Episode 1682: Jesse Singal | The Brogan Report

Introduction

Episode 1682 of the Joe Rogan Experience, aired on July 13, 2021, features journalist Jesse Singal, author of The Quick Fix: Why Fad Psychology Can’t Cure Our Social Ills and co-host of the podcast Blocked and Reported. While portions of this episode contain legitimate discussion of Singal’s book — critiquing overhyped psychological concepts like the Implicit Association Test, power posing, and candidate gene studies — the episode also served as a platform for Singal’s controversial and widely criticized reporting on transgender youth, as well as false claims about BLM protests and COVID-19 transmission.

Singal was added to GLAAD’s Accountability Project in March 2021 — just four months before this episode aired — for misinterpreting research on gender dysphoria desistance and promoting unsupported hypotheses about social contagion and gender identity. His appearance on Joe Rogan’s massive platform amplified these disputed claims to millions of listeners.

Who is Jesse Singal?

Jesse Singal (born 1983) is an American journalist who has written for New York magazine, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. He previously edited New York magazine’s behavioral science vertical, “Science of Us.” In 2021, he published The Quick Fix, a book examining how popular psychology fads fail to deliver on their promises. He co-hosts the podcast Blocked and Reported with journalist Katie Herzog.

Singal has no credentials in medicine, endocrinology, child psychology, or any clinical field related to transgender healthcare. Despite this, he has become one of the most prominent media voices questioning gender-affirming care for youth, particularly through his 2018 Atlantic cover story “When Children Say They’re Trans,” which drew extensive criticism from medical experts, transgender advocates, and fellow journalists.

Problematic Claims

During the episode, Singal discussed his reporting on transgender children and gender dysphoria, including themes from his controversial Atlantic piece. Central to Singal’s framing is the promotion of the hypothesis that gender dysphoria can spread through social contagion — the idea that young people are being influenced to identify as transgender through peer groups and social media rather than experiencing genuine gender dysphoria.

Why this is problematic:

GLAAD specifically criticizes Singal for “promoting unsupported hypotheses that sexual trauma can cause gender dysphoria and that gender dysphoria can spread via social contagion.”
The “social contagion” hypothesis is closely tied to the concept of “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” (ROGD), which was proposed in a 2018 paper by Lisa Littman. Scientific American reported that “a steadily growing body of scientific evidence demonstrates that [ROGD] does not reflect transgender adolescents’ experiences.”
Littman’s original study recruited parents primarily from anti-transgender websites and forums, introducing severe selection bias. A subsequent study claiming to support the ROGD hypothesis was retracted for failing to obtain ethics approval from an institutional review board.
The American Psychological Association and 61 other health care providers’ organizations signed a letter in 2021 denouncing the validity of ROGD as a clinical diagnosis.
Biologist and researcher Julia Serano has documented how the “social contagion” theory was constructed by anti-trans websites over approximately six months in 2016, before being laundered into mainstream media.

Misrepresenting Desistance Research

Singal has built much of his transgender reporting around the concept of “desistance” — the idea that many children who experience gender dysphoria will eventually cease to identify as transgender. His framing consistently overstates the certainty and applicability of desistance research.

Why this is problematic:

Singal himself has acknowledged on Medium that he and others had been misreading the single biggest published study on childhood gender dysphoria desistance.
GLAAD notes that Singal misinterpreted desistance studies, and that “the concept of desistance, on its own, should never be used as a justification for taking or recommending one course of action or another with a given gender dysphoric kid.”
Sociologist Tey Meadow criticized Singal’s focus on cases that represent “the rarest of cases” and his “participation in stigmatizing discourse” (Wikipedia).
Singal’s Atlantic piece was cited in a legal brief filed by seven state attorneys general in a federal lawsuit seeking to roll back transgender people’s access to healthcare, demonstrating the real-world policy impact of his reporting.

False Claims About BLM Protests and COVID-19

During the episode, Rogan and Singal made incorrect claims about Black Lives Matter protests spreading COVID-19. This claim was identified as false by the fact-checking podcast Investigate Joe Rogan in their episode #44.

