Embracing Elephants

Fig Willow (they/them) of @moonthymearts sits down with Emme as her first transmasc non-binary guest with the experience of being on testosterone and having had top surgery! They talk all about neurodivergence, crip time, transness, the gender void, non-binary-ness, learning how to be okay with you and your body doing and needing the time it needs instead of what others ask of it. It's a sweet sensitive convo between two sweeties. To check out their Etsy shop, head over to: moonthymearts.etsy.com Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Emme sits down by a wood stove (installed manly-ily by her guest) with Toby Fraser of the Masculinity Action Project. This anarcho-punk and your hostess with the mostess talk all about FEELINGS, testosterone & estrogen, how transfeminity and masculinity run parallel and then diverge, body dysmorphia vs gender dysphoria, and many other topics. Check out @map_philly to learn about more of the organizing work they do in gender justice, and grab some exclusive bonus comedy content referenced in MAP soon at patreon.com/emmekay! Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

An Ask Me Anything for Emme after her move to Canada from the United States. She's a citizen of both, and sourced questions from her past guests (thanks Kate, Jes, and others!) and does her best to answer them! Questions like: What was your biggest fear about staying in the US, and what is your biggest hope about moving to Canada? Is there anything that might have made you want to stay in the US? Now that you’ve gone and you are “looking in” at the US’s actions (specifically Iran) - are you relieved that you left?MORE questions & answers are available on the Patreon as our first exclusive pod -- check that out at Patreon.com/EmmeKay. She also posts written content, which ranges from poetry to essays about transness and paperwork. Still growing and changing, but new exclusive pod eps featuring groups of guests are in the works! Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Emme sits down with Adrienne Gomez, 4th generation Latina and bisexual comedian who runs Sizzling Singles, a queer dating show running monthly right now at the famous Stonewall Inn! She chats with Emme about swimming in dick pics when she didn't love herself, but now that she does, it's like "everyone -- out of the pool!!" (her joke, fantastic). We talk all about being single, being unemployed/looking for work, and being queer -- and of course Emme goes on a few trans-related rants too. Come for the jokes to entertain you, stay for the jokes we use to cope! For tickets to Sizzling Singles, head here: https://partiful.com/e/ZapxANIIQdORD6zSraYJYou can see Emme's stand-up on:-- Monday, March 17th at Alix's partner's co-produced event Going Acoustic at Quig's, the bar above Plays & Players at 17th & Delancey in Philadelphia.-- Wednesday, March 19th for Sizzling Singles at Stonewall Inn (yes, that Stonewall) on Christopher St in NYC-- Saturday, March 22nd for Night of the Living DEI at Studio 34 in West Philly, benefitting the Masculinity Action Projectand finally back at Quig's on Sunday, March 23rd for Your Sunday's BestTimes are all roughly 7pm, but look it up to be sure! Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Emme welcomes her artistic inspiration to start doing stand-up: the amazing dramaturgical, writerly, and loud annoying Jew Alix Rosenfeld (written incredibly tongue in cheek). She talks with Emme all about medical challenges, fat (GASP) and weight gain and food and culture, and losing friends over this moment in world history. Check out the Third Narrative podcast she mentions in the conversation at https://thirdnarrative.org/.You can see Emme's stand-up on:-- Monday, March 17th at Alix's partner's co-produced event Going Acoustic at Quig's, the bar above Plays & Players at 17th & Delancey in Philadelphia.-- Wednesday, March 19th for Sizzling Singles at Stonewall Inn (yes, that Stonewall) on Christopher St in NYC-- Saturday, March 22nd for Night of the Living DEI at Studio 34 in West Philly, benefitting the Masculinity Action Projectand finally back at Quig's on Sunday, March 23rd for Your Sunday's BestTimes are all roughly 7pm, but look it up to be sure! Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Emme sits down with her first CISGENDERED MALE guest, Eric Wunsch, a stand-up guy who's dabbled in stand-up, had a career in theatre he left it for the physical world of farming -- which we get into the muddy transitional feelings of it all. Eric brings sensitivity, depth, curiosity, and enthusiasm to the question of "what even is masculinity?" and we sort of solve it. You know, by accepting it's the endlessly complex and uncertain thing all of this gender stuff is. Listen in. Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

