The Unspeakable Podcast
Author, essayist and journalist Meghan Daum has spent decades giving voice—and bringing nuance, humor and surprising perspectives—to things that lots of people are thinking but are afraid to say out loud. Now, she brings her observations to the realm of conversation. In candid, free-ranging interviews, Meghan talks with artists, entertainers, journalists, scientists, scholars, and anyone else who’s willing to do the “unspeakable” and question prevailing cultural and moral assumptions.
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Are Therapists Crazy? Andrew Hartz's quest for sanity in clinical psychology
09/18/2025
Are Therapists Crazy? Andrew Hartz's quest for sanity in clinical psychology
Dr. Andrew Hartz is a practicing clinical psychologist and the founder of the Open Therapy Institute, an organization dedicated to overcoming sociopolitical bias in the mental health field. He was last here in 2023 and returns now to talk about what’s changed—and what hasn’t—in the mental-health landscape since then. We discuss the rise of “everyday dissociation,” how screens and Zoom relationships dull presence and feeling, and why talk therapy can miss the mark when the problem is disconnection from the body. Andrew also explains how anxiety became a form of social currency (from dating to testing accommodations), the overuse of diagnostic labels online, and why Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) offers a saner path than endless self-rumination. Guest Bio: Andrew Hartz is the Founder, President, and Executive Director of the Open Therapy Institute. He's also a practicing clinical psychologist and was formerly a professor in the clinical psychology doctoral program at Long Island University, where he also completed his Ph.D. He's been featured in the New York Times, on The Dr. Drew Podcast, on Dr. Phil Primetime, and in The Free Press and has written about political issues and mental health for outlets such as the Wall Street Journal, City Journal, Discourse, Heterodox Academy, the New York Post, and Quillette.
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All The World’s A Hype House: What Leigh Stein's TikTok novel reveals about the way we live now
09/16/2025
All The World’s A Hype House: What Leigh Stein's TikTok novel reveals about the way we live now
Novelist, essayist, and publishing coach Leigh Stein returns to the show to discuss her new gothic-inspired novel, If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You. Set in a Los Angeles “hype house,” the book follows a 39-year-old woman managing a mansion full of TikTok influencers—and confronting the realities of aging out of digital media. Leigh talks about the inspirations behind the novel, from a Frank Lloyd Wright house to parasocial relationships to the controversies around Joan Didion’s private papers. We also explore bigger questions: the future of Substack, fandom as a cultural force, the blurred line between art and content, and how young writers can navigate the creator economy. Along the way we get into Coldplay-Gate, public shaming as a modern scarlet letter, and what it really means to make a living while making art. About the Guest: Leigh Stein is the author of six books, including the satirical novel Self Care and her latest gothic novel, If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The New Yorker online, Airmail, Allure, ELLE, BuzzFeed, The Cut, Salon, and Slate.
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How Are Those Luxury Beliefs Working Out? Rob Henderson and the coinage that keeps on giving (FULL INTERVIEW)
08/26/2025
How Are Those Luxury Beliefs Working Out? Rob Henderson and the coinage that keeps on giving (FULL INTERVIEW)
This week, I welcome back Rob Henderson, the social psychologist, author, and commentator who coined the concept of luxury beliefs: ideas that confer status on the upper class while inflicting real costs on lower-income communities. Rob was last here in early 2024 discussing his memoir, Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class, which chronicles his journey through California’s foster system to the Air Force, and onward to Yale and Cambridge. In this conversation, we explore what he’s been thinking about since the book’s release—particularly the so-called “mating crisis,” why many young people delay or avoid partnerships and family, and what that means for the future. We also dissect the emergence of Zohran Mamdani, the New York City mayoral hopeful who, according to Rob (and I would concur), embodies luxury beliefs in action. Finally, Rob answers questions from Substack readers. Rob will be a speaker at our Unspeakeasy Small Gathering for Big Ideas weekend, October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info . GUEST BIO Rob Henderson is the author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. He grew up in foster homes in Los Angeles and in the rural town of Red Bluff, California. After enlisting in the U.S. Air Force at the age of seventeen, he subsequently attended Yale on the GI Bill and was then awarded the Gates Cambridge Scholarship to study at the University of Cambridge, where he obtained a PhD in psychology in 2022. He is currently a Senior Fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and his Substack newsletter is sent each week to more than 70 thousand subscribers. