hardline conversation. His position: never give your child a smartphone — and say no to the three "toxic screen uses" of video games, social media, and pornography. We dig into why each harms kids differently: how video games train boys toward "failure to launch" by rewarding minimal effort, how social media consumes an average of 36 hours a week from teenage girls during the years their identities are forming, and why Johann believes pornography is the single biggest problem facing young men today. He lays out his four takeaways for parents: embrace your parental authority, never give your child a smartphone, build up real life, and find one friend in the battle. We also get into the family dynamics driving early device use — what Johann calls the pattern of anxious moms and passive dads — and I bring my own framing on boundaries and why your adolescent with a smartphone is like a toddler with a candy bin. In Part 2, coming up in episode 225, you'll hear from Dr. Will Dobud, who argues close to the opposite: digital integration rather than prohibition. Hear both before you decide. The question this series explores is what a real childhood requires — and whether that means protecting kids from these technologies or teaching them to live alongside them. Dr. Johann D'Souza is a clinical psychologist with an unequivocal message: Smartphones are destroying young minds, pornography addiction is epidemic among teenage boys, and social media is driving girls to suicide. His solution? Never buy your child a smartphone. Period. With 20+ peer-reviewed publications, Harvard affiliation, and his book Saving Teens from Toxic Screens, Dr. D'Souza has the credentials the establishment can't dismiss. Former employers tried to cancel him. He's still speaking—hosting the podcast, traveling nationwide, and helping families fight back. Listen to his podcast, Virtuous Leaders, on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube. Check out our previous conversations here and here. [00:00:00] Start[00:02:19] What Is PsyPact Licensing[00:07:15] Never Give Your Child a Smartphone[00:08:04] Why Video Games Harm Boys[00:11:00] Replacing Games With Real Life[00:20:46] Reinforcing Limits and Consistency[00:23:45] Embrace Your Parental Authority[00:27:00] Slot Machine Syndrome and Extinction Bursts[00:33:28] Parents Who Can't Model Self-Control[00:35:07] Anxious Moms and Passive Dads[00:41:15] Social Media and the Teenage Girl[00:45:36] Pornography as the Biggest Problem[00:54:26] Why Sweet, Shy Kids Are Vulnerable[01:04:15] What Age Is Safe for a Smartphone[01:16:39] Raising Kids Hungry for Real Life[01:22:42] Non-Toxic Screen Use and Tech-Savvy Kids ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Today I welcome back Róisín Michaux — the Irish writer based in Brussels who covers women’s rights and free speech in the context of the transgender movement — for her second appearance on the show. When I booked this interview I had no idea what we’d cover; I simply trusted her to bring something worth digging into. What she brought is her ongoing investigation into the new World Health Organization guidelines for global transgender healthcare, and I’m hearing most of it for the first time right alongside the listener. Róisín walks me through how a 2019 reclassification in the International Classification of Diseases — moving gender identity out of mental health and into sexual health in order to “depathologize” it — created a conundrum: how do you get hormones and surgeries reimbursed for a condition that’s no longer a condition? That question, she argues, is the thread that connects the WHO’s guideline development group to a much larger story about HIV funding, the Global Fund, Open Society Foundations money, and decades of AIDS-elimination targets. We get into the “third gender” populations of India, Thailand, and Latin America; why so many of these vulnerable young men end up in prostitution and at high risk of HIV; and how offering the hormones and surgeries people want became a mechanism for getting them into clinics and onto antiretrovirals. We also cover the insurance-coding sleight of hand happening closer to home — mastectomies billed as “scar repair,” girls documented as males with gynecomastia — and what it all means for the parents and therapists trying to make sense of what their kids and clients are actually saying. The question the episode keeps returning to: if the price of ending AIDS is medicalizing vulnerable kids and reframing whole populations as trans, is that a victory worth claiming? Róisín Michaux is an Irish writer based in Brussels, Belgium. She writes about women’s rights and free speech in the context of the transgender movement. She is specifically interested in LGBTIQ activism, activists’ relationship to EU/European bureaucracies, the funding they receive, and how it has all led to deep and anti-democratic policy capture. She has 2 kids and a cocker spaniel. Follow her on Substack at Peaked or on X @RoisinMichaux.  