Episode 47, featuring Wesley Yang

Episode 47, featuring Wesley Yang

From UnMuted: the TransMuted Podcast by Jenny Poyer Ackerman

February 9, 2026 · 1h 35m

About this episode

Wesley Yang discusses his views on gender ideology and cultural commentary with host Jenny Poyer Ackerman.

I’m honored to have Wesley Yang here today. Wesley became a publishing sensation when his first book of essays, The Souls of Yellow Folk , came out in hardback in 2018 to much well-deserved acclaim. Not long after that, he learned just enough about the gathering storm that was gender ideology to become well and thoroughly peaked. Instead of keeping his head down to preserve his status as a media darling favored by the gatekeepers of the New York publishing world, he chose the precise opposite path and began speaking and writing furiously about the issue that brings us all here, using language that was eloquent, clear, urgent, and refreshingly un-sugar-coated. For an early ‘trans’ skeptic like me, Wesley’s position carried extra weight. Here was a respected cultural observer sounding the alarm absent any direct personal stake in the story. If anything, he had a stake in pretending there was nothing to see here, in the manner of almost all his peers in publishing and media. So few people in any profession were speaking up that Wesley’s fearlessness made him a hero among parents like me.I connected with him on Twitter in 2021 and went on to write two pieces for his Substack, Year…

People in this episode

Host: Jenny Poyer Ackerman

Guest: Wesley Yang

Topics covered

  • gender ideology
  • cultural commentary
  • parenting
  • media criticism
  • personal narratives

Keywords

  • gender ideology
  • Wesley Yang
  • cultural observer
  • parenting
  • media

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: MSNBC, Substack, TransMuted

Books & works: The Souls of Yellow Folk

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