Sorted 2
Yes, this is clickbait.
In early spring of 2019, a good friend and I were on the bus back to New York City from Philadelphia, where we’d been leading programming at Fandom Forward’s Granger Leadership Academy conference. It was a couple hours into the bus ride and we were starting to get a little slap-happy. I was down to the wire on a deadline for coming up with the title for my debut book and we’d spent most of the journey thus far brainstorming ever sillier ideas.
Having long cast aside her serious suggestion of Sorted (which ultimately became the book’s title once I emerged from my post-travel haze the next morning and recognized its brilliance), we were now riffing on puns using my last name, Bird. In a stroke of lexical genius, my friend rattled off a trio of title ideas that were hilariously absurd, and patently unusable. This first book, a memoir about me coming into my own as a trans man, could be called Hatching Him. In a few years, I could publish Hard Boiled: My Life As An Influencer. And, if I ever achieve my longtime dream of leaving the city, Over Easy: How I Left Big City Life and Started a Farm would be waiting in the wings for me.
Four years since the first book came out and so far there has been no Hard Boiled. Though I am feeling a bit hard boiled these days in general, despite continuing to move further away from anything remotely resembling an influencer.1
Every now and then I’m tempted to write some kind of second edition of Sorted. One that would strip out all the Harry Potter references and include a new introduction that addresses the transphobic elephant in the room (it would also probably remove a lot of personal stories, journal entries, and poorly-worded takes that I really regret including).
It’s just tough having that book out in the world without any sort of disclaimer about what has happened since it was published. (Part of that anxiety led me to writing this blog post, which compiles everything I’ve said publicly about the situation.) I often worry people won’t want to read the book because of the Harry Potter associations. In fact, I’ve seen online reviews that say exactly that.
But I am not publishing a second edition of Sorted. Or a sequel.
For the longest time, I was insistent I wouldn’t ever write another memoir-style book. Or at least not for a few decades. More recently, I’ve had a few creative nonfiction book ideas that lean more towards memoir. And who knows, maybe I’ll find a chance to use that oh-so-serious Over Easy title for one of them.
But no, there is no Sorted 2 in the works.
So why the clickbait? Well, earlier this year I was invited to join USC professors Henry Jenkins and Colin Maclay on their podcast How Do You Like It So Far? And upon listening to the recently released episode, I feel like it could serve as the follow-up I’ve been craving for Sorted.
Henry Jenkins is well-known in fan circles for having written critically and positively about fandom since the early 90s. I’ve been fortunate enough to collaborate with Henry and many of his colleagues in various capacities over the years. Colin Maclay is a Research Professor and Executive Director of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at USC, where he co-leads the Civic Media Fellowship (of which I’m a senior fellow).
How Do You Like It So Far? chats with artists, activists, technologists, fans, policy makers, and more about the relationship between popular culture and politics. The title of the podcast is a nod to the fact that its creators are still iterating on what the podcast is and may become (something I can highly relate to for First Draft Theater).
Having had so many thought-provoking conversations with both Henry and Colin off-mic, I was thrilled to join them on their podcast. If you’re someone who thinks critically about media, I think you’ll enjoy this and any episode of the show. If you’re someone who has been wondering what I’ve been up to since Sorted came out, or since I stopped posting as many YouTube videos, or since I stopped hosting Cool Stuff Ride Home — I think this episode serves as a great update and explanation.
The large middle chunk of the episode is devoted to a discussion about the author of Harry Potter, her unwavering anti-trans assertions, and in particular the podcast series The Witch Trials of JK Rowling which, unbeknownst to me until it was published, used sound bytes of me ripped from other podcasts.
Henry and Colin gave me space to talk more about how I’m feeling about the situation these days and also articulated their own opinions in what I think is a very useful way. In a way, this conversation could serve as a counter to my largely uncritical positioning of Harry Potter in Sorted.
More broadly, in the episode we talk about how I started my career as a Harry Potter fan and then as a trans advocate, but how I’ve been moving away from both of those things — and how much of that is personal choice and how much is related to the Harry Potter franchise’s CTO (Chief TERF Officer).
At the beginning of the episode, Colin and Henry ask me to share my “origin story.” I took that to mean my origins as a fan and media-maker so you get a slightly different slice of biography than is included in Sorted there.
