A podcast about gender, identity, orientation, and all the life that happens around them! George is an FtM transgender man, Jess is his pansexual genderqueer wife; they talk parenting, work, and such.
Episodes
Saturday Aug 30, 2014
Saturday Aug 30, 2014
Sometimes things get misplaced. While we endeavour to find lost items promptly, it often happens that the hunt for missing objects is preempted by our busy lives. Back-to-school has made our lives busier than usual, so the to-do list has gotten completely shuffled and lost-and-found hasn't been a priority.
Saturday Aug 23, 2014
Saturday Aug 23, 2014
More questions have been asked, so more answers are being recorded for your enjoyment, enlightenment, or timepassment. From the term "PrincessMan" to our favorite fandoms, from pod-stats to voice lessons, from Maryland to Kazakhstan, we've covered the topics you've asked about in today's episode.
Saturday Aug 16, 2014
Saturday Aug 16, 2014
Every once in a while, we have a problem that won't go away until we talk about it in a podcast episode. We've come to call this phenomenon "microphone magic". This time the problem is health-related, prompting a few visits to new doctors and the anxiety that can induce in trans folk.
Saturday Aug 09, 2014
Saturday Aug 09, 2014
From the moment a newborn emerges and the doctor takes note of their genitals, any child born into most western cultures is assigned a set of expections and cultural norms we refer to as "gender". It takes only a little experience to realize that the majority of these expectations are nonsense.
Saturday Aug 02, 2014
Saturday Aug 02, 2014
George's transition has made him clearly male in appearance, and this affects everything from his health to his social interactions. Jess is generally happy to support him in each situation, even when her own queerness gets lost in the shuffle. When hiking or exercising, when dealing with his mom, or when dealing with strangers in public, there are new experiences for both of us to explore.
Saturday Jul 26, 2014
Saturday Jul 26, 2014
There are four mammalian creatures in our house under four feet (~120cm) tall, two short hominids and two large canines. We have committed to be responsible for these living beings (and a tall homonid too), and this fact has given us both enjoyment and stress, both frustration and joy.
Saturday Jul 19, 2014
Saturday Jul 19, 2014
Saturday Jul 12, 2014
Saturday Jul 12, 2014
George's mom is old. As both her body and her brain have aged, she still seems, at least in our experience, to be fairly sharp. Why, then, do some of her doctors seem to think she has dementia? The answer might have to do with George's transition.
Saturday Jul 05, 2014
Saturday Jul 05, 2014
Because, episode sixty-nine, what else could we do?
Saturday Jun 28, 2014
Saturday Jun 28, 2014
Saturday Jun 21, 2014
Saturday Jun 21, 2014
George has the sniffles and the microphone seems to have become an antenna for some sort of radio signal. Jess managed to minimize the frequency containing the interference, but it's still there as background noise. Even so, we manage a follow-up discussion of dysphoria as it relates to last week's discussion of packing, peeing, genitalia, and options for lower surgery. The links from our prior discussion of STPs, including the "homemade" item we keep referencing, is at transpantastic.net/2013/10/stping-links.html.
Saturday Jun 14, 2014
Saturday Jun 14, 2014
Saturday Jun 07, 2014
Saturday Jun 07, 2014
When our kids grow up, they will have to earn their own way to pay for their own things. Our job as parents is to prepare them for this reality. If we raise them with a sense of entitlement, or a belief that they have a "right to" have what they want, regardless of whether or not it has been earned or properly used, we will have failed.
Saturday May 31, 2014
Saturday May 31, 2014
Life keeps going on. Transition keeps happening, even when George gets misgendered. Medicines keep getting refilled, even when we get the dead man's pills on accident. Kids keep growing taller and older, even when they don't seem to be growing smarter or more sensible. It just doesn't stop, even when we might want it to, just for a moment, so we can catch our breath.
The work letter that George sent via email to most of his colleagues last year, and re-sent as we discussed at about 05:30 is online at http://transpantastic.net/2013/09/the-work-letter.html.
Saturday May 24, 2014
Saturday May 24, 2014
One year on testosterone has changed a lot of things. George's voice has dropped noticeably, he stands a half-inch taller, and his whole body is shaped differently. But the best changes of all are not anatomical, they're psychological and social. To feel "right" in his own skin, and in the way others interact with him, this has been the best change of all.
Saturday May 17, 2014
Saturday May 17, 2014
Continuing last week's survey, we finish the "when" and "what" questions, and move into the "first time" and "either/or" questions. Some answers have changed in the past year, due to the effects of testosterone, and others are just fun.
Saturday May 10, 2014
Saturday May 10, 2014
A few weeks back, we posted a survey link to get some quick and anonymous demographics from you, our friends who listen to our weekly storytime. We expected 20%-50% response, but the initial response was less than 5% of our weekly download count. So we decided to take some surveys ourselves, the kind that float around tumblr and ask about the random details of your life. Here's the first half. Next week is the second (somewhat "adult") half, and the week after that will be George's "maniversary" episode.
