Shows
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum70 Million Songs: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 7The 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 writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically...
2025-07-1706 min
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Unbearable Halfness Of Being: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 6The 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 writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically...
2025-07-1008 min
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumPlaylist of Tears: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 5The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, July 9, 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 writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically...
2025-07-0407 min
The Same DrugsThe Catastrophe Hour: Meghan Daum on living alone, personal essays, death, and and moreMeghan Daum is an author, host of The Unspeakeasy podcast, and founder of The Unspeakeasy. In this epsiode, Meghan Murphy speaks with her about what it was like to lose everything in the Los Angeles wildfires, the joys of living alone, thinking about death, ageing out of the personal essay genre, and more. Meghan’s most recent book is The Catastrophe Hour.The Same Drugs is on X @thesamedrugs_. Meghan Murphy is on X @meghanemurphy and on Instagram @meghanemilymurphy. Find The Same Drugs merch at Fourthwall.
2025-07-0352 min
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumBasically Dead: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 3The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, June 25, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the third essay of the collection, Basically Dead. 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. How to Join The Book Club Yearly subscribers will receive a reminder email on Tuesdays. If you are only a monthly subscriber, you will not receive the email. To...
2025-06-1907 min
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week Two - Same Life, Higher RentThe next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for Wednesday, June 18, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the second essay of the collection, Same Life, Higher Rent. The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET, beginning June 11. The book club is for yearly paid subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription. To learn more about the book club and join, visit https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/p/the-catastrophe-hour-book-club Same Life, Higher Rent was written in 2017, shortly after I returned to New York after nearly t...
2025-06-1205 min
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Catastrophe Hour Book Club, Week One - The Broken-In WorldThe Catastrophe Hour Book Club begins June 11 with a discussion of the first essay in the book, The Broken-In World, an examination of divorce, loss, and finding unexpected peace and camaraderie in a world that "can no longer support pretense." The book club runs for 14 consecutive Wednesdays from 3-4 p.m. ET. We will discuss one essay per week To learn more about the book club and join, visit https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/p/the-catastrophe-hour-book-club About The Catastrophe Hour "One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that wr...
2025-06-0505 min
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumWhere We Go Next (Meghan interviewed!) - Podcaster Michael Callahan turns the tables on your hostThis week, something a little different: Meghan is the interview subject! In a special end-of-summer episode, The Unspeakable pairs up with Michael Callahan and his podcast Where We Go Next. In a conversation that Michael posted earlier this month, he and Meghan talk about how to avoid audience capture in the "heterodox space," how the term "community" got tacked onto nearly everything, and how the concept of the "literary citizen" replaced the role of the working writer or even public intellectual. They vent their shared frustration with the marketing demands of algorithms, particularly the YouTube algorithm and its clickbait t...
2024-08-261h 14
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Inconvenient Truth About Divorce: Bridget Phetasy on staying together for the kids.We hear all the time that children are resilient — and should be even more so! But do divorcing parents overestimate their kids' resilience to justify their actions? Should "staying together for the children" come back into style? Returning guest Bridget Phetasy talks about her recent article for The Spectator about an aspect of divorce that rarely gets discussed: the ripple effects over decades as adult children and grandchildren are spread thin among multiple families and step-families. Bridget's parents, who had five children under 12 when they divorced, followed the logic that parental happiness is better for children than "staying together fo...
2024-07-1530 min
A Special Place in HellOur Bodies, Ourselves, Our Problem?This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comThe girlx/womxn discuss an essay on Women’s Bodies. Is there no end to the misery of being female? Or are men more oppressed, first and foremost by their boners? They then move on to moralizing about Kids These Days™. Have smart phones made an entire generation basically learning disabled? Or is it the hormones in the water? (And here we thought zoomer TikToks were incomprehensible because we are old — or, in the case of Sarah, old-adjac...
2024-03-0207 min
A Special Place in HellWhen Essays AttackToday in hell, the girls/women find themselves divided by a much-discussed personal essay in The Cut about divorce or near-divorce (or the dream of divorce?) Meghan stands up for creative license (even when suspended), while Sarah sips on some haterade. In moments, the girlxs’ differencex seem irreconcialable, but they eventually decide to stay together for the sake of the kids (aka paying subscribers). Plus: Meghan attends the premiere of film version The Coddling of The American Mind in a packed and anti-fragile theater in Beverly Hills. RELEVANT LINKS“The Lure of Divor...
2024-02-251h 28
A Special Place in HellSam Harris Visits HellThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comOur episode with Sam Harris is for premium subscribers only. Free subscribers only get the first 50 minutes. Become a member if you want early access to all episodes and get access to the bonus-only episodes.Respected public intellectual and ultra-meditator Sam Harris makes another questionable career choice by joining us in our Special Place. Though he rarely broaches the subject of GEND*R, he willingly risks it all (especially considering our massive audience) and strides boldly across the minefield...
2024-02-1956 min
A Special Place in HellTaylor Swift Needs Love Too (LIVE SHOW)In this first-of-its-kind livestream, the girls/women begin by discussing whether Taylor Swift is “mid,” as the males of Twitter proclaim. They decide that she’s still highly desirable (because if she isn’t, then what does that say about podcasters!?)Then, then ponder why young women appear to radicalizing into extreme leftist politics. Is it just about the vibes? Or are Women Going Their Own Way (WGTOW), now that the men have failed to launch? RELEVANT LINKS“A new global gender divide is emerging” from the Financial TimesGet early access and bo...
2024-02-151h 35
A Special Place in HellKardashians for Fat AcceptanceThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comThis episode is for paid subscribers only. Become a member if you want early access to all episodes and get access to the bonus-only episodes.The girls/women discuss Kate Manne’s new book on fatphobia, Unshrinking, and its recent excerpt in The Cut.Also, who has done more for body positivity: feminists or the Kardashians? Are anorexic models the result of gay men controlling the fashion industry? And why did everyone start to get fat in the 1980s? Is...
2024-02-0522 min
A Special Place in HellMindfulness for RacistsIn this episode, a brief discussion on audience demographics. Then, a characteristically philosophical discussion on polyamory and how to find happiness despite being trapped in a crappy life. Lastly, a look at the groundbreaking NYT expose of problematic emails at the Claremont Institute. Finally, journalists do something useful. RELEVANT LINKS“‘America Is Under Attack’: Inside the Anti-D.E.I. Crusade” from the New York Times.“Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals” by Oliver Burkeman.Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold...