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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Is The Racial Reckoning Over? John McWhorter on language, art, and defunding the grammar police
08/19/2025
Is The Racial Reckoning Over? John McWhorter on language, art, and defunding the grammar police
This is the full version of the Aug 4 episode, now available to all subscribers. Author, New York Times columnist, and superstar linguist John McWhorter returns to the pod to catch us up on what’s been on his mind now that the Woke Emergency is over . . . or is it over? We talk about how figures like Robin D’Angelo and Ibram X. Kendi have receded from the spotlight and then move on to more pressing questions topics, such as whether New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s “I vs me” confusion is disqualifying (I say yes), whether a smart person would say “stupider” or “more stupid,” when it became acceptable to say “anyways,” and why kids today have substituted “based off” for “based on.” We also discuss John’s long-running conversations with economist Glenn Loury on The Glenn Show and how their divergent views on the Trump phenomenon have changed (and also not changed) the dynamics of their discussions. (Listen to my 2024 interview with Glenn Loury .) John reflects on Glenn’s 2024 memoir and explains why he would be reluctant to expand the personal writing in his columns into an entire book. Finally, we talk about the definition of a public intellectual and why so many people with microphones count themselves as such. Would a legendary public intellectual like Susan Sontag have adapted to the YouTube era? What John has to say might surprise you. John McWhorter is one of several speakers featured at the Unspeakeasy Small Gathering for Big Ideas rereat in New York City October 11-12, 2025. Find out more at . GUEST BIO John McWhorter writes a weekly newsletter for The New York Times, is a professor of linguistics at Columbia University, and the author or more than 20 books, most recently Pronoun Trouble, Nine Nasty Words, and Woke Racism. HOUSEKEEPING Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here. Join the listener and reader community by subscribing to my Substack at . Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
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Is Everything Terrible? Tablet editor Alana Newhouse on the problem with burning it all down.
08/18/2025
Is Everything Terrible? Tablet editor Alana Newhouse on the problem with burning it all down.
This week I’m joined by Alana Newhouse, journalist, cultural critic, and founder/editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine. Since launching Tablet in 2009, Alana has carved out a space for nuanced and surprising reporting on Jewish identity and the larger cultural questions shaping those issues, as well as the broader issues of our time. We discuss her 2021 essay, Everything Is Broken, in which she diagnoses systemic failures in medicine, media, education, and culture. Alana traces these breakdowns to a pervasive cultural force she calls flatness — the drive toward frictionless interaction, simplified narratives, and ideological conformity. Drawing from her own story of navigating a medical crisis with her own child, Alana exposes how even privileged, insured families can be failed by institutions. She also offers a blueprint for repair: embracing complexity, friction, unpredictability, and deep creative engagement. Alana will be a guest speaker at our Unspeakeasy Small Gathering for Big Ideas weekend, October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info . Are you a fan of what Alana has done at Tablet? Show your love (and get a big discount) by using promo code ALANA1800 at checkout. GUEST BIO Alana Newhouse is the founder and editor-in-chief of Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. More info . 🗽 Live event in NYC on Sept 3! Come see me discuss The Catastrophe Hour with bestselling novelist and columnist Lionel Shriver (catch my recent interview with Lionel ). The Village Underground, 6 pm. Tickets and info [here](%20subscribers%20get%20access%20to%20my%20entire%20interview%20with%20rachel%20mason.%20to%20hear%20the%20entire%20conversation,%20become%20a%20paying%20subscriber%20here./).
