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Lean Out with Tara Henley

Conversations with heterodox authors and journalists from around the world, asking the questions that are not being asked. tarahenley.substack.com

society & culture books

All Episodes

36:21

Richard Stursberg: Who Killed CanLit?

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/02/11

Canadians who write books, or cover books, or read books will know that something is wrong with our literary industry. But a new book documents just how far off the rails publishing has gone. My guest on the program today is the author of that book, and he says our fundamental problem is an erosion of national identity.Richard Stursberg is a Canadian author and media executive, and the former head of English services for the CBC. His new book is Lament for a Literature: The Collapse of Canadian Book

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28:18

Harrison Lowman on James Bennet, The New York Times...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/02/04

This week on the Lean Out podcast we are taking a look at the chaotic summer of 2020, and the impact of that unrest on mainstream journalism. My guest on the program today has a new interview with the former opinion editor at The New York Times, James Bennet, who was famously ousted by a staff revolt. My guest says that now is a good time to think through how that historical moment — and its activists — has shaped our journalism.Harrison Lowman is a Canadian journalist. He’s the managing editor of

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35:13

Steven Scherer: The Road From Foreign Correspondent...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/01/28

We live in an age of economic precarity and journalists are not exempt from this. My guest on the program today has written a powerful Substack essay about his path from foreign correspondent to Uber driver, and how his troubles have helped him to forge a sense of solidarity with the people he drives to work.Steven Scherer is an American journalist and a former Canadian bureau chief for Reuters.Steven Scherer is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come for paid subscribers.Lean Out with Tara

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31:57

Larissa Phillips on the Rift Between Men and Women

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/01/21

Men and women don’t seem very happy these days. They are dissatisfied with dating, polarized politically, trash talking each other online, and both marriage and fertility are on the decline. What is responsible for this rift between men and women? My guest on the program today has been mulling this question over, and she says we might want to reconsider some of the assumptions of feminism — starting with the idea that marriage and family are “a trap.”Larissa Phillips is an American essayist and the

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25:22

'Enough White Guys Already': Jacob Savage on a Lost...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/01/14

The popularity of identity politics, and the subsequent fallout from this ideology, is something that we’ve tried to unpack and understand on the Lean Out podcast. My guest on the program today has published a viral essay on the impacts of this moment on Millennial white men. He argues that an entire generation was shut out of certain professions and found themselves in a society that was “deliberately rooting against” them.Jacob Savage is an American writer. His latest essay, for Compact Magazine,

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40:04

Elizabeth Grace Matthew: We Need to Move On From Girl...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/01/07

With the new year now upon us, we are going to continue our conversation about the state of feminism, and how we might begin to think and talk about women’s lives in ways that are more productive. My guest on the program today is a frequent commentator on modern feminism, and she says the central archetypes of our current moment — the girl boss on the left and the trad wife on the right — are both reductive and untenable in today’s world.Elizabeth Grace Matthew is an American writer, and the author

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25:32

Valerie Stivers on the Joys of Home Cooking

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2026/01/01

It’s New Year’s Day and many of us will be at home, contemplating the year ahead. For New Year’s every year, Lean Out brings you an episode that is lighter and more hopeful. This year, we set our sights on food and its ability to bring us together. My guest on the program today has published a wonderful book about famous writers and their recipes, exploring the restorative power of home cooking.Valerie Stivers is an American writer and a senior editor at UnHerd. Her new book is The Writer’s Table:

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24:20

Merry Christmas from Lean Out: Father Gregory Boyle...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/12/25

It’s Christmas Day and we at Lean Out wanted to bring you a special bonus episode — to celebrate the occasion and to meditate on the meaning of the holiday. My guest on the program today is the founder of one of the largest gang intervention, rehabilitation, and re-entry programs in the world, and he’s here to share its driving ethos of cherished belonging, and how that might serve as a model for the wider world.Father Gregory Boyle is an American Jesuit priest and the founder of Homeboy Industries

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40:49

Mike Pesca on Media Insanity

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/12/17

On the Lean Out podcast, one of the topics that we often return to is the media, and the insanity of the media. For our last show of 2025, my guest is a veteran journalist and a savvy media critic, and he has some thoughts on where we are, how we got here — and where we should go from here.Mike Pesca is an award-winning American journalist. He is the creator and host of the long-running daily news podcast, The Gist. He’s also the author of Upon Further Review: The Greatest What-Ifs in Sports

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44:20

Cory Clark on the 'Great Feminization' Theory

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/12/10

With 2025 winding down, we at Lean Out wanted to take a look back at one of the most controversial stories of the year — and to see if we could have a calm, reasonable conversation about a divisive issue. I’m talking about the feminization theory, or the idea that the shifting sex ratios in influential institutions comes with both positive and negative consequences. My guest on the program today is a scholar who is studying that phenomenon. Her recent paper, for the Journal of Controversial Ideas,