2024-02-011h 11
A Special Place in HellStupid Wife, Happy Life!This week, the girlx compare notes about how they spent Martin Luther King Day, and Meghan recalls one of her first public speaking events. They then analyze the rise of Twitter trad bros advocating for stupid but hot stay-at-home wives, wonder if high IQ women have a “tall girl problem,” and marvel at how polyamorous people manage to “have it all.”RELEVANT LINKS“How a Polyamorous Mom Had ‘a Big Sexual Adventure’ and Found Herself,” from the New York Times.“Interested in Polyamory? Check Out These Places,” from the New York Times.Get early access a...
2024-01-241h 17
A Special Place in HellAdam Carolla Visits HellLegendary radio host, comedian and Scarily Acute Observer of Human Behavior Adam Carolla visits the pod to discuss the girlx favorite question: has the entire world become feminized? It’s been 13 years since the publication of Adam’s stunningly prescient book In Fifty Years We’ll All Be Chicks. How did Adam get it so right, so early?Plus: Why did Adam and his Loveline co-host Dr. Drew Pinsky have a falling out with David Alan Grier? Why Adam is leaving California as soon as his kids finish high school? (And where is he going?) Finally...
2024-01-1849 min
A Special Place in HellOur Picks for Harvard’s Next PresidentEmbattled Harvard president Claudine Gay is out. Who has the goods to replace her? And what are those goods, anyway? Then, why are business influencer bros telling lonely men to “wife up?” Does a traditional wife get you the best possible ROI? Or is the trad trend simply a new genre of porn? Plus, Meghan spots her 18-year-old self on YouTube! RELEVANT LINKSClaudine Gay’s Op-Ed for the New York Times.Kat Rosenfeld’s piece about Trad Wives on TikTok for Reason Magazine.Meghan’s piece about Mary McCarthy, The Group, and s...
2024-01-081h 15
A Special Place in HellTap Dancing For JusticeThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comIs the White House holiday video a Blank Panther psyop? Are “former progressive friends” who inch slightly to the center victims of the right-wing cult? And what does The Nutcracker have to do with Christmas anyway? Plus: Meghan comes clean about her tap dancing history.RELEVANT LINKSDorrance Dance’s Nutcracker at the White House.What’s Driving Former Progressives to the Right?Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscript...
2024-01-0518 min
A Special Place in HellPenelope Trunk Is Back!This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comLegendary advice coach, blogger, and Special Place VIP is back to answer more listener questions. For instance, how do you get your neighbor to stop chewing your ear off? What qualifies as a midlife crisis? How can you move past regret? She also answers some questions about herself. For instance, why did she once hire a matchmaker and what were her requirements for a mate? Why is she sleeping on the living room floor of her fancy apartment? And...
2024-01-0320 min
A Special Place in HellHow To Get PregnantThis week, the girlx hash it out about transhumanism and reproductive technology. Does this new technology trans away our humanity? Or is it doing the lord’s work without bothering any lords? Should surrogacy be banned? Or should is one of those “don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it” kind of things? Finally, the co-hostessx talk about memory and how different people experience it. Or something like that. They can’t remember most of that conversation.Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”...
2023-12-231h 25
A Special Place in HellRebecca Traister Postgame AnalysisThis is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comThe womxn discuss their recent conversation with New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister about marriage, mating, and feminism. RELEVANT LINKSCheck out our recent podcast with Rebecca Traister here.“The Return of the Marriage Plot: Why everyone is suddenly so eager for men and women to get hitched” for New York Magazine.Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”☕Follow M...
2023-12-1119 min
A Special Place in HellRebecca Traister on the Radfem-Tradfem DivideNew York Magazine writer, acclaimed author and old(ish) school GenX feminist Rebecca Traister joins the pod to talk about her September article, “The Return Of The Marriage Plot: Why everyone is suddenly so eager for men and women to get hitched.” Do trads have a point when they say the sexual revolution has led us down the primrose path and people need to start procreation early and often? Or is this simply the moral panic du jour and everyone should be left to their own devices — technological and otherwise? Also, artificial wombs: yay or nay?
2023-12-061h 17
A Special Place in HellAyaan Hirsi Ali Saved By Christ!This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comBillie Eilish gets ratioed for saying no one criticizes men’s bodies. She is SO WRONG! (Yet kind of right.) In other news, famed atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now a Christian. What gives? Sarah has a few theories, Meghan is suspicious of the timing (Christmas is right around the corner…). Finally, the girls/women discuss what religion they’d like to convert to and have a hard time deciding.Plus, why the official new name for paying subscribers is “sp...
2023-12-0128 min
A Special Place in HellOsama bin Laden: The Comeback KidTikTokers discover Osama bin Laden’s Letter to America and have “existential crises”. Is it because it’s the first thing they’ve ever read that’s longer than a tweet? Or is OBL this generation’s Che Guevara? Plus, infighting breaks out in TERF world when an AGP confuses business casual with ballroom formal. Relevant LinksOsama bin Laden's TikTok popularity is based on childish notions of evil.Meghan’s famous “piece” gets demoted to a “post.”Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substa...
2023-11-231h 16
A Special Place in Hell(Info)war Rages On; Women Hardest HitHigh school debaters stand up to whiteness (finally). A-romantic, asexual novelist throws Twitter tantrum. Plus, are all-female colleges dangerous places for women? Do women tear down more posters than men? Would Sarah have been better off at an all-boy’s school? Should Meghan a cult leader? Or is she more assistant-to-the-cult leader material? Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”☕Follow Meghan’s other podcast, “The Unspeakable” 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, Meghan’s community for freethinking women.🎥 Follow us on YouTube!❌ And on...
2023-11-201h 31
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumAndrew Sullivan on Where Trans Activism and Gay Rights CollideThis 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...
2023-11-131h 05
A Special Place in HellTake Our Advice, Please!This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comThe womenx answer listenerx question. You’re welcomex!Want to hear the whole episode and join the community? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”☕Follow Meghan’s other podcast, “The Unspeakable” 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, Meghan’s community for freethinking women.🎥 Follow us on YouTube!❌ And on the platform formerly known as Twitter.📸 And Instagram.🎵 And TikTok.
2023-11-0814 min
A Special Place in HellDoxx PopuliPremium subscribers get this episode 48 hours early. Become a member if you want early access to all episodes as well as access to the bonus-only episodes.Sarah and Meghan kick off their conversation by wondering whether you should be able to order a breastmilk latte at Starbucks and or if the Donner Party consulted YouTube for human meat recipes. They then move on to the myth of the “decolonization” narrative, the disinformation surrounding the Israel-Hamas War and ask whether TikTok is a “headless propaganda machine.” (Signs point to yes.) Finally, they discuss the case of th...
