No Fear. No Favour. The SEEN in Journalism Podcast

In this wide-ranging and candid conversation, we are joined by Professor Robert Winston — one of the UK’s most distinguished scientists and public communicators — to discuss what happens when scientific reality collides with ideology, institutional caution, and a post-truth media culture.Professor Winston reflects on the moment that effectively ended his regular BBC punditry: his 2021 appearance on Question Time, where he stated that biological sex cannot be changed. What followed, he argues, was not open debate but silence — and a sharp narrowing of who is considered “safe” to platform.The conversation expands into far broader territory: how science is communicated, how institutions respond to controversy, and where medicine risks losing public trust.Key themes discussed in this episodeSex, gender, and scientific realityProfessor Winston explains — calmly and rigorously — why biological sex is written into every cell of the body, why chromosomes matter, and why medicine must be rooted in diagnosis and evidence rather than belief. He also addresses the risks of medical intervention without long-term data, particularly for children.Free speech, media culture, and informal exclusionWe examine how dissenting voices can quietly disappear from mainstream platforms without any formal “ban,” and what that means for public discourse, scientific progress, and democratic accountability.Why Professor Winston now prioritises schools over studiosRather than broadcast media, Professor Winston now focuses much of his public engagement on visiting schools — often in disadvantaged areas — to demystify science, encourage curiosity, and show young people that scientists are not remote or elitist figures.👉 ‘Inspiring school visit from Professor Robert Winston’The failure of institutions to tolerate internal debateFrom universities to professional bodies, including the British Medical Association, Professor Winston argues that politicisation and absolutism have replaced inquiry — with serious consequences for medicine, ethics, and trust.👉 Professor Winston quits BMA over strikes’Fertility, IVF, and the commercialisation of hopeAs a pioneer of IVF, Professor Winston delivers a sobering assessment of modern fertility medicine — including egg freezing — warning that women are often sold unrealistic expectations. He explains why IVF success rates are frequently misunderstood and why long-term follow-up data is still lacking.Delayed motherhood and social consequencesWe explore how society has failed to adapt structurally to women’s changing lives — instead offering technological “fixes” that may create heartbreak later on.Assisted dying and evolving medical ethicsProfessor Winston reflects on how his own views have changed over decades, and why ethical medicine sometimes means acknowledging that not all suffering can — or should — be prolonged.On the BBC and “blacklisting”We asked the BBC directly whether Professor Winston had been blacklisted following his comments.The BBC Press Office responded:“We won’t be commenting but please be aware the BBC does not blacklist anyone. The BBC recently reported on Robert Winston visiting a school which would be odd for someone on a ‘blacklist’. Question Time regularly has discussions about gender identity, with views from a range of perspectives.’Why this conversation mattersThis episode is about what happens when evidence becomes negotiable, when institutions prioritise risk-avoidance over truth, and when those who ask inconvenient questions are quietly sidelined.As Professor Winston makes clear, science does not advance through silence — and medicine cannot function without trust, honesty, and humility.About our guestProfessor Robert Winston FMedSci FRSA FRCOG FREng is a pioneer of fertility science and IVF, and Professor of Science and Society, and Emeritus Professor of Fertility Studies at Imperial College London. He is also a familiar media face with landmark BBC series including The Human Body, The Human Mind and A Child of Our Time. None of these are currently available on iPlayer. Get full access to SEENinJournalism’s Substack at seeninjournalism.substack.com/subscribe