On Inauguration Day 2025, Emme sits down with old Museum Hack/Caveat/NYC theare compatriot, magnificent podcast producer, and dear friend Kate Helen Downey as Los Angeles continued to be on fire to talk about a DIFFERENT kind of pain and confusion, that of DEATH CRAMPS. Yes, an elephant in the room for MOST people with uteruses (and even some without) -- not only menstruation, but especially dysmenorrhea,  excruciating period cramps, and what causes it and where it comes from. Kate's new podcast CRAMPED is a limited series deep dive into researching and communicating about not only her mystery condition, but women's health and the medical system and why we can't figure out what's going on with SO MANY PEOPLE's experiences of intense pain. Find CRAMPED wherever you get your podcasts, it is well worth the listen and quite an inspiration for me too.CRAMPED Spotify Link:  https://open.spotify.com/show/7qJQfpGTdzc25jiV4pi7ed?si=6de90c9139ba4d2fKate's website & link to Substack: https://www.katehelendowney.com/  Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Right after the 2024 US Presidential Election, Emme chats with Raluca Urea, a dear clowning, acting, and directing friend of hers from their grad school days at the University of the Arts with Pig Iron School's MFA in Devised Performance. Emme and Raluca were perfect misfits and worked together a bunch, and felt isolated in various ways by their differences -- so they talk about working in the US under unique circumstances, the challenge of managing your emotions without grace or understanding, various comparisons between the US in 2002 and 2017 and Germany and Romania, what it's like to be an immigrant. We also discuss black forest cake which we really should've touched on more, tbh. Head to Stuttgart to see theatre and look Raluca up -- ralucaurea.com. Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

This week's conversation partner is Chelsea from @explore.embody, an embodied intimacy coach and avid rock climber who helps people pleasers lean into selfishness as self love to free their mind and body. We also DO IT LIVE, for the first time, in the Embracing Elephants "studio," which is not a studio but it feels so right to fully embody speaking in the same space as we talk about vulnerable things, from sex and desire and hormones to celebrating our own birthdays with funerals to the potent metaphor rock climbing brings to living a truly embodied life. To follow and learn more about Chelsea's offerings, go to @explore.embody on Instagram, or check out her linktree: https://linktr.ee/nnettikkChelsea's Linktree for her services and workshops: https://linktr.ee/nnettikkPerformance Coaching for Shy People from me: https://www.echolocatedconsulting.com/ Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

This week Emme has a beautifully wide-ranging and emotional conversation with Dia Lupo, writer of Broke But Moisturized, about all kinds of transitions, involving hitting milestones of loss, pregnancy, marriage, loneliness in grief, hormones, gender, and transition. She writes with a wry, deep voice on Substack about all things beauty, inner and out. Her writing about grief and loss struck up a follower to friendship, and Dia's story is fascinating as she also pulls out more of Emme's. Want to follow her and sign up for her Substack? Head to https://brokebutmoisturized.substack.com/.Want to be coached by Emme on storytelling, presenting, leadership skills, collaboration & communication? Website under construction but it's here! https://echolocatedconsulting.com Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

AuDHD coach and baker extraordinaire Jes Diverges chats with Emme about time, neurodivergence, coaching and work and study and capitalism, and then we get into a light convo about remembering we're going to die, and end with a discussion on the relationship with the self. So nbd. Just how we here at Embracing Elephants like it :-).Jes Diverges' Website: https://jesdiverges.com/Jes' Podcast: Unshaming AuDHDSupport folks rebuilding after the Los Angeles wild fires in Jan 2025: Cal Fund  Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Embracing Elephants co-producer Bryce Weinert chats with Emme about her top 10 horrible things that've happened in her life, tells a story of absurdity in loss about her cats, and we wax poetical on showing up for people in grief. Want more Bryce? Head over to her pop culture podcast You're No Fun Anymore. https://yourenofun.com/ Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekay Support the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKay Special thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

Emme welcomes her first guest, Danelle, a long time mentor, friend, and former client, to discuss many elephants in the room from gender transitioning, to change management, to communication at work, to radical shifts (gender, death, war, grief) of all kinds, to NOT managing peoples’ emotions, and the power of transparency in letting people know what’s actually going on.If you'd like to support Emme & the podcast, please go to bit.ly/emmekay to donate!Note: First episode produced for a course at Thomas Jefferson University on Organizational Innovation, Creativity, and Change taught by Dr. Kathy Milhauser. Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)

I read a conversation I had with my dad over email, where he wrote me a bunch of questions after I came out as trans and had him read the Gender Dysphoria Bible. I read the answers to his questions and comment on them a bit, too. Support me and this project at bit.ly/emmekayGender Dysphoria Bible: https://genderdysphoria.fyi/enHumble Step: https://open.spotify.com/show/1rqhrS08JW5JedgnybTiuB?si=7fa08ba968ac4a7cGoFundMe to support Emme: bit.ly/emmekay Want to support Emme individually for her transition costs? Head to bit.ly/emmekaySupport the FULL PODCAST at https://www.patreon.com/c/EmmeKaySpecial thanks to Timothy Bretschneider for composing and performing the music at the end of the show! check out shabby wings for more :-)