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Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on women, religious transformations, and what anorexia has to do with it. (FULL INTERVIEW)
08/04/2025
Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on women, religious transformations, and what anorexia has to do with it. (FULL INTERVIEW)
This week, I’m joined by author Kelsey Osgood to discuss her recent book “Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys To Religious Conversion.” The book, which profiles women who traded secular lives for religious communities such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, evangelical Christianity, Quakerism, Orthodox Judaism, Saudi-based Islam, and even the Amish faith, is fascinating in its own right. But we also discuss Kelsey’s previous book about her struggle with and recovery from anorexia, which overlaps with her religious transformation in some surprising ways. In that book, How To Disappear Completely, Kelsey wrote not just about anorexia itself but the culture surrounding it, notably the “peak sad girl” era of the late 1990s through early 2000s. The therapeutic approach that accompanied it, she argues, took universal human questions that have been asked for millennia and repackaged them as personal neuroses to be indulged and then solved — or, more often, deemed unsolvable. Her conversion to Judaism and participation in an Orthodox community helped reframe her entire way of thinking and changed her life for the better. GUEST BIO is the author of How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia, which was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, and Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion, which came out in April from Viking. Her work has appeared online or in print at The Atlantic, The New York Times, Harper's, and the New Yorker, among other outlets. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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How To Survive a Mania - Lionel Shriver hates groupthink. And so should everyone else.
07/30/2025
How To Survive a Mania - Lionel Shriver hates groupthink. And so should everyone else.
September 3 in NYC at 6 pm, I’ll be in conversation with Lionel live at The Village Underground. Tix available . Use promo code CATASTROPHE18 at checkout for a discount. Bestselling novelist and beloved (and occasionally be-hated) columnist Lionel Shriver returns to the podcast to talk about several topics, including her most recent novel, Mania. In that novel, she imagines a society under the grip of “mental parity,” a concept arguing that all individuals possess equal intelligence and no one should be given greater credence or responsibility because of the perception that they are smarter. We also discuss our own intelligence (are we really all that smart?) and wonder what makes us so resistant to groupthink in politics and daily life, especially around movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and gender ideology. In search of a lighter topic, we finally move on to . . . immigration. (Oops.) As a Los Angeles resident, I’ve been alarmed by the ICE raids in my community, and I’m quite upset about the Trump administration’s policies. As a longtime expatriate in the U.K. and as the author of a forthcoming novel about immigration (, coming in February 2026), Lionel sees things a little differently. GUEST BIO A prolific journalist with a fortnightly column in Britain’s The Spectator, Lionel Shriver has written widely for the New York Times, the London Times, the Financial Times, Harper’s Magazine, and many other publications. Her first nonfiction book, ABOMINATIONS: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-destruction, was published in 2022. It joins a story collection and fifteen novels, including Mania, Should We Stay or Should We Go, The Mandibles, and We Need to Talk About Kevin (a 2011 film starring Tilda Swinton). Her work has been translated into 35 languages. Her latest novel A Better Life, focused on immigration, will be out in early 2026. UPCOMING EVENT: Once again, if you enjoyed this interview, join me in NYC on September 3 at The Village Underground for a conversation with Lionel about The Catastrophe Hour as well as her work. Topics will include (but are not limited to) death, sex, real estate, dogs, beauty, grief, aging, cancelation, incels, femcels, self-destruction, natural disasters, pronatalism, anti-natalism, human intelligence, and cultural stupidity. Doors open at 5:15, show starts at 6pm. Tix available . Use promo code CATASTROPHE18 at checkout for a discount. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on women, religious transformations, and what anorexia has to do with it (PREVIEW)
07/22/2025
Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on women, religious transformations, and what anorexia has to do with it (PREVIEW)
This week, I’m joined by author Kelsey Osgood to discuss her recent book “Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys To Religious Conversion.” The book, which profiles women who traded secular lives for religious communities such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, evangelical Christianity, Quakerism, Orthodox Judaism, Saudi-based Islam, and even the Amish faith, is fascinating in its own right. But we also discuss Kelsey’s previous book about her struggle with and recovery from anorexia, which overlaps with her religious transformation in some surprising ways. In that book, How To Disappear Completely, Kelsey wrote not just about anorexia itself but the culture surrounding it, notably the “peak sad girl” era of the late 1990s through early 2000s. The therapeutic approach that accompanied it, she argues, took universal human questions that have been asked for millennia and repackaged them as personal neuroses to be indulged and then solved — or, more often, deemed unsolvable. Her conversion to Judaism and participation in an Orthodox community helped reframe her entire way of thinking and changed her life for the better. GUEST BIO is the author of How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia, which was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, and Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion, which came out in April from Viking. Her work has appeared online or in print at The Atlantic, The New York Times, Harper's, and the New Yorker, among other outlets. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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70 Million Songs: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 7
07/17/2025
70 Million Songs: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 7
The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, July 23, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the fifth essay of the collection, Playlist of Tears. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET. The book club is for yearly paid Substack subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription at . About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.