Children, and their parents and siblings, are at the heart of the story about the NHS-backed Pathways puberty-blocker experiment and the media round of Helen Webberley interviews which shocked so many people. In this week’s Seen in Journalism: No Fear, No Favour, Cath Leng and Shelley Charlesworth of Transgender Trend, speak to Nicole, a mother connected to the parent network Our Duty. She describes the real-world consequences of normalising the idea of the ‘trans child’, especially when schools facilitate social transition and keep parents at arm’s length.Nicole describes discovering that her daughter was being treated as a different identity at school, including a new name and pronouns and the use of a breast binder, without the family being told. She sets out what happened next: requests for answers, frustrations with records and processes, and why ‘affirmation-first’ practice can amount to a safeguarding failure, parents are sidelined and distress treated as identity. Shelley places Nicole’s experience in a broader pattern she says she’s seen repeatedly: policies that encourage secrecy, a culture in which speaking plainly about biological sex is treated as taboo, and an education system that moves too quickly to validate a child’s declaration. Thank you to Nicole for this detailed first-person account, and a clear case for why transparency, safeguarding and parental involvement should be non-negotiables.LinksParents’ groups and organisations* Transgender Trend* Our Duty (parent support network)* Bayswater Support (parent support groupPuberty blocker trial * UK puberty blocker trials media coverage: Telegraph Times Daily Mail Guardian * Judicial Review sought by Keira Bell and James Esses in attempt to stop the King’s College puberty blocker trial. Data / SARs * GOV.UK: Dealing with Subject Access Requests (SARs) in schools* ICO: Pupils’ information / education records guidanceFor more background* Julie in Genderland Podcast series by Julie Bindel* Helen Joyce: Fic and trans identities Legal / policy / NHS* NHS England: Children and young people’s gender services (Cass implementation updates)* Cass Review Final Report* DfE: Keeping children safe in education (KCSIE) landing page + 2025 PDF* DfE draft: Gender Questioning Children (non-statutory guidance PDF) Get full access to SEENinJournalism’s Substack at seeninjournalism.substack.com/subscribe

In this week’s episode of No Fear, No Favour, Sam and Cath sit down with two women who saw the safeguarding crisis around gender medicine long before the mainstream press dared touch it: Stephanie Davies-Arai, founder of Transgender Trend, and Shelley Charlesworth, former BBC journalist turned campaigner.Transgender Trend launched in 2015 at a time when the BBC, children’s TV, and the wider media were enthusiastically platforming the idea of ‘trans children’, presenting it as benign, progressive or inevitable.Stephanie and Shelley watched something very different happening: sharp rises in referrals, a surge in experimental medical interventions, and a media narrative that shut down scrutiny at the very moment scrutiny was most needed.Across this conversation, recorded just before the details were released of a new UK clinical trial - which it’s claimed will assess the risks and benefits of puberty-blocking drugs - they take us inside:🔹 What they heard in Helen Webberley’s Times Radio interview - and why it mattersStephanie explains why Webberley’s claims aren’t fringe outliers but the quiet part said out loud: that activists want children on cross-sex hormones early, that puberty blockers were never truly ‘reversible’, and that private providers continue to work around NHS restrictions.🔹 How Britain ended up medicalising distressed kidsWe walk back through the timeline: I Am Leo, Victoria Derbyshire’s 2016 interviews with two young boys being encouraged to “live as girls”, and Louis Theroux’s “Transgender Kids” documentary. In each case, Transgender Trend raised alarms long before the Tavistock clinic collapsed under scrutiny. Stephanie recalls that 2014–2015 media frenzy coinciding directly with the explosion in referrals to the Tavistock.🔹 The BBC’s unique responsibility and its failure to actShelley describes repeated attempts to warn senior BBC figures, including formal letters to Charlotte Moore, then the BBC’s Chief Content Officer, Jessica Schibli, head of creative diversity, and the corporation’s global safeguarding lead Kim Collins, which were brushed aside. Even after Newsnight exposed the crisis, children’s content continued promoting gender-identity ideology to young audiences.🔹 Why ‘Are you denying trans people exist?’ is a bad-faith questionThe guests dismantle this media trope, explaining the biological reality, the legal reality, and the psychological needs that drive such rhetorical ‘gotchas’.🔹 What needs to happen nextFrom removing outdated children’s content on iPlayer, to launching proper investigations into what’s happening in schools, to producing healthy, reality-based programming, they argue that the BBC must confront the full scale of the harm and rebuild trust with parents.Why this episode matters:Stephanie and Shelley have spent a decade trying - and failing - to get the UK’s most powerful broadcaster to face a safeguarding scandal unfolding in plain sight. As Stephanie puts it, children’s sense of reality itself was being reshaped. And as Shelley explains, failing to act wasn’t passive - it was a choice.Listen now, and please share widely. Get full access to SEENinJournalism’s Substack at seeninjournalism.substack.com/subscribe

