# Ep. 218: Dance Moms Star Lennon Torres on Social Media Harm, Trans Rights & Big Tech

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/everything-anything-and-a-bit-gay-podcast-6752108/ep-218-dance-moms-star-lennon-torres-on-social-media-harm-trans-rights-big-tech
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/everything-anything-and-a-bit-gay-podcast-6752108/ep-218-dance-moms-star-lennon-torres-on-social-media-harm-trans-rights-big-tech.md
Podcast: [Everything & Anything...and a bit gay Podcast](https://stenobird.com/podcast/everything-anything-and-a-bit-gay-podcast-6752108)
Published: 2026-05-19T08:00:00+00:00
Episode link: https://www.everythingandanythingpodcast.com/
Audio file: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/afp-939909-injected.calisto.simplecastaudio.com/cfe1ea8e-7d0f-47dc-a4ba-305ba19ff04f/episodes/ea7a86a1-11cb-408b-8626-c585460c9ca0/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=cfe1ea8e-7d0f-47dc-a4ba-305ba19ff04f&awEpisodeId=ea7a86a1-11cb-408b-8626-c585460c9ca0&feed=prFhjice
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/everything-anything-and-a-bit-gay-podcast-6752108/episodes/ep-218-dance-moms-star-lennon-torres-on-social-media-harm-trans-rights-big-tech
Duration seconds: 3540

## Resource

Lennon Torres — Dance Moms alum, trans activist, and online safety advocate at Heat Initiative — joins Zach for a wide-ranging conversation about growing up on reality TV and social media, the systemic harms platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat knowingly inflict on young people, sextortion, the algorithm as a tool of manipulation, trans rights, and what it means to fight Big Tech as a queer person. This episode will change how you see your phone. Resources & Links 🔥 Heat Initiative: heatinitiative.org ✍️ Lennon on Substack — Diary of a Palatable Trans Woman: https://substack.com/@lennontorres 🎬 Documentary: Can't Look Away —https://www.jolt.film/watch/cantlookaway

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## Transcript

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