And in the back half of the episode, I get a chance to talk about everything I’ve been doing since Sorted came out. I talk about the many different projects I’ve been undertaking; why I’ve been posting less on social media generally and YouTube specifically; why I was desperate to have a job that wasn’t tied to my trans identity but how I still can’t stop making art on trans topics; and I talk about how I approach creating art for so many different types of media. I also touch on the struggles I’ve had to create things up to the standard I believe in while also making it sustainable. And I tell a story about almost throwing up during a performance of The Infinite Wrench.
Overall, this podcast episode hit on a lot of topics and offered space for deeper reflections that I wish people reading Sorted today could hear from me now. Or people who have tried to keep up with me but have been throttled by a combination of algorithms, an increasingly fragmented social media landscape, and my decreased presence online.
I do think it’s worth listening to the whole podcast––both hosts are media experts and Henry is a legend in the world of fan studies so their takes on the HP/trans stuff is very worthwhile––, but if you’re only interested in one bit here are some timestamps:
0:00 - Origin story
10:45 - TERF Talk
38:00 - HBO’s upcoming Harry Potter series
46:20 - What I’ve been up to in recent years, and what I think about making art for different mediums as well as on topics beyond HP / trans stuff
Plus, stick around to the very end for a funny story from Henry about the very first panel I ever spoke on in 2012 (fun fact not included in that story: one of my fellow panelists was Dorian Electra!)
Rogue Recommendations
If you liked hearing two scholars talk about media on How do you like it so far?, then I highly recommend another podcast, Material Girls. It’s the newest show from the team behind the popular Witch, Please. Each week, Hannah and Marcelle use critical theory to discuss pop culture. Topics range from Taylor Swift to Star Wars (I particularly liked the episode on Barbie and petro-capitalism). I recently recorded an episode with them, which will be released early in the new year. Wanna bet what topic I discussed with them? Leave a comment on Substack!
This year, Rachel Maddow went from hosting her MSNBC show every weekday to just once a week. She explained to Seth Meyers that the break from that schedule has actually meant she’s working more and is even more stressed out. Readers, I felt seen. This is very much how I’ve felt since the end of Cool Stuff Ride Home. I feel completely unmoored and like I still don’t have enough time to do everything I’m trying to do. This is less a recommendation for you and more something I just had to share.
Are you tired of hearing the same old Christmas songs over and over again? I’ve got you covered!
Cher released a new Christmas album that is great for parties
I somehow missed that Earth, Wind, and Fire put out a banger of a Christmas album in 2014, which includes the song “December” (set to you know what song)
My friend, indie folk-ish musician Chris Daily makes a new Christmas album nearly every year. My favorite track this year is “When Otis Redding Sang (Merry Christmas Baby).”
Another musician friend, Paul DeGeorge, has been putting out meticulously-curated mixes of obscure Christmas music since 2008. Over 300 tracks to spice up your rotation available here.
As we celebrate the holidays, it’s imperative that we not forget those around us who are suffering — especially the civilians in Palestine and Israel. This document put together by my fellow Neo-Futurist Annie Levin (which we’ve been sharing at every performance of The Infinite Wrench), includes resources on taking action to demand a ceasefire, donating to aid organizations, learning more about the conflict, and keeping up with breaking news.
What I’ve Been Up To
I spent most of the fall performing in The Infinite Wrench. Your last chance to catch me this year will be December 15th and 16th. Tickets and info here!
Next year is the New York Neo-Futurists’ 20th anniversary and, as a nonprofit, what better way to celebrate than by raising money to keep us going? Learn more about the Neo-Futurists and the fundraiser at this handy-dandy donation page.
Just dropped today: the latest episode I guest hosted of Harry Potter and the Sacred Text. Vanessa Zoltan and I discuss chapter eighteen of The Order of the Phoenix through the theme of possibility and do the Jewish reading practice of PaRDeS.
My most recent YouTube video (which was a while ago, but still more recent then the last newsletter I sent out…) was inspired by a line from the Barbie press tour about how gender roles rob people of half their humanity. This was my take on it as a trans man—while doing a bunch of household chores.
Ok, I did go to a creator event at YouTube last week where I got to play pretend as a YouTuber™ again.