2023-11-051h 22
A Special Place in HellWhy Don’t You Just Adopt?In this episode Sarah and Meghan consider the ethics of adoption, surrogacy and the future of reproductive technology. They discuss the “Baby Scoop” era, which lasted from just after World War II into the early 1970s, in which millions of unwed mother surrendered their babies to adoption agencies, many of which were profiting from the transaction.They discover that Meghan, who was born the year of the highest number of adoptions, has always knows tons of adoptees and never thought much of it. Sarah, on the other hand, knew very few adoptees. Sarah also reflects on her own...
2023-10-301h 09
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumRob Long On How Hollywood Lost The PlotIn 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...
2023-10-301h 09
A Special Place in HellDown The Rabbit Hole: Gender and Online CommunitiesEliza Mondegreen visits the girls/women to talk about the relationship between online communities and gender identities. From Reddit to Tumblr, tens of thousands of strangers are poised to welcome confused kids into a sprawling and hyper-accepting “family.” But, as Eliza puts it, “finding these communities is like stepping in quicksand.”Eliza Mondegreen is a graduate student researching online trans communities. She is a columnist for UnHerd, Fairer Disputations, and Genspect, and writes on Substack here. ICYMIYou can listen to this episode for more context about the WaPo story about Artemis Langford.Want...
2023-10-261h 14
A Special Place in HellSorority MisterThis week, the girlx discuss the recent Washington Post article about Artemis Langford, a University of Wyoming student who was driven out of a sorority house for not being the right kind of girl — specifically, a 6’2” biological male with a five o’clock shadow and some strange hobbies.Relevant Links“Judge Rules against Female Sorority Members Who Sued after Chapter Admitted Male Student” from The National ReviewHOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”☕Follow Meghan’s other podcast, “The Unspeakable” 🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, Meghan’s community for freethinking women.
2023-10-221h 26
A Special Place in HellIsrael at WarAn uncharacteristically somber episode in Hell, in which we share our frustrations and disbelief at the callous responses to the attacks by Hamas on Israel.Relevant LinksJoint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine.Claudine Gay’s response to the student groups statement.“Nothing will ever be the same again” by Yael Bar-TurWant to hear the whole episode? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPINGFollow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”Follow Meghan’s other podcast, “The Unspeakable” Join The Unspeake...
2023-10-141h 27
A Special Place in HellGreg Lukianoff Confronts Cancel Culture DenialistsGreg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation For Individual Rights And Expression (FIRE) and author of the new book, “The Canceling Of The American Mind,” visits A Special Place to explain once and for all that cancel culture is real. For the much-anticipated followup to the seminal “The Coddling Of The American Mind,” Greg teamed up with 23-year-old wunderkind Rikki Schlott to show how cancel culture is much more than a moral panic. In fact, it’s a manifestation of the social dysfunction that results from people batting for power and status in a culture that has come to value grievance...
2023-10-131h 04
A Special Place in HellDeath of a LibrarianThis very book-heavy episode, the girls/women discuss the relevance of Banned Books Week since no one really reads and libraries are essentially homeless masturbation zones. Meghan shares her distaste for the morally-dubious lessons of The Giving Tree (the Shel Silverstein classic), but Sarah defends it as a necessary parenthood redpill. Finally, they discuss a problematic listener comment about single parenthood and the black community. Want to get early and bonus episodes? Upgrade your subscription.HOUSEKEEPING💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “Hold That Thought.”☕Follow Meghan’s other podcast, “The Unspeakable” ...
2023-10-071h 10
A Special Place in HellGoodbye Ibram Kendi. Hello Trad-lash.In this episode, Sarah and Meghan do their podcasterly duties and discuss the scandal (or is it merely a juicy nothingburger?) surrounding Ibram X Kendi’s mishandling of the more than $43 million that poured into his Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University. After getting high on schadenfreude fumes, they ultimately decide it’s not Kendi’s fault but the well-meaning (mostly white) enablers who threw money at him because, well, he was there — and apparently a genius.The womynx then move on to the topic on every commenter’s lips this week: Marriage and whether it’s good for s...
2023-09-291h 11
A Special Place in HellSarah Haider: Master Debater!This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comAnd what was the outcome? Despite being an uncharismatic, humorless scold with a normie American accent, Sarah won the debate! It hardly seemed possible, but she and her partner Grimes (aka “Techno Mechanicus’s mother) proved to a packed house that The Sexual Revolution™ was an unmitigated success a net positive.In this special episode for paying subscribers only, Sarah and Meghan discuss the debate, the audience, the afterparty, and the zombie apocalypse that surrounded the beautifully-restored Ace Theatre in a s...
2023-09-2213 min
A Special Place in HellIs college a waste of money?In this episode, the girls/wom(y)n — aka Meghan Daum and Sarah Haider — tackle the subject of academic tenure and ask whether it actually encourages ideological conformity at universities. Also under discussion: have the social sciences have been captured? Why are so many administrators? Moreover, why do universities bend over backward to cater to 18-year-olds when the people who really matter are aging donors? Finally, in this episode: AT LONG LAST we learn what Sarah and Meghan were like in high school: Meghan was a writing and oboe prodigy who was borderline learning disabled in other area...
2023-09-171h 04
A Special Place in HellIs college a waste of money? (Incl. Bonus)This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.comIn this episode, the girls/wom(y)n — aka Meghan Daum and Sarah Haider — tackle the subject of academic tenure and ask whether it actually encourages ideological conformity at universities. Also under discussion: have the social sciences have been captured? Why are so many administrators? Moreover, why do universities bend over backward to cater to 18-year-olds when the people who really matter are aging donors? Finally, in this episode: AT LONG LAST we learn what Sarah and Meghan were like...
2023-09-161h 04
A Special Place in HellHate Crimes & Ginger JihadisToday the girls/women discuss the phenomenon of Oliver Anthony, the breakout star behind the hit song Rich Men North of Richmond Is he actually a music industry plant and does it matter? Are political songs all terrible, or is it just Sarah’s opinions?Next, they talk about the New York Times’ evangelical zeal of reporting on hate crimes. In two recent, high-profile cases, a store owner was shot for defending a pride flag and a man was stabbed at a gas station while vogueing. Meghan and Sarah question whether or not there is more to thes...
2023-09-061h 16
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumMaria Bamford Wants To Join Your CultTo 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...
