Ignatius Press Podcast

In a society that often claims to value the voices of the marginalized, one group that find themselves frequently silenced by the very people claiming to speak for them are detransitioners—men and women who have gone down the road of “gender transition,” only to change their minds, embrace their biological sex, and reverse course.

In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Jennifer Lahl, a nurse and documentary maker who works to amplify the voices of those who have been harmed by gender ideology. Together with Kallie Fell, Lahl has written the new book The Detransition Diaries, which tells the stories of five women and two men who have reclaimed their identities after dangerous journeys through hormone therapies, surgeries, and other treatments aimed at changing their biological sex.

Find The Detransition Diaries at Ignatius.com.

Follow Jennifer Lahl on X: @JenniferLahl

Follow Kallie Fell on X: @kal_fell

When Mark Wahlberg’s hit movie “Father Stu” was released in 2022, audiences all over the country were introduced to Father Stuart Long, a former boxer-turned-wannabe-actor-turned Catholic priest who died in Helena, Montana in 2014 at the age of 50. The motorcycle-riding tough guy who found his way to Christ and the priesthood captured the hearts of many moviegoers, but the film only told part of the story of the real Father Stu’s remarkable life and spiritual legacy.

Few people knew Father Stu as well as did Father Bart Tolleson, Stu’s close friend and fellow diocesan priest. His new book “That Was Father Stu: A Memoir of My Priestly Brother and Friend” recounts Stu’s often-bumpy road to conversion and ordination, but also tells the story of his transformative priestly ministry and his fight against the degenerative disease that ultimately took his life. In this episode, Andrew Petiprin speaks with Father Bart about his friendship with Stu and about the tremendous witness of holy suffering Stu gave in the final years of his life.

“Grief is a call to expand our hearts.” Dr. Daniel and Bethany Meola have worked with hundreds of individuals from broken homes who are grieving—grieving the divorce or separation of their parents, grieving the loss of the “ideal” family, even grieving a sense of identity rooted in parental love. They have pulled together valuable insights and wisdom from their work into a new book, “Life-Giving Wounds: A Catholic Guide to Healing for Adult Children of Divorce or Separation.”

In this episode, host Andrew Petiprin speaks with the Meolas about their book and their work with adult children of divorce—work that is particularly critical in our day and age, in which huge numbers of people come from homes broken by divorce or separation. Grief, anxiety, anger—these emotional wounds from parental separation are often hidden. But, according to the Meolas, these same wounds can be opportunities for healing and redemption. Their message is ultimately one of hope—that these wounds do not have to define us, but can become sources of life and strength.