I'm Barry Weiss, this is honestly, and today we have a really special episode for you.

It comes from our new series, The Witch Trials of JK Rolling.

If you haven't heard about it yet, though, I really hope you have.

It's a podcast featuring the most famous writer in the world

about one of the most contentious issues of our time, sex and gender.

And it's really about how hard it is to know if you're fighting for justice or

joining a mob. The series is hosted by free press writer Megan Phelps Roper and

a crazy thing happened Megan wrote a letter to JK Rolling asking to interview her and

Rolling said yes. Megan spent several days at her home in Edinburgh.

And when she left, she spent the past few months

speaking to dozens of people on all sides of this issue.

Trans adults, trans teenagers, doctors and advocates,

historians, including historians of witch trials, reporters,

authors, Christians who boycotted Harry Potter in the 1990s, lawyers, and many more people

all to try and understand what Rolling and other feminists like

her believe, why their words have caused such a backlash, and what all of it says about our current

moment, and more deeply what it says about human nature.

In a moment where black and white thinking abounds, the series is doing something different.

Over the course of seven episodes, it's giving us a chance

to really hear people, not yell at them, hear them on all sides of this issue, to hear where

they're coming from and how their experiences of the world shape their sense of it and also of themselves.

That's what we think this show does so beautifully, and that's why we think it's especially perfect for anyone that listens to honestly.

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