The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with Katherine Dee. The first half of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here. Katherine Dee is a writer, cultural commentator, and a phenomenally astute observer of online culture. If you want to understand the rise of the "tradcels," the "girl boss" trope (and subsequent backlash), and how identity concepts like "otherkin" become connected to social justice politics, Katherine is the one to explain it. In this conversation, she talks with Meghan about how ideas on places like Tumblr found their way into our political discourse, academia, and even the retail space and they had a profound impact on young people's psychological development, especially when it comes to dating and relationships. Katherine herself was so indoctrinated by online manosphere content and it's the scarcity complex it engendered that she ended up marrying someone she met online after knowing him in person for three days. She also discusses why Taylor Swift is just the latest example of a powerful woman reframed as a sad cat lady, why the beauty standards of the 1990s were so destructive, and why New York City arts and media circles are incubators are terrible places to meet heterosexual men. (But very good places to be one.) GUEST BIO Katherine Dee is an internet culture blogger. Everything else is secondary. You can find her at default.blog. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 🌵Come see Meghan in Austin, TX on February 29 at Moontower Verses, talking about her book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, her community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with Rob Henderson. The first half of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here. If you listen to this podcast and others like it, you may have heard of the concept of luxury beliefs. It was coined by this week's guest Rob Henderson. Rob holds a PhD in psychology, has written for lots of media outlets, and writes a popular Sustack newsletter about social issues and how they relate to class dynamics, economic forces, and personal psychology. He also has a brand new book, Troubled: A Memoir of Family, Foster Care, and Social Class. Born to a drug addicted mother, Rob spent his early life in the foster care system in California, living in seven different homes before finding a permanent placement. However, his adoptive family was chaotic, and Rob navigated a labyrinth of dysfunction before joining the military and eventually finding his way to the Ivy League. It was there that he noticed that many of his classmates seemed to hold certain ideas about the world at large, often in the name of tolerance, even though they held themselves to a much higher standard. From that emerged the concept of luxury beliefs which he discusses in depth in his memoir. GUEST BIO Rob Henderson is a Yale and Cambridge University graduate who writes extensively on human nature, psychology, social class, TV shows, movies, political and social divisions, and more on Substack. The term "luxury beliefs" was coined by him, inspired by his experiences at Yale. His book, "Troubled: A Memoir of Family, Foster Care, and Social Class," will be published in February 2024 through Simon & Schuster. Follow him on Substack. Follow his Twitter/X. Get his book, "Troubled" here. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 🌵Come see me in Austin, TX on February 29 at Moontower Verses, talking about my book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with Lori Gottlieb. The first half of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here. Psychotherapist and writer Lori Gottlieb visited The Unspeakable in 2021 to talk about her bestselling book Maybe You Should Talk To Someone. She returns for a Valentine's Day episode about finding love, staying in love, and what to make of all the social scientists constantly going on about how marriage and family are essential for mental, physical and even economic well-being. To that, Lori says, "well, obviously!" But she also asks "how are you supposed to find someone when our social systems are so dysfunctional?" Her own story involves becoming a mother on her own in her 30s (her son Zach is a budding Gen Z thought leader in his own right) and trying to balance her own dating life with childrearing and a busy career. In this conversation, she talks about how she tries to help clients who are struggling to find love, how honest talk about female fertility became taboo sometime in the 2000s, why dating apps are making things so much worse, and why age gaps in romantic relationships seem more prevalent than ever. She also explains why, for older daters, widowed people can make the best partners and, finally, why more singles should seriously consider hiring a matchmaker. GUEST BIO Lori Gottlieb is a psychotherapist and the New York Times best-selling author of "Maybe You Should Talk to Someone" and "Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough." She is also a TED Speaker, the co-host of the popular "Dear Therapists" podcast, and the "Dear Therapist" columnist for The Atlantic. Listen to the last time she was on the podcast. Check out her website. Follow her on Twitter here. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 🌵Come see me in Austin, TX on February 29 at Moontower Verses, talking about my book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with John Vervaeke and Shawn Coyne. The first half of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here. Meghan has been threatening to do an episode on artificial intelligence, and finally she makes good. This week, she welcomes two guests: the philosopher, neuroscientist, and popular YouTuber John Vervaeke and the editor and publishing entrepreneur Shawn Coyne. They have collaborated on Mentoring The Machines, a series of short books–technically, it's one book in four parts–about artificial intelligence. Their aim is to offer a clear understanding of the implications of AI and to invite readers to think about their own participation in its development and how their own choices can move that development in a positive or negative direction. In this conversation, they explain what drew them to this subject, how they came to work together, and how worried we should be about computers destroying civilization. GUEST BIOS John Vervaeke is an award-winning professor at the University of Toronto in the departments of psychology, cognitive science, and Buddhist psychology. He is the author and presenter of the YouTube series, "Awakening from the Meaning Crisis," "After Socrates" and the host of "Voices with Vervaeke." Sean Coyne is a writer, editor, and the founder of Story Grid. Learn about Mentoring The Machines. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 🌵Come see me in Austin, TX on February 29 at Moontower Verses, talking about my book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with Kathrine Brodsky. The first half of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here. Cultural critic Katherine Brodsky is an example of what Meghan likes to call "Heterodoxy 2.0." She's committed to fighting censorship and groupthink but is also mindful of not becoming an ideologue herself. Born in the Soviet Union, she emigrated with her family to Israel and then Canada and is acutely sensitive to signs of creeping authoritarianism. She now lives in Vancouver and writes about a variety of topics, including the arts, technology, and the recently emerging debates about free speech and censorship. In her new book, No Apologies: How to Find and Free Your Voice in the Age of Outrage—Lessons for the Silenced Majority, Katherine recounts her own cancelation event but, more importantly, interviews a range of people—including Katie Herzog, Winston Marshall, Stephen Elliot, and Peter Boghossian, to name a few—who have fallen prey to the online mob. In this conversation, we talk about what can be learned from a cancelation, what has become of the "IDW," and how to move free speech discourse in a more positive direction, less grievance-driven direction. ** GUEST BIO For over a decade, Katherine Brodsky has covered lifestyle and entertainment stories for works like Variety, WIRED, Newsweek, The Guardian, Esquire, The Independent, CNN Travel, Entertainment Weekly, Playboy Magazine, USA Today, Delta Sky, Mashable, and more. She has interviewed many personalities, including winners and nominees of the Academy Awards, Emmys, Grammys, Pulitzers, Tonys, and even the Nobel Prize. You can read her work at her Substack here. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 🌵Come see me in Austin, TX on February 29 at Moontower Verses, talking about my book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

Seth Kaplan has worked in developing nations throughout the world, studying how corrupt governments, crumbling infrastructure, and a lack of public trust can add up to what's known as a "fragile state." In his new book "Fragile Neighborhoods," he explores how these same dynamics can play out on a regional level in the United States. Reporting from struggling rural areas as well as poor urban neighborhoods across America, Seth discovered that people separated by even just a few miles can have not only dramatically different life experiences but vastly different life expectancies. The culmination of these factors is captured by the concept of "social fabric." In this conversation, Seth explains how he defines social fabric and describes what kinds of initiatives have the most success at bringing communities together and lifting people out of poverty and why gentrification, when done thoughtfully, can be integral to positive change. He also addresses the question of why cities on the West Coast seem far more prone to unrest, concentrated homelessness, and distrust of institutions than their East Coast counterparts. Finally, Seth shares his personal talks about what he looked for in a neighborhood when he moved his own family from New York City to another state. GUEST BIO Seth D. Kaplan is a leading expert on fragile states. He is a Professorial Lecturer in the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at Johns Hopkins University, Senior Adviser for the Institute for Integrated Transitions (IFIT), and consultant to multilateral organizations such as the World Bank, U.S. State Department, U.S. Agency for International Development, and OECD as well as developing country governments and NGOs. Visit his website. Get his book here. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 📖 🌵Come see me in Austin, TX on February 29 at Moontower Verses, talking about my book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

**Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with Ezzedine Fishere and Bernard Avishai, Dartmouth professors who teach a joint course on Israeli/Palestinian politics.** **The first hour and five minutes of this episode is available to all listeners. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.** As university campuses have become sharply divided in the wake of the October Hamas attack and the ensuing war between Israel and Gaza, Dartmouth has emerged as a model for productive dialogue among students and faculty alike. This is due largely to the efforts of Bernard and Ezzedine, who lead by example in and out of the classroom and have recently been featured on Sixty Minutes, PBS, and elsewhere. In this conversation, they talk about their approaches to teaching, the professional paths that led them to the classroom, and how to honor personal feelings while encouraging intellectual humility over reflexive emotional reaction. Ezzedine also discusses the limits of viewing political history through a colonial/anti-colonial framework and Bernard reflects on the complexities of Zionism and why he was so excited about the Zionist project back in 1968. GUEST BIOS: Bernard Avishai, a Visiting Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, has taught at Hebrew University, MIT, and Duke. He's a Guggenheim fellow and author of four books. A regular contributor to The New Yorker on political economy and Israeli affairs, he has also written for Harper's, The New York Review, The Nation, and New York Times Magazine. Formerly an editor of Harvard Business Review and KPMG's International Director of Intellectual Capital, his upcoming Harper's cover story on Israel's culture wars will be released on January 15. Ezzedine C. Fishere, a renowned Egyptian writer and academic, is currently a visiting professor at Dartmouth College, teaching Middle East politics and cultures. His vast diplomatic experience includes roles in the Egyptian Foreign Service; UN missions in the Middle East and East Africa; policy advising for the Egyptian foreign minister; and senior political advising in Sudan under Kofi Annan; a senior political advisor to the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) in Jerusalem; and heading the political section at the Egyptian Embassy in Tel Aviv. ALSO: What Is Real? Eli Lake on Disinformation, Despair and Dead Ends in the Israel-Hamas War Travel Notes From A War Our Keffiyehs, Ourselves **HOUSEKEEPING** 📖 🌵Come see me in Austin, TX on **February 29** at Moontower Verses, talking about my book, The Unspeakable, and other literary matters. ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

In a last-minute, new year's special, Unspeakable regular ChayaLeah Sufrin stops by the pod to report on her recent trip to Israel with her family. Even though she's been to Israel countless times, this trip was different in both expected and unexpected ways. ChayaLeah talks about the desperation of the families of hostages, the morale of Israeli soldiers, what Israelis think about America these days, and about visiting the site of the Supernovo Music Festival. She also explains (sort of) how the Iron Dome defense system works. Spoiler: it's not Jewish space lasers. She also recounts a recent family trip to Kansas and reflects on how warmly her Orthodox family was greeted by locals. GUEST BIO ChayaLeah Sufrin is the co-host, with Yael Bar-tur, of the podcast Ask A Jew and Executive Director at the Hillel at California State University, Long Beach. Prior to Hillel, she spent 15 years teaching high school Jewish history and was the Education Director of Shul by the Shore. ChayaLeah has been married to her husband Boruch for 18 years and together they have 4 sons. Jewish education and building community are ChayaLeah's two main passions - she also loves the New England Patriots. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

Therapist Sasha Ayad was one of the earliest guests on The Unspeakable. Her interview with Meghan in August of 2020 was revelatory for many listeners and she has become a leading figure in the effort to discuss gender through a non-ideological lens. In this wide-ranging conversation, Sasha shares what she's learned since then, what kind of data has emerged about youth gender medicine, and why medical protocols in Europe have changed even as the U.S. and Canada hold on to the "affirmative care" model. Sasha gives some background on how highly theoretical concepts like the "gendered soul" got absorbed into medicine, why kids with gender dysphoria are likely to struggle with multiple mental health issues, and how parents can set limits while also supporting their kids. **GUEST BIO** Sasha is a Licensed Professional Counselor who works in private practice with teens, young adults, and families impacted by gender issues. Sasha is a well-known advocate for individualized, least-invasive-first approaches to treating gender dysphoria. She has developed a gentle but effective way of working psychologically with rigid beliefs, identity, and social influence. In her private coaching work, she helps parents to feel better informed and more confident so they can navigate their child's identity distress with more compassion, discernment and wisdom. Sasha is also the co-host of Gender: A Wider Lens Podcast and played a role in founding several organizations including the Society for Evidence-based Gender Medicine, and The Gender Exploratory Therapy Association. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. **HOUSEKEEPING** ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

🔔 Did you like this episode? Don't forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment down below. ✌️This is a free preview. Upgrade your subscription if you want to hear the whole conversation: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A Is Civility Better Than Kindness? This week, author Alexandra Hudson visits the podcast to talk about her new book, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles To Heal Society and Ourselves. Civility is one of those concepts onto which people project their own biases and even fears. On the surface, you'd think civility could only be a good thing. But it can also come with a lot of baggage. Those who call for greater civility are sometimes accused of diminishing the suffering of others, glossing over reasons for real anger, or practicing respectability politics. On the other hand, what's so bad about respectability politics – or plain old respectability? In this conversation, Alexandra talks about her mother's career as an etiquette expert, the meaning of classical liberalism, the difference between civility and politeness,why she loves Erasmus of Rotterdam, and why she thinks Larry David is the foremost defender of civilization today. You can upgrade your subscription here: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A ————————— GUEST BIO Alexandra Hudson is an award-winning journalist, author, and speaker, as well as the founder of Civic Renaissance, a newsletter and intellectual community dedicated to moral and cultural renewal. Her book, The Soul of Civility: Timeless Principles to Heal Society and Ourselves, was recently published by St Martin's Press. You can read her Substack here: https://bit.ly/48huPXH ————————— HOUSEKEEPING ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class: https://bit.ly/3u9KBoF ✈️ 2024 Unspeakeasy Retreats: https://bit.ly/3Qnk92n 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women:https://bit.ly/44dnw0v 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell: aspecialplace.substack.com

✌️This is just a free preview. Upgrade your subscription if you want to hear the full conversation: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A This week, Wall Street Journal Erich Schwartzel joins Meghan for a conversation about his December 2 article about social media super-influencers Rachel and Dave Hollis. After building a multi-million by branding their own happiness and authenticity, tragedy struck when their marriage ended in bitter divorce and Dave died suddenly of a substance overdose. Erich talks about his months of research into the story and reflects on why so many people want to be influencers — and why even more people want to be influenced. You can upgrade your subscription here: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A RELEVANT LINKS "Behind the Tragic, Instagram-Perfect Life of an Ex-Disney Executive" by Schwartzel for The Wall Street Journal (🔒): https://on.wsj.com/484qarW ————————— GUEST BIO Erich Schwartzel, a film industry reporter at The Wall Street Journal's Los Angeles bureau, wrote "Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy." Published in February 2022, the book explores China's growing influence on the American entertainment industry. It received accolades from New York Times, Foreign Affairs, and Esquire. Prior to joining the Journal, Schwartzel reported on energy for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. His journalism career began at a local paper in his hometown, Latrobe, Penn. ————————— HOUSEKEEPING ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class: https://bit.ly/3u9KBoF ✈️ 2024 Unspeakeasy Retreats: https://bit.ly/3Qnk92n 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women:https://bit.ly/44dnw0v 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell: aspecialplace.substack.com

New York Times opinion columnist Pamela Paul joins The Unspeakable for a conversation about problematic opinions, obvious truths, the state of book reviewing, the problem with publishing, "feeling French" despite being an American, and much more. You can upgrade your subscription here: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A GUEST BIO Pamela Paul became an Opinion columnist for The New York Times in 2022. She was previously the editor of The New York Times Book Review for nine years, where she oversaw book coverage and hosted the Book Review podcast. She is the author of eight books, most recently, 100 Things We've Lost to the Internet. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

This week, Andrew Sullivan joins The Unspeakable to discuss the evolution of LGBTQ rights and debates. He and Meghan explore how the trans rights movement intersects (and sometimes conflicts) with the goals Sullivan advocated for gay men like himself in the 80s/90s, such as marriage equality. They also discuss his views on the physical realities of transitioning and how the language surrounding "trans kids" and "conversion therapy" are being co-opted in potentially dangerous ways Andrew and Meghan also revisit messages from the AIDS crisis that inaccurately claimed everyone was at equal risk. Despite criticism, Andrew believes that moderation and reason will ultimately triumph over the impassioned, ideological discourse surrounding gender identity and sexual orientation. GUEST BIO Andrew Sullivan is a political commentator, a former editor of The New Republic, and the author or editor of six books. You can find his Weekly Dish newsletter here. 📰 Meghan's 2012 Believer article about her 1996 New York Time Magazine article about HIV/AIDS public health messaging. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING ✏️ Apply for Meghan's co-ed Personal Essay and Memoir class. ✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: See where we're going to be in 2024! 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell.

This week, I had a discussion with Eli Lake regarding the recent tragic attack in Israel and its repercussions. I haven't closely followed this topic over the years, so Eli's insights were invaluable and he politely tolerated some of my more goyishly clueless questions. He has worked as a national security correspondent and possesses extensive knowledge on the history of the Israel/Palestine conflict. We talked about the present surge of activism and the near-illiterate responses to Israel's attack on Gaza. We also touched on the irony of campus activists demanding safe spaces while condoning violence against Jews. In addition, we dissected the "decolonization framework" that is currently dominating the narrative and discussed how the social justice left is losing credibility due to anti-Semitic rhetoric. Guest Bio Eli Lake is the former senior national security correspondent for The Daily Beast and Newsweek. Currently, he is a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion and a columnist for The Free Press columnist and host of The Re-Education podcast. Want to hear this and bonus conversations? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. ✈️ Join me on an Unspeakeasy Retreat.

