Starter Packs
If you’re new(er) to my work (or not!), here are some recommended previously published works of mine that may be of interest to you … lots of my pieces touch on more than one theme … these are just playlists I’ve curated, by theme.
Greatest Hits
These are the works I tend to recommend most often to people:
My book, A Kind of Mirraculas Paradise: A True Story About Schizophrenia (Scribner), available in paperback, as an ebook, an audiobook (which I read in part, with my pre-T voice) and in French from Belfond. Here’s its website. I always encourage folks to request it at your local library and / or buy it from your favorite local bestseller, whether in person (always appreciated!) or via Bookshop.
My in-depth, deeply reported feature for The Believer on electroshock/ECT from fall ‘24. It’s a deep look at the wider debates to do with how we even decide what’s “true” about “mental illnesses” and their “treatment” … historically in our society, and presently — and in our popular culture.
My single-season podcast Mad Chat, which is available only on YouTube now. It’s about our pop culture’s depictions of mental health, see more below. I co-created it in 2019 and it was beloved by even the NYT.
For This American Life, the story of my singing voice, before and after Testosterone.
For Esquire: My favorite essay I’ve published to date, on going to camp with 150 fellow trans men.
And my first essay for Esquire on mourning the trans boyhood I never got …
For Them: “How Marie Kondo Helped Me Sort Out My Gender” about how I first started coming out as nonbinary, at about thirty … My egg cracking essay, as trans folks say.
My recently published, long essay on burning my Harry Potters (as a trans, former fan), for Lit Hub.
From spring 2026, this package of 13 book reviews of LGBTQ-authored books overlooked by Pamela Paul’s NYTBR. I project I co-edited with Maris Kreizman, also for Lit Hub.
My newsletter What’s Helping Today is in general highly recommended to anyone interested in these topics. (Note: Please don’t subscribe on substack bur rather on the newsletter’s new platform: beehiiv.)
My evergreen advice for cis allies who feel despair about what’s happening to trans people …
(More) On Mental Health Care …
NEW! Feature on Anemoni House, for Assigned Media, a first-of-its-kind trans/queer-led “peer respite,” in Western Massachusetts.
My article for The Cut: “It’s Not Just Britney” about the past and present of psychiatric patient civil rights (written during #freebritney in 2021).
The Kirkbride Plan: My reported 99% Invisible episode on the past (and future?) of mental health care in America. From 2021 but evergreen (other than my voice).
“Applied Bob Studies”: my 2020 story for This American Life on how Uncle Bob’s path inspired my own, in terms of moving to the country, and coming out at long last …
“Out of the Maze”: an essay for Guernica about the painting that’s on the AKOMP paperback and the man who painted it. It hangs in the Bethlem Museum of the Mind. It’s also an essay about my own journey grappling with commenting publicly on mental health.
(More) Transness
& Gender-Related …
NEW: Who Goes Transphobe?, a riff on the classic Harper’s essay, published by Luke O’Neill on his newsletter Welcome Hell World. (Paywalled.)
NEW: My CN Traveler essay on Casa Susanna, a historic trans resort right here in the Catskills.
My ‘humanifesto’ on trans rights as human rights, Transgender for Everybody, which was republished on Lyz Lenz’s Men Yell at Me newsletter.
My other essay for Esquire about working with a speech therapist to learn to speak ‘like a man,’ post-T …
For Them: my former column Between the Binary …
“A Farewell To Boobs”: On my fear and indecision ahead of getting top surgery
Its follow up, on learning to hate my body less, after that surgery …
“My Gmail Won’t Stop Deadnaming Me,” complaining about all the “stressful nonsense” that comes with being nonbinary/trans …
My open letter to brands begging them to sell shit to trans and nonbinary people …
My essay for Lit Hub about the challenges of coming out “in public” as my first book also did.
For 99% Invisible: Where Do We Go From Here? - a reported audio deep dive about the past and future of bathroom design.
My shorter, personal essay for Cosmopolitan“Learning to Pee at age 37” …
My essay for Eater: “The Delicious, Life-Saving Joys of the Trad Trans Lifestyle”
(See also: the Anemoni House feature.)
On “Self-Care” …
Here’s a recent-ish re-introduction of the whole newsletter and my work (especially related to these topics). Here’s a post wherein I described my own self-care routine.
You may want to check out this one on breathing or this one on small talk and addressing our actual feelings during an era of catastrophe or this one on guilt v. shame or this one on on worry or this one on whyyy meditation.
Here’s this older Dear Sandy advice column talking about how I finally started meditating after 20 years of trying and failing.
