Calmversations with Benjamin Boyce
The New Homophobia | with Ben Appel
May 24, 2022
Ben Appel speaks about growing up in a cult, dealing with depression and substance abuse, reconciling with his sexuality, fighting for gay marriage, jumping at the opportunity to attend Columbia University—only to find that a new fangled homophobia had become the norm in progressive circles. Find him on twitter @BenAppel and substack at https://benappel.substack.com His viral article: https://www.newsweek.com/new-homophob...
Julie Bindel’s Podcast
An interview with Ben Appel
June 12, 2022
Ben and I met up in NYC, on the Lower East Side in May, and spent a couple of hours engaged in a fascinating discussion about his life, work, and visions of the future. Luckily for you, I have the audio of our conversation. As we sat in the 14th floor lobby of an on-trend hotel, Ben spoke of leaving the religious cult as a child, and, realising he was gay, becoming fixated on prayer as a way to help him come to terms with his life. Drugs and alcohol became a big part of his life whilst still in his teens and suffered mental ill health as a result. We talk about his introduction to the gay scene, trauma, and recovery.
Aged 28, Ben falls in love and gets involved in the campaign for equal marriage, and, in 2014, gets married. Then Ben goes back to college, to Columbia University, no less, to study journalism and human rights.
What happens next is truly scary. For many, it will sound familiar, for others, barely believable. Ben became victim of another cult.
Heterodorx Podcast
The Parts We Play with Ben Appel
September 20, 2022
When nonfiction writer Ben Appel attended a non-traditional program at Columbia University, barely more than a decade separated him from the younger students who had already displaced gay with “queer” - and displayed open hatred of “cis gays” like himself. Ben knows what homophobia looks like, and recognized it in the “safe spaces” pervading campus culture. His introspective writing is informed by his experience in cults, as well as his recovery. He discusses the difference between slurs and validation trophies; victimhood as a component of identity; medicalizing homosexuality; feminism; and the ideological capture of minds and institutions.
The Dishcast with Andrew Sullivan
Ben Appel On Woke And Christian Cults
February 3, 2023
After working as a hairstylist for over a decade, Ben got a creative writing degree from Columbia University and started contributing to publications such as Newsweek and The Washington Examiner. Raised in a Christian cult, he’s close to publishing a memoir, Cis White Gay, about his liberation from that church and what he calls the Church of Social Justice. You can also read Ben on his Substack. I find his story a fascinating glimpse into our fast-changing world.
Other topics: Ben’s upbringing in a Christian cult while being a “super effeminate girly kid,” his OCD through praying, his escape into alcohol at age 12, his parents’ divorce and leaving the church, his codependency with his mother, being tormented as a “faggot” at his public high school, his drug addiction as a teen and dropping out of college, his 17-year sobriety, his marriage to a man, his activism for gay and trans rights, getting a college degree in his 30s, and the brutal woke bigotry he experienced at Columbia.
The Lou Perez Podcast
May 9, 2023
The Rita Panahi Show
Sky News Australia
May 20, 2023
Writer Ben Appel says his “biological sex was questioned” due to growing up a “really effeminate kid,” which could have led him to run with the now prominent trans ideology.
“If I had gone to a teacher or gotten a counsellor for help and their response had been … maybe you do need to be fixed – I might have ran with that,” Mr Appel told Sky News host Rita Panahi. “It would have been something that I could fix and would be outside of my control … I’ll have the doctors take care of it.”
Heterodorx Podcast
Doin’ the 12-Step with Ben Appel
June 29, 2023
Returning sexy guest Ben Appel recently wrote about genderism and other political ideologies infiltrating Alcoholics Anonymous, despite its 10th Tradition prohibiting alignment with outside issues. But what is a “Tradition” anyway? Ben and Nina possibly violate the 11th one (“always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, and films”) in an attempt to describe the wacky, brilliant, not-really-a-cult-except-sometimes, life-changing, spiritual, occasionally smelly world of 12-Step recovery programs. Corinna learns the difference between AA and Al-Anon; Nina wishes she believed in god and says “irrational problems demand irrational solutions”; and Ben talks about compulsive praying and his upcoming book, “Cis White Gay,” along with a ton of other interesting topics. Another great episode! Keep coming back!
Unlicensed Philosophy with Chuong Nguyen
September 22, 2023
Melody Rachel Podcast
Gender Non-conformity: A Variation Of Biological Sex
September 26, 2023
Ben Appel is a writer based in New York City and has a book coming out titled Cis White Gay, about his liberation from the Church of Social Justice.
