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PODCAST

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

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.

society & culture

All Episodes

01:03:14

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

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/10/31

My guest is Dr. Sunita Puri, a palliative-care physician and author of That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour. We talk about what it really means to care for patients when cure is no longer the goal, why our medical system resists honest conversations about death, and how clarity and compassion can coexist at the end of life. Topics we cover: • What palliative care really provides (beyond hospice) • Why "more treatment" ≠ "more life" • Prognosis, probabilities, and

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01:14:05

Have Women Ruined The World? Helen Andrews on The...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/10/22

Less than 24 hours after her Compact essay, “The Great Feminization,” set off a thousand group texts, writer Helen Andrews joined to talk about what she means by “feminization,” why the 2020 moral fervor looked the way it did, and how workplace culture shifts when women become the numerical majority. We also compare “agreeableness” with the kind of conflict that actually moves ideas forward (and where each belongs). In this episode we discuss: How Helen defines “the great feminization” and why

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01:19:53

Does Your Personality Stink? There’s Hope!

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/10/21

This week I interview journalist and author Olga Khazan about her new book on personality change, Me, But Better. We talk about the Big Five traits—openness, conscientiousness, extraversion/introversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism—and how they play out in ordinary life rather than in personality quizzes. Olga explains what research actually shows about how much you can change, how anxiety and depression tie into neuroticism, and why introversion can quietly turn into isolation. We also discuss

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01:06:33

The Los Angeles Wildfires In Fiction

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/10/14

Novelist and screenwriter Bruce Wagner returns to discuss his exceptionally timely new novel Amputation—a strange, exuberant, and ultra meta work set against a topic I’ve talked about a lot this year, the January LA wildfires. Bruce, an L.A. native and prominent literary figure in the city, explains how the book came together in less than two months, why he resists “political novels” even when writing inside a political moment, and how language (not legacy) keeps him making art. We also talk about

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01:14:26

How To Quit Drinking Without Quitting Drinking

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/10/08

Katie Herzog, co-host of the Blocked and Reported podcast (BarPod), is best known as an anthropologist of, as she puts it, “internet bullshit.” But she’s swerved far out of her lane for her latest project. In her brand new book, Drink Your Way Sober, Katie combines personal history with deep reporting to chronicle a lifetime of drinking and explain how a little-known drug called naltrexone, combined with an approach called The Sinclair Method, finally allowed her to quit for good. They also get

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01:23:54

Street Protesters: Who Are They, Really? with Jeremy...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/10/01

Photojournalist Jeremy Lee Quinn has spent years documenting protests, rallies, and moments of public unrest that often look very different on the ground than they do on the evening news. In this conversation, he talks with Meghan about what really happens when a “mostly peaceful protest” turns chaotic, how viral clips can erase context, and why the incentives of freelance journalism can skew coverage. They also discuss what it takes to build trust with sources across ideological divides, the ethics

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01:13:45

Can Democrats Admit They Were Wrong On Gender? with...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/09/25

After years of institutional groupthink and policy whiplash, what have we actually learned—and what are we still not allowed to ask? Lisa Selin Davis returns to discuss the evidence (and non-evidence) around youth gender medicine, talk about the ongoing taboo and confusion around AGP (autogynephilia), and consider how to hold two truths at once: some people report thriving post-transition while others were clearly harmed. In this episode, we discuss / talk about: How “don’t question it” became a

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01:13:27

Are Therapists Crazy? Andrew Hartz's quest for sanity...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/09/18

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

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01:10:14

All The World’s A Hype House: What Leigh Stein's...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/09/16

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

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01:05:38

How Are Those Luxury Beliefs Working Out? Rob...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/08/26

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

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01:11:07

Is The Racial Reckoning Over? John McWhorter on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/08/19

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”

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23:26

Is Everything Terrible? Tablet editor Alana Newhouse...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/08/18

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

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29:47

How Are Those Luxury Beliefs Working Out? Rob...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/08/12

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

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01:16:07

Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/08/04

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

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20:33

Is the Racial Reckoning Over? John McWhorter on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/08/04

Paid subscribers get early access to my interview with John McWhorter, who will be at the coed New York City Retreat. If you’re interested in meeting him in person (among others), you can get $700 off with the code NYC1800. 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

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01:31:31

How To Survive a Mania - Lionel Shriver hates...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/07/30

September 3 in NYC at 6 pm, I’ll be in conversation with Lionel live at The Village Underground. Tix available here. 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

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34:54

Extreme Religious Conversion - Kelsey Osgood on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/07/22

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

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06:03

70 Million Songs: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 7

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/07/17

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 www.theunspeakablepodcast.com. About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that

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01:25:10

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

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/07/14

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

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08:11

The Unbearable Halfness Of Being: The Catastrophe...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2025/07/10

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 www.theunspeakablepodcast.com. About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that

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239 results

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