In this very special episode of The Joy Tuck Club, we sit down with Dr. Marci Bowers—trailblazing surgeon, passionate advocate, media-figure, WPATH President, and genuine trans icon. Marci shares her deeply personal journey from childhood in small-town America to becoming the first transgender woman to perform gender-affirming surgery.

We talk candidly about her early attempts to access hormones, the challenges of transitioning while building a medical career, and what it meant to take over the practice of the legendary Dr. Stanley Biber. Along the way, she reflects on identity, privilege, sexism, and why sisterhood sometimes looks like someone holding your pizza box while you pee.

This is the first of a two-part conversation that covers everything from obstetrics to Oprah, all told with Marci’s trademark warmth, wit and wisdom. Whether you’re trans yourself, an ally, or just curious about the lives shaping modern gender medicine—this is not one to miss.

https://marcibowers.com/

https://www.marcifoundation.org/

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

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The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

In an exemplary move toward clarity, the High Court in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh has ruled that transgender women are women. This important legal shift helps relieve discrimination against those whose human rights were traditionally filtered through the lens of a being a third, lesser, gender, giving them the same rights as other women. In a notable decision, the judge rejected the notion that womanhood could only be tied to those who may have had a capacity to give birth, thereby outright rejecting the idea that only natal females can be women.

Meanwhile, in the lands of India's colonial forebears, a blighted chaos had reigned since a now well known Supreme Court judgement, and a subsequent alarmingly biased interpretation by the laughably named Equality and Human Rights Commission, unleashed a wave of poorly-informed gatekeeping against not just trans people, but cis women too.

The UK Parliament has now declared that trans women are women if they work there, but not if they are just visiting, but when the history books are written, there will perhaps be no confusion greater than that being shown by the Scottish police force.

Tune in as red and freckles dive into what the heck just happened.

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

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The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

Come join us in this episode with Dr. Loren Schechter, one of the United States’ foremost experts in gender-affirming surgery and the President-Elect of WPATH (World Professional Association for Transgender Health).

With over 20 years of experience performing some 150–200 surgeries annually, Dr. Schechter is not short on insights into the evolving field of transgender healthcare.

He also performs numerous types of surgeries, including bottom surgery for MTF and FTM patients, along and strongly believes in the importance of multidisciplinary care including dealing with the emotional realities afterwards.

Of course, being the future president of WPATH, we had us an opportunity to probe, ever so gently, on what the future might hold under the current political threats to trans healthcare. While there were no fiery speeches, you'll certainly get a sense of the steady hand on the tiller he'll provide. WPATH continues to play a critical role in advocacy and setting standards of care, and we all need it to remain relevant.

Support the show

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

Instagram: @twodamptrans
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The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

Injectable treatments are a quick and easy alternative to more invasive surgery to adjust your facial aesthetics to better match your gender. But, as you’ll learn in this episode of The Joy Tuck Club, there are aspects to injectables that also make them first-class participants in any gender-affirming care plan. They can, in some cases, replace FFS, or at least make a very good start at refining your features, but in most others they might also be a necessary complement, acting as the fine brush strokes needed to complete your transformation.

As you’ll hear from Dr Oli Curwen, a very popular practitioner in the community, there are some things to be wary of, including the credentials of the person wielding the pointy bit. But the big one, if you’re needle-phobic, is that you can actually get through this if your practitioner is willing to include some helpful techniques.

We love learning from all the amazing people involved in gender affirming care that we get to interview, and this episode, in particular, is packed with not just a lot of that, but also big lovely heaps of very obvious care.

So have a listen and take the plunger, errr, plunge, into this episode. We promise you won’t end up with trout pout.

If you are within reach of London, you can nab a consult with Dr Oli via his website at https://www.droli.co.uk/.

Support the show

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

Instagram: @twodamptrans
Threads: @twodamptrans
Bluesky: @twodamptrans.bsky.social
TikTok: @twodamptrans
YouTube: @TwoDampTrans
Spotify: The Joy Tuck Club
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The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

Building Bridges, Breaking Barriers

Some walls are fortresses. Each week, new rules, new restrictions, new barriers that make them higher and harder to climb. Some walls need a hero—someone to shatter their faulty logic and malign rigidity. In this episode of The Joy Tuck Club we have a chat with exactly that kind of person.

Dr. Ioannis Ntanos is a surgeon specializing in gender-affirming care, specifically FTM top surgery, operating in London and Athens. He has performed over 980 such surgeries, and is a somewhat unusual counterpoint to the more prescriptive physicians through his emphasis on patient autonomy and shared decision-making.

He is an educator, launching masterclasses and contributing to medical texts, but as you’ll hear in this discussion, he also has a Masters in Ethics and Law, which informs his approach to allyship, and he wields it with surgical precision, scything through the arguments of those opposing gender affirming care. We can only wish there were more Ioannis’ in the world, but alas, there is only one.

Ioannis has a few very important points for anyone contemplating any gender affirming surgery, and it begins with finding a surgeon who is also an ally foremost, and one who won’t put your desired outcome at risk. He says a consultation must always be a negotiation between what is wanted and what is possible. Gatekeeping should never play a part.

But as you can imagine from someone who is also somewhat of a philosopher and polymath, he has many interesting things to say about many things. He leaves on a poetic note, with the full text printed below.

