Gender, Data & What the Cass Review *Doesn’t* Say: Journalist Ben Ryan examines the evidence — or lack thereof — for youth gender transition.
The Unspeakable Podcast
Meghan Daum
4.8 • 784 Ratings
🗓️ 3 May 2024
⏱️ 9 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This interview with Benjamin Ryan is a BONUS episode for paying subscribers only.
The first few minutes of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here.
On April 10th, a big story broke in the gender world: The long-awaited report commissioned by the UK's National Health Service, known as the Cass Review, was released. As soon as the report hit the news cycle, gender-critical activists celebrated it as the final nail in the coffin of harmful practices, while trans-rights activists accused it of faulty methodology.
So who was right? This week, I spoke with Benjamin Ryan, a health and science reporter, to help unpack the Cass Review's data. Ben has spent years covering the intersection of health and public policy. He has a remarkably clear head and is a disciplined thinker about the youth gender medicine debate, so he is a great person to explain what is and is not in the Cass Review.
GUEST BIO
Benjamin Ryan is an independent journalist who focuses on health care and science. He contributes to several major publications, including The New York Times, The Guardian, and NBC News. He has a particular interest in public health, medicine, and psychology, and has spent years reporting on HIV.
His work has received multiple awards from NLGJA: The Association of LGBTQ Journalists, including the Excellence in HIV/AIDS Coverage Award. Benjamin is a cancer survivor and enjoys reading, theatre, movies, biking, cooking, and photography in his spare time.
Follow him on Twitter here.
Follow his Substack here.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi there. What you're about to hear is a preview of a premium episode of The Unspeakable. |
| 0:04.8 | It's an interview with science and health journalist Ben Ryan, who's going to be talking about the cast report. |
| 0:10.4 | Do you hear the whole thing, become a paying subscriber at megandom.substack.com. |
| 0:16.2 | In the meantime, you're going to get a little taste. So I hope you enjoy. |
| 0:22.7 | There is the possibility of being wrong. And at this point, we don't know. That's what the |
| 0:28.5 | cast report says. That's what all the systematic literature review says. And all the U.S. |
| 0:32.4 | medical societies who say otherwise are not saying so from an evidence-based manner. |
| 0:40.0 | Welcome to the unspeakable podcast. |
| 0:42.4 | This is a special premium episode just for paying subscribers. |
| 0:47.4 | And it's on the subject. |
| 0:49.0 | I think you'll appreciate. |
| 0:50.9 | On April 10th, a big story broke in the gender world. A long-awaited report commissioned by the |
| 0:57.0 | UK's National Health Service and known as the Cass Review was released. It represented the most |
| 1:02.6 | comprehensive assessment of the data surrounding medicalized gender transition for minors that we've |
| 1:08.0 | had to date. Almost immediately, critics of gender youth medicine cheered |
| 1:12.4 | as if the report was the silver bullet in their arsenal of efforts against harmful practices. |
| 1:18.2 | At the same time, trans activists lobbed accusations of faulty methodology and claimed that the |
| 1:24.1 | report actually helped make their case. So which side was right? I invited |
| 1:28.9 | journalist Ben Ryan onto the podcast to help figure that out. Ben is an independent science and |
| 1:34.9 | health journalist who's been writing about the intersection of medicine and public policy for |
| 1:39.3 | almost 25 years. He's done especially in-depth work around public policy and research funding regarding the |
| 1:45.7 | HIV virus that he began reporting on gender medicine a few years ago. I find Ben to be remarkably |
... |
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