The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum cover art

All Episodes

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum — 256 episodes

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Title
1

Can Spencer Pratt Save Los Angeles?

2

When Wokeness Stops Working: Brendan O'Neill's VIBE SHIFT signals a new era

3

The Emaciated Elephant in the Room: Are GLP-1s causing us to lose our minds as well as weight?

4

The Truth About Street Homelessness

5

How To Develop A Curiosity Practice

6

Lionel Shriver's Most Problematic Novel Yet

7

Better Living Through Dying, with Annabelle Gurwitch

8

It's the Drugs: Sam Quinones on Street Homelessness

9

A Special Tranche In Hell, with Sarah Haider

10

When Podcasts Guests Attack!

11

Is Sex With Another Human A Thing Of The Past? with Dr. Debra Soh

12

A Post-Truth World Is Not Acceptable, with Michael Shermer

13

How Young White Men Got Screwed, with Jacob Savage

14

It's Bari Weiss's World! with Mike Pesca

15

The Secrets of Joan Didion. The Secret of Eve Babitz, with Lili Anolik

16

Fatherhood As Literary Art, with Thomas Beller

17

A Special Place In Hell Reunion, with Sarah Haider

18

Should We Bring Back Asylums? with Dr. Sally Satel

19

The Making of A Gender Heretic, with Ben Appel

20

How Do You Want Your Life To End? with Dr. Sunita Puri

21

Have Women Ruined The World? Helen Andrews on The Great Feminization

22

Does Your Personality Stink? There's Hope!

23

The Los Angeles Wildfires In Fiction

24

How To Quit Drinking Without Quitting Drinking

25

Street Protesters: Who Are They, Really? with Jeremy Lee Quinn

26

Can Democrats Admit They Were Wrong On Gender? with Lisa Selin Davis

27

Are Therapists Crazy? Andrew Hartz's quest for sanity in clinical psychology

28

All The World's A Hype House: What Leigh Stein's TikTok novel reveals about the way we live now

29

How Are Those Luxury Beliefs Working Out? Rob Henderson and the coinage that keeps on giving (FULL INTERVIEW)

30

Is The Racial Reckoning Over? John McWhorter on language, art, and defunding the grammar police

31

Is Everything Terrible? Tablet editor Alana Newhouse on the problem with burning it all down.

32

Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on women, religious transformations, and what anorexia has to do with it. (FULL INTERVIEW)

33

How To Survive a Mania - Lionel Shriver hates groupthink. And so should everyone else.

34

Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on women, religious transformations, and what anorexia has to do with it (PREVIEW)

35

70 Million Songs: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 7

36

Do Women Owe Men An Apology? with Dr. Carole Hooven

37

The Unbearable Halfness Of Being: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 6

38

Death On A Movie Set - Rachel Mason on Last Take, her documentary about the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust

39

Playlist of Tears: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 5

40

Species Of Grief: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 4

41

Basically Dead: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 3

42

What Illness Can Teach Us About Uncertainty - Jonathan Gluck on his new memoir about cancer and coming to terms with not knowing

43

The Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week Two - Same Life, Higher Rent

44

Where Do Serial Killers Come From? Caroline Fraser on America's Murderland

45

The Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week One - The Broken-In World

46

Alma Deutscher's First Dance - The celebrated young composer collaborates with the American Contemporary Ballet

47

Audio Essay: The End Of The Personal - Listen to an essay from The Catastrophe Hour

48

How To Solve Crime - Peter Moskos on New York City's policing triumph

49

Why Joni Mitchell Matters - Henry Alford on his book, "I Dream Of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots"

50

Louise Perry's Counter-sexual Revolution

51

What's A Conservative To Do? Undercurrents' Emily Jashinsky on Trump, DOGE, and how worried we should be

52

Is The Online Right Eating Itself? The Free Press's River Page deconstructs the trolls

53

Special Episode Part 4 Los Angeles Fires: What Is A Catastrophe?

54

How Not To Go Insane: Chloé Valdary on leaving Twitter, the new Puritanism, and the virtues of reading aloud.