We hope you enjoy, and if you wish to get in touch with Ioannis, please visit his website at https://www.ioannisntanos.com/ and tune into The Top Surgery Podcast on Spotify.

Walls

by C. P. Cavafy

1863 – 1933

translated from the modern Greek by John Cavafy

Without reflection, without mercy, without shame,
they built strong walls and high, and compassed me about.

And here I sit now and consider and despair.

It wears away my heart and brain, this evil fate:
I had outside so many things to terminate.

Oh! why when they were building could I not beware!

But never a sound of building, never an echo came.
Insensibly they drew the world and shut me out.

https://poets.org/poem/walls

Support the show

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

Instagram: @twodamptrans
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The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

In this episode of The Joy Tuck Club we are joined by the delightfully dynamic Dani St James. This isn’t for the faint-hearted though. If you clutch your pearls at the occasional f-bomb, best get them ready.

Calling in from her colourful studio in the seaside town of Margate, Dani shares a transition journey that traces a path from Wales (where trans-miners, yes, miners as in mines, played a key role in her early transition), to Ibiza, where the challenges of tucking and electrical tape sparked an idea that eventually flared into Zoah, a lingerie brand featuring perhaps the best tuckers, binders, and packers any trans person could want. Her dream was to create underwear so comfortable you forget you’re even wearing it.

Along the way she also, much to the surprise of many a parliamentarian suffering from Cassification of the brain, had a good experience at the Tavistock gender clinic, just happened to become the first trans woman to out herself deliberately on a national tv show, became a model and celebrity, and went on to found an incredible charity, Not A Phase, providing vital support to trans and gender non-conforming adults across the UK.

Of course, it wasn’t all smooth sailing, but you’ll have to listen to the episode to find out why.

Dani shares an unfiltered story that is imbued with a monumental amount of joy. It’s also one of perseverance, passion, and a little presale panic, making it a useful listen for anyone needing some entrepreneurial uplifting too. And it all started with someone who initially thought she was just “really shit at being a gay boy.”

Join us for a wonderfully rompish ride through life, love, and the pursuit of comfortable underwear.

https://zoah.shop/

https://notaphase.org/

https://www.instagram.com/danistjames

Support the show

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

Instagram: @twodamptrans
Threads: @twodamptrans
Bluesky: @twodamptrans.bsky.social
TikTok: @twodamptrans
YouTube: @TwoDampTrans
Spotify: The Joy Tuck Club
Apple: The Joy Tuck Club

The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

Not so long ago (narrator: it was just late last year), we had the pleasure of interviewing Dr Giuseppe Di Taranto—a lively, passionate Italian surgeon now based in London. His fascination with microsurgery led him across continents to Asia, where he discovered a deep interest in the intricate challenges of gender-affirming care.

Dr Di Taranto now offers a wide range of treatments at his own clinic (https://giuseppeditaranto.com/)—from facelifts and breast augmentations to body contouring and non-surgical treatments—and also consults at the renowned Chelsea and Westminster Hospital.

But beyond his surgical skills, he is a true trans ally. When another clinic suddenly shut down, he stepped in to support abandoned patients, and he continues to offer care that goes above and beyond what many surgeons in this field provide.

We were thrilled to speak with him about his journey, his work, what patients can expect, and how best to approach a consultation.

So, tune in, download, listen up (or down), and enjoy this episode with the really quite lovely Dr Di Taranto.

Support the show

—

Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

Instagram: @twodamptrans
Threads: @twodamptrans
Bluesky: @twodamptrans.bsky.social
TikTok: @twodamptrans
YouTube: @TwoDampTrans
Spotify: The Joy Tuck Club
Apple: The Joy Tuck Club

The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.

Few combine humor with heartfelt political discourse better than the unbreakable Freda Wallace. Her insights and commentary make for a riveting blend of levity and gravity on the JoyTuck Club. Honestly, it’s a rollercoaster, but one whose twists and turns, ups downs, mirror the reality in which we live.

Recorded in 2023, this interview portends a 2nd Trump presidency and the grave nature of the fight of, and for, our lives as transgender men and women.

Freda's personal battles against doxxing and defamation show the resilience necessary to advocate for equality in the face of adversity. As she peels back the curtain on activism's stark realities, we're reminded of the courage it takes to maintain a public presence, of staying visible, and the importance of fostering empathy in our communities.

The tides of social change are often tumultuous, and this discussion with Freda on the fragility of LGBTQ+ rights, the divisive political climate, and the need for inclusive spaces is an urgent one. Join us for a journey through the complexities of life and self-determination, all wrapped up in the indomitable spirit of Freda Wallace.

You can find more of Freda on her recently relaunch YouTube channel at The Trans Lobby.

Support the show

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Visit The Joy Tuck Club online at redandfreckles.com and learn more about us and our upcoming book, How To Transition.

You can also find red+freckles (Rachel & Phoebe) at:

Instagram: @twodamptrans
Threads: @twodamptrans
Bluesky: @twodamptrans.bsky.social
TikTok: @twodamptrans
YouTube: @TwoDampTrans
Spotify: The Joy Tuck Club
Apple: The Joy Tuck Club

The Joy Tuck Club is written, produced, and edited by red+freckles, of Two Damp Trans Ltd, UK.