Saturday May 03, 2014
Saturday May 03, 2014
The system of government pension in the United States is called Social Security. The number assigned to each American citizen and legal resident is called a Social Security Number, and it is used for all manner of federal identification. And like many government processes, it's a pain in the rear to change. Jess & George are both public employees, familiar with the simultaneously inane and labyrinthine procedures necessary to accomplish anything within government agencies, but bringing gender transition and his family's unique brand of interpersonal communication to the equation makes for a real adventure.
Saturday Apr 26, 2014
Saturday Apr 26, 2014
Recently George was having difficulty accomplishing all he felt he ought to at work. He found this frustrating, but his work-wife reminded him that he generally holds very high expectations for himself, and that the problem might be solved by adjusting these expectations. We've since applied this problem-solving method to many aspects of our lives, and what do you know, it works!
Saturday Apr 19, 2014
Saturday Apr 19, 2014
We often find ourselves in the middle of conversations and realize "this would make a good podcast topic." This time we turned on a microphone and started over with rape culture, working our way through family anecdotes and the metaphysical nature of trans-ness, to religion and our individual views on gender as they relate to faith.
Saturday Apr 12, 2014
Saturday Apr 12, 2014
Yeah, George is a middle-aged adolescent, but this week we're not talking about him. #1Child is is a cis-aged teenager, and #2 and #3 add up to almost equal him. We keep hoping that the parenting thing will settle down, but with our special-needs kids it's not likely.
Saturday Apr 05, 2014
Saturday Apr 05, 2014
From the changing room at the sporting goods store, to the hot tub at the gym, to the really gross bathrooms all over town, some spaces are decidedly gendered. We discuss George's experiences with these spaces over the course of finally getting himself a few needed replacements for clothing he has outgrown because of body changes on T.
Saturday Mar 29, 2014
Saturday Mar 29, 2014
Why does it always have to be friday? Jess & George discuss how the changes in George's hormones have changed the way he deals with stress and emotional overload. Also, Jess might be a psychopath and George has been on HRT for about ten months.
Saturday Mar 22, 2014
Saturday Mar 22, 2014
Genderedness happens. Lately, Jess has caught herself saying "You're such a man!" to George often enough to have become a joke. But upon wider examination, George is "Such a man!", #3Child is "Such a girl!", #2Child is "Such a boy!", #1Child is "Such a teenager!", and Jess is "Such a geek!".
Saturday Mar 15, 2014
Saturday Mar 15, 2014
And that "life around transition" stuff seems to have quieted down enough for us to actually talk about transition again. George used to love massages, but getting one during transition can be a questionable situation. Also, we discuss that packer that came in the mail a few weeks back.
Saturday Mar 08, 2014
Saturday Mar 08, 2014
George's mom is settled into her new place, and things are finally starting to settle back down. Which means back to parenting shenanigans and religious nonsense.
Saturday Mar 01, 2014
Saturday Mar 01, 2014
Getting mom settled in has been an adventure, but if George had been required to undertake this quest prior to transition it would've been a completely different situation. Between visits to doctors, welfare, social security, and the new apartment that we finally moved her into, there's no time to manage gender dysphoria. Or to get the new packer in the mail!
Saturday Feb 22, 2014
Saturday Feb 22, 2014
Saturday Feb 15, 2014
Saturday Feb 15, 2014
In what we hope to be the final installment of the "dad's dead so let's move mom across the country" story, we finally get to make that drive across the country. With George's mom. Leading Jess to be very thankful that George had been to therapy long before they ever met.
We can be found online at http://TransPanTastic.net/, you can email us at TransPanTastic@gmail.com, and "TransPanTastic" is searchable on most social networks. We would love to hear from you, so let us know what you think or what you want to hear about
Saturday Feb 08, 2014
Saturday Feb 08, 2014
We almost split this week's episode into two parts. We considered it for two reasons. George and Jess were in two different places, doing two separate things. Their stories of their time apart are in two contrasting narratives, with two comparable stories of caring for their respective charges. Additionally, the time is almost as long as two of our usual episodes... But in the end, we two can't be separated for long, and so we kept the story of our separate weeks as one (long) episode.
We can be found online at http://TransPanTastic.net/, you can email us at TransPanTastic@gmail.com, and "TransPanTastic" is searchable on most social networks. We would love to hear from you, so let us know what you think or what you want to hear about
Saturday Feb 01, 2014
Saturday Feb 01, 2014
As often happens after death of a loved one, we got into the topic of spirituality. After exploring our individual histories with faith and religion, we discussed what we believe, why we believe it, and why it's okay that we don't believe the same thing.
Saturday Jan 25, 2014
Saturday Jan 25, 2014
The passing of George's step-dad has offered plenty of opportunity for that unique brand of coping humor we have generally reserved for the demands of dealing with special needs children.
