Jesse Singal | |
|---|---|
 Singal speaks on a Rebel Wisdom video in 2021. | |
| Born | 1983 |
| Education | University of Michigan (BA) Princeton University (MA) |
| Occupation | Journalist |
Jesse Singal is an American journalist. He has written for publications includingNew York magazine,The New York Times andThe Atlantic. Singal also publishes a newsletter and hosts thepodcastBlocked and Reported with journalist Katie Herzog.
Much of Singal's writing deals with the social sciences, and he previously editedNew York magazine's behavioral-sciencevertical, "Science of Us".[1] In 2021, he published a book,The Quick Fix, about the failings of popular psychology. Singal's writing ontransgender issues has attracted controversy, particularly in his 2018 cover story forThe Atlantic, "When Children Say They're Trans".
Singal'spolitical orientation has been described as liberal but "heterodox", though he has expressed an aversion to the latter term as a descriptor of his work.[2]
Singal was born in 1983.[3] He is one of three sons born to Sydney L. (née Altman; 1949–2021) and Bruce A. Singal.[4] Both of his parents were attorneys. He received aBachelor of Arts degree inPhilosophy from theUniversity of Michigan in 2006[5] and aMaster of Arts in public affairs from Princeton'sWoodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs in 2013.[1] He is ofJewish descent[6] and lives inBrooklyn.[7]
Singal wrote the cover story for the July/August 2018 issue ofThe Atlantic. Originally published under the title "When a Child Says She's Trans", the online version was later retitled "When Children Say They're Trans". Thelong-form piece includes profiles of several adolescents who identify or previously identified as transgender, interviews with youth gender clinicians, and reviews of some of the studies, statistics, and protocols related toyouth transition. In a follow-up,The Atlantic published four letters from parents of transgender children reacting to Singal's article with a mixture of criticism and praise.[8] Alexandria Neason, writing for theColumbia Journalism Review, stated that despite being fact-checked, the story was considered transphobic by many readers, journalists, and activists, and suggested that more diversity in editorial oversight could have averted the problem.[9]
Among the controversial aspects of the article was the proportion of weight given to stories of adolescents who had desisted ordetransitioned—that is, reverted to identifying with their genders assigned at birth, either before or after undergoing physical transition. In the article, Singal acknowledges that the stories of detransitioners are sometimes viewed with skepticism or suspicion by the transgender community, in part because they have been used by conservative media to further misleading narratives. Alex Barasch, writing inSlate, faulted the article for not including the story of "a single happy, well-adjusted trans teen" in its first 9,000 words.[10] However, one of the reader response letters published byThe Atlantic identified in the article two stories of happily transitioned teens, though the author referred to them as being "buried deep in the article".[8] Barasch also criticized Singal for failing to include the stories of individuals who had detransitioned for reasons other than a realization that they were not trans, such as social stigma.[10] Some transgender advocates questioned whether it was appropriate for acisgender man like Singal, rather than a transgender writer, to write on the topic.[11]
The Atlantic also published a series of responses to Singal's article. One was a personal story of de-transition after being physically assaulted and transitioning again when it was safer to do so.[12] Another focused on the fact that detransitioners make up a relatively small subset of those who access transition related care.[13]
In March 2021, Singal was listed onGLAAD's "Accountability Project", which the organization described as serving to document "anti-LGBTQ words and actions from politicians, commentators, organization leaders, journalists and other public figures".[14] Among other things, GLAAD criticizes Singal for misinterpreting a study on desistance among transgender children and for promoting unsupported hypotheses that sexual trauma can cause gender dysphoria and that gender dysphoria can spread viasocial contagion.[15] Singal responded, stating that his inclusion on the list was based on "previously disproven internet scuttlebutt".[16] Singal was supported by sex columnistDan Savage, who derided what he described as a "long & dishonest campaign" against Singal,[16] and urged readers to listen to Singal's interview of a youth-gender clinician, Dr.Erica Anderson, before judging him as transphobic.[14]
In December 2024, Singal joinedBluesky. Within 12 days of joining, he became the most blocked account on the platform and faced a petition calling for his account to be banned.[17]
Since March 2020, Singal has hosted the podcastBlocked and Reported with Katie Herzog, a journalist based in Washington state.[18] The podcast's content focuses on internet controversies. Herzog and Singal have both been described as politically liberal,[18] "heterodox"[19] and "woke-skeptic."[20] Herzog was also the subject of online ostracism (characterized inThe New York Times as an attemptedcancellation) as a result of a controversial 2017 article she wrote for Seattle weeklyThe Stranger about people who have undergonedetransition.[21]
Within three months of the podcast's debut, it had more than 1,400 financial supporters throughPatreon, collectively paying more than $8,000 per month.[19] As of July 2021, this had increased to approximately 5,600 patrons and $37,000 per month.[22] In October 2021, the podcast's website hosting and patronage services were migrated toSubstack, where it has over 46,000 subscribers as of February 2024.[23][24]
Singal's first book,The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills, was published in April 2021. It examines a number of popular psychologyfads, such aspositive psychology,power posing, and theimplicit-association test which, according to Singal, turned out to have weak empirical support or reproducibility, or which were exaggerated into stronger claims that are "scientifically questionable but sexy and exciting". The book examines thereplication crisis in social sciences and some of its underlying causes, such asp-hacking, and suggests remedies for "how both individuals and institutions can do a better job of resisting" exaggerated pop psychology.[25]
Writing forNational Review, Michael M. Rosen called the book "engaging and persuasive" and said that it was based on "rigorous research and thoughtful interviews".[2] An anonymous review inPublishers Weekly called the book "impassioned yet disappointing", complaining that its presentation of scientific details was too convoluted for lay readers.[26]
Two of New York Magazine's Jewish staffers, Jonathan Chait and Jesse Singal, decided to discuss the question.
Many transgender people and their advocates argued that on such a subject the voices of transgender people should be heard first, and perhaps exclusively.
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