In this episode of Unspeakable, Meghan Daum talks with veteran television writer Rob Long about the state of the entertainment industry. They discuss the Hollywood writers' strike, which according to Rob, mainly resulted in pay raises but didn't address systemic issues for writers. Rob and Meghan also discuss how streaming services like Netflix made a mistake trying to compete with studios by producing expensive original content, when they could have thrived by simply buying content. Rob also shares some perspectives on how "Sound of Freedom" became such a box office hit despite scoffing from Hollywood elites. He also shares his view on what the future looks like for the entertainment industry and how TV writers' rooms have lost the plot when it comes to hiring quality talent. GUEST BIO Rob Long is a writer and producer in Hollywood. He began his career on Cheers, serving as co-executive producer. He was the creator and executive producer of The Texanist and showrunner of Kevin Can Wait. He co-founded the podcast network Ricochet and hosts the podcast Martini Shot with The Ankler. He is a contributing editor for National Review, as well as a contributor to TIME, Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times, and his books include Conversations with My Agent and Bigly: Donald Trump in Verse. He continues working in film and TV in LA and New York. Find Rob at The Ankler, Commentary, and on Twitter at @rcbl. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

This week, Meghan interrupts her regularly scheduled episode lineup for a visit from Ben Appel, a New York-based writer who's working on a book about ideological capture on college campuses. In 2016, Ben enrolled at Columbia University as a non-traditional student. Already in his 30s, he'd grown up in a cult-like Christian fundamentalist community that pelted him with homophobia; he considered himself firmly on the political left. But the politics he encountered on campus shocked him, especially many aspects of the Palestinian liberation movement. In this conversation, Ben describes what he encountered there, particularly in classes taught by famed Islamic scholars. In the bonus portion for paying subscribers, Ben stays overtime and talks about the ideas he explored in his 2022 viral Newsweek article, The New Homophobia. He and Meghan discuss the ways in which the new gender movement takes gay people and tries to fit them into a transgender box, all in the service of the same stereotypes that progressives spent so many years fighting. Guest Bio Ben Appel is a writer living in New York. His memoir, Cis White Gay: The Making of a Gender Heretic, with Bombardier Books, is forthcoming. His work has appeared in Newsweek, Spiked, Daily Mail, Washington Examiner, Queer Majority, and UnHerd. Follow him on Substack here. And follow him on Twitter (or X) here. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

Today's guest, Dr. Andrew Hartz, is a psychologist who has noticed how politicized the world of therapy has become. Over the last few years, he has noticed a climate of patients not being able to talk about what's on their mind without getting a lecture from their therapist about racial injustice, as well as an environment that teaches clinicians to look at patients through a politicized lens. Guest Bio Dr. Andrew Hartz's is a clinical psychologist who holds the position of a professor of clinical psychology at Long Island University in Brooklyn. Hartz received training at Columbia Medical Center, Mount Sinai Hospital, and the William Alanson White Institute, and has completed coursework at Columbia University, Columbia Medical Center, Haverford College, and Long Island University. He uses evidence-based tools from CBT, DBT, and psychodynamic psychotherapies to address the unique needs of each patient. He is also the founder of The Open Therapy Institute which offers mental health resources for overlooked patient populations in a heated political atmosphere. Want early access to episodes and bonus conversations? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING ☕️ Follow me on Substack. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

Ethan Strauss went from working seven days a week and falling asleep on the train to Coney Island to one of the most popular sports newsletters on Substack. He visited The Unspeakable and we talked about sports media and how it has been captured by elite media and lost touch with its core audience as a result. We also talk about the difference between men's and women's sports when it comes to business and marketing and who is driving the voice of sports institutions. In the bonus, we talk about Ethan's age (obviously), and his article "All Hail The Model," which reveals his secrets to success but gave me anxiety. GUEST BIO Ethan Strauss is a sports writer and podcaster and the eponymous host of House of Strauss. His career has followed the NBA where he blogged his way about the Golden State Warriors to jobs at Bleacher Report and ESPN. He has bylines in Salon and The Athletic. Even if you don't follow sports, listen to his podcast and follow his Substack. It's incredible. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING ☕️ Read my most recent article about The Free Press' debate. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

How did we get tangled up in a knot of identity obsession, grievance, and one-upmanship? We can look to philosophers like Gayatri Spivak, Edward Said, Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw and, of course, Michel Foucault. And then we can blame it all on Tumblr! In his new book, The Identity Trap - A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, Yascha Mounk discusses his theory of "the identity synthesis" and traces how the once niche views about race, sexual orientation, and gender identity went from marginal to mainstream. In the bonus, we talk about Yascha's childhood, his feelings about his age, and his conception of happiness. (He recommends Jonathan Rauch's 2018 book The Happiness Curve.) GUEST BIO Yascha Mounk is a writer and academic who focuses on the crisis of democracy and the defense of liberal values. He has a BA in History from Trinity College Cambridge and a PhD in Government from Harvard University. Currently, he is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. Yascha also writes for The Atlantic, is a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Founder of Persuasion. He has written five books, including The Identity Trap - A Story of Ideas and Power in Our Time, which explores the influence of new ideas about race, gender identity, and sexual orientation. His work has been published in various major publications, such as The New York Times and Foreign Affairs. Buy his new book here. Follow his substack, Persuasion. Listen to his podcast, The Good Fight. HOUSEKEEPING ☕️ Read my most recent article about The Free Press' debate. 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

The ladies from Ask A Jew are back for their biannual visit. This time for the Jewish New Year! In this episode, we talk about the meaning of Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and (since we apparently have to go over it again) why Orthodox Jews have to get their cars detailed before Passover. (It's true.) We also talk about mikvehs. Because you know you were wondering. If you only ever listen to one conversation about mikvehs, let it be this one. Most importantly, we revisit our evergreen topic: the world's hottest dictators, despots and garden-variety world leaders. Who was hotter? Stalin or Gadaffi? Is Bibi Netanyahu more your type? Or George H.W. Bush? In the bonus, I do a solocast where I answer AMA questions and share more of my existential crisis about how to pronounce my last name. Paying subscribers who have questions for me can put them in the comments. Guest Bio The Ask a Jew podcast is where Yael Bar Tur, a secular Israeli living in New York, and ChayaLeah Sufrin, a Hasidic mother in Los Angeles, discuss everything from Torah to Tinder, no topics are off-limits. Yael Bar Tur is a digital communications consultant with over 15 years of experience in social media, government, law enforcement and crisis communications. She served as the Director of Social Media and Digital Strategy for the New York City Police Department (NYPD). Born and raised in Israel, Yael served in the Israeli Army as a foreign press liaison in the height of two wars, as well as volunteering for reserve duty at the Israeli field hospital in Haiti immediately following the 2010 earthquake. She holds a Master's Degree from the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Yael lives in NYC where she has been granted lifetime approval to pet all police K9s. ChayaLeah Sufrin is the Executive Director at Beach Hillel. Prior to Hillel, she spent 15 years teaching high school Jewish history and was the Education Director of Shul by the Shore. ChayaLeah has been married to her husband Boruch for 18 years and together they have 4 sons. Jewish education and building community are ChayaLeah's two main passions - she also loves the New England Patriots. She was recently named one of Hadassah's 18 American Zionist Women You Should Know. HOUSEKEEPING 🔥 Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell. 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. 🎉 Can't make it to the one-day retreat on September 30th in Denver? Join us for a co-ed party that same evening! 🧖‍♀️ Join me at our sanity/real spa retreat in the Poconos with guest speaker Kat Rosenfield.