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Do Women Owe Men An Apology? with Dr. Carole Hooven
07/14/2025
Do Women Owe Men An Apology? with Dr. Carole Hooven
This episode starts with a Very Special introduction in which I explain what’s been going on with the podcast over the last six months (lots of different offerings, which possibly caused some confusion) and talk about the ongoing challenges of the subscriber model. (Short version, please stick around!) I then have the great pleasure of interviewing evolutionary biologist Dr. Carole Hooven, who’s been a speaker at several Unspeakeasy events but never actually a guest on the podcast. As we approach the four-year anniversary of the publication of her book, , Carole recounts how a media appearance defending “male” and “female” as meaningful scientific categories led to unexpected controversy and her eventual departure from Harvard, where she’d taught for many years. She talks about how ideological influence has made even basic scientific facts about sex contentious and cites the importance of precise use of language, especially on topics like sex differences and women’s rights, which she feels have been muddied by cultural and political agendas. Most fascinatingly (to me, anyway), Carole argues that a predominantly female, progressive teaching culture favors girls’ learning styles—while boys, wired differently by biology, are stigmatized and alienated. Meanwhile, it’s become culturally verboten to even acknowledge men’s intense sexual drives and emotional vulnerability, and she calls for a return to rites of passage that acknowledge male biology without shame. Finally, we talk about a recent controversy surrounding her husband, MIT philosophy professor (who was a guest on the podcast back in March 2024), after he was invited to contribute to a U.S. Health and Human Services report on sex and gender. Although the team was politically diverse, Alex’s name was leaked via PDF metadata, and he faced fierce criticism from activist students and colleagues. He responded with a Washington Post explaining his position. GUEST BIO is a human evolutionary biologist, the author of T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us, and a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info . Housekeeping 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and more. 🥂 Join , my community for freethinking women.
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The Unbearable Halfness Of Being: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 6
07/10/2025
The Unbearable Halfness Of Being: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 6
The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, July 16, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the fifth essay of the collection, Playlist of Tears. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET. The book club is for yearly paid Substack subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription at . About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.
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Death On A Movie Set - Rachel Mason on Last Take, her documentary about the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust
07/09/2025
Death On A Movie Set - Rachel Mason on Last Take, her documentary about the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust
In this episode, I speak with filmmaker Rachel Mason about her documentary Last Take*: Rust and the Story of Halyna*, which explores the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. On October 21, 20221, Alec Badwin, who starred in the film, pulled the trigger on a gun he thought was not loaded, killing Halyna and injuring director Joel Souza. Through the lens of grief, media spectacle, and justice. Rachel, a close friend of Halyna’s, offers an intimate perspective on the aftermath of the incident and how it was experienced by those who knew Halyna beyond the headlines. We also talk about Rachel’s recent docuseries, An Update on Our Family, which investigates the world of family vlogging on YouTube—particularly the story of Myka and James Stauffer, whose decision to rehome their adopted son sparked public outrage and raised ethical questions about online parenting content. Toward the end of our conversation, Rachel talks about her next project, a collaborative effort to unravel a legendary unsolved murder case in Los Angeles. It's a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation that touches on art, ethics, personal loss, and the complexities of telling true stories in a digital age. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. GUEST BIO is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker. She received an Emmy Nomination for her Netflix Original Documentary Circus of Books, based on her biographical telling of growing up the child of owners of an adult bookstore that was a fixture of the gay community during the height of the AIDS era. In 2025 a series Mason directed called “An Update on Our Family” was released on HBO MAX and has been cited in legal arguments proposing legislation changes regarding children on the internet. Following that, Hulu released the authorized documentary about her friend Halyna Hutchins death on the Alec Baldwin film Rust. She is currently completing a documentary about the murder of a young gay man in 1990 named Billy London, which was until 2022 a cold case. The film is being made independently and has been a volunteer effort from the community, who helped to solve the crime. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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Playlist of Tears: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 5
07/04/2025
Playlist of Tears: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 5
The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the fifth essay of the collection, Playlist of Tears. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET. The book club is for yearly paid Substack subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription at . About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.
