It’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 of the most beloved and vilified figures in media, Bari Weiss. Then, in bonus content that’s available to everyone this week (YOU ARE WELCOME), Sarah and Meghan talk about Suzy behind her back for a few minutes before reading and discussing a blog post about women can live their best lives. (Hint: a little bit of plastic surgery goes a long way ladies!)However, as usual the comment section (often more thoughtful than the podcast) is available ONLY to paying subscribers, so pony up! Relevant links: * Hurts So Good: Suzy Weiss on an epidemic of invisible illness* Sarah’s Substack Hold That Thought * Meghan’s new Substack* Blueprint for a Woman’s Life This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

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 life right. Meghan, who’s never lived her life right, helps Sarah clarify what she meant about settling down early becoming a “social norm” again. They then move on to Meghan’s viral tweet, which referenced an Atlantic Magazine article arguing that sports should not be separated by sex. Why? Because part of the reason men are physically stronger than women is because the imperialist, white supremacist, capitalist, heteronormative, cis- patriarchy keeps them from having as many training opportunities. #Duh! They then move on to another recent vital tweet storm, which suggested that “heterodox” POCs are simply opportunists who launder tired racist tropes because that’s how you get the big bucks. Sarah takes offense at this and finds it racist. Meghan admits she’s a little jealous not to have such such opportunities. Unrelatedly, in a shocking reveal: Meghan admits not to knowing the story of The Little Mermaid. This evens the score after Sarah’s previous disclosure that she’d never heard of The Love Boat. In the bonus content for paid subscribers the women/girls answer listener questions about how to keep your friends even though they have turned into woke idiots see things differently than you do. They also revisit their semi-plans to release video content and bemoan the patriarchal forces that will require them to get expensive makeovers in order to do so.A Special Place In Hell is a reader-supported publication. To receive the bonus content and get access to the comment section, consider becoming a paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

In 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 meet when you’re very young, like Sarah did? Or are you better waiting until you’re older and have mastered the art of eating over the sink, like Meghan did? Sarah also wonders why so few famous second wave feminists were mothers and the girls/women discuss Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed, the 2015 anthology that Meghan edited about choosing not to have children — and also why Meghan hates the term “childfree.” Finally, they wonder whether Sheryl Sandberg’s book Lean In had any basis in reality whatever and whether Elon Musk’s apparent quest to populate the world with his seed presents a good opportunity for single women wishing to have children. Bonus Content for paid subscribers includes responses to reader comments, a brief discussion of the contradictions of atheist communities, and Meghan’s challenges with creating her new community, The Unspeakeasy. It is also (damningly) revealed that Sarah has never heard of The Love Boat. Subscribe now to get access to the longer episodes, and to our lovely comment community! Relevant links: * Selfish Shallow & Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers On The Decision Not To Have Kids* Meghan’s other podcast, The Unspeakable. This week’s guest is Louise Perry. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

For 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 in just about every area of life. Of course, none of this applies to Kmele, who’s been with his wife since they were in high school, has tons of friends (including famous and important ones) and is a stratospheric professional success. But he gamely has the conversation anyway. The result is a deep, wide-ranging discussion about everything from the mysteries of the universe to the mysteries of audio equipment. Kmele stays longer for lots of bonus content, which you can hear if you become a paid subscriber. It also lets you join in the comments (here!), which are quickly becoming better than the show itself.Other stuff to know about:* Kmele’s podcast, with Matt Welch and Michael Moynihan, The Fifth Column (duh) * Meghan’s new Substack page The Unspeakable With Meghan Daum* Sarah’s Substack page Hold That Thought* Meghan’s community-in-progress for freethinking women, The Unspeakeasy This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

Buckle 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 girls/women have little in common. However, they quickly find consensus in their (mostly) mutual distaste for student loan forgiveness, agreeing that art majors should never, ever catch a break. (Okay, Meghan might not put it that strongly, but as a self-hating MFA grad, she's allowed to wonder about it.)In the BONUS content for paying subscribers only: The girls/women go through some of your comments, and despite their best efforts, yet again end up discussing g*nder. Please note, from here on out, the comments will only be accessible on the BONUS episode (here!).Relevant Links: * Meghan’s New Yorker essay "My Misspent Youth" * Meghan’s new Substack (which contains her essay about staring into space)* Sarah’s (older) Substack  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

It’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 the Nation, the women/girls examine Norah’s ideas about gender stereotypes, her empathy for men, and her pride in being an androgynous woman. Along the way, Sarah reveals herself to be a failure as a woman because she is an assertive boss and , unlike Meghan, doesn’t say “sorry” all the time.  Meanwhile, Meghan admits she broke down in tears listening to old episodes of Talk of the Nation because she’d forgotten how good NPR once was. Sarah, who is shocked at the high quality of Talk of the Nation, explains that she’s never known NPR to be anything but crap and, furthermore, always assumed that writers were, by definition, intellectual lemmings whose job it was to simply restate the obvious. Meghan almost breaks down in tears again. They then remind listeners to rate and review the show. In the bonus content for only for paid subscribers:Meghan tells the story about going out to an expensive dinner with Norah Vincent and wondering halfway through if it was a date (admittedly, Meghan WAS leading her on). Sarah and Meghan discuss what it means to be an “intellectual” and respond to listener comments about the Red Scare podcast and whether they should aspire to be more like it. Can the girls/women pull off the whale-tail? (Spoiler: no!)Subscribe to get access! *Yes, we know we’re calling Norah Vincent by her first name even though we called Salman Rushdie by his last name. Links:* NY Times obit of Norah Vincent * Norah Vincent in the Village Voice on the new “transsexual age” (in 2001!) * Norah Vincent in the L.A. Times on abortion * Norah Vincent on Talk of the Nation * Sarah’s substack piece on Rushdie * Meghan’s intellectual community for freethinking women, The Unspeakeasy. (Home of the “sanity spa vacation!”)  This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

