Alok Vaid-Menon - Long form Interview - 3 Books podcast with Neil Pasricha

Alok Vaid-Menon is the bestselling author of Femme in Public (2017), Beyond the Gender Binary (2020), and a poetry book called Your Wound/My Garden (2021). They created #DeGenderFashion, a global movement to degender fashion, have performed in over 40 countries around the world, and headlined the 2021 New York Comedy Festival.

3 Books is an award-winning podcast discussing life's biggest themes through the 3 most formative books of an inspiring guest. Past guests include: Brené Brown, David Sedaris, Malcolm Gladwell, Roxane Gay, Judy Blume, Quentin Tarantino etc.

Alok graduated summa cum laude from Stanford University with a Bachelors and Masters of Arts in feminest, gender, and sexuality studies. Stuffing their post-graduation work into boxes doesn't work but if forced to attach labels you might start with academic, author, artist, comic, poet, philosopher, or activist. Their work explores gender, trauma, and belonging and they call for body diversity, true gender neutrality, and our most basic tenets of self-determination. They advocate for a world of acceptance and love.

Alok and I talk: beauty standards, queer history, librarian pizza parties, trans-femininity, denim platform shoes, British colonization, bánh-mì sandwiches, self love, Alok’s three most formative books, and much, much more.

Please enjoy this wide-ranging conversation with Alok!

For full show notes: https://www.3books.co/chapters/106

For more on the podcast: https://www.3books.co

I will attempt to answer every comment below.

Thanks for listening!

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00:00:00 Intro
00:06:54 Family Dynamics
00:15:30 Beauty as Social Control
00:20:06 Gender as a Pathway
00:22:03 Humanity’s Magic Thread
00:29:24 The Imperfect Practice of Language
00:33:31 Embracing a Non-Binary Existence
00:39:08 Reckoning with Trauma
00:40:52 Fan Culture
00:42:40 Future of the LGBTQ Movement
00:45:45 ‘Gay New York’
00:56:35 The Violent Reality
01:07:37 ‘All About Love’
01:16:00 Freedom of Trans Joy
01:20:32 Practicing Self-Love
01:23:19 Fast-Money Questions
01:26:04 Advice for Listeners
01:28:02 Outro
1:35:55 End of the Podcast Club

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Hey there,

I'm Neil and I spend a ton of time thinking, writing, podcasting, and speaking about living intentionally. I'm the New York Times bestselling author of six books including The Book of Awesome and The Happiness Equation. I've been lucky to speak at places like TED, SXSW, and Google. And I host a huge passion project called the 3 Books podcast.

Want to read more of my stuff?
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Lastly, thanks so much for watching this vid.

👊,

Neil
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