The Unspeakable Podcast

Nov 18 2024 193 ep. 68 mins 1.4k
The Unspeakable Podcast artwork

Author, essayist and journalist Meghan Daum has spent decades giving voice—and bringing nuance, humor and surprising perspectives—to things that lots of people are thinking but are afraid to say out loud. Now, she brings her observations to the realm of conversation. In candid, free-ranging interviews, Meghan talks with artists, entertainers, journalists, scientists, scholars, and anyone else who’s willing to do the “unspeakable” and question prevailing cultural and moral assumptions.

  Society & Culture
RSS feed Share
Copy RSS


Subscribe on Podcast Addict


Can Middle Aged Women Save Theater? Playwright Sandra Tsing Loh on invisible women, wokeness in theater, and taking your own show on the road.

Nov 18 2024 18 mins  
Playwright and performer Sandra Tsing Loh returns to the podcast (after four years!) to discuss her surprise hit play Madwomen of the West, which featured a superstar cast including Caroline Aaron, Marilu Henner, Melanie Mayron, and JoBeth Williams. After the Los Angeles theater establishment deemed the show too woman-centric, Sandra mounted an independent production, which she eve

Is Kamala Harris Secretly Relieved? Lionel Shriver on the repudiation of wokeness, the volatility of a Trump presidency, and the newly relaxed Kamala Harris.

Nov 12 2024 70 mins  
🔔 Did you like this episode? Don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment down below. ✌️Upgrade your subscription if you want to hear the full conversation: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A For this first post-election episode, Meghan welcomes back author Lionel Shriver, who is arguably America’s (and the U.K.’s) most controversial woman of letters. They talk about the ov

Premium: How To Get A Book Deal The Easy Way - Leigh Stein's secrets for book publishing success.

Oct 29 2024 17 mins  
In this premium episode, writer, editor, and friend of the pod Leigh Stein returns to talk about the state of book publishing, including the importance of promotion via digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Leigh may be the Jane Goodall of BookTok. She has spent countless hours in the wild, studying the platform’s users and creators for insights into its addictive magic. As

A Feminist In Genderland: Legendary feminist Julie Bindel on the sex trade, surrogacy, and her new podcast about gender madness

Oct 21 2024 93 mins  
This week, journalist and legendary feminist activist Julie Bindel talks about her new podcast series, Julie in Genderland, which explores the complexities surrounding gender identity, particularly from the perspective of parents of children who’ve become caught up in gender ideology. Julie discusses the role of social services and educators in shaping children's understanding o

How To Win An Argument With Yourself: Stephanie Lepp’s Latest Integration

Oct 14 2024 64 mins  
Stephanie Lepp is a video artist and producer whose work focuses on bringing together different viewpoints to arrive at a perspective that goes beyond “common ground” and emerges as a true integration, or synthesis. She was on the podcast in July 2022 to talk about a project called Deep Reckonings. In it, she considered the cases of public figures who’d responded to personal

PREMIUM: Is Anything Funny Anymore? Bestselling humor writer Neal Pollack is still laughing

Oct 08 2024 14 mins  
To doomers and nihilists, the whole world is a joke — and it’s not even funny. Writer Neal Pollack may be a natural skeptic, but he thinks that’s nonsense and he returns to the podcast to talk about better living through laughter (and not in a “live, love, laugh” kind of way). He discusses his various careers — professional writer, professional poker player, three-time

Why Are Veterinarians So Expensive? Financial reporter Helaine Olen on The Unspeakable

Oct 07 2024 72 mins  
If you have a pet, you’ve probably wondered lately what in the world has happened to veterinary medicine. Why is it so expensive? Why is it so hard to get an appointment? And why, despite all of that, do domestic animals seem to have more health problems than ever? In this conversation, financial reporter Helaine Olen, a longtime dog owner and author of the April 2024 Atlantic ar

The Culture Wars Are Wrecking Friendships: Kat Timpf's Anti-Ideological Crusade

Sep 30 2024 63 mins  
This interview with Kat Timpf is free to all subscribers. To hear bonus conversations and get early access to other episodes, become a paying subscriber here. Meghan interviews Kat Timpf, Fox News analyst and co-host of Gutfeld, about her new book "I Used to Like You Until... (How Binary Thinking Divides Us)." They discuss Kat’s education and early political evolution, her frustr

PREMIUM: Planned Parenthood’s Gender Transition - Journalist Jennifer Block explains how it happened.

Sep 26 2024 17 mins  
Over the last decade, Planned Parenthood has become one of the country’s leading providers of gender transition hormones for young adults, according to insurance claim data. In August, journalist Jennifer Block published an article in The Free Press entitled “How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone?” The article follows the s

What's Really Happening With The Housing Market? Melody Wright sees a coming crash.

Sep 23 2024 74 mins  
Meghan interviews housing market analyst Melody Wright about why purchasing a home has reached historic levels of unaffordability. A rising star on YouTube, Melody was on the front lines of the mortgage implosion during the Great Financial Crisis and has devoted the last few years to scratching beneath the surface of the affordability crisis in housing. Though low inventory remains