2023-08-311h 15
A Special Place in HellAll Your Problems Are Fake -- Penelope Trunk Returns! **TEASER**She’s back! Accomplished fem-trepreneur, take-no-prisoners life coach and model Aspergian Penelope Trunk returns to a special place – this time to help launch us in our new roles as advice ladies. Subscribers shared their problems (and, boy do you have problems) and we enlisted Penelope to help us help you. Along the way, Penelope registered her disapproval of our listeners' hobbies, Meghan’s hair, and in fact the entire podcast. To hear the full breadth of her wisdom (and to submit your own questions for the next advice episode), subscribe today! Next time it will only be us, but...
2023-08-1121 min
A Special Place in HellSaving Taliban BarbieIs it literally impossible to be a woman? Is Sarah a mean boss? Is Meghan a men’s rights activist? In this episode, Meghan reports back from seeing Barbie and offers her rewrite of America Ferrera’s “epic” feminist speech. Sarah does some global politics ‘splaining about why Western occupation couldn’t topple the Taliban and, along the way, reveals that her father named her after Linda Hamilton’s character in The Terminator. Plus: bonus content for everyone! In the BONUS-FOR-ALL segment: Sarah sh*ts all over American norms about toilet hygiene and brags about her new bidet seats. Meg...
2023-08-011h 59
A Special Place in HellSubway Masturbators and Radicalized SinglesThis week: Why New York (continues) to suck, why we still don’t trust the news, and what might be turning our young singles into raving SJWs / far-right nationalists. Plus, Sarah’s theory blaming (who else?) #AllWomen for the corrosion of our institutions, at which point Meghan breaks character and defend female honor. Will women put a stop to this madness? If they do, what will Meghan and Sarah complain about next? In the BONUS segment for members only: Why only fools spend money on expensive weddings, and why tiger moms are the key to resurr...
2023-06-241h 16
A Special Place in HellSubway Masturbators and Radicalized SinglesThis week: Why New York (continues) to suck, why we still don’t trust the news, and what might be turning our young singles into raving SJWs / far-right nationalists.Plus, Sarah’s theory blaming (who else?) #AllWomen for the corrosion of our institutions, at which point Meghan breaks character and defend female honor. Will women put a stop to this madness? If they do, what will Meghan and Sarah complain about next?In the BONUS segment for members only: Why only fools spend money on expensive weddings, and why tiger moms are the key to resu...
2023-06-241h 23
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThose College Students Might Surprise You: Sarah Hepola's Report From The ClassroomFan 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...
2023-05-242h 08
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumIt Should Have Been Over By Now, But It Isn't. Lionel Shriver On The Unending Culture Wars 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...
2023-05-081h 10
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumJean Twenge On Why Generational Differences MatterFor 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 an...
2023-04-241h 04A Special Place in HellSaira Rao and Regina Jackson DESTROY Our Inner KarensTo kick off the new season of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan welcome Saira Rao and Regina Jackson, founders of the anti-racism enterprise, Race To Dinner. Is Meghan holding back white woman tears? Is Sarah Nazi-adjacent? Or merely Meghan’s sidekick?Listen to the podcast on:Apple: https://apple.co/3jnEkALSpotify: https://spoti.fi/3l3WLLeAmazon & Audible: https://amzn.to/3JANQehi-Heart Radio: https://bit.ly/3jtpskoRSS: https://feeds.megaphone.fm/aspecialpl...Tune In...
2023-04-2157 min
A Special Place in HellSaira Rao and Regina Jackson DESTROY Our Inner KarensTo kick off the new season of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan welcome Saira Rao and Regina Jackson, founders of the anti-racism enterprise, Race To Dinner. Is Meghan holding back white woman tears? Is Sarah Nazi-adjacent? Or merely Meghan’s sidekick?Watch the video episode on YouTube: : https://bit.ly/3jrxz0A Listen to the podcast on: Apple: https://apple.co/3jnEkAL Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3l3WLLe Amazon & Audible: https://amzn.to/3JANQehi-Heart Radio: https://bit.ly/3jtpsko Tune In: ht...
2023-04-2153 min
A Special Place in HellColeman Hughes on Dating While HeterodoxThis week (actually it was a few weeks ago), the girls/women find themselves in NYC! In the bustling, dystopia-adjacent metropolis, Meghan reclaims OWNS the streets of her youth/recent middle age while Sarah is disoriented by the assault on her tender suburban senses and feels as if she is suffocating on the miasma of mold and garbage juice. And guess what? This was the first time Sarah and Meghan ever met person! Sarah still cannot believe Meghan is merely average in height. Meghan cannot believe Sarah doesn’t have a baby permanently attached to her hip. In...
2023-04-141h 53A Special Place in HellColeman Hughes on Dating While HeterodoxThis week (actually it was a few weeks ago), the girls/women find themselves in NYC! In the bustling, dystopia-adjacent metropolis, Meghan reclaims OWNS the streets of her youth/recent middle age while Sarah is disoriented by the assault on her tender suburban senses and feels as if she is suffocating on the miasma of mold and garbage juice. And guess what? This was the first time Sarah and Meghan ever met person! Sarah still cannot believe Meghan is merely average in height. Meghan cannot believe Sarah doesn’t have a baby permanently attached to her hip. In...
2023-04-141h 56
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumDon't Have Children If You Don't Want Them! Ruby Warrington on Women Without KidsRuby 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 "...
2023-03-271h 11A Special Place in HellRazib Khan Visits A Special PlaceWe’re still here! Thanks for your patience as we get things in place for the new season.In this episode, our last audio-only episode before we sell give away our souls to YouTube, problematic geneticist Razib Khan joins the ladies to talk about all the stuff you’re not supposed to talk about when it comes to human DNA. Topics include Hindu nationalism, Arab social control, and how tall Sarah’s husband needs to be if any of her boys have a prayer of not being undateable manlets. Even though Meghan is taller than Sarah, much of the...
2023-03-101h 35A Special Place in HellHate Crimes Good! Delayed Childbearing Bad!This episode includes the bonus content normally only for paying subscribers: You are all welcome.The girls/women take on so many meaty topics that they might as well be glowing from Jordan Peterson’s carnivore diet. After a quick plug for Meghan’s new (and soon-to-be-HUGE) Substack feature Dreams of Heterodox Podcasters, they begin with a discussion of Sarah’s recent Substack post about “how hate crime hoaxes are good.” (Never blame writers for headlines. Except on Substack.) They move on to a recent New York Times article about Meghan’s favorite non-cancel culture topic: real estate.
