Episode 4 - Alex Byrne - The Trouble with Gender

In this week's episode, Laura and Yvette sit down with Dr. Alex Byrne, the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Philosophy at MIT. His most recent book is Trouble with Gender: Sex Facts, Gender Fictions. In that book, he provides a philosophical underpinning on a narrow definition of "man" and "woman", as well as justification for discarding the concept of gender. He is also one of the 9 authors of the controversial HHS Report "Treatment for Pediatric Gender Dysphoria: Review of Evidence and Best Practices", which supports the complete banning of access to medical and surgical therapies for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria, and even more contentiously recommends against any further research evaluating the potential efficacy of medical interventions. In this conversation, we discuss the challenges with applying a narrow definition of male/female and man/woman in the real world, whether this precludes treating trans people with respect, and what responsibilitis academics have when their positions are likely to be weaponized. In the second half, we shift our focus to the HHS report, talking about his hesitations with getting involved with the Trump and Kennedy-led HHS, on the secrecy surrounding the authorship, and on why he believes that further research in this area is unethical to pursue