In this episode, I discuss with Ben what it was like growing up in a Christian, fundamentalist community, why he pretended to be straight when he was younger, how the LGBT community has changed over the years, and how we should respond to young people who want to go on puberty blockers.
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum
When Did Campuses Turn On Israel?
October 20, 2023
This week, Meghan interrupts her regularly scheduled episode lineup for a visit from Ben Appel, a New York-based writer who’s working on a book about ideological capture on college campuses. In 2016, Ben enrolled at Columbia University as a non-traditional student. Already in his 30s, he’d grown up in a cult-like Christian fundamentalist community that pelted him with homophobia; he considered himself firmly on the political left. But the politics he encountered on campus shocked him, especially many aspects of the Palestinian liberation movement. In this conversation, Ben describes what he encountered there, particularly in classes taught by famed Islamic scholars.
In the bonus portion for paying subscribers, Ben stays overtime and talks about the ideas he explored in his 2022 viral Newsweek article, The New Homophobia. He and Meghan discuss the ways in which the new gender movement takes gay people and tries to fit them into a transgender box, all in the service of the same stereotypes that progressives spent so many years fighting.
The Left Wing Media's Love Affair with Trans
Genspect Conference: The Bigger Picture
Denver, Colorado
November 2023
Panel discussion: Moderated by Benjamin Boyce
Panelists: Pamela Paresky, Lisa Selin Davis, Ben Appel and Christina Buttons
The Rita Panahi Show
Sky News Australia
April 1, 2024
Writer Ben Appel says the number of children identifying as transgender has “skyrocketed”.
Mr Appel told Sky News host Rita Panahi that the amount of gender clinics “has also skyrocketed”.
“It is a widespread thing and there are a lot of other factors that go into why someone would want to identify out of their sex,” he said. “Especially for young girls, a lot of young girls are identifying as trans in clusters.”
“This social contagion is a big part of it.”
Ask a Jew
Glamping 4 Gaza - With Ben Appel
May 6, 2024
Glory to the Gays! This week we are joined by Ben Appel, author of the upcoming Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic AND a graduate of the Popular People's University Formerly Known As Columbia.
In this struggle session we cover the liberation of the Columbia campus, why Jews and Gays should unite against the world, and why your hairdresser probably hates you.
Sounding The Alarm
LGB Alliance Conference: Our Lives, Our Future
London, UK
October 2024
Julie Bindel, Cath Leng, Ben Appel and Simon Edge join LGB Alliance Chair, Eileen Gallagher OBE to discuss courage, conviction and curiosity in the media and explore how the most consequential stories of our era have been covered – or covered up.
The Queer Majority Podcast
Andrew Sullivan & Ben Appel: On The Category Errors of Sexual Politics
December 2024
Writer, author, and Queer Majority Guest Editor Ben Appel sits down with the iconic gay writer and same-sex marriage pioneer Andrew Sullivan. They discuss today's political landscape and LGBT culture, what advice Andrew would give to his younger self, the concept of queerness, trans politics, biological sex versus gender, growing up as gay boys, and more.
The Distance Mag Podcast
How Cis White Gay Ben Appel Beat His Social Justice Activism Habit
April 15, 2025
Ben Appel was a nontraditional student at Columbia from 2017 to 2020. He watched the wokening of the campus. Ben is a gay man who found himself on the wrong end of the new oppression hierarchy and had to unlearn his prior political assumptions. He appears on the Informed Dissent podcast with Lisa Selin Davis, Eliza Mondegreen, Cori Cohn, and Jamie Reed. Ben is a writer and guest editor for Queer Majority. He also has a new memoir, Cis White Gay, coming out later this year.
We discussed self-acceptance and sobriety, the role of transgenderism in the progressive omnicause, and his review of the film Conclave. We talked about the Trevor Project, GLAAD, and how they violate their own best advice by hyping suicide risk.
The Faulkner Focus
Fox News
July 24, 2025
A 'Faulkner Focus' roundtable of New York residents discuss their concerns with socialist Zohran Mamdani's campaign promises and the rise of socialism as he fails to secure key endorsements from top Democrats.
The Unspeakeasy in NYC: A Small Gathering for Big Ideas
Panel Discussion: What Does the “Masculinity Crisis” Really Mean? (And Who’s to Blame?)
With Ben Appel, Andrew Hartz, and Rob Henderson
October 12, 2025
Two days of off-the-record conversations with your favorite independent thinkers. Hosted by Meghan Daum.