2023-02-102h 11
A Special Place in HellHate Crimes Good! Delayed Childbearing Bad!This episode includes the bonus content normally only for paying subscribers: You are all welcome. The girls/women take on so many meaty topics that they might as well be glowing from Jordan Peterson’s carnivore diet. After a quick plug for Meghan’s new (and soon-to-be-HUGE) Substack feature Dreams of Heterodox Podcasters, they begin with a discussion of Sarah’s recent Substack post about “how hate crime hoaxes are good.” (Never blame writers for headlines. Except on Substack.) They move on to a recent New York Times article about Meghan’s favorite non-cancel culture topic: real estate. Data shows...
2023-02-102h 07A Special Place in HellThe New York Times Tiptoes Toward GenderThe New York Times has been tiptoeing up to the gender youth story. Does that mean the subject will soon be safe to talk about in polite company? The ladies discuss a recent Times article about the effects of school policies that compel teachers to hide kids’ new gender identities from parents. In the interests of balance, they also talk about an article in The Federalist (which Sarah reads religiously despite being an atheist) bout how government overreach and agenda-driven advocacy caused a troubled teenage girl to be removed from her home and placed in child protective custody, where sh...
2023-02-021h 22
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumEveryone's Crazy: Paul Gilmartin's Mental Illness Happy HourComedian 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...
2023-01-301h 14
A Special Place in HellThe New York Times Tiptoes Toward GenderThe New York Times has been tiptoeing up to the gender youth story. Does that mean the subject will soon be safe to talk about in polite company? The ladies discuss a recent Times article about the effects of school policies that compel teachers to hide kids’ new gender identities from parents. In the interests of balance, they also talk about an article in The Federalist (which Sarah reads religiously despite being an atheist) bout how government overreach and agenda-driven advocacy caused a troubled teenage girl to be removed from her home and placed in child protective cu...
2023-01-261h 19
A Special Place in HellBetsy Ross: Token Hire?Is Sarah too-light skinned, or not light-skinned enough? What sort of impact will this have on A Special Place’s imminent move to video? Unrelatedly, how does one pronounce the Brothers Karamazov? Or the name of its author, for that matter? Plus, Sarah hears the pronunciation of Solzhenitsyn for the first and it’s like a blind person who can suddenly see. Speaking of great authors, in this episode, the girls/women discuss Lex Fridman’s reading list (because everyone else already has, and they are committed to leading from behind). After trashing critiquing the Lady Patriot Betsy...
2023-01-131h 29
A Special Place in HellH*ppy H*lid*ys You K*rensIs Christmas the Master Holiday? Or is it the Joe Rogan of holidays? Have young men OD’d on video games? Are so many words actually that harmful, or is it just Stanford? Plus: More Penelope Trunk backbiting. In this episode, the girls/women discuss their holiday plans, which are very unexciting. Was Sarah a trans-child, or was she just neglected? Has Meghan always hated babies? Should Sarah (who has large cheeks) gift her fat to Meghan (who needs padding), thus bonding them forever in the vain pursuit of beauty? And how wrong was Penelope Trunk anyway? Th...
2022-12-281h 14
A Special Place in HellAre We Autistic? Penelope Trunk AdvisesIn this episode, Sarah and Meghan welcome business coach, blogger and all-around opinion-ista, Penelope Trunk. Should women get plastic surgery? Are video games the key to a future as a business tycoon? Can women run businesses anyway?? Penelope is a professional career coach, so she tells Sarah and Meghan what they are doing wrong (spoiler: almost everything) and why they will never make it in this business (or perhaps, any other). She also administers some tests to determine whether they’re autistic. In the bonus portion for subscribers only, Meghan and Sarah talk ab...
2022-12-191h 24
A Special Place in HellThe Grift That Keeps On GivingThis week, Meghan and Sarah revisit their conversation from the previous episode about hormonal birth control. Is Sarah an anti-birth control zealot secretly advocating for legislation to ban all contraception? Is Meghan too forgiving of men who hate condoms? They then move onto late breaking Twitter news (now known as “old news”). As they recorded, Matt Taibbi’s bombshell thread about political bias and content suppression at Twitter was unspooling in real time. Can they make sense of it? (Mostly.) Do they care? (Yes!) After that, Meghan talks about the recent article in Semafor about the novelist Junot...
2022-12-091h 19
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumDo Only Liberals Go To Therapy? Meet Dea Bridge, the "conservative therapist" Meghan interviewed for The New York TimesLast fall, Meghan was commissioned by The New York Times to conduct an interview with a therapist who was politically conservative. The editors were curious about the question of whether most therapists lean toward the political left and whether this causes some some patients to self-censor because they fear judgment. They editors tracked down Dea Bridge, a licensed professional counselor in Colorado, and The Q&A-style interview was published in the October 4, 2022 edition of the Times opinion section. The interivew touched a nerve with readers, both positively and negatively. One of the central questions readers asked was also one of...
2022-12-051h 11
A Special Place in HellJagged Little Birth Control PillIn this episode of A Special Place in Hell, recorded on Thanksgiving eve, Sarah and Meghan discuss their plans, including why it’s taken Sarah awhile to get the hang of this holiday, especially the cranberry sauce and eating at 2pm part. (You can read Meghan’s take on Thanksgiving in her latest Substack essay.) After touching on a few breaking news stories that everyone’s forgotten by now, they turn to the subject of birth control. Sarah read a book about it and Meghan watched a documentary and they each report back on what they learned—or, in Meghan’s...
2022-11-271h 16
A Special Place in HellKatie Herzog Visits HellThis week, superstar podcaster Katie Herzog visits A Special Place In Hell to talk about what it’s like to dwell in that sordid sphincter of public discourse known as Twitter. Her podcast, Blocked and Reported, which she co-hosts with Jesse Signal, may live in indentured servitude to some of the the worst the Internet has to offer, but Katie herself knows how to live off the land — or at least touch grass. Here, she talks with Sarah and Meghan about how her wife keeps her grounded, how she fears she’ll be working in a grocery store one day an...
2022-11-211h 15
A Special Place in HellMusk Derangement SyndromeThis week (or was it last week?) the girls/women monitor the midterm election returns as they re-record the episode (#BecauseStandards). Along the way they discuss the latest object of mass cultural derangement: Elon Musk. Is Musk the new Trump? Is Twitter really any different than it was a few weeks ago? It’s difficult to say, but as it happens Meghan spent several days hanging out with Musk several years ago when she profiled him for Vogue (in 2015; not in 2014 like she kept saying). She describes their interactions (sort of) and recounts having lunch with Musk’s first wife...
