Kirby Conrod! Therapy tidbits! ¯\_(ツ)_/¯!

Hey friends,

Hope you're all hanging in there. This whole solar-eclipse-in-Gemini-during-Gemini-season-and-Mercury-retrograde thing is kicking my ass. Or maybe it's just being a person that is kicking my ass? Unclear. 

So much of therapy is just me being like "I'm feeling Bad in this unique way" and my therapist being like "lots of other people also feel Bad in that way" and for some reason it helps???? Like today, I was like, "something that makes me feel better is meeting someone I look up to and connecting with them as a person and realizing that they're also often Having A Rough One." Why does this make me feel better???? Does this make me a bad person??????? 

I guess "misery loves company" is a phrase but I don't think that's where it comes from. I just...... have to be reminded that Having A Time is a normal part of the human experience and me not uniquely failing as a person. 

Anyway, all this is to say, if the stars/planets/earth/society/existing stuff is messing you up today, I am here with you in the slog. Does that help? I'll take your silence as a yes.

Photo ID: a photo of Kirby, who has red glasses and short brown hair and a very cool button-down shirt with constellations on it. 

You know what's NOT a slog??? Our interview with Kirby Conrod! We've gotten so much great feedback from this episode already, such as "about to listen to this episode on repeat" and "one of my favorite GR episodes ever" and "is so fucking good" and "is making me cry" and "rocks" and "slaps/can't help but to stan" (lolol). But seriously, people really like, it and I hope that you do, too! In the interview (which is full of fun friend banter that I selfishly love), we chat about:

• gender as a local, social relationship 
• life hacks for neurodivergent grad students... and everyone else, probably
• pronoun-go-arounds, and whether they mostly exist to benefit cis people
• writing a dissertation on nonbinary linguistics
• navigating healthcare as a trans and neurodivergent person
• ~*~wizard gender~*~

and more! 

Photo ID: A white t-shirt that says "my gender is a shrug" in pink and blue bubble letters, surrounded by pink and blue confetti.

While we're here, let me tell about this new "My Gender Is a Shrug" design by Fern Haught. (A fun fact about me is that shrug autocorrects on my keyboards to ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ so I am really struggling to type this out for y'all.) It's available on a t-shirt (up to 5XL!) and a sticker through the end of the month, with proceeds benefiting Trans Lifeline. You can view all of our June merch at bit.ly/gendermerch.

Photo ID: same design, this time on a light blue rectangular sticker

That's mostly it for now! Next week, we'll be catching up with Carta Monir from episode 40. We're going to talk about dicks A LOT, so prepare yourselves accordingly. 

Photo ID: Carta taking a selfie. (The photo is not a selfie — it's a photo of her taking a selfie.) She is wearing yellow glasses and a black shirt, and has a large brown snake draped across her neck and shoulders.

Thank you so so so much for being here. I cannot tell you what a difference it has been already to have a producer for this season. And that's all because of YOU and your generous donations!!! Heroes.

Here's your weekly Rhubarb.

Photo ID: A fluffy grey-white-and-orange cat with green eyes sits on a white porch railing. 

xoxoxo,
Yr resident gender detective