The Unspeakable Podcast

By Meghan Daum

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Category: Society & Culture

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Subscribers: 182
Reviews: 0
Episodes: 159

Description

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.

Episode Date
Has Literature Canceled Itself? Sherman Alexie on reading, writing, and book banning.
Mar 21, 2024
How 'The Coddling' Became A Movie: Ted Balaker and Courtney Moorehead Balaker turn a foundational book into a film
Mar 18, 2024
The Linguistic Confusion Of Gender: Philosopher Alex Byrne on how we got into so much trouble
Mar 11, 2024
How Tumblr Memes Became Political Ideas: Katherine Dee decodes the manosphere, Tumblr feminism, anime activism, and more
Feb 26, 2024
From Foster Care to the Ivy League: Rob Henderson on luxury beliefs, broken communities, and the path forward
Feb 19, 2024
Is Dating A Lost Cause? Lori Gottlieb On How to Find Love In The Age of Apps, Ghosting, and Too Much Choice
Feb 12, 2024
Artificial Intelligence For Dummies (Or At Least Normies): John Vervaeke and Shawn Coyne on Mentoring The Machines.
Feb 05, 2024
Never Apologize - Katherine Brodsky On How To Survive Cancellation
Jan 29, 2024
Our Zip Codes, Ourselves - Seth Kaplan on the Fragile State of American Neighborhoods
Jan 19, 2024
When Israel and Palestine Share A Classroom - Bernard Avishai and Ezzedine Fishere’s Two-State Approach
Jan 09, 2024
Travel Notes From A War - ChayaLeah Sufrin On Her Recent Trip To Israel
Jan 05, 2024
What to Do When Kids Say They’re Trans - Sasha Ayad returns to The Unspeakable
Dec 19, 2023
Is Civility Better Than Kindness?
Dec 12, 2023
Livestreaming Yourself To Death: Erich Schwartzel on Social Media Influencers Rachel and Dave Hollis
Dec 07, 2023
NY Times Columnist Pamela Paul Knows What You’re Thinking
Nov 27, 2023
Andrew Sullivan on Where Trans Activism and Gay Rights Collide
Nov 13, 2023
What Is Real? Eli Lake on Disinformation, Despair and Dead Ends in the Israel-Hamas War
Nov 06, 2023
Rob Long On How Hollywood Lost The Plot
Oct 30, 2023
When Did Campuses Turn On Israel? Ben Appel on anti-semitism in college classrooms
Oct 20, 2023
Are there any off-limits subjects between you and your therapist?
Oct 09, 2023
Ethan Strauss on why Sports Media has Gone Insane
Oct 02, 2023
How Foucault Led To Tumblr - Tracing the history of The Identity Trap with Yascha Mounk
Sep 25, 2023
Who Were The Hottest World Leaders and Despots? Yael Bar-tur and ChayaLeah Sufrin on The Unspeakable
Sep 18, 2023
"What Can A Man Do?" with Christine Emba
Sep 11, 2023
Maria Bamford Wants To Join Your Cult
Aug 31, 2023
When Does Life Really End? Dr. Sunita Puri On The Problem With CPR And the Denial Of Death
Jul 26, 2023
The Mortifying Ordeal Of Being Known: Writer Tim Kreider Visits The Unspeakable
Jul 17, 2023
The Ballad Of The Nineties “Bad Girl.” Lucinda Rosenfeld On Inappropriate Relationships, Literary Theory, And The Sublimity Of Cigarettes
Jul 10, 2023
The State of Abortion One Year Post Dobbs: Frances Kissling Returns To The Unspeakable
Jun 26, 2023
Do You Have What It Takes To Be Polyamorous? Diana Fleischman on Sex, Jealousy, Emotional Discipline, and Why We Behave The Way We Do
Jun 19, 2023
Is Art Boring Or Is It Just Us? William Deresiewicz Returns To The Pod
Jun 12, 2023
What Is A Good Death?: Sandra Martin On The Social History Of The Right To Die
Jun 05, 2023
Those College Students Might Surprise You: Sarah Hepola’s Report From The Classroom
May 24, 2023
Red Pilling The Pill: Holly Grigg-Spall On The Big Business Of Birth Control
May 15, 2023
It Should Have Been Over By Now, But It Isn’t. Lionel Shriver On The Unending Culture Wars
May 08, 2023
What Is Anorexia Really About? Hadley Freeman on Good Girls and the competition to be the “Illest.”