55

Special Episode Part 3 Los Angeles Fires: Housing Wars

56

Special Ep Part 2 Los Angeles Fires: The Immaterial World

57

Special Episode: Letter From the Los Angeles Fires

58

Topaz Adizes On How To Ask Questions (And Sell Them, Too.)

59

Is Your Media Consumption Making You Sick? Ruby Warrington's "content diet" for better living

60

Ana Kasparian Falls Out of Alignment: A political awakening brings a personal reckoning

61

Is Wokeness An Elite Boondoggle? Sociologist Musa al-Gharbi drops a truth bomb

62

Is Sports Betting More Addictive Than Porn? Alex Grodd on the latest scourge affecting young men

63

PREMIUM: Did The Trans Debate Get Trump Elected? Ben Ryan on TERF wars, the fallout of the Cass Review, and gender's role in the election

64

Can Middle Aged Women Save Theater? Playwright Sandra Tsing Loh on invisible women, wokeness in theater, and taking your own show on the road.

65

Is Kamala Harris Secretly Relieved? Lionel Shriver on the repudiation of wokeness, the volatility of a Trump presidency, and the newly relaxed Kamala Harris.

66

Premium: How To Get A Book Deal The Easy Way - Leigh Stein's secrets for book publishing success.

67

A Feminist In Genderland: Legendary feminist Julie Bindel on the sex trade, surrogacy, and her new podcast about gender madness

68

How To Win An Argument With Yourself: Stephanie Lepp's Latest Integration

69

PREMIUM: Is Anything Funny Anymore? Bestselling humor writer Neal Pollack is still laughing

70

Why Are Veterinarians So Expensive? Financial reporter Helaine Olen on The Unspeakable

71

The Culture Wars Are Wrecking Friendships: Kat Timpf's Anti-Ideological Crusade

72

PREMIUM: Planned Parenthood's Gender Transition - Journalist Jennifer Block explains how it happened.

73

What's Really Happening With The Housing Market? Melody Wright sees a coming crash.

74

Growing Up Zappa: Moon Unit Zappa on Valley Girl, and the rock-and-roll patriarchy

75

PREMIUM: Doctors In Denial Of Death - Dr. Sunita Puri calls for a better approach.

76

How To Stay Sane While Staying Informed: Tara Henley on audience capture, J.D. Vance, fertility, loneliness and the price of "progress."

77

Where We Go Next (Meghan interviewed!) - Podcaster Michael Callahan turns the tables on your host

78

Advice To My Daughter: Marry Young - Larissa Phillips on Relearning The Facts of Life

79

How To Cancel A Poet: Emmalea Russo's "chain of contamination"

80

Do Childless Women Get The Last Laugh? Journalist Vanessa Grigoriadis speaks her unspeakable truth

81

Morally and Medically Appalling: Jamie Reed blows the whistle on youth gender medicine

82

Who Was The Hollywood Con Queen? Scott Johnson on the most unbelievable true story ever told

83

The Inconvenient Truth About Divorce: Bridget Phetasy on staying together for the kids.

84

Building A Post-Woke Brand: Jennifer Sey gets back to business

85

Has Gay Pride Shamed Itself? FAIR director Monica Harris on how a mighty movement lost the plot.

86

Sarah Hepola Does Dallas

87

How Victimhood Can Work For You! Andrew Boryga on his novel VICTIM.

88

Is Working At Denny's Better Than Going To College? William Deresiewicz on the zombie apocalypse of elite education.

89

The Revolution Will Be Tweeted: Nellie Bowles reports from the morning after.

90

The Many Lives of Glenn Loury

91

The "Right Kind" of Black Person: Erec Smith on prescriptive racism.

92

Gender, Data & What the Cass Review *Doesn't* Say: Journalist Ben Ryan examines the evidence — or lack thereof — for youth gender transition.

93

Defending Pornography, Hate Speech and the ACLU: Nadine Strossen on The Unspeakable

94

From Betty Friedan to Ballerina Farms: Lisa Selin Davis on the conceptual housewife

95

Grief Is The Thing With Feathers: Sloane Crosley on friendship, loss, mourning, and Flaco the owl.

96

How Did Comedy Lose Its Humor? Arielle Isaac Norman on taking back the jokes.

