Afleveringen
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The 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 update your subscription:
Navigate to your profile image in the top right corner and click.
Go to “Manage Subscription”
Next to your subscription type, select “Change.”
Select yearly and confirm.
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 disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists. -
In his new memoir, An Exercise In Uncertainty, journalist and editor Jonathan Gluck chronicles more than 20 years of living with multiple myeloma, an incurable but treatable cancer. He joined me to talk about how he’s coped with illness, why he chose this moment to write about it, and, most importantly, how he’s learned to deal with a condition all of us face to one degree or another: uncertainty.
Jon explains the concept of “predemption”—a mindset that’s helped him find something positive, even in the toughest moments—and describes the invisible aspects of cancer, how it affected family dynamics, and the honest conversations he’s had with his kids about his condition. He reflects on the strain illness can have on relationships, especially marriage, and how fly fishing became a crucial form of therapy and connection.
GUEST BIO
Jonathan Gluck is a writer and editor whose work has appeared in The New York Times and The Washington Post. He was deputy editor of New York magazine for ten years, after which he worked as managing editor of Vogue. His work has been recognized with multiple National Magazine Awards.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.
📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom.
📹 The Unspeakeasy Live livestream takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live.
Stuff to read and listen to:
New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: The L.A. Fires Taught Me To Accept Help
Recent(ish) solo episodes :
January 9: The First 24 Hours January 16: The Immaterial World January 27: Housing Wars February 5: Remembrance Of Things Past February 13: What Is A "Catastrophe?" March 2: A Mental Infection March 31: Dignity Is Out Of Style📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 retreat season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info here.
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Zijn er afleveringen die ontbreken?
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The 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 two decades away. At the time, I was 47 and, strangely, my life was a lot like it had been at 27, though of course I was older and the rent was higher. The essay also explores, among other things, the concept of the “situational setpoint,” which is the state of life I seem to find myself in no matter how long I spend trying to live a different kind of life. 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 disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner
From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists. -
This week I’m joined by Caroline Fraser, author of Prairie Fires, the Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of beloved author Laura Ingalls Wilder. Fraser’s latest book, Murderland: Crime and Bloodlust In The Time Of Serial Killers, is a notable departure from the world of sunbonnets and covered wagons. This time, she explores the proliferation of serial killers—figures like the Green River Killer Gary Ridgeway, I-5 killer Randall Woodfield, and, of course, Ted Bundy—who haunted the Pacific Northwest during the 1970s to 1990s.
Why were there so many serial killers during this time and in this region? Fraser points to the “lead-crime hypothesis,” which suggests that a spike in violent crime during this era can be traced back to widespread childhood lead exposure from gasoline, paint, and industrial sources. In the book, Fraser expands on this theory, connecting the ecological and societal dots between environmental toxins and waves of violent crime. She also draws on her own experience growing up in the Seattle area, giving personal context to a much larger story.
GUEST BIO
Caroline Fraser is the author of Prairie Fires: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder, which won the Pulitzer Prize as well as the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Heartland Prize, and the Plutarch Award for Best Biography of the Year. She is also the author of God's Perfect Child: Living and Dying in the Christian Science Church, and her writing has appeared in the New York Review of Books, the New Yorker, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Times, and the London Review of Books, among other publications.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.
📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom.
📹 The Unspeakeasy Live livestream takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live.
Stuff to read and listen to:
New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: The L.A. Fires Taught Me To Accept Help
Recent(ish) solo episodes:
January 9: The First 24 Hours January 16: The Immaterial World January 27: Housing Wars February 5: Remembrance Of Things Past February 13: What Is A "Catastrophe?" March 2: A Mental Infection March 31: Dignity Is Out Of Style📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 retreat season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info here.
Housekeeping📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and more.
🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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The 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 writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner
From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists. -
Alma Deutscher, often described as a modern-day Mozart, was a prodigy whose early accomplishments include composing a piano sonata at age six, a short opera at seven, a violin concerto at nine, and her first full-length opera at ten. At twelve, she was profiled on 60 Minutes, and in 2021 began conducting studies in Vienna with Johannes Wildner.