Listen to our previous conversation: 206. The Intersex Lie: Róisín Michaux on How Queer Theory Hijacked a Rare Medical Condition. [00:00:00] Start[00:02:54] The WHO Guidelines and the ICD Reclassification[00:12:34] Third Gender Populations and the India Model[00:20:25] Open Society Foundations and "False Consciousness"[00:32:31] Prostitution, HIV Risk, and Marsha P. Johnson[00:37:34] GATE, Global Fund Money, and Legal Gender Recognition[00:47:17] Mainstreaming Trans Healthcare Into Public Systems[00:54:16] Insurance Coding, Endocrine Disorder, and Scar Repair[01:07:11] "End the Wait, End AIDS" by 2030[01:27:17] PrEP, Decriminalization, and the AIDS Infrastructure[01:36:38] Autism, Rescuers, and How Girls Get Roped In[01:43:33] Conversion Therapy Bans and Criminalized Therapists ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

I’m welcoming back Diana Lutfi — independent legal expert, healthcare regulatory and bioethics consultant, and coalition builder — for a conversation about just how broken the American healthcare system has become, and how that brokenness is now colliding with the fight over therapist speech. I open with a personal on-ramp: my own recent ordeal getting diagnosed and treated for SIBO, and everything it revealed about a system that pushes drugs and procedures while ignoring underlying causes. It’s a story about having to be your own advocate — doing your own research, demanding your own testing, declining the wrong prescription, and fighting for the right one — and about everyone who doesn’t have the skills or resources to do that. From there, Diana and I widen the lens. We talk about “standards of care” as a phrase that sounds authoritative but is often anything but, from WPATH to gastroenterology. And we get into the heart of the episode: Colorado. Why is it, in my view, the worst state to be a parent — and increasingly, to be a therapist? We unpack Chiles v. Salazar, the new HB 26-1322 (Civil Actions for Conversion Therapy Survivors), and the deliberately vague “unprofessional conduct” language that lets licensing boards discipline speech. The questions we explore: What actually counts as being “required to affirm”? How does vague law create a chilling effect? And what would it take to fight back? Diana Lutfi, JD, MSHCM, CPHQ is an independent legal expert, healthcare regulatory and bioethics consultant, and coalition movement builder. She emerged in the center of two national movements unmasking healthcare abuses (health freedom and detransitioners), and became the tipping sphere after writing the Larger Detransitioners community amicus (cited in U.S. v. Skrmetti). She bridged 100+ detransitioners and activists supportive of Robert F. Kennedy Jr, and authored the counter-letter signed by 5,000+ academics and physicians supportive of Robert F. Kenendy Jr. She ignited a third wave of intellectuals and built a think tank dedicated to ‘Healing Science’ to push back against the mislabeling of ‘science’ and ‘data’ used as justification for public health laws and social control. She enjoys teaching and empowering people to know their healthcare legal rights and constitutional rights, and actively champions stronger protection for bodily integrity. Links: Think-tank: healscience.org Consulting: outofmedicalegypt.com For legal research projects, Diana focuses on defamation, healthcare licensing, and legislative writing. Contact her at [email protected] Listen to our previous conversation here: 138. United States v. Skrmetti: Detransitioners Amicus Brief in Supreme Court Case with Diana Lutfi [00:00:00] Start[00:01:57] A Personal Healthcare Saga[00:03:47] The SIBO Diagnosis Nobody Raised[00:06:22] Refusing a Black-Box Antibiotic[00:13:45] Being Your Own Advocate[00:16:08] Reforming a Broken System[00:26:09] The Fraud of "Standards of Care"[00:27:47] The Chart: Skrmetti and the Science Wars[00:34:30] Lawfare and Professional Speech[00:43:40] Colorado, Speech Censorship Capital[00:45:47] Getting "Required to Affirm" Right[00:53:38] Unprofessional Conduct as a Weapon[00:59:53] Chiles v. Salazar Explained[01:06:18] HB 26-1322 and Its Vagueness[01:12:50] Suing Therapists After a Suicide[01:22:34] How Healing Science Fights Back ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