97

Is Therapy Making Us Crazy? Abigail Shrier on what's really driving the "mental health crisis" among young people.

98

Has Literature Canceled Itself? Sherman Alexie on reading, writing, and book banning.

99

How 'The Coddling' Became A Movie: Ted Balaker and Courtney Moorehead Balaker turn a foundational book into a film

100

The Linguistic Confusion Of Gender: Philosopher Alex Byrne on how we got into so much trouble

101

How Tumblr Memes Became Political Ideas: Katherine Dee decodes the manosphere, Tumblr feminism, anime activism, and more

102

From Foster Care to the Ivy League: Rob Henderson on luxury beliefs, broken communities, and the path forward

103

Is Dating A Lost Cause? Lori Gottlieb On How to Find Love In The Age of Apps, Ghosting, and Too Much Choice

104

Artificial Intelligence For Dummies (Or At Least Normies): John Vervaeke and Shawn Coyne on Mentoring The Machines.

105

Never Apologize - Katherine Brodsky On How To Survive Cancellation

106

Our Zip Codes, Ourselves - Seth Kaplan on the Fragile State of American Neighborhoods

107

When Israel and Palestine Share A Classroom - Bernard Avishai and Ezzedine Fishere's Two-State Approach

108

Travel Notes From A War - ChayaLeah Sufrin On Her Recent Trip To Israel

109

What to Do When Kids Say They're Trans - Sasha Ayad returns to The Unspeakable

110

Is Civility Better Than Kindness?

111

Livestreaming Yourself To Death: Erich Schwartzel on Social Media Influencers Rachel and Dave Hollis

112

NY Times Columnist Pamela Paul Knows What You're Thinking

113

Andrew Sullivan on Where Trans Activism and Gay Rights Collide

114

What Is Real? Eli Lake on Disinformation, Despair and Dead Ends in the Israel-Hamas War

115

Rob Long On How Hollywood Lost The Plot

116

When Did Campuses Turn On Israel? Ben Appel on anti-semitism in college classrooms

117

Are there any off-limits subjects between you and your therapist?

118

Ethan Strauss on why Sports Media has Gone Insane

119

How Foucault Led To Tumblr - Tracing the history of The Identity Trap with Yascha Mounk

120

Who Were The Hottest World Leaders and Despots? Yael Bar-tur and ChayaLeah Sufrin on The Unspeakable

121

"What Can A Man Do?" with Christine Emba

122

Maria Bamford Wants To Join Your Cult

123

When Does Life Really End? Dr. Sunita Puri On The Problem With CPR And the Denial Of Death

124

The Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known: Writer Tim Kreider Visits The Unspeakable

125

The Ballad Of The Nineties "Bad Girl." Lucinda Rosenfeld On Inappropriate Relationships, Literary Theory, And The Sublimity Of Cigarettes

126

The State of Abortion One Year Post Dobbs: Frances Kissling Returns To The Unspeakable

127

Do You Have What It Takes To Be Polyamorous? Diana Fleischman on Sex, Jealousy, Emotional Discipline, and Why We Behave The Way We Do

128

Is Art Boring Or Is It Just Us? William Deresiewicz Returns To The Pod

129

What Is A Good Death?: Sandra Martin On The Social History Of The Right To Die

130

Those College Students Might Surprise You: Sarah Hepola's Report From The Classroom

131

Red Pilling The Pill: Holly Grigg-Spall On The Big Business Of Birth Control

132

It Should Have Been Over By Now, But It Isn't. Lionel Shriver On The Unending Culture Wars

133

What Is Anorexia Really About? Hadley Freeman on Good Girls and the competition to be the "Illest."

