We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Ana and Cam Kruger. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Ana and Cam below.
Ana and Cam, appreciate you joining us today. What’s been the most meaningful project you’ve worked on?
As father and daughter, we have always had a close relationship. It was hard thinking to the future of Ana moving out on her own as an adult and wanted to find a way to make sure we connect regularly. We had talked about starting a podcast for years, but in 2021, Cam was in the process of selling the house we lived in together and we decided to give it a shot. Ana was in the process of coming out publicly as a transgender woman and as we were considering the topic of our podcast, we quickly settled on telling her story.
We decided to call the podcast “the Transgenda”, both as a nod to our goal of normalizing gender identity conversation among cisgender people as well as to fight back against a transphobic book by the same name (which has nearly disappeared from Google searches now, replaced by our podcast!) We describe the podcast as a funny, touching, and informative chronicle of Ana, a transgender woman, and Cam, her Dad, as they grow together.
The reception to the Transgenda has been overwhelmingly positive. Listenership started growing right away and we began receiving messages from trans and nonbinary individuals, and parents, family, and friends of individuals transitioning or questioning their gender identity.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
The Transgenda podcast is meant to be a safe, welcoming listen for trans, nonbinary, and gender questioning individuals, as well as cisgender friends, family, and allies. Each episode tackles a main topic, from learning to use someone’s pronouns to mental health in the trans community to how media portrays gender and trans individuals. We incorporate something funny or historically interesting related to gender identity and end every episode with a gender euphoria moment from one of our listeners. Throughout the podcast, Ana shares her experiences as a transgender woman and Cam asks questions and shares honest successes and stumbling points in supporting Ana in her transition.
We have been fortunate to interview a number of phenomenal guests including Aidan Dowling (first trans man on the cover of Men’s Health Magazine), Afrogeode (nonbinary queer musical artist), the cast and conductor of the opera As One, and others. We were invited to do our first live show at Trans Joy Fest and have had the opportunity to speak to a number of groups about transgender history, gender/sex/sexuality, cisgender allyship and safe spaces, parenting, and more.
The Transgenda kicks off Season 2 in January 2023 with new theme music, a host of new guests, and our usual informative humor. As Ana says at the end of each episode, “Love you all, except the bigots.”
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
We are both lifelong learners and consume any content that can help us create and manage better. Our guiding book for getting started in podcasting is “Everyone Has Podcast (Except You)” by the McElroy brothers, which is not only filled with practical tips (recording software, how to publish episodes, etc.) but also lessons they have learned in building their media empire (don’t start a podcast expecting to make money with it).
The thing that has surprised us most is that, even if it doesn’t make money, a podcast growing in popularity takes a slate of entrepreneurial skills. We have gained a ton of insights from Gary Vaynerchuk’s books “Jab Jab Left Hook”, which is full of social media marketing strategies, and “Crushing It!”, the follow up to his book “Crush it!” providing insights on bringing your creative pursuits public.
Regarding information about gender identity and being transgender, we rely on a lot of sources but always suggest people check out the Trevor Project (https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/guide/a-guide-to-being-an-ally-to-transgender-and-nonbinary-youth/) GLAAD (https://www.glaad.org/resourcelist) and TransEquality (https://transequality.org/)
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
We started the Transgenda to talk about Ana’s journey and stay connected with each other, but the mission has shifted for us now. We want to spur conversations about supporting the LGBTQAI+ community, drive political shifts to protect transgender rights, and teach cisgender individuals how to create safe space. We want to use our platform to amplify the voices of transgender, nonbinary, and gender questioning individuals, and promote the art and music created by this community.
Our next endeavor is to expand our public speaking and plan to take the podcast on the road.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.transgendapod.com
- Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/transgendapod
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/transgendapod
- Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/transgendapod
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@transgendapod
- Other: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-transgenda/id1598205830 https://open.spotify.com/show/7vz0loT83OOO1QxyFMIyRQ