2022-11-141h 22
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumGain Confidence By Losing Certainty. Ilana Redstone on Breaking Free from the Certainty Trap Ilana Redstone is an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is also the faculty director and a co-founder of the Mill Institute, an organization aimed at helping educators learn how to foster productive, respectful discussions that make room for a variety of viewpoints in the classroom. In this conversation, Ilana talks about her work around a concept she's coined "the certainty trap." The idea is that being "absolutely sure" about a particular position or opinion may actually be a sign of underlying doubt. Unsurprisingly, this kind of unconscious cognitive dissonance may in fact have a...
2022-11-0759 min
A Special Place in HellWe're Quitting Twitter! (And Moving To Canada!)In this edition of the podcast, the girls/women kick off the discussion with reports on their respective special events; Sarah’s Rights and Religions Forum conference in Washington, DC and Meghan’s latest Unspeakeasy retreat in New York. Lamenting their ongoing habit of saying “I’m a liberal, but . . .” before talking about anything that might be construed as right wing, Sarah says the noticed the same tic in a book she’s reading about the unintended consequences of the birth control pill. #NotThatWeDontSupportBirthControl. Speaking of procreation, they move on to the subject of fecund billionaire Elon Musk and his purchase...
2022-11-021h 11
A Special Place in HellLife Is CringeOn this episode of A Special Place in Hell, the girls/women tackle it all; marriage, sexism, racism, jock smells. This is despite physical and emotional exhaustion from their very special projects; Sarah’s conference and Meghan’s Unspeakeasy retreat. Sarah begins by wondering whether “self-hating millennial” is misleading and, god forbid, cringe. Meghan wonders whether all of childhood is cringe. They then move onto the topic of marriage and expectations and whether mothers should move into “Lady Communes” because marriage sucks and husbands are disappointing and #patriarchy. Meghan concludes that Lady Communes are maybe very useful when we are all...
2022-10-271h 08
A Special Place in HellLIT-eral ViolenceIn this episode of A Special Place in Hell, the girls/women wade through the sorry details of last week’s scandale littéraire involving Hobart, a literary magazine no one had ever heard of until last Wednesday. Meghan is a veteran of the literary world and it turns out it’s her job to educate Sarah about how things work. They discuss the phenomenon of “white Brooklyn ladies of the publishing business,” as coined by the writer Alex Perez, a Cuban American writer and Iowa Writers Workshop alum who is Sick Of The Wokeness™. Meghan talks about her own experie...
2022-10-201h 35
A Special Place in HellJon Stewart's Gender DerangementIn this episode of A Special Place In Hell, the girls/women lose their sh*t over Jon Stewart’s latest virtue signal flare from the ideological bunker in which he appears to be held captive. It’s especially egregious considering a new Reuters story that, for the first time, lays out actual numbers about how many kids are being medicalized for gender dysphoria, including getting invasive surgeries. But before that, they discuss Meghan’s New York Times interview with a “conservative therapist” that made a splash last week. What is a “conservative therapist” anyway? And why do so many self-iden...
2022-10-111h 41
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumWhy Can't We Get Back To Normal? Public Health Expert Leslie Bienen on Learning To Coexist With CovidIt's a very special "Meghan has Covid" edition of The Unspeakable! With barely any voice, Meghan speaks with Leslie Bienen, a public health expert and author of dozens of op-eds calling for a saner approach to covid safety measures. Unlike most people, including (and especially?) most journalists, Leslie knows how to read and interpret scientific data. She's also a veterinarian who has studied and written about zoonotic diseases that spread from wildlife to humans. In the fall of 2020, her dismay over seemingly nonsensical school closures led her to become outspoken about the growing hysteria around Covid illness and transmission, particularly...
2022-10-101h 08
A Special Place in HellThe Adventures of Baron Munchausen By ProxyThis week on A Special Place in Hell, the girls/women spend way too much time on names. Are you a racist for mispronouncing Nimrata Nikki Randhawa? (Yes). Is the aforementioned a white supremacist for changing her name to Nikki Haley? (Yes). Should Meghan become Meghan X Daum? (Definitely). Why did George W. Bush call his wife “Bushie”? (Unclear). The girls/women then move on to a lighter topic: the new guidelines announced at the recent World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) annual meeting, which contain protocols for gender-affirming surgeries on minors and, at long last, reco...
2022-10-041h 16
A Special Place in HellZoomer Dating 101It’s the second ever special guest episode of A Special Place In Hell! This week, journalist Suzy Weiss visits the pod, not only fulfilling Sarah’s call for a Gen Z guest but also sharing her insights from her recent Common Sense article Generation Swipe. Suzy explains what a decade of dating app culture has done to the psyches and future plans (or lack thereof) for millennial and Gen Z-ers. It is depressing out there, but Suzy is optimistic. (A welcome change from nihilistic Sarah.)Suzy also talks about what it’s like being the sister of one...
2022-09-271h 45
A Special Place in HellMeghan Gets Ratioed. Sarah Gets Offended.Does Meghan look like a media elite? (Does that blue check make her look fat?) Would wearing hijab help Sarah's career?On Saturday evening, as As Sarah and Meghan recorded this episode of A Special Place In Hell, Meghan was being ratioed on Twitter after posting an article so absurd she felt it needed no comment. (Wrong! The mob thinks she wrote it, and now they’re piling on.) But before assessing the damage, the girls/women respond to listener feedback about some of their earlier conversations about one of their favorite topics: how to live your li...
2022-09-191h 22
A Special Place in HellHow to (Not) Have It AllIn this episode of A Special Place In Hell, the girls/women make some perfunctory remarks about the death of Queen Elizabeth, with Sarah praising the television series The Crown and Meghan explaining why her favorite royal is Camilla Parker Bowles. They then reflect on last week’s conversation with their first ever guest, Kmele Foster of The Fifth Column podcast. Kmele, who met his wife when they were teenagers, had some fascinating things to say about the benefits of finding your mate early in life. Is he onto something? It is better to pair up with someone you me...
2022-09-131h 10
A Special Place in HellKmele Foster Visits A Special PlaceFor months, the girls/women have been threatening to have a Special Place special guest. And here he is! Kmele Foster, who’s one-third of the beloved and mega-popular Fifth Column Podcast, visits the pod to talk about . . he’s not sure what. (In fact, he’s not even entirely sure where he is or what he’s doing there.) Sarah and Meghan inform Kmele that he’s there to represent All Men and to explain the current state of masculinity, including why so many men are addicted to porn, unable to form meaningful relationships, and are getting outpaced by women i...