This older essay for Bon Appétit on running and my own mental health …
This older post on how I learned to not just tolerate but love stuff like baths …
Again this column for Them on my past and present relationship with doing yoga … and hating and loving my body, as a trans person.
Listen to me discuss my whole “what’s helping today” slogan more and my views on “mental health” and “self-care” during this interview on the TED podcast How to Be a Better Human: “Why We Should Rethink What Mental Health Means.
For Nature Lovers
& Green Thumbs …
Check out my monthly gardening column for the popular local Catskill Crew newsletter.
My Eater essay about growing my own food, a love-letter to my garden and to my rural home in the Catskills Mountains…
My first This American Life story, about how and why I moved out here to these woods …
The first Dear Sandy advice column in which I responded to someone in Tasmania about being queer/trans in rural places …
Speaking of, my newsletter What’s Helping Today is recommended; I’m often mentioning my garden and cooking there …
For fellow Catskills/HV locals: I’ve got a super short but IMO great essay in this little Catskills & Hudson Valley Wildsam travel guide. My essay is about loving it here and about … birds (specifically the dawn chorus).
For Cooks & Bakers
Subscribe to WHT, and check out my Sandy’s Recipe Club posts!
My (aforementioned) Eater essay on growing my own food
And my (older) essay on my annual “Not Thanksgiving” tradition, for Bon Appétit …
My 2016 but still IMO great/evergreen Ina Garten profile for BuzzFeed News.
My (also older) essay for BuzzFeed News about being a lifelong pie baker … and baking pie as mental health care …
I was interviewed for Taste re: my online sourdough classes (which I live-streamed during lockdown in 2020) …
For Musicians &
Music Lovers
My book, AKOMP, about my Uncle Bob, who was huge into music (especially Hendrix) and was himself a talented musician, especially a guitarist … Hence on book tours I passed out hundreds of glow-in-the-dark AKOMP guitar picks to people …
You can hear tiny bits of Uncle Bob’s music (which sometimes readers do ask about) both during this wonderful Organist story on AKOMP, produced by host Andrew Leland, and also in the AKOMP audiobook itself …
You should also probably listen to my This American Life story about my own singing voice …
Here’s a playlist I made inspired by AKOMP … basically a soundtrack.
I do release my own playlists, one public one a month nowadays, mostly long and ambient …
For (Pop) Culture Lovers
My late podcast Mad Chat is highly recommended — we only made 10 episodes, all evergreen, on various TV shows and movies and other such in terms of how they portray mental health-related topics: Bojack Horseman, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Six Feet Under, Reefer Madness, Frasier, Batman: The Animated Series, Killing Eve, Donnie Darko, the entire holiday of Halloween … My guests included rad folks with lived experience, activists, journalists and other sorts writers, all people I adore chatting with about such topics — like … journalist Hannah Giorgis, Meredith Talusan, fiction writer and memoirist Esmé Weijun Wang, poet and memoirist Nichole Perkins, poet and speaker Sarah Kay, cannabis-focused journalist Amanda Chicago Lewis, comedian and TV writer Yassir Lester, and … podcast host and comedy writer, Tracy Clayton. For the time being, Mad Chat is only available on YouTube. It features my pre-T voice but otherwise I think it’s held up pretty well! Here’s Mad Chat’s trailer if you want to check that out first.
For more re: mental health and culture, check out my feature for The Believer on electroshock / ECT digs into tons of portrayals of this technology and psychiatry in our (pop) culture — particularly well-known books, movies and TV shows.
Here’s a post naming some of my very favorite works of (comforting) pop culture.
Check out my recent appearances on You Are Good on Star Trek IV (the whales one!) and a bonus on a trio of episodes of TNG I picked out for us for Star Trek newbie / host Alex Steed.
For past or present Harry Potter fans, I highly suggest my Lit Hub essay, reckoning with my fandom as a trans person.
For book-loving types, I also recommend our package of reviews of LGBTQ-authored books, also for Lit Hub.
For Parents …
I encourage you to read my book, AKOMP, which is about my uncle and his family as well.
See this (older) long response I wrote to a mother of a trans woman, who was worried about her daughter
See also this other advice column responding to another cis adult, worried about a vulnerable minor in their community, reflecting some more of my thoughts and experiences …
Here was a more recent Dear Sandy column, responding to the parent of a trans boy outraged at the world’s cruelty.
For parents of trans/gnc people, I highly recommend my Esquire essay about mourning my own trans boyhood …
For trans/queer folks who are estranged especially, I recommend these (older) essays touching on themes like “chosen families” and such, for Bon Appétit and for Them …
For Media Types …
Listen to my interview on Cancel Me, Daddy re: the transphobia at the NYT (Apple, Spotify, YouTube).