In 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 published before she was born. She predicts that this event will change nothing. Meghan’s contribution to the conversation consists mainly of pretending to remember what The Satanic Verses was about and avoiding saying that she was already in college when it came out. Finally, they tackle the more critical topic of Sarah’s recent Twitter escapades, including a poll about physical affection (in which Meghan reveals herself as an Ice Queen, and Sarah reveals herself to be needy hugger) and one embarrassingly ratioed thread in which which Sarah wondered how physicality might play a role in friend selection. She recalls meeting online friends “irl” for the first time and being surprised when their physical appearances and mannerisms didn’t match their online personae, and asks if Meghan has ever felt out of place in such a circumstance. Meghan proclaims to have never had this experience because she is an #AgingGenXer and made all her friends in the real world. The girls/women remind listeners to rate and review the show and announce perks for paid subscribers, including at the highest level, the opportunity to braid Sarah’s hair. In the bonus content, available only for paid subscribers, the girls/women get big mad at the non-binary Joan of Arc production at Shakespeare’s Globe Theater in London, and then proceed into a disagreement about how this will all end, concluding with a lighthearted discussion on mass rape in England. Relevant links: * Sarah’s Substack newsletter Hold That Thought* Meghan’s freethinking women’s community The Unspeakeasy * Show theme music by Mia Dyson.* End music The Ground Beneath Her Feet by U2. Lyrics by Salman Rushdie. (Who's also in the video.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

In 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 conversation between Bari Weiss and authors Louise Perry and Jill Filipovich about Perry’s forthcoming book The Case Against The Sexual Revolution. They gush over the book even though they haven’t yet read it and declare Perry to be an important and refreshing new voice (that may be able to get away with saying certain things because that voice is British). They are particularly interested in Perry’s thoughts about motherhood being incompatible with high achieving professional life and, by extension, individuality itself. Though Meghan has always been a proponent of universal daycare, she wonders if this would be tantamount to dropping your child off at the DMV. She then asks why westerners aren’t more amenable to intergenerational households and Sarah offers an epic lesson as to the pros and cons of living with a bunch of relatives. (Hint: it’s the patriarchy, stupid.) Also, small shouldn’t children drink tea! In BONUS content only for paid subscribers, the co-hostesses ask if fatherhood is a central identity for men and if men with dangerous ideas censor themselves after starting families. Also: why Sarah’s husband doesn’t read anything she writes or listen to anything she says.Links: Honestly Podcast conversation on Bari Weiss’s Common Sense Substack Daily Mail article about poly family, and the aftermathSarah’s Substack newsletter Hold That Thought Meghan’s forthcoming community for freethinking women, The Unspeakeasy. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

In 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 thinking about vocal intonation, has some things to say about this. She also shares her own struggles with vocal fry. This is an act of radical vulnerability.The women/girls then move on to one of Sarah’s favorite subjects: why university life has become so lame. Citing a recent article about Stanford’s gradual elimination of student social organizations, she laments the homogenization of social life under the banner of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. On the other hand, Meghan thinks renting bulldozers to lay six inches of sand on the floor of a fraternity house might be a mark of privilege. Because the co-hostesses realized the bonus content was the best part of the episode, it was decided that the entire episode would be available to the plebs. (#Inclusivity) In the final portion of the show, they discuss a recent New Yorker article about a new dating app for non-monogamous, non-heteronormative people, and Meghan explains why she’d rather look at real estate than use dating apps. They also consider whether women who get cosmetic surgery always do so for the Male Gaze (or someone’s Gaze). Sarah thinks performing for the Gaze is okay, so long as one is honest about it, and wonders if she should invest in a new face. Relevant links:* Palladium Magazine, Stanford’s War On Social Life* The New Yorker, A Hookup App For The Emotionally Mature* Sarah’s Substack, Hold That Thought * Meghan’s new society for heterodox women, The Unspeakeasy (Which Stanford would probably ban.) This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com

In 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/women then revisit the main subject of last week’s episode: pornography. Listeners left some candid feedback in the Substack comment thread (available only to paid subscribers) and the co-hostesses discuss these remarks, especially one from a man who described becoming so desensitized by porn that he no longer finds most real life women attractive. (Obviously he’s never met a female podcaster!) Sarah hypothesizes that porn addiction will eventually lead to human extinction. Sarah and Meghan (or S & M) then move on to a problematic evergreen, the subject of sexual consent. Citing a recent New York Times opinion piece suggesting that saying “yes” to sex doesn’t necessarily make it totally consensual, Sarah wonders why it’s so hard to just say “ick” and move on. Finally they delve into the subject of (trigger warning) cuddle parties, asking why anyone would go to such a thing and whether wearing footie pajamas constitutes “asking for it.”Extra Juicy Bonus Content (for paying subscribers only!): Prominent New York literary figure creates merchandise line inveighing upon another prominent literary figure to “Retire B***h.” Sarah is appalled. Meghan, who was an English major, explains how literature works.Relevant links:* Emma Camp’s New York Times Op-Ed on consent* Melissa Febos’s New York Times Magazine article on consent * Interview with Jihad Rebab filmmaker Meg Smaker. FAIR newsletter post on the screening.* Meghan’s op-ed writing class, running four Mondays, Aug 8-29 (learn to write an oped about consent!)* Sarah’s Substack newsletter, Hold That Thought * Meghan’s project-in-progress, The Unspeakeasy Opening music by Mia Dyson. End music The Cuddle Song by Jae Seven. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit aspecialplace.substack.com