Hey there, it's Amara.

Welcome to the Translash podcast, a show where we tell trans stories to save trans lives.

We all woke up to the horror of October 7th, and day by day since then, have experienced

the mind-blowing, excruciating, and bewildering weeks which have followed. Oftentimes, what's

happening escapes the proper words to capture it all. And with the U.S. is veto of a Security

Council resolution calling for an end to the

killing in Gaza, the shock and pain looks set to continue with no end in sight. Understandably, one of

the hardest things to do at a time like this is to actually listen. I know many of our listeners,

like me, have watched countless videos from across social media,

but often these are just a couple of minutes in late.

That's why we wanted to make space here, as we do on so many topics for in-depth conversations,

to get a sense of the direct impact of the war in Gaza, as well as how it has impacted others in indirect,

but no less poignant ways. And we are creating space for trans voices so often left out

of the current conversation to be centered. First, I'm joined by chef and advocate, Marcel

Lafram, who shares his experience as a Palestinian-American since the events of October 7.

I woke up to probably about 200 text messages, and I read the group chat for my siblings first.

I started to violently shake. I think we knew exactly what was going to unfold.

Next, I'll talk with magazine writer and author Jamie Lauren Kales about why he resigned from the New York Times magazine over the company's coverage of the Warren Gaza.

The things that I were seeing as like objective truths were just getting to be further and further from what the institution would allow to be written about. And I just thought it was like

becoming an impediment to doing quality work. But before we get to these difficult but

important conversations, we're going to start out as always with some trans joy. Now, as a

reminder, joy may seem like a strange place to start today's podcast, but as I've said on this program before, joy is not unfettered delight driven by external circumstances.

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