It seems like everywhere you look, men are struggling to find a sense of meaning and purpose. In fact, men are just getting kind of weird. On the other side of the equation, many women say they can't find a "good man" who meets their expectations. Enter Christine Emba, Washington Post columnist and author of the 2022 book Rethinking Sex: A Provocation. In a recent WaPo essay, she discusses the crisis of masculinity and where men are looking for models of masculinity, from Jordan Peterson to Andrew Tate and beyond. In this episode, we chat about her article, her book, the past and present mating economy, and the evolution of her own thinking since her college days and the emergence of "the Princeton mom." (Leave it to her to ask the questions Matt Walsh doesn't.) In the bonus, we talk about dating apps — everyone's favorite gripe — in addition to the resurgence of matchmaking and how people got dates and met people in the pre-app world. ————————— WHO IS CHRISTINE EMBA? Christine Emba is a writer for The Washington Post's Opinions section. She is also the author of Rethinking Sex: A Provocation, which challenges the narrative of sex positivity. Prior to joining the staff of The Washington Post, Emba was the Hilton Kramer Fellow in Criticism at the New Criterion and a deputy editor at the Economist Intelligence Unit. She grew up in Virginia and earned an A.B. in Public and International Affairs from Princeton University. Follow her substack here: https://bit.ly/3Z8nJ49 Read her article, "Men are lost. Here's a map out of the wilderness." here: https://wapo.st/45KoHX4 Get her book "Rethinking Sex: A Provocation" here: https://amzn.to/3EvpU8A ————————— HOUSEKEEPING Get your ticket to The Free Press debate with Grimes, Sarah Haider, Louise Perry and Anna Khachiyan: https://www.thefp.com/debates Meet me at The Unspeakeasy Denver Retreat on September 30th: https://bit.ly/3qRWcaz Join me at our sanity/real spa retreat in the Poconos with guest speaker Kat Rosenfield: https://bit.ly/3R8IKtL Can't come to the full, one-day retreat on September 30th? Join us for a co-ed party that same evening! https://bit.ly/45oCp1n Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women:https://bit.ly/44dnw0v Follow my other podcast, A Special Place in Hell: aspecialplace.substack.com

To kick off The Unspeakable's fourth season, comedian Maria Bamford joins Meghan for a conversation about many unspeakable topics. Maria's new book, Sure I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir Of Mental Illness And The Quest To Belong Anywhere is a rollicking homage to the power of groups. From 12-step meetings to game nights to dog parks, Maria loves gatherings of people. But she's also spent a lifetime struggling with mental health issues that make her anxious around people. In this conversation, Maria talks with Meghan about financial survival in the creative economy (she made her first appearance on The Tonight Show while working as a receptionist at NBC), her love for Debtor's Anonymous and her fascination with money in general, what it's like to use dating apps when you're a celebrity, and much much much more. Paying susbcribers to The Unspeakable With Meghn Daum on Substack get to hear Maria staying overtime to talk about being 53 years old, which is also how old Meghan is. They also talk about Sex and Love Addicts Anonymous, "sexual anorexia," regular anorexia, eating rice cakes, and choosing not to have kids. Become a paying subscribers at https://meghandaum.substack.com/. GUEST BIO Awarded Best Club Comic at the American Comedy Awards and Breakout Comedy Star at the Montreal Comedy Festival, Maria Bamford's critically acclaimed work includes her web series The Maria Bamford Show, Ask My Mom, and her Netflix series Lady Dynamite. Maria's writing has been featured in The New York Times, LA Weekly and The Onion. She played Debrie Bardeaux on Season 4 of Arrested Development and has contributed comedic voiceovers for such animations as Netflix's Big Mouth and BoJack Horseman, Cartoon Network's Adventure Time, PBS's Emmy-winning series Word Girl, Nickelodeon's Kung Fu Panda and Legend of Korra, and the international hit Talking Tom and Friends.

In the latest installment of her unofficial series about death and dying, Meghan talks with writer and palliative care physician Dr. Sunita Puri. Sunita is the author of That Good Night, Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour and has written about end-of-life issues in The New York Times, The Atlantic, Slate, and elsewhere. In this conversation, Sunita discusses the ways that medical advancements can cloud the vision of doctors and patients alike when it comes to being realistic –and even humane –about how we die. She describes how terminally ill patients can get treated differently–and often receive different information–depending on a variety of factors, including their age. Sunita also discusses her forthcoming New Yorker article about the complexities and misconceptions around CPR, a practice that turns out to be not nearly as effective as many people think. CPR's origins also contain some fascinating trivia. For instance, did you know that the expression "blowing smoke up your ass" is said to come from an 18th-century life-saving procedure involving bellows and tobacco smoke? For paying Substack subscribers, Sunita stays overtime to share personal thoughts about the struggle to overcome a hyper-critical inner voice, whether doctors' inner voices are extra critical, and why it's so hard to get into medical school even though there seems to be a shortage of doctors. To hear that portion, visit meghandaum.substack.com and join the listener community. Guest Bio: Dr. Sunita Puri is currently the Program Director of the Hospice and Palliative Medicine fellowship at the University of Massachusetts, where she is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Medicine. She completed medical school and residency training in internal medicine at the University of California San Francisco followed by a fellowship in Hospice and Palliative Medicine at Stanford. She is the author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour, a critically acclaimed literary memoir examining her journey to the practice of palliative medicine, and her quest to help patients and families redefine what it means to live and die well in the face of serious illness.

Even if you don't recognize Tim Kreider's name, there's a good chance you've read his work. In addition to his two collections of essays, We Learn Nothing and I Wrote This Book Because I Love You, he's published many short essays in the New York Times opinion section, nearly all of which seem to go viral. The first such essay was The Busy Trap, published more than 10 years ago, wherein he called out Americans' perpetual condition of being "crazy busy" as "a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously, your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy." He's also famous for an essay about knowing people are talking about you behind your back, which Meghan has mentioned several times on the podcast and which has been immortalized in a famous meme. In this conversation, Tim shares his thoughts about writing about yourself, writing about other people, teaching writing to college students and (unrelatedly) getting stabbed. He also talks about the process of deciding not to have kids, the difficulty of living with another person as you get older, and a phenomenon he describes as the "soul toupee." For paying subscribers, Tim stays overtime and talks about (among other things) being 56-years-old, contemplating mortality, coping with a diminished attention span, and dating his fans – although he insists they're not really fans once you start dating them. To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at https://meghandaum.substack.com/. Guest Bio Tim Kreider is the author of the essay collections We Learn Nothing and I Wrote This Book Because I Love You. He has contributed to The New York Times, The New Yorker's Page-Turner blog, Men's Journal, The Comics Journal, Film Quarterly, and Fangoria. His cartoon "The Pain–When Will It End?" ran for 12 years in the Baltimore City Paper and other weeklies and is archived at thepaincomics.com. Learn more about him at timkreider.com

Lucinda Rosenfeld is the author of five novels and has published essays and short stories in outlets such as The New Yorker, N+1, and The New York Times Book Review. She visits The Unspeakable this week to talk about "My Adventures In Deconstruction," her essay in the June 9, 2023 edition of The New Yorker. On the surface, the essay recounts a romantic relationship with a college professor 15 years her senior, back in 1990. But the essay goes much deeper than that, mapping the main story onto the landscape of the deconstructive criticism movement in literature, which posited that an author's intent doesn't matter and meaning itself is subjective. In this conversation, Lucinda talks about her the process of writing the essay, the 1990s-era trope of the "bad girl," and the complexity of power dynamics in relationships between very young women and older men. She and Meghan also wander into a surprising conversation about the role that cigarette smoking played in both of their lives when they were in their twenties. Speaking of which, Lucinda stays overtime for paying subscribers to talk about how she feels about being the age that she is, which happens to be the age that Meghan is! To hear the bonus content, become a paying subscriber at meghandaum.substack.com. Guest Bio: Lucinda Rosenfeld is the author of five novels, including What She Saw and, most recently, Class, which was named a Best Book of 2017 by The Philadelphia Inquirer. Her fiction and essays have appeared in N+1, Harper's, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Book Review.

It's been exactly a year since the Supreme Court officially overturned Roe v. Wade, thereby eliminating the federal constitutional right to abortion. Last May, shortly after that decision was leaked to the press, bioethicist and legendary abortion rights activist Frances Kissling visited The Unspeakable to talk about the likely implications of this ruling. Now Frances is back to reflect on what's transpired since then, whether things are better or worse than many people feared, and what the downstream political effects have been. She talks about organizational efforts on the part of medical providers, activists, and even airplane pilots to get women to places where abortion is legally available and how American women are actually now traveling to Mexico to get safe and legal abortions. Finally, she expands on her comments from last May about how the "abortion on demand" messaging of the pro-choice side contributed to the extreme polarization that has made compromise impossible. Frances is president of Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy and was president of Catholics for Choice from 1982 until 2007. She worked as an abortion provider in New York State in the early 1970s, before the passage of Roe, which she talked about in her May 8, 2022 interview on The Unspeakable. She just celebrated her 80th birthday and she stays over time for paying subscribers to talk about what it's like to be 80, how she was once told she'd die unless someone donated a kidney to her, and, finally, what it's like to grow older without children or a partner (it has its upsides!) To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at https://meghandaum.substack.com/. Guest Bio: Frances Kissling is currently President of the Center for Health, Ethics and Social Policy in Washington, DC and a professor of philosophy and ethics. She was the president of Catholics for Choice from 1982 to 2007 and has been working in the abortion rights movement since the very early 1970s.