134

Jean Twenge On Why Generational Differences Matter

135

Does Your Kid Really Need Therapy? Stella O'Malley on Teens, Mental Health, and the Problem With Professionals

136

The "Ask A Jew" Girls Are Back! ChayaLeah Sufrin and Yael Bar-tur Return to The Unspeakable

137

Don't Have Children If You Don't Want Them! Ruby Warrington on Women Without Kids

138

Congratulations, You're a Failure! Stephen Marche on Enduring the Life of a Writer

139

Cancel Culture Comes For Ballet: Choreographer Lincoln Jones's Problematic Journey

140

How To Land In A Psych Ward: A Conversation With Freddie deBoer

141

How Are We Feeling About Policing These Days? Peter Moskos Files A Report

142

They're Coming To Take You Away: Rob Wipond On The Ongoing Scourge Of Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment

143

Armie Hammer's Blunt Force Trauma: Jamie Kirchick On The Story No One Will Tell

144

Should We Teach Porn Literacy? Richie Hardcore Shares His Lesson Plans

145

Everyone's Crazy: Paul Gilmartin's Mental Illness Happy Hour

146

"Field" Is Now A Forbidden Word! Rhetorician Erec Smith On How To Make Everything Racist

147

Leaning Out And Looking Up: Journalist Tara Henley's Next Phase

148

Why We Are The Way We Are. Bridget Phetasy and Jeren Montgomery on Our "Factory Settings"

149

Sarah Polley's Hollywood Debut: A Candid Conversation With The Canadian Star

150

Why Is It So Hard To Find A Doctor? Zubin Damania Diagnoses The Disaster

151

Do Only Liberals Go To Therapy? Meet Dea Bridge, the "conservative therapist" Meghan interviewed for The New York Times

152

A TERF and a Tranny Walk Into A Podcast Studio: Geeking Out With the Heterodorx

153

Introducing: Infamous

154

Why Are You Still A Democrat? Maud Maron Isn't Leaving The Party—Yet

155

Gain Confidence By Losing Certainty. Ilana Redstone on Breaking Free from the Certainty Trap

156

Not Even Mad: Mike Pesca, Virginia Heffernan and Jamie Kirchick On Their New Podcast

157

Can Men Be Saved? Richard Reeves on the New Crisis of Masculinity

158

What Should We Believe? Michael Shermer On Staying Rational In An Irrational World

159

Why Can't We Get Back To Normal? Public Health Expert Leslie Bienen on Learning To Coexist With Covid

160

Yes, Youth Gender Surgery Is Really Happening: Colin Wright Lays Out The Details

161

Is Wellness Making Us Sick? Rina Raphael Tells the Dirty Truth About "Clean Health"

162

The Second Coming of ASK A JEW: ChayaLeah Sufrin and Yael Bar tur Are Back!

163

Was the Sexual Revolution A Failed Experiment? Louise Perry Makes Her Case

164

When Troubled People Become Our Playthings: Jon Ronson on Shame and Forgiveness

165

Is Solitude Over? Is Thinking Dead? A Conversation with William Deresiewicz

166

"Are You Are Becoming A Republican Or Something?" Sarah Hepola On Letting Down The Left Without Ever Leaving It

167

Guns: A Civil Disagreement Part Two

168

Guns: A Civil Disagreement Part One

169

Safety Moose Says, "Stay Home!" Author Neal Pollack On His Dangerous New Novel, Edge of Safety

170

Is A Post-Truth World All Bad? Stephanie Lepp's "Promiscuous Pragmatic Pluralism"

171

Has Wokeism Won? Sarah Haider Acknowledges Defeat But Won't Stop Talking.

172

Uniquely Stupid and Incredibly Coddled: Jonathan Haidt On How We Lost Our Collective Minds (And Whether We'll Ever Find Them Again)

173

An Act of Love. The Gift of Death: Author Amy Bloom On Her New Memoir

174

The Canceled Collective Planning Committee: Jamie Kilstein Returns To The Unspeakable

175

The Future of Abortion: Frances Kissling On Moving Forward In A Post-Roe World

176

Is Public Health Messaging Designed For Dummies? Dr. Lucy McBride Calls For An End To COVID Catastrophizing

177

When The Workplace Is A Woke Place: Jennifer Sey on Corporate Branding Versus Personal Beliefs

178

This Is What It's Like To Be Banned From Twitter: Meghan Murphy Forges Ahead And Falls Behind In Twitter Exile

179

Ladies Lunch at the Holocaust-Themed Restaurant: Yael Bar-tur and ChayaLeah Sufrin of the Ask A Jew Podcast

180

The Censors Within: Sarah Hepola on What She Was Afraid To Write About—Until Now

181

What Is Gender Detransition? Changing Your Mind About Changing Your Body

182

Rebel Wisdom's David Fuller Is Trying to Talk Sense Into the Sensemakers: Is Anyone Listening?