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Species Of Grief: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 4
06/30/2025
Species Of Grief: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 4
The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, July 2, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the fourth essay of the collection, Species Of Grief. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET, beginning June 11. The book club is for yearly paid subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription. Species Of Grief was written in May of 2019 and appeared as one of my columns in Medium’s GEN Magazine. Want to hear the whole recording? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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Basically Dead: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 3
06/19/2025
Basically Dead: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 3
The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, June 25, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the third essay of the collection, Basically Dead. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET. The book club is for yearly paid Substack subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription at . How to Join The Book Club Yearly subscribers will receive a reminder email on Tuesdays. If you are only a monthly subscriber, you will not receive the email. To update your subscription: Navigate to your profile image in the top right corner and click. Go to “Manage Subscription” Next to your subscription type, select “Change.” Select yearly and confirm. About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.
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What Illness Can Teach Us About Uncertainty - Jonathan Gluck on his new memoir about cancer and coming to terms with not knowing
06/16/2025
What Illness Can Teach Us About Uncertainty - Jonathan Gluck on his new memoir about cancer and coming to terms with not knowing
In his new memoir, An Exercise In Uncertainty, journalist and editor Jonathan Gluck chronicles more than 20 years of living with multiple myeloma, an incurable but treatable cancer. He joined me to talk about how he’s coped with illness, why he chose this moment to write about it, and, most importantly, how he’s learned to deal with a condition all of us face to one degree or another: uncertainty. Jon explains the concept of “predemption”—a mindset that’s helped him find something positive, even in the toughest moments—and describes the invisible aspects of cancer, how it affected family dynamics, and the honest conversations he’s had with his kids about his condition. He reflects on the strain illness can have on relationships, especially marriage, and how fly fishing became a crucial form of therapy and connection. GUEST BIO Jonathan Gluck is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. He was deputy editor of New York magazine for ten years, after which he worked as managing editor of Vogue. His work has been recognized with multiple National Magazine Awards. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes : January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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The Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week Two - Same Life, Higher Rent
06/12/2025
The Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week Two - Same Life, Higher Rent
The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the second essay of the collection, Same Life, Higher Rent. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET, beginning June 11. The book club is for yearly paid subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription. To learn more about the book club and join, visit Same Life, Higher Rent was written in 2017, shortly after I returned to New York after nearly two decades away. At the time, I was 47 and, strangely, my life was a lot like it had been at 27, though of course I was older and the rent was higher. The essay also explores, among other things, the concept of the “situational setpoint,” which is the state of life I seem to find myself in no matter how long I spend trying to live a different kind of life. About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.
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Where Do Serial Killers Come From? Caroline Fraser on America’s Murderland
06/09/2025
Where Do Serial Killers Come From? Caroline Fraser on America’s Murderland
This week I’m joined by Caroline Fraser, author of Prairie Fires, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of beloved author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Fraser’s latest book, Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust In The Time Of Serial Killers, is a notable departure from the world of sunbonnets and covered wagons. This time, she explores the proliferation of serial killers—figures like the Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway, I-5 killer Randall Woodfield, and, of course, Ted Bundy—who haunted the Pacific Northwest during the 1970s to 1990s. Why were there so many serial killers during this time and in this region? Fraser points to the “lead-crime hypothesis,” which suggests that a spike in violent crime during this era can be traced back to widespread childhood lead exposure from gasoline, paint, and industrial sources. In the book, Fraser expands on this theory, connecting the ecological and societal dots between environmental toxins and waves of violent crime. She also draws on her own experience growing up in the Seattle area, giving personal context to a much larger story. GUEST BIO Caroline Fraser is the author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heartland Prize, and the Plutarch Award for Best Biography of the Year. She is also the author of God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, and her writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes: January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info . Housekeeping 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and more. 🥂 Join , my community for freethinking women.
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The Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week One - The Broken-In World
06/05/2025
The Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week One - The Broken-In World
The Catastrophe Hour Book Club begins June 11 with a discussion of the first essay in the book, The Broken-In World, an examination of divorce, loss, and finding unexpected peace and camaraderie in a world that “can no longer support pretense.” The book club runs for 14 consecutive Wednesdays from 3-4 p.m. ET. We will discuss one essay per week To learn more about the book club and join, visit About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.