This week, Meghan welcomes evolutionary psychologist Diana Fleischman. Diana's areas of research include human sexuality, the effect of hormones on behavior, and how "disgust" (the condition of being disgusted) is an evolutionary adaptation, especially for women. In this conversation, Diana talks about why the field of evolutionary psychology is subject to such much bad-faith misapplication but why uncomfortable truths about human mating patterns can nonetheless offer important lessons. She and Meghan explore the relationship between female social hierarchies and cancel culture (for instance, do women control cancel culture?) and then get into a deep discussion about polyamory. What does it really mean? What does it take to make it work? And how come most people just don't have the emotional discipline to succeed at it. For the bonus portion for paying subscribers, Diana talks about how her younger self would feel about her current self, why she's a transhumanist, what's stopping the world from embracing "clean meat," why she donated her eggs several years ago and wrote letters to her future genetic offspring, and whether she'd pick herself out of a genetic lineup of embryos. If you're not yet a paying subscriber, go to meghandaum.substack.com to hear this part of the conversation. Guest Bio: Diana Fleischman is an evolutionary psychologist and writer.

This week, The Unspeakable welcomes back William Deresiewicz, who enters the pantheon of three-time guest! Bill was first on the pod in the fall of 2020 talking about his book The Death of the Artist and he came back last year to talk about his book of collected works The End of Solitude. He returns now to discuss some articles he published recently about the state of human creativity and the future of creative output. In an article for Tablet called We're All Bored Of Culture, Bill explores how and why the arts have seemingly become so lackluster in the last several decades and why audiences appear to be so bored. In an article for Persuasion, Bill writes about artificial intelligence and why he thinks that, despite all the fuss, AI, will never be a substitute for human creativity. As with all of his visits to The Unspeakable, Bill and Meghan talk about why it might be more difficult than ever to be an artist–-not just in terms of making a living but in terms of "making meaning" (whatever that means). Are artists afraid to take risks for fear of public rebuke and the financial penalties that can result? Or does the machinery of the marketplace disincentivize originality in any form? They also talk about Bill's early career as a dance critic and Meghan's recent experience revisiting some films that were important to her when she was younger. For paying subscribers, Bill stays over time to reflect on the aging process and some of his feelings about friendship, masculinity, regret, and (of course) the new gender movement. Guest Bio: William Deresiewicz is the author of Excellent Sheep, The Death of the Artist, and The End of Solitude: Selected Essays on Culture and Society. Find him at www.billderesiewicz.com.

Sandra Martin is an award-winning journalist, literary critic, former obituary writer, and the author of A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices. In that book, which she describes as a social history of the right-to-die movement, Sandra writes about how law, religion, medicine, and social norms can affect people's bodily autonomy and end-of-life choices in unpredictable and sometimes devastating ways; she also tells some amazing stories. In this conversation, she talks with Meghan about why it's so difficult to maintain autonomy over our deaths, even if we think we're making proper arrangements. She explains the difference between physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, what these practices meant in past centuries versus what they mean today, and why we're kidding ourselves if we think we'll keep a stash of heavy drugs on hand for when the time comes. She also talks about Canada's Medical Assistant In Dying Act, better known as MAID. When it was first passed in 2016, MAID allowed adults to obtain medically-assisted death if they were experiencing terrible suffering and their death was "reasonably foreseeable." Since then, MAID has been expanded in ways that have led to some alarming news coverage, including allegations that it's being offered to people simply because they were chronically ill and couldn't afford their own care. While Sandra is not an expert on MAID, her familiarity with right-to-die laws in Canada allows her to put those reports in some context and she offers her perspective on how far is too far and, moreover, how overreach by activists could threaten the whole movement. In the bonus portion for paying subscribers, Sandra stays overtime to talk about how she feels about being the age that she is and what she wants (or thinks she wants) for her own death. Guest Bio: Sandra Martin, an award-winning long-form journalist, literary critic, and public policy specialist, is a contributing writer for The Globe and Mail and the author of several books including A Good Death: Making the Most of Our Final Choices, a social history of the right to die movement in Canada and around the world. Winner of the B.C. National Non-Fiction Award and a finalist for both the Dafoe Prize and the Donner Prize in Public Policy, A Good Death was named one of the best books of 2016 by The Globe and Mail, the CBC and several other media outlets. Find her at http://www.sandramartinwrites.com.

Fan favorite Sarah Hepola is back! Sarah has visited The Unspeakable to talk about everything from alcoholism to #MeToo to the changes in the media landscape and literary world. Today she returns to discuss a recent solo episode she recorded for Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em, the podcast she co-hosts with journalist Nancy Rommelmann. In that episode, Sarah reflected on a semester spent teaching literature and writing to college undergraduates in Dallas, Texas, where she lives. Contrary to public assumptions, the students turned out to be relatively open to new ideas and not hell-bent on canceling their teacher. In this conversation, Sarah talks about what literature the students responded most positively to, what assignments they didn't like (spoiler: Joan Didion) and what they taught her about the ever-changing English language. Sarah and Meghan also talk about writing memoir, the contradictory social codes of dating, and why little girls touch each other's hair so much—and why Meghan hated it! Sarah stayed overtime for bonus content that was so good that Meghan decided to release it along with the main episode. In that portion, they talk about motherhood, non-motherhood, aging, dating, sex and pornography and why older women are so popular with young men on dating apps. Guest Bio: Sarah Hepola is the co-host, with Nancy Rommelmann, of the podcast Smoke 'Em If You Got 'Em. She is the author of the bestselling memoir Blackout and her essays have appeared in the New York Times magazine, the Atlantic, Elle, Bloomberg Businessweek, The Guardian, Salon, and Texas Monthly. Find her at https://sarahhepola.com. Relevant links: https://smokeempodcast.substack.com/p/smoking-diary-16-college-kids-today#details https://smokeempodcast.substack.com/p/on-not-being-a-mother

Ever since it was introduced in the early 1960s, the birth control pill has been inextricable from the concept of women's liberation, body autonomy, and just about everyone's sense of personal freedom and their own life choices. Holly Grigg-Spall, author of Sweetening The Pill: Or How We Got Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control, is in favor of all of those things. But she is also among a growing chorus of activists who believe that the sacrosanct nature of the pill discourages honest conversations about the mental and physical health risks posed by hormonal birth control. Instead of taking it for limited spans of time to prevent pregnancy, many women are often on the pill for the bulk of their reproductive lives, which technically is not the way it was designed to be used. In this conversation, Holly talks about how pharmaceutical companies began marketing birth control pills as "lifestyle drugs" and how artificial disruptions to the reproductive system can cause medical problems to go unnoticed and untreated. She also explains how tech-assisted fertility tracking differs from the old-fashioned "rhythm method" and explores the ways in which "infertility as a default setting for women" has affected mating and dating patterns – and not always for the better. In the bonus portion for paying subscribers, Holly sticks around and talks about the process of developing Teena, a fertility tracking app for teenagers, and also the documentary The Business of Birth Control, which was inspired by her book (and criticized by Meghan on A Special Place In Hell.) Guest Bio: Holly Grigg-Spall is the author of Sweetening The Pill: Or How We Got Hooked On Hormonal Birth Control. Released in 2013, the book will mark its ten-year anniversary later this year and was the inspiration for the 2021 documentary The Business Of Birth Control, Holly recently launched Teena, a free education-forward app supporting body literacy for tweens and teens.

This week on the podcast, returning guest Lionel Shriver talks about her latest book, Abominations: Selected Essays From A Career Of Courting Self-Destruction. A collection of her writings from outlets like The Spectator, The Guardian and The Wall Street Journal, the book also contains some previously unpublished pieces a well as speeches and other public addresses, including a eulogy for her brother. Lionel is perhaps the consummate "thought criminal," and in this conversation, she talks with Meghan about how she came to assume this mantle (hint: she supported Brexit) and what frustrates her most about culture war discourse. They discuss the Covid lockdown policies, the state of the literary arts, the new gender movement, and the differences between America and the U.K. when it comes to fears about nuanced positions being "weaponized by the other side." They also consider the "am I canceled or am I just paranoid?" conundrum and wonder how much longer the culture wars can really go on. Finally, Lionel reflects on how perceptions of our own happiness change over time and how, if she could send a message to her younger self, it would be, "you're not as miserable as you think." In the bonus portion for paying subscribers, Lionel stays overtime to talk about Meghan's second favorite subject: end-of-life options. Her last novel, Should We Stay Or Should We Go, took a darkly funny look at this subject by considering a dozen parallel universes for a couple who planned to kill themselves when they turned 80. Lionel and Meghan pick up on where their conversation left off from Lionel's last visit to the podcast and talk about their feelings about their own deaths and what it means to enter old age without children or close family. Uplifting stuff! Guest Bio: Lionel Shriver is a columnist for The Specator and the author, most recently, of Abominations: Selected Essays From A Career Of Courting Self-Destruction. Her fiction includes The Mandibles, Property, So Much for That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper's, and the London Times, and she currently writes a regular column for The Spectator in the UK. She lives in London and Brooklyn, NY.