Definitely recommend this episode of Proxy with Yowei Shaw featuring me — about a viral post of mine and straining to interpret cis silences (Apple, Spotify).
Check out the Lit Hub package of LGBTQ book reviews I co-edited, basically an epic subtweet of the NYTBR under Pamela Paul.
Here’s a shorter piece I wrote for Equal Access Public Media on the media’s dangerous credulity regarding transphobic nonsense.
Here’s a recent WHT with recommended alternatives to the NYT … including recommended queer/trans independent outlets you all could consider supporting instead … and alternative ways to get your recipes and puzzles …
Worth checking out my aforementioned pieces for The Cut and The Believer re: the media’s errors when reporting on “mental health” and people diagnosed with serious mental illnesses … and anything else in my mental health section above, especially my book …
Folks working in newsrooms and such: You may want to read this long and old but still-relevant essay on on my own errors when first reporting on “mental health care” — published on Mad in America. See also this Guernica essay (which I described above). Also see my (older) op-ed for CNN about the media’s tendency to scapegoat people with psych disabilities for violent crimes, per the Right — and just how wrong that is …
Note: You can also hire me to consult with your media organization about how to make your “mental health” coverage better …
(More) on ‘Mad Pride’/Psych Patient Civil Rights
I HIGHLY encourage my book, AKOMP.
From a few years back, my article for The Cut about the psychiatric patient civil rights movement — especially when it comes to the public and media’s frequently repeated errors.
My summer ‘25 opinions essay for Assigned Media on covering mainstream psychiatry as a science journalist, given my own “biases” (identities, experiences, diagnoses). See also the recent Anemoni House feature, for Assigned.
Again, my big feature for The Believer mag (published fall ‘24) on the self-identified electroshock survivors and these same debates, focused upon perhaps psychiatry’s most controversial treatment still in use.
My long and older but (alas) evergreen reflection for Mad in America about my own errors when first attempting to parse truth from fiction regarding psychiatric patient civil rights. (This media organization is recommended to anyone interested in this subject matter in particular.)
My episode of Mad Chat with Caroline Mazel-Carlton of the Wildflower Alliance (which I discussed in The Cut article as well) is particularly recommended, as are my conversations with author Esmé Weijun Wang and also with Jonah Bossewitch (an activist with lived experience who’s got a PhD in psychiatric patient civil rights activism history).
I’d also recommend my writings on the related topic of cis allyship and how we create more of it. Also see this post on shame and how it impedes growth in the creating-allies sense. Also see this long post about media corruption by transphobia and how we combat it. Also maybe check out this one, about someone who inspires me to speak up to bullies and against hate.
Again, my longer and older but (alas) evergreen reflection for Mad in America about my own errors when first attempting to parse truth from fiction regarding psychiatric patient civil rights. (That media organization, started by pharma journalist Robert Whitaker, is recommended to anyone interested in this subject matter in particular.)
For AKOMP fans …
Here’s that playlist I made inspired by the book …
Here are a few essays I wrote about my own journey of both completing the project and how it’s impacted me since, for example …
This essay for Guernica and on memory and madness and finding my own way with truth as regards psychiatric labels …
This op-ed for CNN about the GOP’s scapegoating of psychiatric patients for their own eugenicist harms.
This essay for BuzzFeed Reader (RIP) about writing “mental health” and my own self-care routines, then.
This piece on Uncle Bob’s path inspiring my own (my first for This American Life).
This reflection I wrote later for Lit Hub about my own process of coming out (as nonbinary at first) as AKOMP also did.
(Ishmall had won!!)
My Best Advice for the Worst Days…
My general purpose, concise: “Advice for Shitty AF Times”
This companion post the above: To trans people who feel despair.
This Xtra article by Jude Doyle wherein I was quoted on how trans people are surviving despair … see also this other one in which I’m also quoted.
A long more advanced What’s Helping Today with advice for those times when the pain is really unbearable (I say therein but it’s more of a 201-level me-rant, but, sharing here nonetheless. If you’re new to my writings on these topics, you want to start for example here).
My direct words on suicide itself: “Promise Me You’ll Survive.” (As it mentions, you may want to read my big feature for The Believer, all the way to the end.)
Jonah Bossewitch’s analysis of suicide and Donnie Darko during our Mad Chat discussion quite astute.
My words about breathing … (which, if you can do it right now, just take a slow long deep out breath. Or two or three …)
I also recommend this WHT naming my comforting things to watch and listen to and so forth.
Whoever’s reading this out there, especially if today’s really challenging, know I’m sending you love … always feel free to reach out, especially if that’d be of help to you … tell me what’s helping you today?
I can’t always respond to what folks say to me, but I do enjoy hearing from you.
xoSEA