Now 20, Alma has just written her first ballet score—a collaboration with Lincoln Jones, founder and director of American Contemporary Ballet (ACB) in Los Angeles.
Lincoln joined me on the podcast just over two years ago, offering unique insights into the complexities of running a dance company and the profound art of dance itself.
In this episode, Lincoln and Alma discuss their new ballet, The Euterpides, inspired by Euterpe, the ancient Greek Muse of Music. This piece follows the Muse’s goddess daughters as they descend to dance with a mortal, exploring the age-old connection between inspiration and craft.
We recorded this conversation on Memorial Day to get it out ahead of the ballet’s world premiere, which runs June 5–28 in Los Angeles. If you’re local (or can make the trip!), you’ll also hear about an audience support campaign, offering a rare chance for the public to get involved in bringing this ballet to life.
GUEST BIO
Alma Deutscher has composed a number of acclaimed orchestral works, including a full-length opera, by the age of 10. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall and the Vienna State Opera. She’s earned the admiration of classical music luminaries like Zubin Mehta, who called her “one of the greatest musical talents of today.”
Lincoln Jones is the founder, director, and principal choreographer of the American Contemporary Ballet in Los Angeles. Their collaboration, The Euterpides, premieres on June 5.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.
📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays, 3-4 pm ET. We will meet on Zoom.
📹 The Unspeakeasy Live livestream takes place every Thursday at 3:00 p.m. ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live.
Stuff to read and listen to:
New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: The L.A. Fires Taught Me To Accept Help
Recent(ish) solo episodes :
January 9: The First 24 Hours January 16: The Immaterial World January 27: Housing Wars February 5: Remembrance Of Things Past February 13: What Is A "Catastrophe?" March 2: A Mental Infection March 31: Dignity Is Out Of Style📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 retreat season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info here.
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This week, I share an essay from The Catastrophe Hour. There’s no audiobook available (yet), so I offer this reading of the final essay in the collection, The End Of The Personal. It’s a meditation on first-person writing in a world that seems to have overdosed on oversharing.
The era of the personal is over. The writer sees this now. One day, she just gets it. Everything is personal so nothing is personal. The erosion has been a long time coming. First, the personal became political. Then it became porn. Now it has become dust.
The Catastrophe Hour book club begins on June 11 and runs every Wednesday from 3:00-4:00 p.m. ET for 14 consecutive weeks. We will read one essay each week, starting from the beginning of the book. Audio excerpts of each essay will be released every week as special podcast episodes. (They’ll be excerpts, so you’ll still want to get the book.)
To join the book club, become a paying subscriber to the Substack at the annual level. More info here.
HOUSEKEEPING
📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!
📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.
📘 The Catastrophe Hour book club for yearly paying subscribers starts June 11 and will run for 14 consecutive Wednesdays 3-4pm ET. We will meet on Zoom. I’ll make a post about it very soon with more info.
📹 The Unspeakeasy Live livestream happens every Thursday at 3pm ET. Look for a notification on your Substack app when we’re live.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 retreat season is underway. It includes a just-announced COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info here.
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✌️Upgrade your subscription if you want to hear the full conversation: http://bit.ly/3OJJRO9
🔔 Did you like this episode? Don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment down below.
[DESCRIPTION]
You can upgrade your subscription here: http://bit.ly/3OJJRO9
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GUEST BIO
Peter Moskos teaches in the Department of Law, Police Science, and Criminal Justice Administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. Moskos, a Princeton and Harvard-trained sociologist, is a former Baltimore City Police Officer and is the director of John Jay College’s NYPD Executive Master’s Leadership Program.