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Alma Deutscher's First Dance - The celebrated young composer collaborates with the American Contemporary Ballet
06/02/2025
Alma Deutscher's First Dance - The celebrated young composer collaborates with the American Contemporary Ballet
Alma Deutscher, often described as a modern-day Mozart, was a prodigy whose early accomplishments include composing a piano sonata at age six, a short opera at seven, a violin concerto at nine, and her first full-length opera at ten. At twelve, she was on 60 Minutes, and in 2021 began conducting studies in Vienna with Johannes Wildner. Now 20, Alma has just written her first ballet score—a collaboration with Lincoln Jones, founder and director of American Contemporary Ballet (ACB) in Los Angeles. Lincoln just over two years ago, offering unique insights into the complexities of running a dance company and the profound art of dance itself. In this episode, Lincoln and Alma discuss their new ballet, The Euterpides, inspired by Euterpe, the ancient Greek Muse of Music. This piece follows the Muse’s goddess daughters as they descend to dance with a mortal, exploring the age-old connection between inspiration and craft. We recorded this conversation on Memorial Day to get it out ahead of the ballet’s world premiere, which runs June 5–28 in Los Angeles. If you’re local (or can make the trip!), you’ll also hear about an audience support , offering a rare chance for the public to get involved in bringing this ballet to life. GUEST BIO has composed a number of acclaimed orchestral works, including a full-length opera, by the age of 10. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall and the Vienna State Opera. She’s earned the admiration of classical music luminaries like Zubin Mehta, who called her “one of the greatest musical talents of today.” Lincoln Jones is the founder, director, and principal choreographer of the American Contemporary Ballet in Los Angeles. Their collaboration, The Euterpides, premieres on June 5. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent(ish) solo episodes : January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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Audio Essay: The End Of The Personal - Listen to an essay from The Catastrophe Hour
05/29/2025
Audio Essay: The End Of The Personal - Listen to an essay from The Catastrophe Hour
This week, I share an essay from The Catastrophe Hour. There’s no audiobook available (yet), so I offer this reading of the final essay in the collection, The End Of The Personal. It’s a meditation on first-person writing in a world that seems to have overdosed on oversharing. The era of the personal is over. The writer sees this now. One day, she just gets it. Everything is personal so nothing is personal. The erosion has been a long time coming. First, the personal became political. Then it became porn. Now it has become dust. The Catastrophe Hour book club begins on June 11 and runs every Wednesday from 3:00-4:00 p.m. ET for 14 consecutive weeks. We will read one essay each week, starting from the beginning of the book. Audio excerpts of each essay will be released every week as special podcast episodes. (They’ll be excerpts, so you’ll still want to get the book.) To join the book club, become a paying subscriber to the Substack at the annual level. More info . HOUSEKEEPING 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on ! 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . 📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays 3-4pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. I’ll make a post about it very soon with more info. 📹 The Unspeakeasy Live happens every Thursday at 3pm ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live. ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info .
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How To Solve Crime - Peter Moskos on New York City’s policing triumph
05/19/2025
How To Solve Crime - Peter Moskos on New York City’s policing triumph
✌️Upgrade your subscription if you want to hear the full conversation: 🔔 Did you like this episode? Don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment down below. [DESCRIPTION] You can upgrade your subscription here: ————————— GUEST BIO Peter Moskos teaches in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Moskos, a Princeton and Harvard-trained sociologist, is a former Baltimore City Police Officer and is the director of John Jay College’s NYPD Executive Master’s Leadership Program. Also, check out Peter’s previous Unspeakable interviews: Can We Get Smarter About Policing? A conversation with Professor of Police Science (and former Baltimore cop) Peter Moskos: How Are We Feeling About Policing These Days? ————————— HOUSEKEEPING ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women:
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Why Joni Mitchell Matters - Henry Alford on his book, "I Dream Of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots”
05/09/2025
Why Joni Mitchell Matters - Henry Alford on his book, "I Dream Of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots”
In this much-anticipated interview (at least by me), humorist and journalist Henry Alford joins me to discuss his recent bestselling book I Dream Of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots. In a Joni nerd-off that may be unrivaled in podcast history, Henry and I talk about his research and reporting for this book, what he learned about Mitchell’s contradictions and complexities, why he thinks she might be on the autism spectrum, and, above all, why Mitchell’s music holds such a profound place in so many people’s emotional and even intellectual lives. GUEST BIO is a humorist and journalist who has contributed to the New Yorker since 1998. He is the author of seven books, including Big Kiss, which won a Thurber Prize, and the recent I Dream of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots, a national bestseller. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING New feature! The Unspeakeasy Live is a twice-weekly livestream featuring casual, spontaneous conversations with guests, friends, and sometimes just myself. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 pm ET. Recordings of livestreams are posted the next day (or soon thereafter) for paying subscribers. 📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on or directly from the publisher . May 17 I’ll be in Denver at discussing my new book, The Catastrophe Hour. 7pm. Info . Stuff to read and listen to: New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Recent solo episodes : January 9: January 16: January 27: February 5: February 13: March 2: March 31: 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 season is underway. Find out where we’ll be! 🥂 Join , my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Make a donation of any amount to help me recover from the fire by using the .