May 01, 2023
Jean Twenge On Why Generational Differences Matter
Apr 24, 2023
Does Your Kid Really Need Therapy? Stella O’Malley on Teens, Mental Health, and the Problem With Professionals
Apr 17, 2023
The "Ask A Jew" Girls Are Back! ChayaLeah Sufrin and Yael Bar-tur Return to The Unspeakable
Apr 03, 2023
Don’t Have Children If You Don’t Want Them! Ruby Warrington on Women Without Kids
Mar 27, 2023
Congratulations, You’re a Failure! Stephen Marche on Enduring the Life of a Writer
Mar 20, 2023
Cancel Culture Comes For Ballet: Choreographer Lincoln Jones’s Problematic Journey
Mar 13, 2023
How To Land In A Psych Ward: A Conversation With Freddie deBoer
Mar 06, 2023
How Are We Feeling About Policing These Days? Peter Moskos Files A Report
Feb 27, 2023
They’re Coming To Take You Away: Rob Wipond On The Ongoing Scourge Of Involuntary Psychiatric Treatment
Feb 20, 2023
Armie Hammer’s Blunt Force Trauma: Jamie Kirchick On The Story No One Will Tell
Feb 13, 2023
Should We Teach Porn Literacy? Richie Hardcore Shares His Lesson Plans
Feb 06, 2023
Everyone’s Crazy: Paul Gilmartin’s Mental Illness Happy Hour
Jan 30, 2023
“Field” Is Now A Forbidden Word! Rhetorician Erec Smith On How To Make Everything Racist
Jan 23, 2023
Leaning Out And Looking Up: Journalist Tara Henley’s Next Phase
Jan 16, 2023
Why We Are The Way We Are. Bridget Phetasy and Jeren Montgomery on Our “Factory Settings”
Jan 09, 2023
Sarah Polley’s Hollywood Debut: A Candid Conversation With The Canadian Star
Dec 19, 2022
Why Is It So Hard To Find A Doctor? Zubin Damania Diagnoses The Disaster
Dec 12, 2022
Do Only Liberals Go To Therapy? Meet Dea Bridge, the “conservative therapist” Meghan interviewed for The New York Times
Dec 05, 2022
A TERF and a Tranny Walk Into A Podcast Studio: Geeking Out With the Heterodorx
Nov 24, 2022
Introducing: Infamous
Nov 18, 2022
Why Are You Still A Democrat? Maud Maron Isn’t Leaving The Party—Yet
Nov 14, 2022
Gain Confidence By Losing Certainty. Ilana Redstone on Breaking Free from the Certainty Trap
Nov 07, 2022
Not Even Mad: Mike Pesca, Virginia Heffernan and Jamie Kirchick On Their New Podcast
Oct 31, 2022
Can Men Be Saved? Richard Reeves on the New Crisis of Masculinity
Oct 24, 2022
What Should We Believe? Michael Shermer On Staying Rational In An Irrational World
Oct 17, 2022
Why Can’t We Get Back To Normal? Public Health Expert Leslie Bienen on Learning To Coexist With Covid
Oct 10, 2022
Yes, Youth Gender Surgery Is Really Happening: Colin Wright Lays Out The Details
Oct 03, 2022
Is Wellness Making Us Sick? Rina Raphael Tells the Dirty Truth About “Clean Health”
Sep 26, 2022
The Second Coming of ASK A JEW: ChayaLeah Sufrin and Yael Bar tur Are Back!
