379. Alok Vaid Menon: Self-Expression is The Medicine

Almost 30

Krista Williams & Lindsey Simcik

Alternative Health, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness, Education

4.5 • 4K Ratings

🗓️ 24 November 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

THE INTERVIEW K+L originally spoke to Alok Vaid Menon about two years ago — or, in 2020 terms, a lifetime ago — and it continues to be a relevant and important conversation for us to share. There are few people who have had such a lasting impact, not just from the show but from life. K+L left this conversation feeling more human, more connected, more aware of how they affect others: exactly what our world desperately needs more of right now. Alok also recently released a book, “Beyond the Gender Binary,” which shows that gender is a malleable and creative form of expression only limited by your creativity. So, to celebrate the book and this beautiful, powerful, kind, and heart-centered soul, we wanted to share the conversation again. We also talk about: The ins and outs of your passion being your business Growing up (emotionally repressed) in a small Texas town Southern “politeness” Balancing being a strong example for others + being a complex, flawed human Why it hurts when we turn someone into a metaphor and a symbol Visibility does not mean safety for women and trans people Where Alok developed their emotional vocabulary Gender + shame Learning not to fear their own gender nonconformity The psychology of fascism Why Alok is frustrated by the individualism of self-care The people who bully us want to be us Aesthetics as political resistance Violence against gender non-conforming individuals has escalated over the past few years What we can all do, every day, to challenge the current paradigm Find more to love at almost30.com! Resources: Get yourself a copy of “Beyond the Gender Binary” Or donate a copy of the book to an LGBTQ youth Learn more | alokvmenon.com Instagram | @alokvmenon Twitter | @alokvmenon YouTube | youtube.com/channel/UCG_G2mCoGdNUIOPaPrgorHg Almost 30 is edited by Crate Media This podcast uses the following third-party services for analysis: Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Chartable - https://chartable.com/privacy Podsights - https://podsights.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome, almost 30 podcasts. Hello, we are glad you're here.
0:11.0	Hey everyone, it's Lins and Krista, the Gerald Powell.
0:14.8	Wet hair, don't care. Wet hair, don't get that with nice of you.
0:18.6	What? That you've filmed with wet hair because I came early. And it was really time for
0:23.7	mom time. I was like, oh, I'm on time today and we're not shooting right now.
0:27.2	I was in the shower and saw an outline of a figure outside of my rescared bathroom.
0:30.8	Oh, I had a moment where I was like, well, if this is it, this is it.
0:33.9	I know. The shower would be quite the way to go. Why is it? It is. It's like movies have
0:38.5	made us scared to take showers alone. I'm scared to take a shower alone at the house.
0:42.8	And like, oh my God, they're going to get me right when I'm most vulnerable.
0:45.6	Completely. Well, I thought about I go through less and less. When I was watching law
0:50.6	and order more, I would go through scenarios where I'm like, this is what I would do.
0:53.8	100%. So I'd make sure I'd scream a lot enough so Julian upstairs could hear me.
0:57.6	Yes. I might like throw things up the ceiling, but so that she would know totally.
1:02.4	What else? I'd grab the squeegee and like reverse it and use it as a weapon.
1:08.9	That's it. It's like a sharp gouge the eyes. Even that, I'm like, still dead.
1:13.7	That's the whole thing is like law and order. And then what was it? S.V.U. and all that
1:18.2	stuff? It makes people like you're walking home from work and you're like, all right.
1:23.2	So they're coming at my left and they're going to drag me and rape me behind this dumpster.
1:27.1	Like, what am I going to do? Everyone's walking with their keys between their knuckles.
1:30.4	You like, then in your head are like constantly thinking of what you would do in these scenarios
1:34.3	that are like so dark. I've also had thoughts about what I would say if I was in a situation
	...

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