Pride Spotlight; Insights from ‘Gender Detective’ Tuck Woodstock

Tuck Woodstock is a queer biracial journalist and producer/host of the podcast Gender Reveal. It is an honor to sit down with Tuck and hear about their industry and pride insights.

Would you mind telling us a little bit about yourself, maybe something that only a few people know about you?

I am a journalist, educator, and audio producer currently based in Portland, Oregon. I am the host of the award-winning podcast Gender Reveal, and a co-founder of both the Trans Journalists Association and Sylveon Consulting (a firm focused on trans equity in media). A fun fact about me is that I was the editor of the official 2020 Portland visitors guide, with nobody ever saw for obvious reasons.

What does pride month mean to you and how do you celebrate?

As any professionally gay or trans person will tell you, Pride is an exceptionally busy time for us. So I’m typically working and trying to take advantage of the one month per year that more mainstream platforms and outlets are willing to acknowledge the show.

Could you tell us a little bit about why you started Gender Reveal?

In 2017, I attended a conference that was ostensibly about gender & podcasting, but that didn’t acknowledge the existence of trans people (inside or outside of podcasting). I developed the concept for Gender Reveal while still at the conference, with the help of a few other queer podcasters I met there.

Are there things the podcast industry should be doing differently to support the LGBTQIA+ community?

I would personally love to see trans podcasts talked about at times other than late March, June, and late November. It would be great to see our work mentioned on lists of “podcasts that are good” instead of just “podcasts that are LGBTQIA+“.

What was your favorite time with a guest behind the scenes?

A tweet recently reminded me of the time I spoke with Carmen Maria Machado about what would happen if a vampire ate out someone who was menstruating. That stayed in the episode, so it’s very much not behind the scenes, but it still makes me laugh to think about.

The trans podcasts that I feel in community with include TransLash, Queersplaining, Marsha’s Plate, Cancel Me Daddy, Flash Forward, and FANTI. I’m also a sucker for a bunch of popular queer-hosted culture podcasts that seem to all exist in the same cinematic universe: Food 4 Thot, Las Culturistas, Who? Weekly, Eating for Free, Like a Virgin, etc.