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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

01:09:27

Has Literature Canceled Itself? Sherman Alexie on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/03/21

If you were in middle school or high school in the last couple of decades, there’s a good chance you were assigned Sherman’s classic young adult novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, an epistolary novel with cartoon illustrations about a native teenage boy growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation who decides to attend a nearly all-white high school. The book is semi-autobiographical. Sherman grew up on that reservation in the 1970s and 80s and is a member of the Spokane Tribe

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36:25

How 'The Coddling' Became A Movie: Ted Balaker and...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/03/18

On podcasts devoted to free speech and so-called heterodox discourse, the 2018 book The Coddling of the American Mind is probably mentioned more frequently than any other. Written by social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and legal scholar and Greg Lukianoff, who now heads the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), it is effectively the bible of the Heterodox crowd. And now it’s a movie. My guests are husband and wife filmmaking team Ted Balaker, who directed the film, and Courtney

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41:51

The Linguistic Confusion Of Gender: Philosopher Alex...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/03/11

Paid subscribers get full access to my interview with Alex Byrne. The first half of this episode is available to all listeners. To hear the entire conversation, become a paying subscriber here. Philosopher Alex Byrne spent most of his career innocently studying subjects like epistemology and metaphysics. But a few years ago, he became interested in — wait for it — gender, and he became a “dissident” scholar just for exploring foundational questions. His book Trouble with Gender, covers a lot of

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49:23

How Tumblr Memes Became Political Ideas: Katherine...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/02/26

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

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59:39

From Foster Care to the Ivy League: Rob Henderson on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/02/19

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

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55:26

Is Dating A Lost Cause? Lori Gottlieb On How to Find...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/02/12

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

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50:25

Artificial Intelligence For Dummies (Or At Least...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/02/05

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

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51:54

Never Apologize - Katherine Brodsky On How To Survive...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/01/29

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

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45:25

Our Zip Codes, Ourselves - Seth Kaplan on the Fragile...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/01/19

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

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01:05:13

When Israel and Palestine Share A Classroom - Bernard...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/01/09

**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

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20:05

Travel Notes From A War - ChayaLeah Sufrin On Her...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2024/01/05

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

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01:10:25

What to Do When Kids Say They’re Trans - Sasha Ayad...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/12/19

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”

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17:58

Is Civility Better Than Kindness?

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/12/12

🔔 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

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01:07:49

Livestreaming Yourself To Death: Erich Schwartzel on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/12/07

✌️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

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01:25:05

NY Times Columnist Pamela Paul Knows What You’re...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/11/27

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

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01:05:24

Andrew Sullivan on Where Trans Activism and Gay...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/11/13

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

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01:05:22

What Is Real? Eli Lake on Disinformation, Despair and...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/11/06

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

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01:09:57

Rob Long On How Hollywood Lost The Plot

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/10/30

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

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01:05:41

When Did Campuses Turn On Israel? Ben Appel on...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/10/20

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

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01:12:21

Are there any off-limits subjects between you and...

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum ·

2023/10/09

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

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239 results

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