I binge listened to that podcast, and I think I will probably have to listen to it a second time.
I actually found the first two episodes the most interesting, because they covered a lot of material and perspectives I was previously unaware of, whereas I am now very familiar with her stance on women's rights vs trans rights, as well as the various opposing viewpoints.
I thought it was very clever the way those first two episodes, without really focusing directly on the trans debate, lay the foundations for the curious listener to ask themselves some difficult questions later on.
So for example, in the first episode about the censorship of the Harry Potter books, there were two standout points for me. One was that the attorney who was hired by the parents who wanted the books banned fought that litigation without ever having read the books. He later read them, decided for himself that they were actually very good books and not at all promoting witchcraft or an evil agenda, and was glad that he had lost that case. Credit to him where it's due for admitting that he was wrong, but I still can't believe he took that case all the way to court without having even read the books. Especially since at the time only the first few books had been published, so it wouldn't have taken him more than a few days to read them. I think there's a strong parallel here with the people who denounce her for her transphobic views without actually having taken the time to read what she has said about the subject and decide for themselves. The other important point is that the people who were trying to have her books banned in the late 1990s are the very same people she is now being accused of being in league with. Religious conservatives. How likely is it, really, that JK Rowling is capable of being radicalised by the same people who tried and failed to have her cancelled 25 years ago for writing a book for children about witches and wizards?
Then in the second episode, about the early fandoms, I thought there was a lot of interesting content which goes some way towards explaining why the LGBTQ community is so disappointed in her. It explains that a lot of the most passionate Harry Potter fans in the early days were children who were abused at home or bullied at school and basically had very miserable childhoods, and many of whom grew up believing that they were different and didn't fit in, and later became gay or trans adults. It's not difficult to see why those people particularly identified with a series of books about a boy who was mistreated for his whole childhood until one day someone came along and told him he was special and whisked him off to a magical world where he was a hero who ended up saving the world for a second time. A lot of those kids saw themselves in Harry Potter, and appreciated the strong anti-bullying message in the books as well as the overall theme of good triumphing over evil. And they then "met" each other in these online chat rooms where they bonded with loads of other very similar kids and built a community together where they constructed a huge part of their own identities around these books. Then, years later, JK Rowling, their heroine, starts saying things about trans issues, which make her millennial LGBTQ fan base feel that she has completely invalidated their personal identities. That must have been incredibly painful for them. But at the same time, in the episode she alludes to the fact that she never expected or wanted to be put on a pedestal by these people simply for having written a series of books that they loved. When you are put on a pedestal like that you have a long way to fall. And frankly, the fact that they love her books shouldn't mean that she can no longer express her own opinions for fear of upsetting people who love her books but disagree with her opinions.
Anyway, this post was very long but hopefully I've sparked some interest in this podcast, which is really very, very good.