2022-09-061h 34
A Special Place in HellRaison D'ebtBuckle up debtors and non-indebted allies, this episode of A Special Place in Hell has everything: class, college, and fresh cut flowers. The girls/women start by discussing Meghan’s CLASS-ic New Yorker piece, My Misspent Youth, in which she describes her twenty-something struggle to achieve the shabby chic dream life of a working writer in New York City. Trigger warning: her rent was less than $1200 a month. Meanwhile, Sarah shares her experience as an immigrant with a low-income upbringing caught between the worlds of her high achieving classmates and her down-on-their-luck neighbors. In this, the...
2022-08-301h 21
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumIs Solitude Over? Is Thinking Dead? A Conversation with William DeresiewiczAlmost two years ago, author William Deresiewicz visited The Unspeakable to talk about his book The Death Of The Artist: How Creators Are Struggling to Survive in the Age of Billionaires and Big Tech. It was an insightful and moving conversation about the near-impossibility of surviving as a working artist in a "creator economy." Many listeners wrote to Meghan to express their gratitude as well as their sorrow over the hard truths Bill laid out. Now Bill is back to talk about his new book, a collection of essays entitled The Death Of Solitude. The essays span more than a dec...
2022-08-291h 15
A Special Place in HellSorry, Not SorryIt’s the TENTH (10th!) episode of A Special Place In Hell. In this extra special Special Place, Sarah and Meghan honor the work and legacy of Norah Vincent, the immersive journalist whose untimely death was reported last week. For her 2006 book Self-Made Man, Norah* spent eighteen months infiltrating male spaces as “Ned,” an alter-ego that allowed her to observe how men behave when there are no women around. Though the stunt seems dated now, Norah’s work and outlook were strikingly ahead of her time.Responding to clips from interviews from ABC News and NPR’s Talk of th...
2022-08-221h 23
A Special Place in HellRushdie, Ratios and Friend PhrenologyIn this 9th episode of A Special Place in Hell, Meghan kicks off the conversation by pondering a friend’s advice that she not make fun of herself for being an “aging Gen Xer.” She asks why Sarah’s tagline gets to be “self-hating millennial” when she, too, is self-hating (to which Sarah explains that she doesn’t hate herself, merely the entire rest of her generation). They then move on to an uncharacteristically somber topic: the attack on writer Salman Rushdie. Sarah expertly lays out the chronology of the whole affair, even though the offending work, The Satanic Verses, was pu...
2022-08-161h 33
A Special Place in HellMothers, Martyrs, and Peach EatersIn this episode of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan discuss the recent meme craze spawned by a comic about eating peaches. Since the comic had to do with motherhood, a subject Meghan knows nothing about, Sarah took the lead and explained why mothers sometimes make more work for themselves than is strictly (or remotely) necessary. They then spend some time contemplating hookup culture and “sex positivity,” which Sarah thinks is anti-woman and Meghan suspects (posits? hypothesizes?) is for ugly chicks. #JustAskingQuestionsThe women/girls then move on to their main topic, a recent Honestly podcast...
2022-08-081h 16
A Special Place in HellLowering Women's Voices (Literally!) Incl. BONUS Content For AllIn this seventh episode of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan are feeling generous and decided to make the bonus content at the end available to everybody (you are all very welcome)! But before they get to the extra-spicy stuff, they take on two medium-spicy topics. The first concerns policing; specifically policing women’s voices. Provoked by a tweet from actor Jane Lynch inveighing upon women to speak in lower registers, the women/girls consider why higher pitches—not to mention “uptalk” — is taken less seriously. Meghan, who has spent an inordinate amount of time over the years thin...
2022-08-011h 43
A Special Place in HellCuddle Party In HellIn this sixth installment of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah bows to “white supremacy urgency” and powers through her illness, which is either COVID or Monkeypox. Meghan talks about attending a screening of the film Jihad Rehab, a “controversial” documentary that made it to the Sundance Film Festival, only to be deemed “a truckload of hate” and effectively wiped out of existence, leaving the first-time filmmaker without work or any financial or community support. As she watched the film, Meghan couldn’t figure out what the problem was. But Sarah guessed it on the first try!The girls...
2022-07-261h 14
A Special Place in HellHas Porn Ruined Sex?In episode 5 of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan get into some pretty spicy territory: the monoculture of academia (may not be suitable for sensitive listeners or people without PhDs) and the omnipresence of pornography. Citing a recent Washington Post article about the percentage of professors whose parents also held PhDs, Sarah talks about the lack of conservative thinkers on college campuses and wonders how anyone can get a complete education in such an environment. She and Meghan ponder the differences between left-leaning intellectuals and conservative intellectuals, a line of inquiry that inevitably leads to a discussion...
2022-07-191h 31
A Special Place in HellYou Are All Dead To UsIn this fourth installment of A Special Place In Hell, the girls/women clarify a few matters, starting with the meaning of the name of the podcast. They then analyze their Apple Podcast reviews and respond to criticism that the show is a departure from their usual seriousness. Are they’re letting down their diehard fans by trafficking in snark rather than upholding their usual gravitas? (Answer: whatever.)Meghan announces that she’s putting The Unspeakable podcast on hiatus for the rest of the summer so she can focus on A Special Place In Hell as well as h...
2022-07-121h 27
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum"Are You Are Becoming A Republican Or Something?" Sarah Hepola On Letting Down The Left Without Ever Leaving ItThis week on the podcast, author and podcaster Sarah Hepola is back! On her last visit to The Unspeakable, back in March, Sarah and Meghan talked about Sarah's bombshell Atlantic Magazine article, The Things I'm Afraid To Write. But they got a little sidetracked by some other subjects, including the barely-known details of the Stanford swimmer rape case, which Sarah has researched in depth. In this conversation, which was recorded exactly a week after the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Sarah talks about the immediate aftermath of that decision in Texas, where she lives, and why the alarm bells on soc...
2022-07-111h 36
A Special Place in Hell3: Karen Independence Day!(Hey! Paying subscribers! This is not the post for you— you are special. For you, we have an extra-long episode, which you can access, here). In this THIRD installment of A Special Place In Hell, the girls/women do their best to celebrate Independence Day despite their subjugation by the patriarchy, the Republican Party and the woman-hating world in general. They discuss the tenor of the public conversation around the overturning of Roe v. Wade and wonder if their long range thinking and lack of catastrophizing amounts to a “tone problem.” They then compare generational notes when it comes to act...