Sep 19, 2022
Was the Sexual Revolution A Failed Experiment? Louise Perry Makes Her Case
Sep 12, 2022
When Troubled People Become Our Playthings: Jon Ronson on Shame and Forgiveness
Sep 05, 2022
Is Solitude Over? Is Thinking Dead? A Conversation with William Deresiewicz
Aug 29, 2022
“Are You Are Becoming A Republican Or Something?” Sarah Hepola On Letting Down The Left Without Ever Leaving It
Jul 11, 2022
Guns: A Civil Disagreement Part Two
Jul 04, 2022
Guns: A Civil Disagreement Part One
Jun 27, 2022
Safety Moose Says, “Stay Home!” Author Neal Pollack On His Dangerous New Novel, Edge of Safety
Jun 20, 2022
Is A Post-Truth World All Bad? Stephanie Lepp’s “Promiscuous Pragmatic Pluralism”
Jun 13, 2022
Has Wokeism Won? Sarah Haider Acknowledges Defeat But Won’t Stop Talking.
Jun 06, 2022
Uniquely Stupid and Incredibly Coddled: Jonathan Haidt On How We Lost Our Collective Minds (And Whether We’ll Ever Find Them Again)
May 30, 2022
An Act of Love. The Gift of Death: Author Amy Bloom On Her New Memoir
May 22, 2022
The Canceled Collective Planning Committee: Jamie Kilstein Returns To The Unspeakable
May 16, 2022
The Future of Abortion: Frances Kissling On Moving Forward In A Post-Roe World
May 09, 2022
Is Public Health Messaging Designed For Dummies? Dr. Lucy McBride Calls For An End To COVID Catastrophizing
May 02, 2022
When The Workplace Is A Woke Place: Jennifer Sey on Corporate Branding Versus Personal Beliefs
Apr 25, 2022
This Is What It’s Like To Be Banned From Twitter: Meghan Murphy Forges Ahead And Falls Behind In Twitter Exile
Apr 18, 2022
Ladies Lunch at the Holocaust-Themed Restaurant: Yael Bar-tur and ChayaLeah Sufrin of the Ask A Jew Podcast
Apr 11, 2022
The Censors Within: Sarah Hepola on What She Was Afraid To Write About—Until Now
Mar 28, 2022
What Is Gender Detransition? Changing Your Mind About Changing Your Body
Mar 21, 2022
Rebel Wisdom’s David Fuller Is Trying to Talk Sense Into the Sensemakers: Is Anyone Listening?
Mar 14, 2022
Can We Move Past The Culture Wars? Quillette’s Jonathan Kay On “Other Interests"
Mar 07, 2022
Why Is Friendship So Fraught? Jennifer Senior on the Complexities of Adult Friendship
Feb 28, 2022
Mike Pesca’s Esprit de Corps: The Gist Wipes The Slate Clean And Flies Solo
Feb 21, 2022
You’re Older Than You’ve Ever Been. And Now You’re Even Older: Sari Botton On Aging At Any Age
Feb 14, 2022
Love—Or Quarantines—Will Keep Us Together: Laura Kipnis on Sex and Romance (Not Necessarily With Your Partner) In Lockdown
Feb 07, 2022
Neurodivergence For Everyone! Jenara Nerenberg On New Frames of Mind About The Human Brain
Jan 31, 2022
When Queer Theory Meets Medical Practice: Aaron Kimberly On The Crisis In Transgender Health Care
Jan 24, 2022
YouTube Heroes Flying Too Close To The Sun: Chris Kavanagh Decodes The Gurus (With An Amazing Accent)
Jan 17, 2022
There’s No Such Thing As A Howard Beal Moment: Michael Wolff on Power, Access, Hubris, and Writing Great Sentences
Jan 10, 2022
Why This Show Is A Failure: A Song Of Joy and Peace
Dec 13, 2021
The Post-Cancellation Pivot: Stephen Elliott’s Financial Advice for Poets (and Moral Support for Pariahs)
Dec 06, 2021
Are MFA Programs Multi-Level Marketing Schemes? Leigh Stein Thinks So!
