In this Word for Word live episode hosted by Lisa Daniel, Lisa’s guest is affectionately known as Mama Mish. Michelle Sheppard will be well known to Joy 94.9 listeners. She’s a highly respected presenter, advocate, and trainer in the gender equity space. As a transgender woman, Michelle appreciates the difficulties within the grey created by the gender divide and traverses them herself and willingly takes others on the ride with her. Michelle brings her lived experience of being a trans woman into her work – running diversity, equity, and inclusion training, mentoring colleagues, and providing extra support to anyone transitioning or affirming their gender. Michelle lays out the sobering statistics around violence and discrimination against transgender people, unemployment, financial troubles, and mental health issues but mixes them with anecdotes and funny stories from her life. Word for Word is hosted by Lisa Daniel on JOY 94.9, and produced by Ellen Spalding and this podcast originally aired on April 2nd, 2022. For further information head to JOY 94.9 webpage or email Lisa Daniel and the team at Word for Word.