2022-07-041h 24
A Special Place in Hell2. Shmashmortion BreakdownIn this (second!) episode of A Special Place In Hell, the girls/women discuss the use of the word “girls” in the show’s tagline and whether it’s anti-feminist. Meghan describes visiting the set (well, sitting on a patio outside the set) of Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday to watch Blocked and Reported co-host Katie Herzog’s debut appearance on the show, alongside Andrew Sullivan. Sarah recalls her own guest appearance on Real Time (also with Andrew Sullivan!) and both agree that going on that show is a traumatic experience that most media people will nonetheless kill for. ...
2022-06-271h 26
A Special Place in Hell1: The Elephant In The Pickle JarIn this inaugural edition of A Special Place In Hell, Sarah and Meghan kick things off with an explanation of how to pronounce (or not bother pronouncing) their names. From there, they ponder their 20-plus year age difference and do not think about the fact that Meghan is technically old enough to be Sarah’s . . oh never mind. They then commence with in-depth discussions of three recent pieces of media content. The first is Ryan Grim’s treatise in the Intercept about the epidemic of personnel meltdowns at progressive nonprofit organizations. (As a nonprofit leader herself, Sarah found this very...
2022-06-221h 33
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Canceled Collective Planning Committee: Jamie Kilstein Returns To The UnspeakableThis week, comedian Jamie Kilstein returns to The Unspeakable for a wide-ranging, profanity-laced conversation about creativity, cancellation, relationships, sex, dating, breakups and numerous other subjects. Last fall, Jamie and Meghan talked about their respective podcasting woes and surviving in the new creative economy, which poses extra challenges for Jamie, since he was the target of a cancellation mob several years ago. This time, they get more personal. In addition to discussing Jamie's recent return to standup, they talk about their relationship patterns, their attachment styles, and, most importantly, which members of the so-called IDW Jamie would sleep with. The answers...
2022-05-161h 48
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThis Is What It's Like To Be Banned From Twitter: Meghan Murphy Forges Ahead And Falls Behind In Twitter Exile Last week, Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for over 41 billion dollars. This came on the heels of his purchase last month of nearly ten percent of the company. This activity has invited speculation that the platform might shift away from what some users see as infamous censoriousness and into more free speech direction. That's why Meghan invited Meghan Murphy onto the podcast. In 2018, Murphy, an independent journalist and blogger, was permanently banned from Twitter for, as she sees it, a few banal tweets about who counts as a woman, a man or anything else. She was never told what...
2022-04-181h 03
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumIs Nuance A Career Killer? Comedian Jamie Kilstein on Taking the High Road To NowhereThis week Meghan welcomes comedian Jamie Kilstein. This is the audio version of a video interview they recorded for The Unspeakeasy, the new video feature of the podcast available to Patreon supporters. Meghan decided to make the conversation available as a regular podcast because in addition to talking about comedy and what Jamie's been up to recently, they got pretty deep into some topics that are near and dear to the show, including Meghan's signature issue, "nuance." They ask whether trying to uphold nuance in the face of relentless group signaling and rage bait is a lost cause, not...
2021-11-081h 28
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumBitter Homes and Gardens: Larry Clarke and Fielding Edlow on Staying Afloat, Staying in Love, and Staying Insured in HollywoodThis week Meghan welcomes guests Larry Clarke and Fielding Edlow. They are actors/writers/producers and also the married couple behind the YouTube series Bitter Homes and Gardens, a comedy, doled in out short episodes, about a married couple named . . Larry and Fielding. This edition of The Unspeakable is a bit of an experiment in that it's the audio version of a conversation recorded for The Unspeakeasy, the video series that lives on the podcast's new YouTube channel. Even though Larry and Fielding have solid industry careers going decades, they are emblematic of the way working actors have had to...
2021-11-011h 13
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Awkward Files: Father-daughter coauthors Dr. Drew and Paulina Pinsky Bridge the Generation GapMeghan's guests this week are father and daughter Dr. Drew Pinsky and Paulina Pinsky, who are coauthors of the new book, It Doesn't Have To Be Awkward: Dealing With Relationships, Consent and Other Hard-To-Talk-About Stuff. In the book, they address issues around relationships, boundaries and sexual consent and seek to bridge the generation gap between baby boomers like Drew and millennials like Paulina 28. (Gen-Xers are once again excused from the table.) In this interview, Drew and Paulina talk about why this particular generation gap seems more pronounced than previous ones, especially with regard to young people wanting to leave the...
2021-09-271h 20
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumChelsea Handler Checks Her Privilege. (And spars a little with Meghan.)Meghan met actor/author/comedian Chelsea Handler several years ago when they attempted to develop Meghan's 2014 book, The Unspeakable (no direct connection to this podcast) into a television series. In fine Hollywood tradition, the project failed to launch, but the two remained friendly and Chelsea agreed to come on Meghan's podcast to talk about her own podcast, Dear Chelsea, which offers advice to lovelorn or otherwise tormented or confused listeners. Chelsea talked about the advice she's both given and received (and often ignored) over the years, her foray into psychotherapy, her interrogation of her own privilege, and the effect of...
2021-08-301h 19
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum"Am I The A**hole?" Dan Savage on Giving Advice, Taking Criticism and Keeping Up With The TimesThis week, Meghan talks with legendary sex and relationship columnist Dan Savage. Recounting thirty years of correspondence from people seeking advice, Dan reflects on how anxieties and concerns have changed over the decades. Whereas he once got mostly practical questions about sex, he now hears from people who describe a relationship dynamic and ask some version of "am I the asshole?" Dan also talks about how he's become gentler over the years in doling out advice, the legacy of his famous "It Gets Better" campaign, and his discomfort with Meghan's "favorite" issue, the surge in transgender identity declarations among young...
2021-08-091h 32
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan DaumThe Tyranny Of the Mid-Career Pivot: A Meghan MonologueIn this very special, guest-free episode of The Unspeakable Podcast, Meghan talks to her listeners about the now ubiquitous concept of the "mid-career pivot." Drawing from her experience as a longtime freelance writer who has had to shift her entire work philosophy to accommodate a changing media landscape, Meghan shares several ideas and at least one pet theory. That theory has to do with the ways that Generation X is in an especially precarious position when it comes to this pivot, mostly because they're too young to retire but too old to be digital natives. She also talks about launching...
2021-08-0228 min