This is a very important episode to me.

First of all, apologies for our bye week last week. Technical difficulties erased three (3!) episodes. But we're back, with fresh intro music and an AMAZING interview for you.

With news of Nex Benedict's death in all the national outlets, I asked my son, who is trans, if the time was right for him to share his story. He agreed to be interviewed about his experiences of being bullied and assaulted on campus at our local public high school.

It's important that we hear from these kids, and that we listen to their stories in their own words so that we can better practice empathy when discussing these issues. My son is hardly alone. Another trans teen just in our school district was violently assaulted and sustained a head injury.

Violence is becoming endemic in our public middle and high ...