Also, check out Peter’s previous Unspeakable interviews:
Can We Get Smarter About Policing? A conversation with Professor of Police Science (and former Baltimore cop) Peter Moskos: https://bit.ly/3H0209F
How Are We Feeling About Policing These Days? https://bit.ly/4ms8rCP
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HOUSEKEEPING
✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: https://bit.ly/3H028pF
🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women: https://bit.ly/43yJAWf
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In this much-anticipated interview (at least by me), humorist and journalist Henry Alford joins me to discuss his recent bestselling book I Dream Of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots. In a Joni nerd-off that may be unrivaled in podcast history, Henry and I talk about his research and reporting for this book, what he learned about Mitchell’s contradictions and complexities, why he thinks she might be on the autism spectrum, and, above all, why Mitchell’s music holds such a profound place in so many people’s emotional and even intellectual lives.
GUEST BIO
Henry Alford is a humorist and journalist who has contributed to the New Yorker since 1998. He is the author of seven books, including Big Kiss, which won a Thurber Prize, and the recent I Dream of Joni: A Portrait of Joni Mitchell in 53 Snapshots, a national bestseller.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
New feature! The Unspeakeasy Live is a twice-weekly livestream featuring casual, spontaneous conversations with guests, friends, and sometimes just myself. Tuesdays and Thursdays at 3 pm ET. Recordings of livestreams are posted the next day (or soon thereafter) for paying subscribers.
📖 Order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.
May 17 I’ll be in Denver at The Process discussing my new book, The Catastrophe Hour. 7pm. Info here.
Stuff to read and listen to:
New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: The L.A. Fires Taught Me To Accept Help
Recent solo episodes :
January 9: The First 24 Hours January 16: The Immaterial World January 27: Housing Wars February 5: Remembrance Of Things Past February 13: What Is A "Catastrophe?" March 2: A Mental Infection March 31: Dignity Is Out Of Style📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy’s 2025 retreat season is underway. Find out where we’ll be!
🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
🔥 Make a donation of any amount to help me recover from the fire by using the tip jar.
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Writer and podcaster Louise Perry returns to the pod to discuss her new book, A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century, in which she takes ideas from her 2022 book The Case Against The Sexual Revolution and adapts them for teenagers and young adults. In this conversation, we pick up from where we left off in our 2022 interview, catching up on the evolving discourse around the winners and losers of the sexual revolution and trying to parse what’s going with the “online right” and its Little House On The Prairie fantasies and overall fixation on homestead life. (News alert: People on the American frontier did suffer from depression. There was even a name for it: Prairie Madness.) We also talk about the 4B movement (what does “B” stand for anyway?), conservative matchmaking initiatives (has Louise crowdsourced her own yenta business?), and the need for a more interventionist approach to relationships and family life.
Guest bio:Louise Perry is a writer and activist based in London. This year, she co-founded a non-partisan feminist think tank called The Other Half, where she serves as Research Director. Her debut book is The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century.
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Journalist and political commentator Emily Jashisnky, host of Undercurrents and co-host of Counterpoints, is a 31-year-old Evangelical Christian from Wisconsin. She’s also (for my money) one of the sanest, smartest, and most principled voices in the information landscape these days. In this conversation, we talk about Emily’s philosophical and political roots, her college years during the height of the woke era, and her thoughts about the state of the Republican party (she considers herself a conservative but not a Republican), the perils and promise of the Trump agenda, and what’s driving Elon Musk—not to mention keeping him awake.
Emily Jashinsky is an American journalist based in Washington, D.C. She is the D.C. Correspondent at UnHerd and co-host of the show "Counter Points" with Ryan Grim on the Breaking Points channel, a Top 10 Politics podcast.
Housekeeping
Listen to my recent audio essays about the Los Angeles wildfires and (moving right along) the state of public discourse in the new Trump era.
Read my recent essay in The New York Times about accepting help.
Pre-order my new book The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays (which is unrelated to the current catastrophe). Either from you-know-where or (even better) directly from the publisher, Notting Hill Editions.
Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and beyond.
Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. -
For the last several years, we yelled about the left eating itself. Is the right now feasting on the same poisonous meal? This week Meghan is joined by Free Press reporter River Page, whose February 19 article The Online Right Is Building A Monster, articulated a phenomenon she’d long observed but could never quite parse; the phenomenon of right-wing trolls making antisemitic and misogynist memes as well as other forms of rage bait in order to own the libs. River explains the origins and effects of this rising movement, dispelling Meghan's preconceptions that most of these trolls are bots or teenagers (alas, many are grown men). Speaking of grown men, the conversation wanders into an exploration of why young males are so obsessed with their bodies and physical appearance. Should we blame Instagram and TikTok? Maybe. But River thinks there’s a connection between income inequality and male vanity. When you believe you’ll never be able to afford a house or a middle-class family life, controlling your own body may be the only control you have.