183

Can We Move Past The Culture Wars? Quillette's Jonathan Kay On "Other Interests"

184

Why Is Friendship So Fraught? Jennifer Senior on the Complexities of Adult Friendship

185

Mike Pesca's Esprit de Corps: The Gist Wipes The Slate Clean And Flies Solo

186

You're Older Than You've Ever Been. And Now You're Even Older: Sari Botton On Aging At Any Age

187

Love—Or Quarantines—Will Keep Us Together: Laura Kipnis on Sex and Romance (Not Necessarily With Your Partner) In Lockdown

188

Neurodivergence For Everyone! Jenara Nerenberg On New Frames of Mind About The Human Brain

189

When Queer Theory Meets Medical Practice: Aaron Kimberly On The Crisis In Transgender Health Care

190

YouTube Heroes Flying Too Close To The Sun: Chris Kavanagh Decodes The Gurus (With An Amazing Accent)

191

There's No Such Thing As A Howard Beal Moment: Michael Wolff on Power, Access, Hubris, and Writing Great Sentences

192

Why This Show Is A Failure: A Song Of Joy and Peace

193

The Post-Cancellation Pivot: Stephen Elliott's Financial Advice for Poets (and Moral Support for Pariahs)

194

Are MFA Programs Multi-Level Marketing Schemes? Leigh Stein Thinks So!

195

How The News Went Insane: Batya Ungar-Sargon On The Social Rise and Intellectual Fall of Legacy Media

196

Is Nuance A Career Killer? Comedian Jamie Kilstein on Taking the High Road To Nowhere

197

Bitter Homes and Gardens: Larry Clarke and Fielding Edlow on Staying Afloat, Staying in Love, and Staying Insured in Hollywood

198

What Is a "Good Mother?" Lara Bazelon on Female Ambition, Biological Realities and Going To Trial

199

Seeking the Good Life In the Islamic State: Carla Power on the Journey In and Out of Violent Extremism

200

We Can't Know: Lisa Selin Davis On Getting Comfortable With The "Giant Mess" That Is The Current Gender Conversation

201

"We Feel Like We're In The Wild West:" Parents of Gender-Questioning Kids Ask Their Own Questions

202

What Do We Mean By "Gender Affirming Care?" A Conversation with Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper

203

The Awkward Files: Father-daughter coauthors Dr. Drew and Paulina Pinsky Bridge the Generation Gap

204

Free To Be You and #MeToo: Erika Schickel on Coming of Age—and Coming Undone—in the 1970s

205

The WEIRD World Is Killing Us: Evolutionary Biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein On Why Modern Life Feels So Unlivable

206

The Incel Phenomenon Is Not a Movement (Or A Terrorist Group). Naama Kates on What We Get Wrong About Society's Saddest and Most Reviled Men

207

Chelsea Handler Checks Her Privilege. (And spars a little with Meghan.)

208

How Not To Ruin The Dinner Party: A Conversation with Sam Harris

209

Don't Let The Loudest Voices Win: Frank Bruni on the Fine Art of The Subtle Point

210

"Am I The A**hole?" Dan Savage on Giving Advice, Taking Criticism and Keeping Up With The Times

211

The Tyranny Of the Mid-Career Pivot: A Meghan Monologue

212

We Are All Catastrophists Now. Tom Chivers On Why We're So Bad At Measuring Harm and Evaluating Risk

213

Shawn Pleasants Lived On The Street For Ten Years. Can He Help Solve the Homeless Crisis?

214

Critical Race Theory Is Making Our Heads Explode: Erec Smith Sifts Through The Pieces

215

Are Kids Being Talked Into Thinking They're Trans?

216

Paul Rudnick on British royals, coastal elites, and the strange freedoms of New Jersey

217

When Taking Control of Your Death Takes Over Your Life: Lionel Shriver on Getting Out Just In Time

218

Is It Time To Get Rid of the Sex Offender Registry? Emily Horowitz Says Yes.