My friend Ryan Rogers returns to the podcast for our third conversation. He's an addictions counselor in Texas, host of Reality Therapy, and now the author of two books — The Woke Mind and his new release, The Carpenter's Recovery, a Christian guide to 12-step recovery. We start with what's being called "gas station heroin": a chemical called 7-OH, extracted from kratom, that's roughly thirteen times stronger than morphine and sold legally next to the 5-Hour Energy drinks at the checkout counter. Ryan walks me through how legal loopholes have produced a generation of accidental addicts, including church kids and high-conscientiousness adults who'd never touch illegal drugs. I share my own "little old lady" story — how my elderly mom was given a 10mg THC gummy by her stoner massage therapist — as a warning to anyone navigating this new landscape with vulnerable elders. From there we go into cannabis-induced psychosis, cannabis use hyperemesis disorder, fentanyl displacing heroin, and what's actually working in addiction treatment. Ryan explains why he wrote a Christian recovery book and why naming Jesus in AA meetings still gets people shut down. We close on the state of the therapy field: woke ideology, AI psychosis, the rise of niche experts over licensed therapists, and why "live your truth, king" is the worst possible response to a client telling you they're about to relapse. Follow Reality Therapy podcast | Follow Ryan on X @ryanmcrogers [00:00:00] Start[00:02:06] Gas Station Heroin: What Is 7-OH?[00:05:55] Kava, Feel Free, and Designer Drugs[00:11:25] How 7-OH Hits the Opioid System[00:14:30] The Little Old Lady THC Gummy Story[00:25:30] Methadone vs. Suboxone for Detox[00:35:56] The Carpenter's Recovery: A Christian Approach[00:40:32] Why AA Pushes Back on Christianity[00:48:15] Reality Therapy and the State of the Field[00:53:42] AI Psychosis and the Future of Therapy[00:58:40] Tough Love and "Live Your Truth, King"[01:04:30] Honoring Who Teenagers Are Becoming ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission. ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

We've talked a lot on this podcast about institutional capture — whistleblowers, mission drift, what happens when ideology takes the steering wheel. Today my guest takes a different angle on all of it. Tanya de Grunwald hosts This Isn't Working, a podcast about workplace dynamics, and runs This Is Working, a business community for employers. From 2018 to 2024 she ran a club for early-careers heads at companies like Google, KPMG, AstraZeneca, and the NHS — a front-row seat to peak DEI from the inside. By 2024 she'd seen enough unintended consequences, especially around the trans agenda, to walk away and start telling the story. In this conversation we trace the personal psychology underneath workplace wokeness: the embarrassment about capitalism that pushed HR toward "higher purpose," the older gay men reliving Section 28 through trans activism, the weaponized fragility that lets the loudest voice win every argument. Tanya explains the brain drain that happens when sensible people leave and "nodding dogs" stay behind — and why the private sector is now leading the cleanup. We also dig into what bullied kids fail to learn about self-protection, why "bring your whole self to work" is a mental-health disaster, and what it looks like when leaders finally take the room back. If you've been wondering whether the vibe shift is real, this episode is your field report from someone who sees the spreadsheets. Tanya de Grunwald hosts This Isn't Working, a podcast exploring what has gone wrong in modern workplaces. In 2010 - after 10 years as a features writer for Glamour, Cosmopolitan and the Guardian - Tanya founded the careers blog Graduate Fog, and became a youth recruitment strategist. From 2018-24, Tanya ran the Good + Fair Employers Club, helping big UK employers including Google, KPMG, AstraZeneca and the National Health Service to hire graduates and apprentices. Last year, Tanya founded the business network This Is Working, bringing sensible employers together to unpick their problems. She is regularly quoted in UK newspapers including the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Follow her on X @IsntWorkingPod or YouTube ⁨@This-Isnt-Working⁩ [00:00:00] Start[00:02:34] Workplace Dysfunction and the DEI Agenda[00:05:54] Inside the Peak DEI Years[00:11:23] Embarrassment About Capitalism[00:15:00] Older Gay Men and Workplace Activism[00:19:00] Weaponized Fragility in Arguments[00:29:04] Self-ID Confusion and Legal Risk[00:30:45] The Corporate Brain Drain[00:35:47] Affirming Parents in Senior Leadership[00:41:54] The Piggy Lesson on Bullying[00:52:55] The Workplace as Cultural Collision Point[01:00:32] Comfort, Challenge, and Young Workers[01:06:52] The Vibe Shift and the Private Sector[01:16:12] Bring Your Professional Self to Work[01:24:47] We Make Paperclips ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★

