Making a Podcast About Parenting in 2025: A Labor of Love, Resilience, and Hope
Have you checked out Season Two of Gender Playground?
A Message from Marcelle
Hey everyone!
This interruption in your regularly-scheduled Behind-the-Episode Substack is brought to you by Gender Playground – SEASON TWO!
I asked Coach if I could hijack this month’s Substack to share with you all how much this new season means to me, and because she is a kind and benevolent coach, Coach said yes. ❤️
You’ve probably heard me say it before, but it bears repeating: making Gender Playground has been a way for me to pay forward the love and care that I’ve been blessed with on my own parenting journey. And the more time I have spent working on this show with my beloved co-host Raimi, and our wonderful producers Reese and Coach, the more convinced I am that gender-affirming care is central to good parenting for kids of any gender at any age. In fact, each episode we’ve recorded has confirmed for me that there is nothing radical about letting kids take the lead in discovering who they are.
Before I had kids I used to joke that I would be a disaster of a parent because of the intensity with which I gendered my cats. I had a male cat (Beowulf) and a female cat (Cozette—yes I know it’s spelled wrong, mistakes were made), and I would talk about them in gendered ways, and talk to them in gendered ways, and in general just lean unironically into having a “girl kitty” and a “boy kitty.” The thing about cats, though, is they don’t actually give a shit about how, or whether you gender them. They’re cats. They want you to clean their litter box, feed them, and maybe pet them (if you’re lucky). Anything else is just human nonsense.
Kids, though, care about a lot of things. They care about learning the right words to express themselves; they care about being taken seriously; and they care about being allowed to figure stuff out. My kids are constantly learning new things about themselves, and when I don’t remember (or even know) the latest essential facts about them, it’s a big deal! I can’t always tell the difference between the big deals and the no-big deals, but we have the kind of relationship where they let me know when I’ve messed up. Unlike cats, my kids care that I use the right words to talk about them (my daughter, for example, is not “silly”!) and it makes them sad when I don’t respect that.
Making the second season of Gender Playground has given me the chance to hear from folks navigating gender and child-rearing in an increasingly scary world. The scariness is real and it sucks, and so far no one has written in to say “Everyone move here, the governance system is perfect.” But it has been so healing to hear from adults all over the world who are committed to making the planet a safe and loving place for queer, trans, and nonbinary kids. We had listeners send us voicemails from Australia, Germany, and across Turtle Island (North America). That’s amazing! We might be spread out, but we aren’t alone.
One of the biggest changes we made to Gender Playground this season was bringing on guests for each episode. This totally changed the format, the dynamic between me and Raimi, and the way the whole team worked on the show — but it was so worth it! Every single guest who joined us is doing something to build a better world. Did I get to fangirl over Charlie James? Yes. And I got to learn about the radical and revolutionary power of comedy.
For me, as I’m sure for many of you, this past year has been extra challenging due to five years of accumulated trauma and burnout. And that trauma and burnout is precariously piled on top of five further years of climate catastrophes and political nightmares. This is a hard time to be a functioning adult with, like, commitments and responsibilities and shit. But one of the best parts about making Gender Playground has been checking in regularly with Raimi, Reese, and Coach. No matter how miserable I may have felt at the start of a meeting, I always left feeling lighter. Once, when we were all feeling particularly low, we implemented a mandatory self-care accountability post. We each had to share a selfie to our Slack channel proving we had given ourselves a little ice cream treat. The care and compassion that this team* shows for each other is one of the best parts of making the podcast and I am immeasurably grateful for our time working together on the project.
I know that you’re going to love this new season of Gender Playground. It was a labour of love, resilience, and hope for a world that needs all three.
xoxoxo
Marcelle
*The whole Witch, Please Productions team is like this, but that’s an essay for another Substack.
While You’re Here, Allow Me a Quick Plug?
A Message from Coach
I’m not crying, you are! No but for real, every time Marcelle talks or writes about parenting I get emotional. BUT that’s not why I’m here.
I’m here to remind you to scoop tickets to our live show THIS Thursday. We just opened up more seats on the main floor and it would be an absolute dream to sell out the space. If you are in Vancouver, or the surrounding area, I hope to see you at the show. If you can’t make it, we get it!
Hopefully we get to do more of these in YOUR city.