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Louise Perry’s Counter-sexual Revolution
04/24/2025
Louise Perry’s Counter-sexual Revolution
Writer and podcaster Louise Perry returns to the pod to discuss her new book, A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, in which she takes ideas from her 2022 book The Case Against The Sexual Revolution and adapts them for teenagers and young adults. In this conversation, we pick up from where we left off in our 2022 , catching up on the evolving discourse around the winners and losers of the sexual revolution and trying to parse what’s going with the “online right” and its Little House On The Prairie fantasies and overall fixation on homestead life. (News alert: People on the American frontier did suffer from depression. There was even a name for it: Prairie Madness.) We also talk about the 4B movement (what does “B” stand for anyway?), conservative matchmaking initiatives (has Louise crowdsourced her own yenta business?), and the need for a more interventionist approach to relationships and family life. Guest bio: Louise Perry is a writer and activist based in London. This year, she co-founded a non-partisan feminist think tank called The Other Half, where she serves as Research Director. Her debut book is The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century.
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What's A Conservative To Do? Undercurrents' Emily Jashinsky on Trump, DOGE, and how worried we should be
03/10/2025
What's A Conservative To Do? Undercurrents' Emily Jashinsky on Trump, DOGE, and how worried we should be
Journalist and political commentator Emily Jashisnky, host of Undercurrents and co-host of Counterpoints, is a 31-year-old Evangelical Christian from Wisconsin. She’s also (for my money) one of the sanest, smartest, and most principled voices in the information landscape these days. In this conversation, we talk about Emily’s philosophical and political roots, her college years during the height of the woke era, and her thoughts about the state of the Republican party (she considers herself a conservative but not a Republican), the perils and promise of the Trump agenda, and what’s driving Elon Musk—not to mention keeping him awake. Emily Jashinsky is an American journalist based in Washington, D.C. She is the D.C. Correspondent at UnHerd and co-host of the show "Counter Points" with Ryan Grim on the Breaking Points channel, a Top 10 Politics podcast. Housekeeping Listen to my recent audio essays about the Los Angeles wildfires and (moving right along) the state of public discourse in the new Trump era. Read my recent essay in The New York Times about accepting help. Pre-order my new book The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays (which is unrelated to the current catastrophe). Either from you-know-where or (even better) directly from the publisher, Notting Hill Editions. Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube. The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and beyond. Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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Is The Online Right Eating Itself? The Free Press’s River Page deconstructs the trolls
03/06/2025
Is The Online Right Eating Itself? The Free Press’s River Page deconstructs the trolls
For the last several years, we yelled about the left eating itself. Is the right now feasting on the same poisonous meal? This week Meghan is joined by reporter River Page, whose February 19 article , articulated a phenomenon she’d long observed but could never quite parse; the phenomenon of right-wing trolls making antisemitic and misogynist memes as well as other forms of rage bait in order to own the libs. River explains the origins and effects of this rising movement, dispelling Meghan's preconceptions that most of these trolls are bots or teenagers (alas, many are grown men). Speaking of grown men, the conversation wanders into an exploration of why young males are so obsessed with their bodies and physical appearance. Should we blame Instagram and TikTok? Maybe. But River thinks there’s a connection between income inequality and male vanity. When you believe you’ll never be able to afford a house or a middle-class family life, controlling your own body may be the only control you have. Guest Bio: is a reporter at The Free Press. Previously, he worked as a staff writer at Pirate Wires, covering technology, politics, and culture. His work has also appeared in Compact, American Affairs, and the Washington Examiner, among other publications. You can upgrade your subscription here: HOUSEKEEPING Unspeakeasy Retreats: Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women: Pre-order Meghan's new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays. Coming April 15, 2025.
