A new season of CONVERSATIONS WITH SYDNEY explores the mental health consequences of outing middle school students, the experiences of young trans people, teen resilience in the struggle for civil rights, and the connection between music, creativity, and mania.
LISTEN TO THE BRAND NEW SEASON HERE.
Episode One: Outed in 8th Grade, CWS explores the social and psychological costs of being outed in middle school by school officials for being queer. LGBTQ+ youth are much more likely than gender conforming youth to consider suicide, and this episode explores how this experience impacted Donna’s connection to their family and their mental health. We also learn how these traumatic experiences echoed later in their life when they studied to become a high school teacher in South Carolina, which recently passed a law requiring public schools to report non-gender conforming kids to their parents. We also speak with Dr. Laura Erickson-Schroth, the chief medical officer of The Jed Foundation (JED), about the importance of family support in preventing suicide.
Episode Two: Young People in Transition, CWS speaks with two transgender people, Benjamin and Juliette, about their lives and how they have navigated the complex social, psychological, and familial consequences of living transgender lives.
Episode Three: Resilience in Little Rock, CWS explores resilience in the face of racial terror by speaking with Dr. Terry Roberts, a member of the Little Rock Nine, who at fifteen years old volunteered to help desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1957. Dr. Roberts explains his motivations, the psychological training, and the mental techniques that helped him get through what he has called the most difficult year of his life.
Episode Four: Music and Mania, CWS explores the connections between music, mania, and the creative process with Sparni, a talented young musician who lives with bipolar disorder. Sparni writes and performs music about their experiences as a way to cope with their mental health challenges and fight against the taboo that prevents people from talking openly about mental health challenges.
Episode Five: What’s in a Pronoun? CWS talks with three young college students about their use of personal pronouns, and how these terms relate to their sense of their own gender and place in the world. They also reflect on how their families have reacted to these shifts in language, identity, and culture.
Conversations with Sydney was produced by Common Good Productions in association with WBGO Studios. The second season of Conversations with Sydney is a part of WBGO's "Voices of Wellness," and was made possible in part by a grant from the Horizon Foundation for New Jersey.
If you are having thoughts of suicide, please call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988.
