SEGMENT 1

Kevin opens up this episode by sharing his value of being inclusive of all people, no matter the identity and make-up of a person. He continues to show his support for all communities, including the LGBTQ+ community. However, because he wasn’t educated on transgender people, he is begins to talk more on wanting to learn and understand more about this specific community. To shine a spotlight on Pride month, Kevin hopes to open his listener’s minds and hearts while they listen to this episode. After being casted in a one act play in NYC and getting to know his fellow costar, Brian Michael, he later finds out years later something he wasn’t aware of after running into him at an airport. He continues this story after the break.

SEGMENT 2

Coming back from the break, Kevin continues with this story by talking about his conversation with Brian, his past co-star. Kevin heard Brian was going to be in another television show and that GLAD was involved in this show as well, which sparks his confusion on why GLAD would be included in this. While Kevin was on his plane ride and unable to see the show Brian is on, the next morning he saw the many messages from celebrities praising his friends’ role in the TV show. Eventually, Kevin became more confused as he remembers Brian speaking about his past track records from shot put. However, once Kevin read a headline stating Brian’s groundbreaking work into playing a transgender role as a transgender person on “Queen Sugar”, then, Kevin put everything together and understood Brian is a transgender male. So, he reached out to his friend to further discuss this with him and explain his unawareness of his identity. This understanding helped enlighten Kevin on this community and he wanted to share this great story during Pride month

SEGMENT 3

Now, we are joined by special guest Eliza VanCourt, author of “A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space”. They originally knew each other while on set of a movie, and now they are here to speak more about her book. After experiencing a difficult brain injury, Eliza was able to understand communication in a deeper way that she wanted to share with the world. But when she found herself answering more questions after her TED talks because females were too afraid to ask them in front of other males, she realized the five main questions she was answering could benefit others if she wrote about this in her book. These five areas of claiming space include claiming space with your physicality and voice, collaborating with others, not displacing yourself or letting others impede on your space, and claiming space intersectionality. Eliza and Kevin discuss the implications of a man not choosing to understand the experiences women go through that they don’t experience, which are written about in this book.

SEGMENT 4

Kevin asks Eliza to share key advice she would give to someone who feels their space is being taken away from someone. Eliza shares that her book is meant to be a guided book, so that her readers can revisit different chapters during various experiences. She believes getting anti-mentors out of your life is one key step you can take to reclaim your space. By identifying an anti-mentor, or someone who takes up your space, it brings you closer to finding a positive mentor in your life that can instead provide support and guidance in your space. They then speak more on the importance of not beating yourself up over past mistakes and working more on what you can do in the present moment with new knowledge and understanding of not taking away space from someone else. By being aware of things that have been handled wrong, it makes it more feasible to not repeat them again in the future. Be sure to buy “A Woman’s Guide to Claiming Space” to learn more on claiming space in your own life!