In this follow-up special, Cath Leng is joined by barrister and Gay Men’s Network director Dennis Kavanagh for a frank, forensic look at what the BBC’s institutional capture by gender-identity activism has meant for lesbians, gay men, and children who would otherwise have grown up LGB.This isn’t just about editorial misjudgement - it’s about a decade of decisions that shaped public understanding, erased lesbian and gay perspectives, and failed to interrogate an ideology that was transforming safeguarding, healthcare, children’s media, and the law.Together, Cath and Dennis dig into:* How “forced teaming” of LGB with TQ+ at the BBC led to routine erasure of same-sex attraction* The missing stories: whistleblowers, the puberty blocker trial, Allison Bailey, homophobic parental pressure - all rejected or downplayed* Lesbian invisibility: from suppressed profiles to the treatment of lesbian interveners in the Supreme Court* Why BBC Pride became a gatekeeper for one side of a highly contested political debate* The homophobia baked into entertainment formats such as I Kissed a Boy - and why the BBC defended them* Political orthodoxy vs journalism: how the broadcaster abandoned scrutiny just when it was needed most* The consequences for young people - particularly gender-nonconforming kids who might simply have grown up gay* Why this matters now: the government’s proposed puberty-blockers trial, possible conversion-therapy legislation, and the need for urgent, reality-based reporting* What comes next — and why restoring trust requires more than quietly dropping “affirmative” content. It requires walking it back, openly.Dennis speaks powerfully about the impact of a decade in which gay men and lesbians were told - implicitly and explicitly —-that their boundaries, their language, even their sexual orientation were offensive. And both he and Cath reflect on how the BBC can only move forward by acknowledging what went wrong, not rewriting history as if this were a mere “historic” glitch.If you’ve been following the unfolding story, this episode helps you see the missing half: the impact on the LGB community - and the young people who should have been protected.📌 Listen, share, subscribeIf you find this episode useful, please share it widely, hit like, and make sure you’re subscribed so you never miss new reporting.All links, documents and referenced cases are available on our Substack. Get full access to SEENinJournalism’s Substack at seeninjournalism.substack.com/subscribe

In this powerful new episode, Cath and Julie Bindel revisit a forgotten moment in BBC history — the 2007 Hecklers debate — and ask whether such a programme could even be made today.Eighteen years before the Cass Review, Julie was already warning about the dangers of gender medicalisation, the erasure of women’s rights, and the capture of British institutions by an ideology that rejects evidence.Together, Cath and Julie explore:* The BBC’s recent editorial bias dossier on sex and gender* The rise of activist-journalism under figures like Megha Mohan and Ben Hunte* Why the BBC’s founding principles of accuracy and impartiality must be reclaimed* How “gender identity” became a journalistic taboo topic* The original Hecklers debate — when Julie faced four gender ideologues, a hostile audience, and even had a bottle thrown at her* What has (and hasn’t) changed in Britain’s cultural institutions since 2007* The making of Genderland — Julie’s groundbreaking podcast series about families and detransitioners* The untold emotional toll on parents and detransitioners — and why their stories could transform public understanding📎 Mentioned in this episode* BBC Hecklers (2007) — “Gender medicalisation is a mutilating act.” Listen to the recovered recording on Julie Bindel’s Substack* Julie Bindel’s column archive: The Guardian (2004) • UnHerd (2025)* Women’s Place UK: womensplaceuk.org* Maya Forstater v. CGD Europe: Employment Appeal Tribunal ruling* Helen Joyce: Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality* Kathleen Stock: Material Girls* The Cass Review: independent review of gender identity services* BBC Editorial Guidelines: bbc.co.uk/editorialguidelines🧩 Further listening* 🎧 Genderland – Series One* Julie’s long-form interviews with parents and detransitioners.* 🎙️ Seen in Journalism archive: All episodes here →💬 Quotes from the episode“Everything trans activism touches turns to dust — let’s hope the BBC isn’t next.”— Cath“If you told people the earth is flat, they’d stop asking questions. That’s what gender ideology has done to journalism.”— Julie Bindel📢 Join the conversationHave thoughts on this episode? Leave a comment below or email us at [email protected] Julie’s work on Substack and Twitter/X.Follow Cath’s reporting at Seen in Journalism. Get full access to SEENinJournalism’s Substack at seeninjournalism.substack.com/subscribe