219

How Did A Nice Radical Feminist End Up in Center Right Journalism? Libby Emmons Tells Her Story.

220

Buck Angel Bucks the Trend: An Old-School Transexual on the New Transgender Movement

221

When The Greatest Story Ever Told Isn't Yours To Tell. Jean Hanff Korelitz on her new novel, The Plot

222

Can "Diversity and Inclusion" Training Actually Become Diverse and Inclusive? Chloé Valdary Has A Plan.

223

Why Can't Philosophers Talk About Gender? Kathleen Stock On How A Rich Topic Became The Third Rail

224

The Racism of Antiracism: A Conversation With John McWhorter

225

Islamic Fundamentalism Is Feminism's Third Rail. A Conversation With Yasmine Mohammed

226

It's Complicated. Writer and podcaster Jesse Singal on Fad Science, Bad Faith and Mad Media

227

How To Be A Better Person (Than Everyone Else): Joel Stein On The Lost Art Of Elitism

228

When the Mob Comes for the Professors the Academic Freedom Alliance Comes to the Rescue. A Conversation with Free Speech Scholar Keith Whittington

229

You're Just Now Noticing This? Bridget Phetasy on Keeping Up With the Cancelers

230

Woke Us When It's Over: New York Times Columnist Bret Stephens on How to Reason with a Toddler-like Culture

231

Meet Angel Eduardo. The Harper's Letter Was For Him

232

You Too Can Go Broke In Middle Age! Annabelle Gurwitch Leads The Way

233

Who Needs Therapy? Lori Gottlieb On the View from Both Sides of the Couch

234

The Unspoken Trauma Of Adoption: Moses Farrow on His Work, His Famous Family and "Coming Out of the Adoption Fog"

235

Who's Afraid Of The Lab-Leak Hypothesis? Dr. Alina Chan and Dr. Filippa Lentzos On The Possible Origins Of The SARS-CoV-2 Virus

236

What's The Matter With Portland? Nancy Rommelmann on the Puzzling Politics of Protest

237

When Your Publisher Calls You Problematic: Bruce Wagner Goes Rogue By Going Public

238

Are Lesbians Going Extinct? Katie Herzog Reports From The Field

239

Feminine Chaos Is The Order of the Day: A Conversation with Kat Rosenfield and Phoebe Maltz Bovy

240

I Don't Know What To Think Anymore: A Few Words From Your Host

241

All Artists Are Starving Artists Now: William Deresiewicz on The Rigged Creative Economy

242

How Does Any Of Us Get Through? Sigrid Nunez on Living, Dying, Friendship and Solitude

243

A Portrait of the Humorist as a Young Woman: Merrill Markoe on Drawing (Literally) from her Early Diaries

244

Everyone's a Podcaster Now! Josh Szeps on How to Talk, How To Listen, and When To Shut Up

245

Can Old-School Intellectualism Make a Comeback In A New Era? A conversation with Leon Wieseltier

246

Inspecting The Machinery of Identity Politics: A Conversation with Writer and Scholar Laurent Dubreuil

247

Why Does Exposing Social Media Hypocrisy Feel So Damn Good? An Interview with Katie Herzog

248

How To Let Your Kids Live More Dangerously: A conversation with "America's Worst Mom," Lenore Skenazy

249

Can The Artist Survive? A Conversation with Writer and Performer Sandra Tsing Loh

250

Uncomfortable Truths About Dating (At Least The Heterosexual Kind): A Conversation with Evan Marc Katz

251

What Does Postmodernism Have To Do With Social Justice? Helen Pluckrose Explains It All

252

Why Are So Many Kids Saying They're Trans? (And How Big A Deal Is This?)

253

Can We Get Smarter About Policing? A conversation with Professor of Police Science (and former Baltimore cop) Peter Moskos

254

Dr. Drew Is Worried About A Health Crisis In Critical Thinking

255

Leigh Stein on the rise and fall of the #GirlBoss and her new novel, Self Care

256

Gen X Girl Talk With Evolutionary Biologist Heather Heying