We sometimes think of anorexia as an "old school" disease, now eclipsed by disorders such as cutting and similar forms of self-harm. But as journalist Hadley Freeman reports in her new book, the illness has been around for centuries and is still very much with us. In Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia, Hadley tells the story of her battle with severe anorexia as a teenager and also investigates the causes, treatments, social factors, and lasting effects of the disease. In this conversation, Hadley explains how even though there's been a greater focus on self-harm practices such as cutting in recent years, anorexia rose sharply during and after the pandemic and has never been more relevant. She describes how at age 14 she suddenly stopped eating and, within months, lost a third of her body weight and landed in a hospital. It would take three years and nine hospitalizations before she began to get well. It's often said that anorexia isn't about being thin as much as it is about retaining control, but Hadley describes her own compulsion as a competitive desire to look ill, with the ultimate success being death itself. Other subjects covered include the connection between anorexia and gender dysphoria, including Meghan's theory that social media star Dylan Mulvaney is less a gender influencer than an anorexia exhibitionist. If that's not unspeakable enough, Hadley stays overtime to talk about Meghan's favorite third rail, Woody Allen, whom she's interviewed and written about. They also discuss a recent interview Hadley conducted with author Judy Blume, whose expression of support for JK Rowling got her in trouble on Twitter. To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at https://meghandaum.substack.com/. Guest Bio: Hadley Freeman grew up in New York and London. She is a staff writer for The Sunday Times and previously spent 22 years at The Guardian. Her last book, House of Glass, was an international bestseller. Her new book is Good Girls: A Story and Study of Anorexia.

For more than 30 years, Jean Twenge has been studying how generational differences affect the workplace, family life, public policy, interpersonal relationships, and individual identity. Her research has been foundational in many of the current culture war discussions, including in Jonathan Haidt and Greg Lukianoff's seminal book The Coddling of the American Mind. Jean is the author of seven books, including Generation Me and iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy–and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. Her new book is Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents and What they Mean for America's Future. In this conversation, she talks with Meghan about what she's learned from working with a dataset of 39 million people born between 1925 and 2012. She dispels some of the most common myths about certain generations (for instance that millennials are broke) and talks about the concept of "fast" versus "slow" life strategies. She also talks about how the 1950s got codified as a symbol of traditional values when in fact it was an anonymous case in many ways. For instance, more women were enrolled in college in the 1930s than in the 1950s. Jean stays overtime for paying Substack subscribers to share her feelings about her own age generation. That happens to be Generation X, which is one of Meghan's favorite topics. Meghan asks why Gen X is the real "greatest generation." To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at https://meghandaum.substack.com/. Guest Bio: Jean Twenge is a professor of Psychology at San Diego State University and the author of several books, including Generation Me, iGen, and The Narcissism Epidemic. Her new book is Generations: The Real Differences between Gen Z, Millennials, Gen X, Boomers and Silents and What they Mean for America's Future. She lives in San Diego with her husband and three daughters.

Stella O'Malley is a psychotherapist in Ireland who works with adolescents and their families. She's also an author, documentarian, and speaker, but many Unspeakable listeners may know her from her podcast Gender A Wider Lens, which she co-hosts with therapist (and early Unspeakable guest) Sasha Ayad. This conversation covers aspects of the gender debates, but the main occasion for Stella's visit is her new book, What Your Teen Is Trying To Tell You: Surviving, Thriving and Reconnecting Through The Teenage Years. In it, she writes about how overreliance on mental health professions has undermined parents' confidence in their own judgment and instincts. Too often, at the slightest sign of trouble, therapists are brought into the picture, leading everyone to pathologize what in many cases are simply normal, if uncomfortable feelings. Stella discusses the impact of psychotropic prescriptions, the element of social contagion when it comes to "having mental illness," and posits that the absence of organized religion has created a spiritual void in teenagers that can lead to depression. (Meghan is surprised by this and wonders if this is an Irish thing.) Stell also talks about what it's been like to be at the forefront of conversations about gender dysphoria and stays overtime to talk about her own dysphoria as a kid. To hear the bonus portion, become a paying subscriber at meghandaum.substack.com. Guest Bio: Stella O'Malley is a psychotherapist, best-selling author, public speaker, and parent with many years of experience working in counseling and psychotherapy. Born in Dublin, Stella lives in rural Ireland, where she runs her private practice and lives with her husband and two children. Find her at http://www.stellaomalley.com/.

ChayaLeah Sufrin and Yael Bar-tur hardly need an introduction, since this is their third visit to The Unspeakable! Last fall, the hosts of the acclaimed podcast Ask A Jew explained the meaning of Yom Kippur, Rosh Hashanah, and Sukkot (or the "autumn holidays," as Meghan calls them). Now, it's the spring holiday, and Yael gives her version of the Passover story before ChayaLeah steps in and sets the record straight. ChayaLeah also explains some of the more unusual customs of Orthodox Jews during Passover, including lining your entire kitchen with tin foil and getting your car detailed to make sure it's completely devoid of crumbs. They also talk about everyone's favorite topic, the "crisis of masculinity," and whether matchmaking practices among the Orthodox are better than dating apps. On a lighter note, Yael explains the current political situation in Israel. In the bonus portion for Unspeakale Substack subscribers, Yael and ChayaLeah reflect on being the ages that they are and also talk more about incels. The Unspeakable will take next week off for Passover/Easter/spring break and will return April 17. Guest Bios: ChayaLeah Sufrin was raised in an Orthodox Jewish home in Long Beach, CA. After attending university in New York, ChayaLeah moved back to Southern California and spent fifteen years teaching High school Jewish history and as the Education Director at Shul by the Shore. ChayaLeah served as the Senior Jewish Educator at Long Beach Hillel for three years and is now the Executive Director. ChayaLeah, together with her husband Boruch, has four teenage sons. Yael Bar-tur is a crisis communications and social media consultant who previously served as the director of social media and digital strategy for the New York City Police Department where she developed and implemented the social media and digital communications strategy.

Ruby Warrington has staked out ground in a number of areas. She is the founder of the self-publishing platform The Numinous and also a leading figure in the "sober curious" movement; she coined the term and is also the author of the 2018 book of the same name. She visited The Unspeakable to talk about a subject very close to Meghan's heart; the decision not to have kids. In her new book Women Without Kids: The Revolutionary Rise of an Unsung Sisterhood, Ruby examines the rise in women (and men) who are childless--either by choice or circumstance--and reports on the "global reproduction slowdown" of the last several decades. She shares her own story and reflects on how much (or how little) the family dynamics of her own childhood shaped her choice not to become a mother. She and Meghan talk about how childless people are planning for their old age, the degree to which concerns about climate change are affecting people's choices, and whether there really is a global population crisis (and if so, which direction it's going in). For paying subscribers to the Unspeakable Susbtack, Ruby stays overtime for a topic that has never been covered on the podcast; astrology! Meghan is skeptical about the whole thing (in other words, a typical Aquarius) but nonetheless interested in what her birth chart might tell her about her struggles of late. They also talk at length about the sober curious movement, including how and why Ruby began hosting sober curious events and how this approach is different from traditional twelve-step programs. Meghan even shares a bit about her still-in-progress year off from drinking. Guest Bio: Ruby Warrington is the author of Women Without Kids: The Revolutionary Rise of an Unsung Sisterhood and is the creator of the term "sober curious." Author of the 2018 book Sober Curious and million-download podcast of the same title, her work has spearheaded a global movement to reevaluate our relationship to alcohol. Other works include Material Girl, Mystical World (2017), The Numinous Astro Deck (2019), and The Sober Curious Reset (2020). With 20+ years' experience as a lifestyle journalist and editor, Ruby is also the founder of the self-publishing incubator Numinous Books.

