The Laverne Cox Show

Movement lawyer and political commentator, or “professional loudmouth”, Olayemi Olurin sheds light on what she knows about the American criminal “justice" system - which is a ton. Having come from The Bahamas as a young woman, she had seen plenty of poor Black folks. But she says America has a very different way of treating Black and brown people, which is that there is a focus on breaking down, criminalization and imprisonment, and just maybe there’s a lucrative payoff for it. A report by the ACLU shows that prisoners generate over $11 BILLION of goods and services and are rarely paid anything. She and Laverne talk about bail reform, the shady habit of over-policing and underfunding poor communities, and the way the prison pipeline perpetuates itself. “Our environments are who we become.”

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Mass Incarceration Is Slavery (Olurin, The Appeal)

Tyre Nichols Was Killed by Black Police Officers Because the Whole System Is Racist (Olurin, Teen Vogue)

Bayard Rustin (PBS Newshour, YouTube)

Podcast: American Police (Throughline, 2020)

Kalief Browder, 1993-2015 (2015, The New Yorker)

Justice Not Fear

How do I know if a source is credible?

Media Bias Chart

Links of Interest:

What is bail reform? (ACLU)

How Bail Reform, Crime Surge Mix in Angry Debate (The Washington Post, 2022)

Criminal Justice Statistics (The Marshall Project)

Criminal Fact Sheet (NAACP)

The challenges facing black men - and the case for action (The Brookings Institute, 2020)

The Condemnation of Blackness: Race, Crime and the Making of Modern Urban America

Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Noam Chomsky

Other Episodes Mentioned:

Housing Segregation and Structural Racism w/ Richard Rothstein

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The recent episode honoring bell hooks with Darnell Moore and Imani Perry got Laverne thinking even more about ideas around privilege. Just because you have it, doesn’t make you bad. Just because someone else has it doesn’t make them an oppressor. Privilege is relative. You can be the most privileged person in one room and the least privileged person in the next. Perhaps it’s time to stop blaming other people, look also at ourselves, and move forward together. Just some thoughts.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Links of Interest:

After Racist Tweet, Roseanne Barr’s Show Is Canceled by ABC (NYT, 2018)

Privilege and Intersectionality (Rider University)

Other Episodes Mentioned or Relevant:

Class Shaming w/ Mary O’Hara

Beauty as Capital w/ Kimberly Foster

Black Women Are Enough w/ Sarah Adeyinka Skold

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Laverne reunites with her long-time friend world-renowned DJ and record producer Honey Dijon to talk about her legendary career, their early days of New York City nightlife, and the universal energy shared on a dancefloor that can be a deeply profound spiritual experience. Honey is committed to sharing her club culture history and she’s got some names to drop. Honey Dijon is one of the first transgender artists to win a Grammy award, which she received for her production work on Beyonce’s latest album Renaissance.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Links of Interest:

Boiler Room Set 2018 (YouTube)

Comme des Garcons Line (Vogue)

Song: Let’s Go by Fast Eddie

Song: Doctor Love by First Choice

Song: Let No Man Put Asunder by First Choice

Steve Dahl’s Notorious 1979 Disco Demolition

Wigstock Returns From the Dead (NYTimes)

Grace Jones Meltdown Festival (video)

Grace Jones Live at Meltdown Festival (Review)

Names Mentioned:

Derrick Carter

Frankie Knuckles

Danny Tenaglia

Lady Bunny

Jean-Michel Basquiat

Keith Haring

Ajita Wilson

Azzedine Alaia

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

With all of the misinformation and laws taking rights away from trans youth and their parents who want to support them through a tricky childhood, it’s time to hear from someone who lived it. Transgender actress and activist Nicole Maines first rose to prominence as a teenager fighting for her civil rights. Not long after winning a groundbreaking legal challenge, she found herself cast as the first transgender superhero in television history playing Dreamer on The CW’s Supergirl. She is thriving, in love, having a blast in her career and now basically living the life of her dreams. But it wasn’t always smooth sailing growing up trans. And the fight is definitely not over.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

This episode was recorded before the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Links of Interest:

Becoming Nicole: The inspiring story of transgender actor-activist Nicole Maines and her extraordinary family

The Trans List Trailer (Facebook)

The Trans List: In Conversation (YouTube)

Doe v. Clenchy aka Doe v. Regional School Unit 26

Gavin Grimm (Washington Post)

Television’s First Transgender Superhero Will Arrive on ‘Supergirl’ (New York Times, 2018)

Gay Berlin by Robert Beachy

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Episodes Mentioned and Further Listening:

Reclaiming the Trans Narrative w/ Chase Strangio & Miss Peppermint

Pushing Back Against Anti-Trans Media & Policies w/ Chase Strangio

Ending Violence Toward Trans People w/ Dr. Karen Franklin

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Gloria Jean Watkins, the revolutionary Black feminist intellectual known as bell hooks, died on December 15, 2021. She was 69. In her time with us she wrote over 30 books and became a powerful voice in social criticism and commentary. Laverne and her friends, author and activist Darnell Moore and scholar and author Imani Perry, all had close personal relationships with Ms. hooks. In this loving tribute they discuss her impact, legacy, themes and teachings that have profoundly impacted each of them in different ways including her ideas centered around domination, arguing in community, and imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist patriarchy. She was feminist-and-fly, a little shady, and fully human.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Links of Interest:

The Wide Angle Vision, and Legacy, of bell hooks (New York Times)

The bell hooks Center

Gov. DeSantis Book Banning Push

The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord

AUDIO: bell hooks & Cornell West Press Conference (1997, C-Span)

Million Man March

Roberta Flack, Afro Blue

bell hooks’ works mentioned:

Feminism is for Everybody

Yearning

Black Looks

Real to Reel

Other Episodes Mentioned:

Beauty as Capital w/ Kimberly Foster

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this audio diary Laverne explores how her relationship with her body has evolved through her transition and over the years since. As a Black trans woman over 50 in a sexist, transphobic, fatphobic, ageist, white supremacist society, she says she feels RELIEF when she looks in the mirror. May we all find acceptance of and peace with our bodies regardless of our age, color, gender expression, mobility and size, because our bodies matter.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Other Episodes Mentioned:

Fatphobia & Diet Culture w/ Virgie Tovar

Beauty as Capital w/ Kimberly Foster

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Editing Support: Nikolas Harter

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Attorney, writer and political commentator Elie Mystal joins Laverne to talk about the radically conservative United States Supreme Court, the constitutional amendments through history and his eye-opening book, Allow Me To Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution. He explains how the judges’ own personal tastes make the largest impact on decisions and how the right’s unification has reaped a pipeline of conservative judges the left cannot replicate. They also talk about options like stacking the court and term limits to make change, but when it comes down to it, guess what, it’s up to us.

Elie is a frequent media contributor and the justice correspondent at The Nation.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

***

The U.S. Constitution Amendments mentioned:

1st Amendment = freedom of religion, speech, the press, assembly, and the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances

2nd Amendment = the right to bear arms

4th Amendment = the right to be protected against unreasonable search and seizure

“Reconstruction Amendments” 

13th Amendment (1865) = abolition of slavery

14th Amendment (1868) = US citizenship rights and equal protection of the laws

15th Amendment (1870) = Black men can vote

Links of Interest: 

Elie Mystal on The Mehdi Hassan Show (MSNBC via YouTube, 6/29/23)

Here’s What Happened When Affirmative Action Ended in California Public Colleges (NPR, 6/30/23)

The Current Supreme Court Justices

News and analysis of the US Supreme Court 

Reconstruction Amendments (Video, PBS)

The Federalist Society

Progressive Mobilization:

American Constitution Society (ACS)

Alliance for Justice

Demand Justice

Cases mentioned:

Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka

Loving v. Virginia

US vs. Rahimi (opinion)

Slaughterhouse Cases

Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia

303 Creative LLC v. Elenis

Previous Episodes Mentioned:

Residential Segregation & Structural Racism w/ Richard Rothstein

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Editing Support: Nikolas Harter

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Chase Strangio is Deputy Director for Transgender Justice with the ACLU’s LGBT & HIV Project, and a nationally recognized expert on transgender rights. Miss Peppermint is an actress, musical performer, and she nearly won season 9 of RuPaul’s Drag race. She's become the ACLU’s first-ever Artist Ambassador for Trans Justice. 

Laverne has brought these two powerhouses on to discuss how we can change the conversation about trans people from surgery and transition to humanity and privacy. They talk about the state of legislatures around the country, the truth about gender affirming care, strategies for allies to step up, and, of course, finding joy in their beautiful community.

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Links of Interest:

Trans Justice Funding Project

ACLU Mapping Attacks on LGBTQ Rights

Laverne and Katie Couric Follow-Up Visit (Video)

Trans People Facing Horrifying Rhetoric at State Houses (re Gwendolyn Herzig)

The NY Times Publishes a Defense of JK Rowling… (VanityFair)

Other Episodes Mentioned: 

Pushing Back Against Anti-Trans Media & Policies with Chase Strangio 

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Editing Support: Nikolas Harter

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Content Warning: this episode contains discussion about eating disorders, addiction, and recovery.

This interview was recorded in March 2023. 

In this incredibly vulnerable conversation, Laverne and Glennon Doyle, writer and co-host of the podcast We Can Do Hard Things, give a masterclass in real talk. Nothing is off limits as they dig into everything from addiction, perfectionism, boundaries and figuring out how much is “enough” in our hustle culture, to honoring their inner child, their bodies and the need to play dress up sometimes. 

Please rate, review, subscribe and share The Laverne Cox Show with everyone you know. You can find Laverne on Instagram, TikTok and Twitter @LaverneCox and on Facebook at @LaverneCoxForReal.

As always, stay in the love.

Links of Interest:

We Can Do Hard Things Podcast

Total Eclipse of the Heart - Bonnie Tyler

Other Episodes Mentioned:

Moving Beyond Us Vs. Them w/ Brené Brown

Fatphobia and Diet Culture w/ Virgie Tovar

Trauma Resilience & Healing w/ Jennifer Burton Flier

Trauma Resilience & Healing Encore w/ Jennifer Burton Flier

Beauty as Capital w/ Kimberly Foster

CREDITS:

Executive Producers: Sandie Bailey, Alex Alcheh, Lauren Hohman, Tyler Klang & Gabrielle Collins

Producer & Editor: Brooke Peterson-Bell

Associate Producer: Akiya McKnight

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.