Saturday Jan 18, 2014
Saturday Jan 18, 2014
Women are funny. Men are funny. Everyone else is funny too. From the cycling instructor, to the guys in the locker room, to the uber-binary folks of both trans* and cis experience, to the random women who seem to be angry at George just for being a man, to the colleague who commented on George's voice change. People are just funny.
Saturday Jan 11, 2014
Saturday Jan 11, 2014
Children are naughty, and as parents we have to set limits and boundaries that will help them grow into adults who learn how not to be naughty. Or at least how not to get caught being naughty... Sometimes that even means enforcing punishments while helping them through trauma, grief, or other negative experiences.
Saturday Jan 04, 2014
Saturday Jan 04, 2014
The holidays are done, but our interruptions are just beginning. Between dogs, kids, and phones, we discuss our holidays, update surgery recovery, and discuss changing brands of testosterone.
Saturday Dec 28, 2013
Saturday Dec 28, 2013
At release time, we are probably christmassing with the kids, so our holiday update will come next week.
Saturday Dec 21, 2013
Saturday Dec 21, 2013
Blended families and blended visitation schedules mix with work and school schedules, and it often doesn't quite fit into the 24 hours and 7 days that our culture and place in the solar system provide us. George is a morning person, Jess is a night person, and the kids are sometimes persons, so we all do what we can to make things work.
Saturday Dec 14, 2013
Saturday Dec 14, 2013
George got birthday'd, bought a new suit, and used the men's locker room at the gym. All in the really-freaking-cold weather.
Saturday Dec 07, 2013
Saturday Dec 07, 2013
We occasionally have questions from you, our friends, pop up in our various inboxes. We generally answer promptly, but privately. There are a few questions, however, that have seemed worth answering on-air, for the sake of clarifying any potential confusion or tying up loose ends from previous episodes.
Saturday Nov 30, 2013
Saturday Nov 30, 2013
Parenting is often something of a roller-coaster. And special needs kids may sometimes seem to make things worse, but they really just make the highs and lows more extreme. So after a bit of discussion about our amusingly underplanned thanksgiving prep, we wrapped up some of the loose ends of stories and topics related to kids that are turning out pretty well.
Saturday Nov 23, 2013
Saturday Nov 23, 2013
Back when we were growing up, the only safe social space was with the other queers. Now that we're "socially acceptable", we've found other friends that share our values and priorities but don't share the queer experience. Parenting makes social time hard, especially when much of the queer community choose not to raise children, and "just don't get it".
Saturday Nov 16, 2013
Saturday Nov 16, 2013
Saturday Nov 09, 2013
Saturday Nov 09, 2013
So we started out with intent to make a "Six Months on T" update, but we got distracted talking about Child #1's recent arrest.
Saturday Nov 02, 2013
Saturday Nov 02, 2013
Jess has always felt rather ambivalent to the concept of gender, but recent changes in George's behaviour and affect have made her realize just how she really is less ambivalent and more oblivious. Close friends and partners of trans* persons have occasionally recognized the social and emotional changes caused by hormone treatment, and remarked "Oh, that's why women/men do that!", validating stereotypes. But when her natural inclinations are all over the gender spectrum and she doesn't even realize the genderedness of her own actions, what's a princess-man to do?
Saturday Oct 26, 2013
Saturday Oct 26, 2013
George has been changing. That was kinda the idea of this whole adventure. The word "transition" indicates change. This week, we discuss how the changes in his world, both internally and externally, relate to gender both as a biological concept and as a social construct.
Saturday Oct 19, 2013
Saturday Oct 19, 2013
When you need to cope with difficult circumstances, it's useful to be able to laugh about them. Raising special needs kids is often frustrating and exhausting, and we occasionally make jokes that would, out of context, be absolutely horrifying. George felt that it would be best to clarify that when we say awful evil horrible things about our children, we don't really mean it, we're just making one another laugh.
Saturday Oct 12, 2013
Saturday Oct 12, 2013
Now that the question of which bathroom to use is fairly settled for George, he's started researching various Stand-To-Pee devices. Links to the two he's used are up at TransPanTastic.net. After discussing the specific items he's begun familiarizing himself with, we delved deeper into the topic of gender dysphoria, and George is very thankful that while he would very much appreciate the experience of having genitalia that matched his gender, he does not feel the need to utilize prostheses to assist in managing the discongruity.
Saturday Oct 05, 2013
Saturday Oct 05, 2013
Returning to work after three weeks of leave can be daunting, but the results of surgery and changes from five months on testosterone have probably affected that process, and George's colleagues have been, on the whole, supportive and encouraging. Meanwhile, the kids are still extra-special, and Jess is slightly peeved that George made her put clothes on but is otherwise content.
Saturday Sep 28, 2013
Saturday Sep 28, 2013
"THE LETTER" has been sent. Finally. Everyone who responded has been supportive, and now George can get back to work, which is a good thing. His boss and colleagues have been covering his workload while he's been out, and they're very ready to be done with that.
Saturday Sep 21, 2013
Saturday Sep 21, 2013