Dr. Rachel Levine: Choosing Hope in Challenging Times

Dr. Rachel Levine: Choosing Hope in Challenging Times

Author: Rick Koonce August 28, 2026 Duration: 39:30

What do you do when you are the highest-ranking transgender person ever to serve in the U.S. federal government and you come under attack for being who you are?

  
In this revealing interview, Rick Koonce sits down with Dr. Rachel Levine, former Assistant Secretary for Health in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services during the Biden Administration, for a candid conversation about personal resilience, public health, transgender health care, and compassionate leadership. Dr. Levine talks about facing intense personal attacks while serving in two major public offices, explaining how she learned to stay personally grounded and focused on the work rather than allowing personal attacks to define her.  

Levine also discusses the growing challenges facing transgender and non-binary youth and their families today, why she believes medical care should remain evidence-based, and the importance of choosing optimism even when circumstances feel overwhelming. Her message is ultimately one of hope: progress takes patience and persistence, but community and continued action can create meaningful change.

Listen to this powerful conversation about courage, leadership, and staying hopeful - and reach out to continue the conversation about turning adversity into positive change.


For more information, visit the PFLAG Cape Cod website: https://www.pflagcapecod.org/podcasts.html


© 2020 - 2026 PFLAG Cape Cod


Hosted by Rick Koonce, Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance is built around intimate, unscripted conversations that go beyond headlines. This podcast lives in the personal moments-the difficult family dinner, the quiet realization, the supportive friend’s first question. You’ll hear directly from LGBTQ+ individuals, their parents, siblings, and allies, sharing narratives that are less about grand declarations and more about the daily, nuanced journey toward living authentically. The stories encompass coming out, gender transition, and the complex, ongoing search for belonging, offering a raw and moving look at what courage actually sounds like in real time. Produced by Huntington Northstar Productions in partnership with PFLAG Cape Cod, each episode functions as a personal audio journal, focusing on a single portrait where vulnerability and strength are inseparable. Listening feels like being invited into a deeply meaningful, private conversation that highlights our shared humanity. The collective result is a powerful and necessary tapestry of voices that celebrates resilience while honestly examining the challenges within families and communities. Tune in for a series that connects through specificity, where every story adds a vital thread to the broader fabric of human experience.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 50

Profiles in LGBTQ+ Courage: Real Stories of Identity & Acceptance
Podcast Episodes
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Duration: 25:51
Connor Ryan is an 18-year-old transgender male and 2022 graduate of Bourne High School in Bourne, MA. He's also one of three recipients of the 2022 Anne Toran scholarship, an award given annually by PFLAG Cape Cod to hig…
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Duration: 41:55
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Duration: 34:52
"Vernon Diannah Porter" is probably not a name you readily recognize. But that's because he's much better known by his stage name and alter ego, "Lady Di", host of the popular Friday evening radio show, Leggs Up and Danc…
Interview with Jane Martin & Helen Malone | Ep #22 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 39:56
Some life partners first spot each other from across a crowded room. But not Helen Malone. With a piece of birthday cake in hand, she literally bumped into her future wife, Jane Martin from behind, at a birthday party fo…
Interview with Rev. Dr. Joan Beilstein | Ep #21 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 35:14
Dr. Joan Beilstein is a Lesbian Episcopal Priest, and Rector of the Church of the Ascension in Silver Spring MD. Today, though a senior, well-respected pastor in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington, DC, there was a time…
Hollis L. | Ep #20 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 32:49
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Duration: 40:10
David Bermudez and Bob Isadore are a same-sex couple who have been together for 47 years. David, a veteran of the Stonewall uprising of 1969, met Bob, in 1974, when the two were both living and working in New York City.…