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As soon as Jasmine.4.t came out, the music started pouring out of her

Jasmine Cruickshank, who performs as Jasmine.4.t, walked away from a songwriting workshop — led by none other than Adrianne Lenker — with a key piece of wisdom: Creative endeavors must start from a place of acceptance.

That's something the British singer-songwriter had been struggling with just before she came out as trans and began her gender-affirming transition.

"As soon as I came out, all of these songs that are on the record ... started pouring out of me," she says.

That record, called You Are The Morning, explores the joys of being a trans woman, like falling in love with another trans person for the first time. But Cruickshank isn't afraid to confront the darkness, either — she sings and speaks candidly about the violence and isolation that trans people face in today's world.

"Something that's broken my heart is older trans women messaging me saying 'I wish I'd had someone like you to look up to when I was transitioning'," she says.

In this session, Jasmine.4.t joins us to talk about the road to You Are The Morning, including how her friendship with Lucy Dacus led to a record deal and the opportunity to work with Julien Baker and Phoebe Bridgers of boygenius.

Plus, Jasmine.4.t performs live in the studio.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Miguel Perez. Our senior producer is Kimberly Junod and our engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

Copyright 2025 XPN

Raina Douris, an award-winning radio personality from Toronto, Ontario, comes to World Cafe from the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), where she was host and writer for the daily live, national morning program Mornings on CBC Music. She was also involved with Canada's highest music honors: hosting the Polaris Music Prize Gala from 2017 to 2019, as well as serving on the jury for both that award and the Juno Awards. Douris has also served as guest host and interviewer for various CBC Music and CBC Radio programs, and red carpet host and interviewer for the Juno Awards and Canadian Country Music Association Awards, as well as a panelist for such renowned CBC programs as Metro Morning, q and CBC News.
Miguel Perez
Miguel Perez is a radio producer for NPR's World Cafe, based out of WXPN in Philadelphia. Before that, he covered arts, music and culture for KERA in Dallas. He reported on everything from the rise of NFTs in the music industry to the enduring significance of gay and lesbian bars to the LGBTQ community in North Texas.