The evidence:

A major NBER study (Dave et al., 2020), examining data from 315 U.S. cities, found “no evidence that the wave of Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S. sparked COVID-19 outbreaks.”
The study found that non-protesters increased stay-at-home behavior during protests, and that “the types of activities that were averted by BLM protests were potentially riskier for disease spread than outdoor civil rights protests: restaurant and bar-going and retail shopping” (NBC News).
A 2022 study published in PLOS ONE examining mask use and COVID epidemiology at BLM protests in 12 cities found high mask compliance and no associated increase in COVID cases.
Multiple independent analyses, reported by The Hill and Northeastern University, reached the same conclusion.

What Singal Gets Right

It is important to acknowledge that significant portions of this episode contain legitimate and valuable science journalism. Singal’s book The Quick Fix addresses real methodological problems in popular psychology:

Implicit Association Test (IAT) critique: Singal’s skepticism of the IAT’s predictive validity is shared by many researchers, and the test’s limitations are a legitimate area of scientific debate.
Candidate gene debunking: His discussion of how studies claiming to find single genes for complex traits (the “gay gene,” “warrior gene,” etc.) have been debunked is well-supported by the scientific literature.
Power posing skepticism: The replication crisis in psychology, which Singal covers, is a genuine and important issue in the scientific community.

These discussions represent Singal working within his area of expertise as a behavioral science journalist and are not problematic.

Joe Rogan’s Role

Rogan failed to challenge Singal’s framing of transgender issues and did not present any countervailing expert perspectives. Given Rogan’s own history of anti-trans rhetoric on his podcast and his listing on GLAAD’s Accountability Project, this episode fit a pattern of Rogan using his platform to amplify skepticism of transgender healthcare without adequate pushback or expert balance. Rather than interrogating Singal’s claims about gender dysphoria social contagion with the same rigor applied to fad psychology, Rogan appeared receptive to narratives that align with his own publicly stated skepticism of transgender identity.

Rogan also failed to question the false claim about BLM protests spreading COVID, instead agreeing with a narrative that was contradicted by peer-reviewed research available at the time of the episode’s recording.

Real-World Impact

Singal’s reporting, amplified through platforms like Joe Rogan’s podcast with its audience of millions, has had measurable real-world consequences:

His Atlantic article was used in legal arguments by state attorneys general seeking to restrict transgender healthcare access.
The “social contagion” and “desistance” narratives he promotes have been adopted by legislators pushing anti-trans bills. According to the Human Rights Campaign, 2021 saw record anti-trans legislation, with at least 130 bills introduced targeting trans youth.
The framing of transgender identity as a social contagion contributes to stigma that research links to worse mental health outcomes for LGBTQ youth. The Trevor Project’s 2021 National Survey found that 42% of LGBTQ youth seriously considered attempting suicide in the past year.

Expert Critiques of Singal’s Transgender Reporting

Singal’s work on transgender issues has drawn criticism from numerous experts and organizations:

Zack Ford (ThinkProgress): Called Singal’s Atlantic article “a loud dog whistle for anti-transgender parents” with “lopsided perspectives and dearth of citations.”
Andrea Long Chu (New York Times): Described Singal’s focus on detransitioners as “compassion-mongering” and “peddling bigotry in the guise of sympathetic concern.”
Emily Gorcenski: Published a detailed analysis documenting errors in Singal’s interpretations of desistance studies.
Jezebel: Published a comprehensive investigation into Singal’s pattern of reporting on transgender issues.
GLAAD: Added Singal to their Accountability Project, documenting his role in spreading misinformation about transgender people.

Conclusion

Episode 1682 presents a case study in how legitimate expertise in one area can provide cover for problematic claims in another. Jesse Singal’s genuine insights about fad psychology and the replication crisis do not qualify him to make authoritative claims about transgender healthcare, gender dysphoria, or the validity of transgender identity in children. His promotion of the social contagion hypothesis and selective use of desistance research have been criticized by major medical organizations, LGBTQ advocacy groups, and fellow journalists. These claims, amplified to millions through Joe Rogan’s platform, contribute to a media ecosystem that has fueled record anti-trans legislation and ongoing stigma against transgender youth.