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Special Episode Part 4 Los Angeles Fires: What Is A Catastrophe?
02/18/2025
Special Episode Part 4 Los Angeles Fires: What Is A Catastrophe?
Recorded February 13, 2025 On my birthday, with my laryngitis almost gone, I share some audio reflections about my recent New York Times opinion essay about losing my home in the fire, my current housing situation, and my former housing blunders. Most importantly, I offer a sneak preview of my ironically-titled forthcoming book, The Catastrophe Hour. New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: Earlier fire dispatches. January 9: The First 24 Hours — January 16: The Immaterial World — January 27: Housing Wars — How to help? Become a paying subscriber to this podcast on Substack or leave a donation of any amount in the tip jar. Your support is deeply appreciated: HOUSEKEEPING Unspeakeasy Retreats: Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women: Pre-order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays. Coming April 15, 2025.
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How Not To Go Insane: Chloé Valdary on leaving Twitter, the new Puritanism, and the virtues of reading aloud.
02/12/2025
How Not To Go Insane: Chloé Valdary on leaving Twitter, the new Puritanism, and the virtues of reading aloud.
February 10, 2025 edition Recorded December 16, 2024 Chloé Valdary was last on the podcast in May 2021, talking about Theory of Enchantment, an enterprise devoted to more nuanced and art-focussed approaches to DEI. She’s back to discuss what she’s been up to since then. A lot! In this conversation, recorded in December, Chloé talks about her journey from prolific tweeting to long-form writing and the impact of social media on mental health and creativity. She talks about psychosomatic work, the influence of Elon Musk on Twitter, and the cultural response to Luigi Mangione's killing of a health insurance executive. In her view, Luigi fandom connects to themes of Puritan heritage, as she discusses in her (then) recent piece . GUEST BIO Chloé Valdary, educator, artist, and founder of the Theory of Enchantment, is on a mission to address the shortcomings of DEI by teaching love and harmony. Chloé received her bachelor’s in international studies with a concentration in conflict and diplomacy from the University of New Orleans. She has been published in the WSJ, the New York Times and the Atlantic Magazine, and she spends her days helping schools and businesses build trust in their organizations. In her spare time, she enjoys bird watching, reading, and DJing. Want to hear the whole conversation? . HOUSEKEEPING 📰 Read my recent in The New York Times about accepting help in the wake of the L.A. wildfires. 📖 my new book The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays (which is unrelated to the current catastrophe). 📺 Visit The Unspeakable on . ✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and more. 🥂 Join , my community for freethinking women.
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Special Episode Part 3 Los Angeles Fires: Housing Wars
01/28/2025
Special Episode Part 3 Los Angeles Fires: Housing Wars
It’s been three weeks since my house burned to the ground in the Los Angeles wildfires. Here are some thoughts on rent gouging, couch surfing, and the lifestyles of the rich and unhoused. A note on this photo. I took it from Farnsworth Park in Altadena on New Year’s Day, one week before the fire. That thing in the sky is the Goodyear Blimp hovering over Rose Bowl Stadium during the game. Earlier dispatches. January 9: January 16: How to help? Become a paying to this podcast on Substack or leave a donation of any amount in the . Your support is deeply appreciated. The podcast resumes its regular schedule very soon! Thanks for your patience. Housekeeping Visit on YouTube. Learn about , a community for freethinking women. Pre-order my new book, . Coming April 15, 2025.
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Special Ep Part 2 Los Angeles Fires: The Immaterial World
01/21/2025
Special Ep Part 2 Los Angeles Fires: The Immaterial World
In the hours of January 8, my house burned to the ground in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA. Here are some thoughts I recorded on January 15. How to help? Become a paying to this podcast on Substack. Or leave a in any amount in the tip jar. Housekeeping Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube. The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. Find out where we’re going. Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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