Deborah Frances-White

'The Guilty Feminist' host, writer, author.

Deborah Frances-White is a comedian, writer, and speaker best known as the creator and host of The Guilty Feminist podcast. Born in Australia, she was adopted and later moved to the UK, where she pursued a career in comedy and storytelling. A passionate advocate for gender equality, diversity, and inclusion, she frequently speaks on these topics at corporate and public events. Frances-White has also written books, including The Guilty Feminist and Off the Mic, and has contributed to BBC Radio.

Why did we invite her?

We didn’t. Rather, Deborah reached out to us. Her request surprised us - unlike ours, her podcast is one of the pillars of progressive thought, and we don’t typically receive offers from that crowd. But Deborah has a new book - Six Conversations We’re Scared To Have - and she felt this was the place to have a conversation about it. We obliged, and here’s what happened…

What did we talk about?

We start the conversation in agreement: cult-like behaviour is bad, and both sides are guilty. Deborah, having grown up a Jehovah’s Witness, has intimate experience - she defines a cult as “any group that won’t let you leave with your dignity intact.” She worries that she may have found herself in another; on the left, conversations are suffocated, and dissent begets shunning.

But Deborah doesn’t define herself as anti-woke. Instead, she asks: What is ‘woke?’
In her view, ‘woke’ is a right-wing pejorative - it’s not a term left-wing people even use. It’s a catch-all for anything new and counterintuitive; Deborah thinks the term intrinsically dismisses. Konstantin thinks it does so correctly.

This is when the disagreement began - small at once. Then the topic turned to trans, invoking one of the most heated exchanges we’ve ever hosted on the show…