Guest Bio:River Page is a reporter at The Free Press. Previously, he worked as a staff writer at Pirate Wires, covering technology, politics, and culture. His work has also appeared in Compact, American Affairs, and the Washington Examiner, among other publications.
You can upgrade your subscription here: http://bit.ly/3OJJRO9
HOUSEKEEPING Unspeakeasy Retreats: https://bit.ly/3Qnk92n Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women:https://bit.ly/44dnw0v Pre-order Meghan's new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays. Coming April 15, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/2t4rb76r
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Recorded February 13, 2025
On my birthday, with my laryngitis almost gone, I share some audio reflections about my recent New York Times opinion essay about losing my home in the fire, my current housing situation, and my former housing blunders. Most importantly, I offer a sneak preview of my ironically-titled forthcoming book, The Catastrophe Hour.
New York Times, Jan 31, 2025: The L.A. Fires Taught Me To Accept Help
Earlier fire dispatches.
January 9: The First 24 Hours — https://bit.ly/3CgZTMV
January 16: The Immaterial World — https://bit.ly/40QLfVO
January 27: Housing Wars — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1eVZpYBpd2g&t=2s
How to help? Become a paying subscriber to this podcast on Substack or leave a donation of any amount in the tip jar. Your support is deeply appreciated: https://bit.ly/42wIZnW
HOUSEKEEPING Unspeakeasy Retreats: https://bit.ly/3Qnk92n Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women:https://bit.ly/44dnw0v Pre-order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays. Coming April 15, 2025. https://tinyurl.com/2t4rb76r
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February 10, 2025 edition
Recorded December 16, 2024
Chloé Valdary was last on the podcast in May 2021, talking about Theory of Enchantment, an enterprise devoted to more nuanced and art-focussed approaches to DEI. She’s back to discuss what she’s been up to since then. A lot!
In this conversation, recorded in December, Chloé talks about her journey from prolific tweeting to long-form writing and the impact of social media on mental health and creativity. She talks about psychosomatic work, the influence of Elon Musk on Twitter, and the cultural response to Luigi Mangione's killing of a health insurance executive. In her view, Luigi fandom connects to themes of Puritan heritage, as she discusses in her (then) recent piece Luigi Mangione and the Puritans.
GUEST BIO
Chloé Valdary, educator, artist, and founder of the Theory of Enchantment, is on a mission to address the shortcomings of DEI by teaching love and harmony. Chloé received her bachelor’s in international studies with a concentration in conflict and diplomacy from the University of New Orleans. She has been published in the WSJ, the New York Times and the Atlantic Magazine, and she spends her days helping schools and businesses build trust in their organizations. In her spare time, she enjoys bird watching, reading, and DJing.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
📰 Read my recent essay in The New York Times about accepting help in the wake of the L.A. wildfires.
📖 Pre-order my new book The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays (which is unrelated to the current catastrophe).
📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. We’ll be in Texas, New York, Los Angeles, and more.
🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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It’s been three weeks since my house burned to the ground in the Los Angeles wildfires. Here are some thoughts on rent gouging, couch surfing, and the lifestyles of the rich and unhoused.
A note on this photo. I took it from Farnsworth Park in Altadena on New Year’s Day, one week before the fire. That thing in the sky is the Goodyear Blimp hovering over Rose Bowl Stadium during the game.
Earlier dispatches.
January 9: The First 24 Hours
January 16: The Immaterial World
How to help? Become a paying subscriber to this podcast on Substack or leave a donation of any amount in the tip jar. Your support is deeply appreciated.
