Jul 26, 2026 · 1 hr 11 min · 10 segments
So much of our politics today is driven by gender, from Graham Platner's rise and fall to Pete Hegseth's testosterone testing to various anti-trans crusades. Samantha and guest Katherine Cross…
Katherine CrossGuest
Samantha Hancox-LiHost
And as someone who did take an undergraduate degree in women's and gender studies, it definitely feels more relevant than ever, but it, It has always been the air that we breathe, the water that we swim in.
But over the last few years, it seems like many people in positions of lofty power and authority have been dedicated to making the subtext massive neon sign text everywhere we go.
Like this is being recorded on the heels of Pete Hegseth wanting to literally inject American soldiers with testosterone off label, right? Like, we are surrounded by people in positions of great power putting on essentially this massive pageant of idealized gender, weaponized for an ideological purpose.
Yeah, the Hegseth stuff is pretty disturbing, right? I'll get to the thing that really, I mean, it's bad enough, but there's something about it that really disturbs me.
There are all these videos of him working out with the troops, often quite pathetically, it turns out.
They've banned or they're trying very hard to ban trans people from the military.
Like us, we're all out because the healthcare costs are just far too high.
But also, they're going to start screening men over 30 in the military to see if their testosterone is deficient, and then they'll be offered testosterone injections to bring them back up to warfighter standard.
The thing that gets me here is you had Jesse Waters, I believe it's Jesse Waters, going on the news and saying, you know, this is going to be great.
Women on base, you got to watch out, right? People in the communities, you got to watch out because these guys are going to be nuts.
That's not really a question, that's just me reflecting on what you said, that it's a vision of masculinity that's in service of a political project.
And I don't know, what's your take on this particular extrusion of this movement?
Yeah, like a lot of it is, I want to optimistically say that it is an extremely desperate rearguard action against changes to society that they cannot actually undo.
So much of what the Trump administration has been characterized by is just sort of ripping the wires out of the wall, trying to find the one that leads to the woke machine and unplug it, right? Too late.
And as someone who did take an undergraduate degree in women's and gender studies, it definitely feels more relevant than ever, but it, It has always been the air that we breathe, the water that we swim in.
But over the last few years, it seems like many people in positions of lofty power and authority have been dedicated to making the subtext massive neon sign text everywhere we go.
Like this is being recorded on the heels of Pete Hegseth wanting to literally inject American soldiers with testosterone off label, right? Like, we are surrounded by people in positions of great power putting on essentially this massive pageant of idealized gender, weaponized for an ideological purpose.
Yeah, the Hegseth stuff is pretty disturbing, right? I'll get to the thing that really, I mean, it's bad enough, but there's something about it that really disturbs me.
There are all these videos of him working out with the troops, often quite pathetically, it turns out.
They've banned or they're trying very hard to ban trans people from the military.
Like us, we're all out because the healthcare costs are just far too high.
But also, they're going to start screening men over 30 in the military to see if their testosterone is deficient, and then they'll be offered testosterone injections to bring them back up to warfighter standard.
The thing that gets me here is you had Jesse Waters, I believe it's Jesse Waters, going on the news and saying, you know, this is going to be great.
Women on base, you got to watch out, right? People in the communities, you got to watch out because these guys are going to be nuts.
That's not really a question, that's just me reflecting on what you said, that it's a vision of masculinity that's in service of a political project.
And I don't know, what's your take on this particular extrusion of this movement?
Yeah, like a lot of it is, I want to optimistically say that it is an extremely desperate rearguard action against changes to society that they cannot actually undo.
So much of what the Trump administration has been characterized by is just sort of ripping the wires out of the wall, trying to find the one that leads to the woke machine and unplug it, right? Too late.
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