Why does your teen tune you out? It might have to do with the role your message unconsciously casts her in. "Alter-casting" refers to the way every message you send implicitly assigns a role or identity to the person you're speaking with. If the role you cast your child in conflicts with how they want to see themselves, your message will be rejected — no matter how accurate, loving, or urgent it is. I walk through a concrete example: a mother warning her teenage daughter about predators online. The mother's intention is protective love. What the daughter hears is: "You think I'm a naive, helpless child." That identity is intolerable to an adolescent fighting for autonomy — and so the message fails entirely. I explain how this same dynamic plays out when parents share detransitioner videos with their kids, and why that approach almost always backfires for this exact reason. The episode also covers practical tools from ROGD Repair, including the alter-casting Venn diagram (mapping the overlap between what you see in your child, and what they see in their idealized self-image, even if aspirational); the strategic use of self-deprecating humor and strategic naivete; and the accusation audit — a technique for front-loading anticipated criticism in a way that actually invites your child into a more generous, gracious response. I close with a broader reflection on what this work really is: seeing beneath the performance to the real person underneath, and helping them become who they're meant to be. This podcast episode doubles as an ROGD Repair bonus lesson. It can be found in the course here, along with homework questions to help you personalize the material. If you're a parent navigating these issues in your family, ROGD Repair can help you work smarter, not harder, to get through to your teen. Get access to over 120 lessons like this and more. Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take half off your first month at ROGDrepair.com. [00:00:00] Start[00:01:00] What Altercasting Is and Why It Matters[00:02:15] The Teen and the Predator Warning: A Case Study[00:05:00] Why Sharing Detransitioner Content Backfires[00:07:00] How to Cast Your Child in a Role They'll Accept[00:07:45] The Altercasting Venn Diagram Exercise[00:11:00] Why Failed Conversations Make the Next One Harder[00:12:00] Strategic Naivete and Self-Deprecating Humor[00:13:00] The Accusation Audit Tool[00:15:30] Reading Your Child's Self-Presentation Without Reacting[00:18:00] Early Intervention and the Cost of Waiting[00:26:30] Accepting Reality as the Path to Self-Actualization ROGD REPAIR Course + Community gives concerned parents instant access to over 120 lessons providing the psychological insights and communication tools you need to get through to your kid. Now featuring 24/7 personalized AI support implementing the tools with RepairBot! Use code SOMETHERAPIST2026 to take 50% off your first month. PODCOURSES: use code SOMETHERAPIST at LisaMustard.com/PodCourses PRODUCTION: Looking for your own podcast producer? Visit PodsByNick.com and mention my podcast for 20% off your initial services. MUSIC: Thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude & permission.  ALL OTHER LINKS HERE. To support this show, please leave a rating & review on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Subscribe, like, comment & share via my YouTube channel. Or recommend this to a friend! Learn more about Do No Harm. Take $200 off your EightSleep Pod Pro Cover with code SOMETHERAPIST at EightSleep.com. Take 20% off all superfood beverages with code SOMETHERAPIST at Organifi. Check out my shop for book recommendations + wellness products. Show notes & transcript provided with the help of SwellAI. Special thanks to Joey Pecoraro for our theme song, “Half Awake,” used with gratitude and permission. Watch NO WAY BACK: The Reality of Gender-Affirming Care (our medical ethics documentary, formerly known as Affirmation Generation). Stream the film or purchase a DVD. Use code SOMETHERAPIST to take 20% off your order. Follow us on X @2022affirmation or Instagram at @affirmationgeneration. Have a question for me? Looking to go deeper and discuss these ideas with other listeners? Join my Locals community! Members get to ask questions I will respond to in exclusive, members-only livestreams, post questions for upcoming guests to answer, plus other perks TBD. ★ Support this podcast on Patreon ★