The podcast resumes its regular schedule very soon! Thanks for your patience. Housekeeping
Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
Learn about The Unspeakeasy, a community for freethinking women. Pre-order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays. Coming April 15, 2025. -
In the hours of January 8, my house burned to the ground in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA. Here are some thoughts I recorded on January 15.
How to help? Become a paying subscriber to this podcast on Substack. Or leave a donation in any amount in the tip jar.
Housekeeping
Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube.
The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. Find out where we’re going.
Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. -
I’ve lost my home. I am safe.
HOUSEKEEPING Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!
Unspeakeasy 2025 retreats. We’re going to Texas, Los Angeles, upstate NY and beyond. See where we'll be!
Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women. -
This week, Meghan is joined by filmmaker, YouTuber, and “experience design architect” Topaz Adizes. He is the founder of The Skin Deep, an experience design created to foster connection in human relationships, often through innovative products and curated live events. In this conversation, Topaz discusses the evolution of relationships in the digital age, the importance of asking the right questions, and how he built a sustainable business model around his project, The And, a video series in which two people sit face to face and engage with a series of simple yet surprising questions. He also explains the concept of experience design and how it shapes human interactions in a technology-driven world. Finally, he and Meghan talk about building a business, the meaning of “intimacy,” the changing rules of the dating market, and why he’s (theoretically) willing to accept that his grandchildren might never meet their spouses in real life. GUEST BIO Topaz Adizes is an Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and the founder and executive director of the experience design studio The Skin Deep, which has a popular YouTube channel. Topaz studied philosophy at UC Berkeley and Oxford University. He speaks four languages and currently lives in Mexico with his wife and two children.
HOUSEKEEPING
Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!
Unspeakeasy 2025 retreats. We’re going to Texas, Los Angeles, upstate NY and beyond. See where we'll be!
Join The Unspeakeasy, my “women’s shelter for the politically homeless.”
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As you make your new year’s resolutions or plan for Dry January, returning guest Ruby Warrington has another idea for better living in 2025: go on a “content diet.” In this conversation, Ruby describes the overwhelming nature of content consumption and its impact on mental health and wellbeing. She draws parallels between the “sober curious” movement, which she spearheaded, and the need for conscious content consumption, emphasizing the importance of awareness in our media engagement. We also talk about the pressures of content creation, the role of intimacy in communication, the rise of AI-generated content in the digital landscape, and the important of reading novels and listening to music.
GUEST BIO
Ruby Warrington is the author of Women Without Kids: The Revolutionary Rise of an Unsung Sisterhood and is the creator of the term “sober curious." Author of the 2018 book Sober Curious and million-download podcast of the same title, her work has spearheaded a global movement to reevaluate our relationship to alcohol. Other works include Material Girl, Mystical World (2017), The Numinous Astro Deck (2019), and The Sober Curious Reset (2020). With 20+ years’ experience as a lifestyle journalist and editor, Ruby is also the founder of the self-publishing incubator Numinous Books.
Get her book here: https://bit.ly/4gLN3oV.Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!
Unspeakeasy 2025 retreats. We’re going to Texas, Los Angeles, upstate NY and beyond. See where we'll be!
Join The Unspeakeasy, my “women’s shelter for the politically homeless.”
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Do journalists ever regret the way they cover events? This week, veteran YouTube journalist and political commentator Ana Kasparian discusses her journey from the progressive left to finding herself politically unaligned, the regrets she still harbors, and the complexities of navigating controversial issues with nuance. She also discusses her thoughts on the election and on Biden's mental decline, the appeal of Trump, and how cultural shifts within the Democratic party affected the election.
Meghan and Ana also discuss motherhood (or in their cases, non-motherhood) and new discourse surrounding the trad movement, pro-natalism and the dark side of the pressure campaign to get people to have more children.
GUEST BIO
Ana Kasparian is a political journalist and media personality with nearly two decades of experience in news and analysis. Beginning her career as an assistant producer at CBS Radio in Los Angeles, she later became Executive Producer and co-host of The Young Turks. She now writes a Substack newsletter chronicling her political realignment journey and exploring key political and cultural issues.
Follow her on Substack here.
Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.
HOUSEKEEPING
📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!
✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!
🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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