Welcome to the Quillette podcast, hosted on alternate weeks by me, Jonathan Kay, and by Iona Italia.

Quillette is where Freethought lives. We are an independent grassroots platform for heterodox ideas and fearless commentary.

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And today I've got something completely different for you.

The guest you're going to hear from, he's someone I met during my recent trip to

Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I was covering a conference about sex and gender. You may remember

that one of my recent guests, Mia Hughes, was a speaker at that event. Except this guy you're

going to hear from today has nothing to do with that conference. And by way of explanation about how I booked them,

see, I have attention deficit disorder. So when I go to these conferences, I find it hard to stay

focused on the proceedings the whole time. So I often duck out periodically to play disc golf

at a local park. And when I was in downtown Albuquerque, the place I duck out to was called

Roosevelt Park, which happens to have a full 18-hole disc golf course. So there I was on the last day

of the conference at Roosevelt throwing discs when I noticed that there's a big gathering on one side

of the park, a sort of fundraising potluck event organized by a group called

Millions for Prisoners New Mexico. Turns out that's the name of a community activist group

that operates on behalf of prisoners, ex-prisoners, and their families, and which generally

advocates for the end of America's industrial prison system as we know it. I know all this because

the organizers

had speakers set up so I could hear all their speeches even as I was walking around the park

throwing discs. And then toward the end of the event, this comedian gets up. His name is Matthew

Petit. He's the guy who's my guest today. And he starts telling jokes. This is the entertainment part of the event.

...