The Unspeakable Podcast

This conversation features Rob Henderson, a social psychologist and author who coined 'luxury beliefs.' Rob discusses the mating crisis plaguing young people as they hesitate to form partnerships and families. He critiques societal shifts, exploring how luxury beliefs influence cultural norms around family and relationships. The discussion also touches on declining birth rates and the emergence of societal figures like Zohran Mamdani, highlighting the impact of these beliefs on marginalized communities. Prepare for an engaging dialogue on social dynamics!

John McWhorter, a renowned linguist and New York Times columnist, engages in a dynamic discussion about the current state of 'woke' culture and its fading figures. He analyzes intriguing language shifts, like the rising use of 'stupider' and 'anyways' in formal contexts. Delving into his debates with economist Glenn Loury, McWhorter considers the evolution of racial identity terminology and reflects on the role of public intellectuals in today's media landscape. His insights on language, culture, and identity are thought-provoking and relevant.

Alana Newhouse, the founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine, dives into the intricacies of societal breakdown. She discusses her powerful essay, 'Everything Is Broken,' addressing systemic failures in medicine, media, and education. Alana illuminates the concept of 'flatness' in cultural interactions, advocating for embracing complexity and unpredictability. Drawing from her personal journey navigating healthcare for her child, she sheds light on trust in institutions and calls for a deeper engagement with our chaotic world.

Kelsey Osgood, author of 'Godstruck' and 'How to Disappear Completely,' dives into the transformative journeys of women who exchanged secular lives for religious communities. She intertwines these experiences with her own battles with anorexia, exploring how societal pressures and personal struggles converge. The conversation sheds light on resilience, the impact of social media, and the quest for identity through faith. Kelsey also reflects on how her Jewish conversion reshaped her understanding of suffering and belonging.

September 3 in NYC at 6 pm, I’ll be in conversation with Lionel live at The Village Underground. Tix available here. Use promo code CATASTROPHE18 at checkout for a discount. Bestselling novelist and beloved (and occasionally be-hated) columnist Lionel Shriver returns to the podcast to talk about several topics, including her most recent novel, Mania. In that novel, she imagines a society under the grip of “mental parity,” a concept arguing that all individuals possess equal intelligence and no one should be given greater credence or responsibility because of the perception that they are smarter. We also discuss our own intelligence (are we really all that smart?) and wonder what makes us so resistant to groupthink in politics and daily life, especially around movements like #MeToo, Black Lives Matter, and gender ideology. In search of a lighter topic, we finally move on to . . . immigration. (Oops.) As a Los Angeles resident, I’ve been alarmed by the ICE raids in my community, and I’m quite upset about the Trump administration’s policies. As a longtime expatriate in the U.K. and as the author of a forthcoming novel about immigration (A Better Life, coming in February 2026), Lionel sees things a little differently. GUEST BIO A prolific journalist with a fortnightly column in Britain’s The Spectator, Lionel Shriver has written widely for the New York Times, the London Times, the Financial Times, Harper’s Magazine, and many other publications. Her first nonfiction book, ABOMINATIONS: Selected Essays from a Career of Courting Self-destruction, was published in 2022. It joins a story collection and fifteen novels, including Mania, Should We Stay or Should We Go, The Mandibles, and We Need to Talk About Kevin (a 2011 film starring Tilda Swinton). Her work has been translated into 35 languages. Her latest novel A Better Life, focused on immigration, will be out in early 2026. UPCOMING EVENT: Once again, if you enjoyed this interview, join me in NYC on September 3 at The Village Underground for a conversation with Lionel about The Catastrophe Hour as well as her work. Topics will include (but are not limited to) death, sex, real estate, dogs, beauty, grief, aging, cancelation, incels, femcels, self-destruction, natural disasters, pronatalism, anti-natalism, human intelligence, and cultural stupidity. Doors open at 5:15, show starts at 6pm. Tix available here. Use promo code CATASTROPHE18 at checkout for a discount. 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. 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 COED retreat with more attendees and multiple speakers. October 11-12 in New York City. Programming and ticketing info here.

This week, I’m joined by author Kelsey Osgood to discuss her recent book “Godstruck: Seven Women’s Unexpected Journeys To Religious Conversion.” The book, which profiles women who traded secular lives for religious communities such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, evangelical Christianity, Quakerism, Orthodox Judaism, Saudi-based Islam, and even the Amish faith, is fascinating in its own right. But we also discuss Kelsey’s previous book about her struggle with and recovery from anorexia, which overlaps with her religious transformation in some surprising ways. In that book, How To Disappear Completely, Kelsey wrote not just about anorexia itself but the culture surrounding it, notably the “peak sad girl” era of the late 1990s through early 2000s. The therapeutic approach that accompanied it, she argues, took universal human questions that have been asked for millennia and repackaged them as personal neuroses to be indulged and then solved — or, more often, deemed unsolvable. Her conversion to Judaism and participation in an Orthodox community helped reframe her entire way of thinking and changed her life for the better. GUEST BIO Kelsey Osgood is the author of How to Disappear Completely: On Modern Anorexia, which was chosen for the Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers Program, and Godstruck: Seven Women's Unexpected Journeys to Religious Conversion, which came out in April from Viking. Her work has appeared online or in print at The Atlantic, The New York Times, Harper's, and the New Yorker, among other outlets. 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.

The 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 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.

Dr. Carole Hooven, a human evolutionary biologist and author of 'T: The Story of Testosterone,' discusses the controversies surrounding biological sex and academic freedom. She highlights how progressive educational environments may favor girls' learning styles, alienating boys. Hooven addresses the stigma around men's emotional experiences and sexual drives, advocating for open conversations about masculinity. The discussion emphasizes the need for precise language in gender debates and critiques the ideological influences muddling scientific discussions about sex differences.

The 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 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 this episode, I speak with filmmaker Rachel Mason about her documentary Last Take*: Rust and the Story of Halyna*, which explores the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust. On October 21, 20221, Alec Badwin, who starred in the film, pulled the trigger on a gun he thought was not loaded, killing Halyna and injuring director Joel Souza. Through the lens of grief, media spectacle, and justice. Rachel, a close friend of Halyna’s, offers an intimate perspective on the aftermath of the incident and how it was experienced by those who knew Halyna beyond the headlines. We also talk about Rachel’s recent docuseries, An Update on Our Family, which investigates the world of family vlogging on YouTube—particularly the story of Myka and James Stauffer, whose decision to rehome their adopted son sparked public outrage and raised ethical questions about online parenting content. Toward the end of our conversation, Rachel talks about her next project, a collaborative effort to unravel a legendary unsolved murder case in Los Angeles. It's a wide-ranging and thought-provoking conversation that touches on art, ethics, personal loss, and the complexities of telling true stories in a digital age. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. GUEST BIO Rachel Mason is a Los Angeles-based filmmaker. She received an Emmy Nomination for her Netflix Original Documentary Circus of Books, based on her biographical telling of growing up the child of owners of an adult bookstore that was a fixture of the gay community during the height of the AIDS era. In 2025 a series Mason directed called “An Update on Our Family” was released on HBO MAX and has been cited in legal arguments proposing legislation changes regarding children on the internet. Following that, Hulu released the authorized documentary about her friend Halyna Hutchins death on the Alec Baldwin film Rust. She is currently completing a documentary about the murder of a young gay man in 1990 named Billy London, which was until 2022 a cold case. The film is being made independently and has been a volunteer effort from the community, who helped to solve the crime. Last Take: Rust and the Story of Halyna- Hulu An Update on Our Family- HBO Max Circus of Books- Netflix 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.