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39:04

Amanda Fortini on Jan Kerouac and the legacy of the...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/12/03

One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is the Sexual Revolution — and weighing its benefits and drawbacks, both for women and for men. Today on the show, we are going back to the period that led into that historical moment, to a bohemian movement of art and travel and sexual experimentation, but also of destruction and dysfunction and family tragedies. I’m talking about the Beat Generation. My guest on today’s program has written the introduction to a reissue of an astonishingly good book that

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43:31

Zac Seidler: We Need to Talk About Men's Mental Health

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/11/26

In Toronto, where I live, you cannot walk a block without seeing a young man in distress — sleeping on the street, or slumped over from drug use, or shouting and screaming. It feels like something has gone very wrong for men in this country and that nobody is talking about it. My guest on the program today has dedicated his career to men’s health, and he has some important insights to share, both from his professional life and from his personal life.Zac Seidler is the Global Director of Men’s Health

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54:45

Susan Swan on Modern Feminism

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/11/19

In the wake of the #MeToo firing of the University of British Columbia creative writing professor Steven Galloway — which is once again in the news this week — my guest on the program today sat down to write a book of advice for young feminists. But her good friend Margaret Atwood convinced her that nobody likes unsolicited advice, and that she should instead frame her memoir around her unusual height and how it shaped her life. The result is a riveting narrative that also offers up plenty of

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25:56

Molly Jong-Fast on Gen X Overwhelm

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/11/12

Many women in Generation X are now finding themselves overwhelmed. The world is increasingly stressful, but our private lives are not much calmer, as we care for children and aging parents and spouses, stare down middle age, and mull over the legacy of previous generations of women. My guest on the program today knows something about this — she grappled with all of these things, all at once, during one truly terrible year.Molly Jong-Fast is an American writer and political commentator. She’s a

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40:55

Daniel Debow: It's Time for 'Bold Adventurism'

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/11/04

It’s budget day here in Canada. As Prime Minister Mark Carney’s government tables its first federal budget, we will get reaction and hear a lot of different visions for the country. On today’s episode we wanted to bring you one. My guest on the program says that Canada is in crisis — and that it is now time for “bold adventurism.”Daniel Debow is a Canadian executive, investor, and educator. He is the chair of the board for Build Canada.Daniel Debow is my guest, today on Lean Out. Transcript to come

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36:19

Darrell Bricker on Canada's Breaking Point

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/10/29

One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is the many crises that Canada is facing —and where we go from here. My guest on the program today warns that we are at a breaking point, and in desperate need of a national reckoning. As we face threats from without, he says, we are divided from within, along the lines of gender, class, region, and, crucially, generation.Darrell Bricker is the CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs and a previous director of public opinion research in the Prime Minister’s Office. His

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36:26

Jason Guriel on Fandom

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/10/22

Before the Internet, before the literary world was overrun by online politics, before everything you read — and wrote — had to advance an agenda, there was the solitary person, in a room, losing themselves in the words on the page. There was the fan. My guest on the program today has written a book of essays on fandom and his own obsessions. In the process, he confronts the big cultural forces of our age.Jason Guriel is a Toronto writer. His latest book is Fan Mail: A Guide to What We Love, Loathe,

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45:56

Adam Szetela on the Publishing Industry's 'Circular...

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/10/15

Many of us that are big readers have been scratching our heads for years, trying to figure out why so many books are now so tedious and moralistic. What’s happened to North American literary culture — and why hasn’t it bounced back? My guest on the program today has some answers. He’s written a book about the decline of literary freedom in publishing, and a dynamic that he describes as “a circular firing squad.”Adam Szetela is an American author. His new outing is That Book is Dangerous! How Moral

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39:57

Marc Dunkelman on Why Nothing Works

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/10/08

If you live in North America, chances are good that you spend a lot of time wondering why things feel so dysfunctional. Why can’t we make any progress on the big issues of our age, like housing? My guest on the program today has some answers — and he has written a fascinating new book about why nothing works.Marc J. Dunkelman is an American author and former political staffer. He’s a fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs. His latest book is Why Nothing

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53:07

David Cayley on the CBC's Populist Era

Lean Out with Tara Henley ·

2025/10/01

In recent years, we have seen heated debate in this country around the CBC and its future. With the question of defunding no longer looming, it is a good time to pause, to look back at where our national public broadcaster has been, and to talk through where it might go from here. My guest on today’s program is veteran CBC producer who has written an insightful and well-researched new book about the institution — and where he thinks it went wrong.David Cayley is a Canadian author and broadcaster

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235 results

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