Stephen Marche is the author of six books, has been a columnist at Esquire, has taught Shakespeare at the college level and has contributed to The New Yorker, The Atlantic, The New York Times, and many other publications. By any reasonable measure, his career is an unmitigated success. But seen through a different lens (for instance his own) it can also look a lot like failure. That's true of just about every writer who ever lived and Stephen grapples with this dichotomy in new book, On Writing And Failure, which is both a literary history and a reverse pep talk for aspiring artists. In this conversation, Stephen talks about how writers from James Baldwin to James Joyce to Li Bai (and many, many others) built legacies on the sands of constant rejection. He also shares stories of his own failures and offers some thoughts about how the contours of failure and rejection have changed in the new independent creator economy. For paying Substack subscribers, Stephen stays overtime to talk about failure outside of the literary arena, including the perils of marriage and childrearing. Meghan shares her story about getting rejected from a dream job because of a typo in her resumé and Stephen remembers what it was like when his first book, a novel, received a positive New York Times review from none other than . . . Meghan! Guest Bio: Stephen Marche is a novelist and essayist. He is the author of half a dozen books, including The Next Civil War, The Unmade Bed: The Messy Truth About Men and Women in the Twenty-First Century (2016) and The Hunger of the Wolf (2015). He has written opinion pieces and essays for The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Esquire, The Walrus and many others. He is the host of the hit audio series How Not to F*ck Up Your Kids Too Bad, and its sequel How Not to F*ck Up Your Marriage Too Bad on Audible. His latest book is On Writing and Failure: Or, On the Peculiar Perseverance Required to Endure the Life of a Writer (Field Notes).

Lincoln Jones is the director of the American Contemporary Ballet Company in Los Angeles, which he co-founded in 2011. Lincoln took an unusual path to dance and has an approach to performance and stage production that is worth discussing in its own right. But he came across Meghan's radar because of his unlikely involvement in the new free speech debates. In this conversation, Lincoln explains how that happened (spoiler alert: he didn't want to perfunctorily post a black square on his company's website in the summer of 2020) and talks about how even the ballet world has been affected by the censoriousness of the current moment. Most of all, though, he talks about dance. In a conversation unlike you've heard on The Unspeakable, Lincoln talks about what choreography means to him, especially the choreography and dance of Fred Astaire, and about how movement maps onto the human experience and translates to the stage. In the bonus portion for paying subscribers at https://meghandaum.substack.com Lincoln shares his feelings about his age–47 years old–and talks about how awareness of his mortality is fueling his work. He offers his opinion about TikTok dances, Michael Jackson, and discloses how he really feels about the film LaLa Land. Guest Bio: Lincoln Jones is the director of the American Contemporary Ballet Company in Los Angeles. Learn more about the company at https://www.acbdances.com.

Freddie deBoer has a very popular Substack newsletter and is the author of the 2020 book, The Cult of Smart. He writes about culture and social politics and is known for his trenchant insights into mental health issues as well as his Marxist politics. He visited The Unspeakable to talk about a number of subjects, including a recent Unspeakable conversation about involuntary psychiatric treatment. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder when he was 20, Freddie makes the case that it's actually quite difficult to find mental healthcare for oneself or for a loved one, particularly in a crisis situation. He talks about the circumstances that led to his first stay in a psychiatric hospital, what services he received both during and after those stays, and why it's so difficult to find meaningful help for homeless people in visible mental distress. Freddie also stayed overtime and discussed his recent essay about why the 1990s were objectively the best time to be alive. That's a favorite subject of Meghan's, as is the subject of how to cope with the vicissitudes of the new creative economy, and he covered that as well. To hear this portion, become a paying subscriber at meghandaum.substack.com. Guest Bio: Freddie deBoer's writing can be found at https://freddiedeboer.substack.com. His 2020 book, The Cult Of Smart: How Our Broken Education System Perpetuates Social Injustice was published by St. Martin's Press.

Peter Moskos is a criminologist and sociologist who teaches at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. He is also a former Baltimore City Cop, which was the subject of his award-winning 2008 book, Cop In The Hood. Peter was one of the very first guests on The Unspeakable, back in August of 2020, when he talked about the unrest following the death of George Floyd and the mainstreaming of police abolition messaging. A lot has happened since then and Meghan invited him back to reflect on the last two and a half years and talk about what progress, if any, has been made when it comes to police conduct, media coverage of policing, and, most of all, public perceptions of police brutality and the number of Americans killed by cops every year. Peter stayed overtime for some still-very-serious but also fun conversation about how he feels about his life these days, what he does and does not miss about the 1980s and 90s, and his relatively new hobby playing the autoharp. Most of all, he talked about the book he's been writing on the history of policing in New York City from the 1970s onward. To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at meghdaum.substack.com.

Most people associate forcible detentions in psychiatric wards with barbaric practices of the past. But as Canadian investigative journalist Rob Wipond reports in his new book, involuntary psychiatric treatment is all too common today. In Your Consent Is Not Required, Rob shows just how little agency patients often have in their own care and, moreover, how the medical establishment and pharmaceutical industry benefit from as many people as possible being classified as "mental patients." In this conversation, he talks with Meghan about how psychiatric interventions can be weaponized against patients, why therapies such as electroshock remain so widely used, and how wellness checks and calls to suicide hotlines can result in massive overreach that traps patients in a deeply-flawed and often poorly regulated system. For paying subscribers: Rob stayed overtime for a more personal conversation about how he feels about his life and career these days and how he went from acting in local theater, performing music, and doing various kinds of community work to being an investigative reporter. He also shared his theory as to why Canadians do so well in American late-night television. To hear that portion, become a paying subscriber at meghandaum.substack.com Guest Bio: Rob Wipond is a freelance journalist and creative nonfiction writer who writes frequently at the interfaces between psychiatry, civil rights, community issues, policing, surveillance and privacy, and social change. His articles have been nominated for seventeen magazine and journalism awards, and he's the author of the book Your Consent is Not Required: The Rise in Psychiatric Detentions, Forced Treatment, and Abusive Guardianships (BenBella, 2023).

This week Meghan welcomes back journalist Jamie Kirchick. Jamie was on The Unspeakable last fall with Mike Pesca and Virginia Heffernan, his co-hosts on the political analysis podcast Not Even Mad, which is currently on hiatus. Now, he's here for a very different reason. On February 4, Jamie published an extraordinarily long and quite remarkable–even shocking– article about the case of the film actor Armie Hammer, whose reputation was annihilated in early 2021 when he was accused by a series of women of physical and sexual violence and even cannibalism. Though investigations have so far turned up nothing along these lines, the court of public opinion has held firm in its rebuke of Hammer and there's been little incentive in Hollywood or the news media to take an honest look at the facts. But Jamie's article may be a significant turning point and he came on the podcast to recap the story, talk about what it was like to report it, and reflect on the various cultural dynamics that allowed things to play out as they did. Jamie is a columnist for Tablet Magazine and a writer for the digital news and culture site Air Mail, where his story, Armie Hammer Breaks His Silence, was published. Jamie stuck around for some bonus chat about Meghan's favorite question; how he feels about being the age he is (spoiler: 39). That led to other topics; for instance how he feels about being gay amidst a so-called "queer" revolution and how, as an elder millennial, he feels about Gen Z. To hear that portion, go to meghandaudm.substack.com and become a paying subscriber. Guest Bio: Jamie Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a writer-at-large for Air Mail and the author of the bestseller Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.

Richie Hardcore is an educator and public speaker based in New Zealand, where his work explores mental health and wellness, masculinity, and issues around domestic and sexual violence as well as addiction. He is also a former champion fighter, competing in professional kickboxing as well as the Thai combat sport Muay Thai. Richie visited The Unspeakable to talk about his work with young people about understanding their sexuality in relation to sexual messaging in the culture, particularly when it comes to pornography. He reflects on the ethics of sex work, the elevation of kink, and how social media can cause things like depression, anxiety, and trauma to get tangled up with gender identity confusion. He also sticks around for more than 30 minutes of bonus content, where he talks about his recent Master's thesis on hegemonic masculinities, how he feels about being the age he is (42) and answers listener questions about his favorite hardcore bands. To hear the bonus content, become a paying subscriber at https://meghandaum.substack.com/ Guest Bio: Former champion Muay Thai fighter Richie Hardcore is an educator, speaker and activist working in family and sexual violence prevention. He talks to people from all walks of life and all ages about masculinity, mental health, pornography and well-being. Richie has spent time as a radio host, community worker in drug and alcohol harm reduction, a campaigner against domestic and sexual violence and as a sexual consent educator.

