The Unspeakable Podcast

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.

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.

Peter Moskos, a Professor of Police Science and former Baltimore police officer, dives deep into New York City's crime trends and policing success during the 1990s. He discusses the surprising factors behind the dramatic reduction in crime rates, challenging common assumptions about policing. Moskos shares compelling stories from his work, highlighting the complex interactions between police, public safety, and community needs. They also tackle recent high-profile cases and the ongoing challenges facing the NYPD while promoting data-driven reforms.

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.

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.

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

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

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.