Jenny Holland's Crusade To Save Culture, One Landmine At a Time

This (almost) Fourth of July conversation originally appeared on Jenny Holland's channel, Saving Culture From Itself, but it's really a "collab," as they say in the pod-biz. Meghan has talked with Jenny before on YouTube livestreams, but this is the first time they've done an official podcast together. This conversation kept circling back to the kinds of tripwires and trigger points that cause people to tune out ideas before they even hear them—for instance my advocacy for Spencer Pratt in the L.A. mayoral race a few months ago and Jenny's support of . . . Brexit. (She lives in Belfast in Northern Ireland.) We also talked about how Meghan began her career at the tail end of the golden age of magazine journalism, and what it was like watching that world start to shift around 2012-13. Finally, in the spirit of the season, they talked about American exceptionalism, generosity of spirit, and Jenny's husband's 1987 trip to the US as part of the "Children of the Troubles" program — the trip that made him fall in love with this country.   Catch more of Jenny's cultural critiques directly on her YouTube channel: 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@SavingCultureFromItself   🎙️ About Our Guest Jenny Holland is an Irish-American, Gen X writer, critic, and former speechwriter who currently writes and hosts Saving Culture (from itself) on Substack and YouTube. A true media journeyman, her first gig in the news business was working as an assistant at The New York Times in the final years before the digital revolution—an experience she likens to being among the last people to board the lifeboats on the Titanic. Now living in Northern Ireland, she is a frequent contributor to Spiked and writes widely about culture, journalism, and the strange ideological shifts of the modern Western world.   🏡 Housekeeping & Links Join The Club: Become a paid subscriber to The Unspeakeasy on Substack to unlock monthly hangouts for Founding Members and gain access to exclusive live stream recordings. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/ Unspeakeasy Retreats: Off-the-record, curated conversations in beautiful settings. Registration for this fall's Small Gathering for Big Ideas in New York's Hudson Valley is now open. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/573a9vnu Meghan's Writing Workshops: Featuring a coed summer Zoom course and a 3-night women's writing retreat in upstate NY this fall. Is one right for you? 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com The Audiobook: Meghan's most recent book, The Catastrophe Hour, is out now. It's narrated by Meghan herself, in case you still haven't heard enough of her voice. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/ystzc5yz