Nov 29, 2021
How The News Went Insane: Batya Ungar-Sargon On The Social Rise and Intellectual Fall of Legacy Media
Nov 15, 2021
Is Nuance A Career Killer? Comedian Jamie Kilstein on Taking the High Road To Nowhere
Nov 08, 2021
Bitter Homes and Gardens: Larry Clarke and Fielding Edlow on Staying Afloat, Staying in Love, and Staying Insured in Hollywood
Nov 01, 2021
What Is a “Good Mother?” Lara Bazelon on Female Ambition, Biological Realities and Going To Trial
Oct 25, 2021
Seeking the Good Life In the Islamic State: Carla Power on the Journey In and Out of Violent Extremism
Oct 18, 2021
We Can’t Know: Lisa Selin Davis On Getting Comfortable With The “Giant Mess” That Is The Current Gender Conversation
Oct 08, 2021
"We Feel Like We’re In The Wild West:” Parents of Gender-Questioning Kids Ask Their Own Questions
Oct 06, 2021
What Do We Mean By “Gender Affirming Care?” A Conversation with Dr. Laura Edwards-Leeper
Oct 04, 2021
The Awkward Files: Father-daughter coauthors Dr. Drew and Paulina Pinsky Bridge the Generation Gap
Sep 27, 2021
Free To Be You and #MeToo: Erika Schickel on Coming of Age—and Coming Undone—in the 1970s
Sep 20, 2021
The WEIRD World Is Killing Us: Evolutionary Biologists Heather Heying and Bret Weinstein On Why Modern Life Feels So Unlivable
Sep 13, 2021
The Incel Phenomenon Is Not a Movement (Or A Terrorist Group). Naama Kates on What We Get Wrong About Society’s Saddest and Most Reviled Men
Sep 06, 2021
Chelsea Handler Checks Her Privilege. (And spars a little with Meghan.)
Aug 30, 2021
How Not To Ruin The Dinner Party: A Conversation with Sam Harris
Aug 23, 2021
Don’t Let The Loudest Voices Win: Frank Bruni on the Fine Art of The Subtle Point
Aug 16, 2021
“Am I The A**hole?” Dan Savage on Giving Advice, Taking Criticism and Keeping Up With The Times
Aug 09, 2021
The Tyranny Of the Mid-Career Pivot: A Meghan Monologue
Aug 02, 2021
We Are All Catastrophists Now. Tom Chivers On Why We’re So Bad At Measuring Harm and Evaluating Risk
Jul 26, 2021
Shawn Pleasants Lived On The Street For Ten Years. Can He Help Solve the Homeless Crisis?
Jul 16, 2021
Critical Race Theory Is Making Our Heads Explode: Erec Smith Sifts Through The Pieces
Jul 11, 2021
Are Kids Being Talked Into Thinking They’re Trans?
Jul 04, 2021
Paul Rudnick on British royals, coastal elites, and the strange freedoms of New Jersey
Jun 27, 2021
When Taking Control of Your Death Takes Over Your Life: Lionel Shriver on Getting Out Just In Time
Jun 20, 2021
Is It Time To Get Rid of the Sex Offender Registry? Emily Horowitz Says Yes.
Jun 13, 2021
How Did A Nice Radical Feminist End Up in Center Right Journalism? Libby Emmons Tells Her Story.
Jun 06, 2021
Buck Angel Bucks the Trend: An Old-School Transexual on the New Transgender Movement
May 30, 2021
When The Greatest Story Ever Told Isn’t Yours To Tell. Jean Hanff Korelitz on her new novel, The Plot
May 23, 2021
Can “Diversity and Inclusion” Training Actually Become Diverse and Inclusive? Chloé Valdary Has A Plan.
