In this YouTube interview, host Dennis Prager talks with journalist and author Abigail Shrier about her book examining the rapid rise of transgender identification among adolescent girls. Shrier cites CDC data indicating that about 2% of high‑school students now identify as transgender, a dramatic increase from roughly 0.01% in the past. The conversation explores how state laws set medical consent ages (e.g., Oregon at 15) and how surgeons are performing gender‑affirming surgeries such as chest‑removal on minors as young as 15‑16. Shrier describes her interviews with these surgeons, noting that many claim they are “saving” youths from suicide, a claim she challenges. Throughout, Prager probes the magnitude of the trend, the medical ethics involved, and whether the cultural narrative is driven by misinformation. The interview highlights statistical claims, legal thresholds, medical practices, and the tension between perceived benefits and potential harms.
Chapters
The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, Abigail Shrier. She's a journalist, so she writes in an inherently interesting manner and gives all sorts of data. So what is the percentage today that the CDC says is transgender?
Well, we know that 2% of high school students are now identifying as transgender. This is a massive increase, and historically it afflicted 0.01% of the population.
0.1%. 1/10 of 1%.
Right. Isn't that 100?
Oh, 1/100th of 1%. Yeah, I was afraid to say such a small number. It's now gone, so it has skyrocketed.
Skyrocketed. That's right.
Was it 1,000 times more common? I mean, is that what it means?
I think a little more than that because—
I don't know, but even if it's 1,000, it's a lot. I am just— the whole thing is mind-blowing and I asked you at the end, so a girl, 15, says, I'm a boy, I want to get rid of my breasts. There is a surgeon who will remove her breasts?
Sure. So the age of medical consent varies by state. In Oregon, it's 15. So I have talked to, you know, surgeons who remove girls' breasts at age 16.
You've talked to them?
Yeah, they're in the book.
So you've talked to them?
Yeah, I've interviewed them, the surgeons who perform these surgeries.
Did they know how you felt about this?
Well, I mean, the book's an exploration. So in part, I wanted to learn.
No, no, I have no problem with you talking to them. I'm glad you did. I just want to know why they would talk to you.
Because I came to them as someone who wanted to find out. I mean, look, I thought that sounds monstrous to me, but I wanted to know, maybe I'm, maybe I'm missing something.
And were you missing something or is it monstrous?
I think, I think I came away not as upset with them as I had thought. And I'll tell you why, because they really have been the, this is pushed so hard by the culture and there have been so many so many lies around it that of all the people, you know, doctors— do I think that a doctor should destroy the biological capacity of anybody? No, um, that's not their Hippocratic oath, right? Especially based on vague self-diagnosis, which is what these girls are supplying. But when they described for me their, you know, willingness to do it and how happy the girls were and excited they were, you know, I realized that, you know, We've allowed these lies to continue, and that is that these girls are being saved by it, that the— that they are saved from suicide. Right.
I've saved her, now him, from suicide.
That's what a lot of doctors I've talked to believe. Yes, that they think they're saving. Now, is that correct? No. As I point out in the book, that's way over—
so the breasts are removed. What else is done to them?
All kinds of things. So, well, The thing to know is that men and women are morphologically very different, you know, biologically. So the surgeries never end, essentially. So there is— because you never really look like a man no matter what you do. So there's, um, there's phalloplasty. Now phalloplasty is not as common for these girls, thank goodness, because it's extremely risky surgery. But what they do is they desleeve the forearm and try to create something that looks like what they call a neophallus. It's supposed to look like a penis, but to get it to Function requires several— often requires several other surgeries, some of which don't go the way they're supposed to. And I talked to people who had both, you know, who had botched phalloplasties as well in the book.
