Advice / Opinion
Susie Green on Trans Rights, Mermaids & Fighting For Trans Youth
What If People Find Out? is a podcast about rejecting those secret, supposedly shameful parts of ourselves, and living in your own truth.
James Barr & Kalvin Ryder
Published 13 April 2026
What If People Find Out? / W!ZARD Studios

On What If People Find Out?, comedian James Barr and music executive-turned-therapist Kalvin Ryder are joined by guests from across arts and culture, to share the part of themselves that they have kept hidden... until now. Each conversation, filled with laughter and reflection, teaches us a bit about ourselves too. This is a podcast about occupying your space with zero shame and where being unapologetically you is celebrated. New episodes every Monday.

She's a mother, activist and one of the most important voices in the fight for trans rights in the UK. On this episode of What If People Find Out, James Barr and Kalvin Ryder are joined by the remarkable Susie Green.

When Susie's child Jackie told her at just four years old that she was a girl, Susie had no roadmap, no community and almost no information to draw on. What followed were years of choosing her daughter over the world's expectations — separating from her husband, standing in a clothes shop watching Jackie twirl in a dress for the first time, calling the police after another mother screamed obscenities at her and watching the bullying took its toll. Through it all, Susie never wavered.

In this deeply moving conversation, Susie traces her journey from ordinary Yorkshire mum to CEO of Mermaids, one of the UK's leading charities for trans youth, and the public figure whose viral TED talk and whose story inspired the ITV drama Butterfly.

She speaks honestly about the years she operated under a pseudonym to protect her family, the moment the press turned on her and the emotional toll of eventually walking away from the organisation she had given everything to build.

James, Kalvin and Susie explore what unconditional parental love really looks like in practice and Susie opens up about co-founding her new organisation Anne Health, and why, even after nearly breaking, she is exactly where she needs to be.

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