
Hosted by AM950 Radio · EN

After 357 episodes, this is the final Ellie 2.0 radio show and podcast In light of how the far right and incoming Trump administration have signaled their intent to continue attacking transgender Americans, I’ve decided to step up my broadcast advocacy with a brand-new radio and podcast show, “The Illegal Transwoman,” which will focus on issues affecting transgender and nonbinary-identifying humans. For this last episode of Ellie 2.0, I highlight the 1980s gay rights organization, ACT-UP, and its founder Larry Kramer. Trans folks have nothing like ACT-UP, and the very least that I can do is try to be a voice in support of my community. Thank you for having supported this show for seven years! Please follow my new show!

Ellie is the host of Ellie 2.0 Radio, airing at 4 PM Saturdays and replayed on Sundays.

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We begin this week’s show with two idealists of opposite minds—former Illinois congressman Joe Walsh and gun safety advocate (and father of his murdered daughter, Jaime) Fred Guttenberg. Both hated each other for years until they began to talk human-to-human. Now they are on a speaking tour titled “2 Dads Defending Democracy,” and we air a taste of their conversation. The Big Interview is with Courtney Johnson, mayor of Carver MN, who shares about the challenges and joys of leading a small Minnesota town. In the C-Block, I talk about how the Universe recently spoke to me, and also urge listeners to motivate young people to vote on Nov. 5.

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Wow, we’ve hit the 350-episodes mark! For this show, the featured idealist is the recently deceased Kris Kristofferson, who as a teenager, and way before he was famous, wrote about the wrongs of racism. The Big Interview is with Sarah Curtiss and Ed Heisler, leaders at a Duluth-based nonprofit, Men As Peacemakers. In the C-Block, I share about how now three states (FL, TX and MO) are targeting transgender people relative to their driver’s licenses; they either have or are poised to require trans folks to turn in driver’s licenses that have names and gender markers which confirm to their gender identity. This is a horrible development that will only get worse if the election goes the wrong way!

We’ve got an Ellie’s Talking Head show this week, starting with highlighting idealistic NewGround, an LA-based group that seeks to help Jews and Muslims form friendships and have respectful conversations about their differing views on Palestine. I also share two wonderful stories of compassion—one about a UPS driver who helped a stranger with a life-threatening incident and a second about how VA high school students contributed to buy their school custodian a Jeep. On a less happy note, I share about a recent article in Nature documenting a 72% increase in attempted suicides by transgender and nonbinary youth who live in states that have banned gender affirming care. So tragic!

This week’s featured idealist is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, the outdoor clothing and adventure store. Early on, Yvon made his mark as an idealist by devoting one percent of Patagonia’s revenue to protecting the environment and fighting climate change. In 2022, Yvon, by then a billionaire, donated his entire company’s stock to a trust and a specially-created nonprofit that will ensure that Patagonia will never be sold and that it’s mission around climate change will continue. The Big Interview is with Sierra Grady, an advocate for understanding and protecting those who are neurodiverse. In the C-Block, I talk about speaking in far southeastern MN and moving the needle!

We start with our historical featured idealist, the founder of St. Mary’s Academy in New Orleans: Mother Josephine Charles battled racism and misogyny in the mid-19th century to create a religious school for girls of color. Nearly 160 years later, St. Mary’s had 100% graduation and college admission rates—unheard of in education! The Big Interview is a reprise of my interview with Kelly Johnson, who curates a website that documents efforts to push back against book bans. In my C-Block I talk about how companies are rushing to shut down their DEI departments, and how following the disastrous Supreme Court affirmative action ruling, colleges and universities are admitting far less freshman of color. Horrible!

With the DNC convention over, our featured idealist is Adam Kinzinger, the former Illinois congressman who denounced Trump way back in 2016, and later served on the bipartisan January 6th Committee. Kinzinger isn’t afraid to speak truth to power and was a speaker at the convention, exhorting Republicans to understand that “Democrats also love our country!” The Big Interview is with Nicki Hangsleben, the executive director of Queer Space Collective, which matches LGBTQ+ youth with LGBTQ+ mentors, ala Big Brothers/Sisters. In my C-Block, I talk about some touching audience feedback from a recent workshop that I conducted.