May 16, 2021
Why Can’t Philosophers Talk About Gender? Kathleen Stock On How A Rich Topic Became The Third Rail
May 09, 2021
The Racism of Antiracism: A Conversation With John McWhorter
May 02, 2021
Islamic Fundamentalism Is Feminism’s Third Rail. A Conversation With Yasmine Mohammed
Apr 18, 2021
It's Complicated. Writer and podcaster Jesse Singal on Fad Science, Bad Faith and Mad Media
Apr 11, 2021
How To Be A Better Person (Than Everyone Else): Joel Stein On The Lost Art Of Elitism
Apr 04, 2021
When the Mob Comes for the Professors the Academic Freedom Alliance Comes to the Rescue. A Conversation with Free Speech Scholar Keith Whittington
Mar 28, 2021
You’re Just Now Noticing This? Bridget Phetasy on Keeping Up With the Cancelers
Mar 21, 2021
Woke Us When It’s Over: New York Times Columnist Bret Stephens on How to Reason with a Toddler-like Culture
Mar 14, 2021
Meet Angel Eduardo. The Harper’s Letter Was For Him
Mar 08, 2021
You Too Can Go Broke In Middle Age! Annabelle Gurwitch Leads The Way
Mar 01, 2021
Who Needs Therapy? Lori Gottlieb On the View from Both Sides of the Couch
Feb 22, 2021
The Unspoken Trauma Of Adoption: Moses Farrow on His Work, His Famous Family and “Coming Out of the Adoption Fog”
Feb 15, 2021
Who’s Afraid Of The Lab-Leak Hypothesis? Dr. Alina Chan and Dr. Filippa Lentzos On The Possible Origins Of The SARS-CoV-2 Virus
Feb 08, 2021
What’s The Matter With Portland? Nancy Rommelmann on the Puzzling Politics of Protest
Feb 01, 2021
When Your Publisher Calls You Problematic: Bruce Wagner Goes Rogue By Going Public
Jan 25, 2021
Are Lesbians Going Extinct? Katie Herzog Reports From The Field
Jan 18, 2021
Feminine Chaos Is The Order of the Day: A Conversation with Kat Rosenfield and Phoebe Maltz Bovy
Jan 04, 2021
I Don’t Know What To Think Anymore: A Few Words From Your Host
Nov 16, 2020
All Artists Are Starving Artists Now: William Deresiewicz on The Rigged Creative Economy
Nov 09, 2020
How Does Any Of Us Get Through? Sigrid Nunez on Living, Dying, Friendship and Solitude
Nov 02, 2020
A Portrait of the Humorist as a Young Woman: Merrill Markoe on Drawing (Literally) from her Early Diaries
Oct 25, 2020
Everyone’s a Podcaster Now! Josh Szeps on How to Talk, How To Listen, and When To Shut Up
Oct 18, 2020
Can Old-School Intellectualism Make a Comeback In A New Era? A conversation with Leon Wieseltier
Oct 12, 2020
Inspecting The Machinery of Identity Politics: A Conversation with Writer and Scholar Laurent Dubreuil
Oct 04, 2020
Why Does Exposing Social Media Hypocrisy Feel So Damn Good? An Interview with Katie Herzog
Sep 27, 2020
How To Let Your Kids Live More Dangerously: A conversation with “America’s Worst Mom,” Lenore Skenazy
Sep 20, 2020
Can The Artist Survive? A Conversation with Writer and Performer Sandra Tsing Loh
Sep 13, 2020
Uncomfortable Truths About Dating (At Least The Heterosexual Kind): A Conversation with Evan Marc Katz
Sep 06, 2020
What Does Postmodernism Have To Do With Social Justice? Helen Pluckrose Explains It All
Aug 30, 2020
Why Are So Many Kids Saying They're Trans? (And How Big A Deal Is This?)
Aug 23, 2020
Can We Get Smarter About Policing? A conversation with Professor of Police Science (and former Baltimore cop) Peter Moskos
Aug 16, 2020
Dr. Drew Is Worried About A Health Crisis In Critical Thinking
Aug 09, 2020
Leigh Stein on the rise and fall of the #GirlBoss and her new novel, Self Care
Aug 02, 2020
Gen X Girl Talk With Evolutionary Biologist Heather Heying
Jul 23, 2020