Jess Darrow! Advice is back! 7 Steps to Stop ICE!
Added 2026-02-01 23:36:36 +0000 UTCHey friends,
Hope you’re all hanging in there. It’s so cold and everything is so bad! But it is once again time to talk about…. Podcast. lol.
This week on Gender Conceal, I chatted with Encanto’s Jess Darrow about working with Disney as an outspoken queer person. We also discussed Jess’s mission to make Captain Hook gay in 7th grade; their big discovery about comedians(??); their hot take on cishet relationships(???); and much more!!!! It’s a journey for sure.
Jess's character, Luisa, in Encanto. In that episode, I also announced a BRAND NEW ADVICE FORM! Please use this form to submit your questions (advice or AMA-style) for me & future Gender Conceal guests. I’ll be opening up the form to the general listening populace in order to attract more questions (and thus make more advice episodes for YOU), but the episodes will live in the Gender Conceal feed, and patron questions will be prioritized. :)
Next month on Gender Reveal, we’ll be chatting with trans Minneapolis residents, because what else could you possibly imagine we would do??
Also, a reminder that if you are in the Baltimore area, I will hopefully see you at Red Emma’s on February 12, where I will be in conversation with Rahne Alexander. RSVP here.
Okay, let’s do Links & Stuff. But before we get into the list of it all, let me say this: I was so sad to learn that Philly’s own Dan McQuade passed away this week. His coworkers at Defector have been highlighting some of Dan’s finest work: this one particularly is so so so so funny, but you can’t go wrong with any of it, especially his writing about his cats and dying malls and baseball cards.
Minneapolis essays:
From friend of the show Katherine Packert Burke, We Are Going To Win (hopeful!)
From Hmong Minnesotan writer Kao Kalia Yang, If They Take Me and Leave the Children… (devastating!)
In n+1, ICE vs Everyone
Beautiful little photo essay from two ProPublica photographers
In formerly-MSNBC, an expert explains how ICE Watch actually helps reduce violence
Lots of folks loved this thoughtful piece in the Atlantic of all places (gift link)
General organizing:
Organizers are using Fortnite to rehearse ICE defense tactics
Leah Sottile shared three great resources re: What To Do Right Now:
Crimethinc’s 7 Steps to Stop ICE (1-pg zine, English & Spanish)
From Nov 2024, a zine listing 20 things you can do to counter fascism, made by a community of Jewish anarchists
From early 2025, 30 lonely but beautiful actions you can take right now
I belatedly listened to This American Life’s profile of Mahmoud Khalil and keep thinking about this exchange (It’s Episode 866, Act 1)
Everything else:
Finally, some good news.
This radio piece was a huge deal in the podcast world a decade ago; I revisited it recently and honestly it still hits
Gender Reveal alum Danny and Soleil attempted to figure out whether queer food is anything
This list of worst things on 2025’s internet is largely underwhelming but can you guess which one made me scream out loud?
I already forgot about R/W/L so let me pretend I remember what I was up to last week.
Reading: Last week, I audiobook’d Slouching Towards Bethlehem (it doesn’t make any sense to listen to this on audiobook read by Maya Hawke and yet i did do that) as well as Lucy Foley’s The Paris Apartment; this week, I audiobook’d The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue and am attempting to read Aren Aizura’s Mobile Subjects
Watched: Last week, Wake Up Dead Man; this week, Marty Supreme
Listening to: Last week, I Want the Door to Open by Lala Lala; this week, the brand-new For The First Time, Again by Tyler Ballgame
That’s it for this week. Stay warm and keep each other safe. Here’s your weekly Rhubarb featuring Puffin.
Xo,
Yr resident gender detective
PS: 2 Trans 2 Furious is going to be out of print soon, so if you know anyone who still wants one, tell them to grab it now :)