Comedian Paul Gilmartin is the host of the long running podcast The Mental Illness Happy Hour, where he interviews all kinds of people–from celebrities to friends from his own support groups–about issues related to mental health, addiction, and personal struggles of all varieties. Meghan (despite being 100 percent sane) was a guest on The Mental Illness Happy Hour back in 2011 and she and Paul catch up on what's transpired since then and how the podcast has evolved. Paul talks about what he's learned about mental health over the years, how he approaches his interviews, and how his own life circumstances have played a big part in his podcast. Famously upfront about his past and present struggles, Paul talks about his mother's sexual inappropriateness, his challenges with intimacy, and what it was like to be single again in his 50s after a divorce. He and Meghan also discuss the mental health effects of the pandemic and Paul (who supports masking) shares his theory that some young people will have internalized mask trauma that will develop into a sexual kink later in life. You heard it here first! If that's not personal enough, Paul sticks around for 30 minutes of bonus content and reflects on turning 60, staying afloat in the new creative economy, being in a new relationship after divorce, and getting better at intimacy while still enjoying his solitude, and how he felt at 11-years-old when a doctor told him he would never have children. (You read that right.) He asks Meghan some questions, too! To listen to this portion, support the podcast at meghandaum.substack.com and listen to premium episodes there. Guest Bio: Paul Gilmartin launched the Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast in 2011. Before that, he hosted TBS' Dinner and a Movie for 16 years. As a standup he has appeared on Comedy Central Presents: Paul Gilmartin and number other shows. He is a frequent guest on the Jimmy Dore Show, performing political satire as right-wing Congressman Richard Martin. Find him at: @mentalpod @dumbpile Home - The Mental Illness Happy Hour mentalpod.com

Erec Smith is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania and a prominent voice in the effort to bring greater nuance to conversations about anti-racism and identity movements. Erec was on The Unspeakable back in July of 2021 talking about Critical Race Theory, specifically what it means and where it began. Now he's back for a more free-ranging conversation about the state of racial discussions on campuses, in the workplace and in the culture more broadly. In this episode, he and Meghan discuss the Elimination of Harmful Language initiative released by Stanford last month, which classified words such as "brave" and "guru" as problematic. Erec offers practical advice about how to respond when Critical Race Theory or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion protocols are introduced into your school or workplace; for instance how to distinguish positive and useful implementations of CRT and DEI from counterproductive ones, what questions to ask, who to ask, and how to ask those questions in a non-threatening way. He talks about the concept of a "kairotic moment," why, as a black academic, he's become (in his words) a pariah in his field, and why he thinks contemporary anti-racism efforts have a hand in keeping racism alive. This episode offers bonus content! Erec sticks around for some extra conversation that's available to paying subscribers at https://meghandaum.substack.com. Here, Meghan asks how Erec feels about his life circumstances at this moment–not just professionally but personally. Erec talks about the price he's paid for not toeing the party line, what it's like to live in a rural area as an unmarried middle aged person, and the loneliness of being out of ideological step with your peers and neighbors. Guest Bio: Erec Smith is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania. Although he has eclectic scholarly interests, Smith's primary focuses on the rhetorics of anti-racist activism, theory, and pedagogy. He is a co-founder of Free Black Thought, a website dedicated to highlighting viewpoint diversity within the black intelligentsia. Smith is a Writing Fellow for Heterodox Academy, a Senior Fellow for the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism and an advisor for Counterweight, an organization that advocates for classical liberal concepts of social justice.

Tara Henley is a journalist and podcaster based in Canada who has become one of the most celebrated figures in the heterodox space there. She is the author of the 2020 book Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life, and was a longtime producer of television and radio for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. She left the CBC in late 2021 and made a splash last January with the very first installment of her new Substack newsletter: a post about ideological conformity at the CBC and how it encapsulates disconnect between media in general and the concerns and opinions of ordinary citizens. Tara joined Meghan for a conversation about what's transpired for her in the last year and, above all, why journalism has changed course so dramatically why so many people are reluctant to speak out even if they profoundly disagree with what's happening. She also talks about her deeply progressive upbringing in Vancouver, her relationship to second and third wave feminism, and the ways in which she thinks urgent matters around economic hardship and class politics are being ignored. Tara stuck around for some bonus content that's available to paying subscribers to the Unspeakable's Substack. Here, she shares her feelings about aging, speaks candidly about some of the failed promises of the 1980s and, finally, reflects on cancer diagnosis she received in her 20s. She turns the tables and asks Meghan some personal questions, too. To hear this portion, please become a paying subscriber at meghandaum.substack.com. Guest Bio: Tara Henley is a Canadian writer and podcaster, and the author of the national bestseller Lean Out: A Meditation on the Madness of Modern Life. Over the past two decades, her work has appeared on CBC Radio and TV, and in dozens of newspapers and magazines across the country and around the world.

Bridget Phetasy is a prominent podcaster, YouTuber and writer in the heterodox (or, as she likes to call it, politically homeless) space. Jeren Montgomery is a family therapist and also Bridget's husband. As if Bridget didn't already have enough projects, last year the two started Factory Settings, a podcast that explores how built-in biases affect the way people consume information and form opinions. They visited The Unspeakable to talk about how their own settings affect their relationship and what they've discovered in the process of developing the podcast. They also describe how they met in recovery and explain how seeing the world through the lens of sobriety affects their approach to the subjects they cover. This is Bridget's third appearance on The Unspeakable, but it feels like the first time! Guest Bios: Bridget Phetasy is a writer, comedian and Twitter addict. She is host of the podcast Walk-Ins Welcome and Factory Settings which she co-hosts with her husband, Jeren Montgomery. She also stars in her satirical comedy show Dumpster Fire available on YouTube. Her most important role is mom to her daughter, Matilda. Jeren Montgomery is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist at a mental health and substance abuse treatment center in Los Angeles, California. Avid reader, part-time gamer and husband to Bridget Phetasy, Jeren also spends way too much time online.

Sarah Polley has been acting in film and television since the age of five. She appeared in films like The Adventures of Baron Munchasuen was dubbed "Canada's Sweetheart" for her starring role in the hit television series The Road To Avonlea. Though she continued acting through her teens, starring in acclaimed films like The Sweet Hereafter, she's made her career as a writer and director. Her 2006 debut feature, Away From Her, garnered an Best Actress Oscar nomination for star Julie Christie and a Best Adapted Screenplay nomination for Polley. Her other films include Take This Waltz and the 2012 documentary Stories We Tell. Polley's latest film, Women Talking, is her first American studio release and features an almost all-female cast, including Rooney Mara and Frances McDormand. In this interview, Sarah talks about her entire body of film work as well as Run Towards The Danger, a collection of essays she published earlier this year. A longtime political activist with a particular commitment to emotional and physical safeguarding of the casts and crews on her movie sets, she also discusses the complexities of some of the current conversations around #MeToo movement and other social justice movements. Guest Bio: Sarah Polley received an Oscar nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay for her first film as director- Away From Her, based on the short story The Bear Came Over the Mountain by Alice Munro. This film also garnered an Oscar nomination for Best Actress for star Julie Christie. Her next film Take This Waltz starred Michelle Williams, Seth Rogen, and Sarah Silverman. Stories We Tell, her documentary which examines secrets and memory in her own family, won Best Documentary Film awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, and the New York Film Critics Circle, as well as a Writer's Guild of America award for its screenplay. As an actor, Polley starred in a wide variety of films including Atom Egoyan's The Sweet Hereafter (Best Supporting Actress award from the Boston Society of Film Critics), Doug Liman's Go (Independent Spirit Award nomination), Zack Snyder's Dawn of the Dead, Jaco Van Dormael's Mr. Nobody opposite Jared Leto, Kathryn Bigelow's The Weight of Water opposite Ciaran Hinds, David Cronenberg's Existenz, Isabel Coixet's The Secret Life of Words and My Life Without Me (Canadian Screen Award, Best Actress), Audrey Wells' Guinevere, Wim Wenders' Don't Come Knocking, Michael Winterbottom's The Claim, and Terry Gilliam's The Adventures of Baron Munchausen. In 2022, Polley released Run Towards the Danger: Confrontations with a Body of Memory, an autobiographical collection of essays detailing her relationship with her body and how her memory of past and present experiences has contributed to her evolving understanding of self.

Zubin Damania is a Stanford trained physician and founder of Turntable Health, an innovative health care clinic and early model of "Health 3.0." He spent many years working with patients in hospitals, during which he launched a shadow career on YouTube under the pseudonym ZDoggMD. He is now host of the hugely successful podcast the ZDoggMD Show, where he talks about public health and problems within the medical field. In this conversation, Zubin explains not only why it's so hard to find a doctor these days but why it's so hard to be a doctor. He also talks about why people in the medical field are prone to groupthink, why Obamacare made things worse, and how self-employed people who buy their own insurance (like Meghan) might begin to rethink their whole approach. Guest Bio: Dr. Zubin Damania is an internist and former hospitalist and now a leader in the movement to build a new model of health care. He is the host of the ZDoggMD show, which you can find at https://zdoggmd.com.