Phoebe discusses her new nonfiction book, "The Last Straight Woman: On Desiring Men," which critiques the contemporary discourse about female heterosexuality.

Recorded June 4, 2026

LINKS

Phoebe's new book, "The Last Straight Woman: On Desiring Men"

https://www.amazon.com/Last-Straight-Woman-Desiring-Men/dp/0771013027

Phoebe on what she didn't want the cover to be

https://phoebemaltzbovy.substack.com/p/everything-i-learned-and-didnt-learn

The audiobook

https://www.audible.com/pd/The-Last-Straight-Woman-Audiobook/B0G24L7BV4?source_code=ASSGB149080119000H&share_location=pdp

Phoebe's post, "Men and women are exactly the same"

https://phoebemaltzbovy.substack.com/p/men-and-women-are-exactly-the-same

Kristen Roupenian's 2017 short story, "Cat Person"

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/12/11/cat-person

Phoebe's Substack, Close-reading the reruns

https://phoebemaltzbovy.substack.com/

Follow Phoebe on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/phoebe.maltz.bovy

Follow Phoebe on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/phoebebovy.bsky.social

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sarah Wang discusses her debut novel, "New Skin," a dark comedy about a young woman whose mother is addicted to plastic surgery. After a bad nose job ruins the mother's face, she becomes a contestant on a reality show where people with botched plastic surgery compete to win reconstructive surgery. The novel explores class, immigrant lives, the labor of marginalized women, Los Angeles — and is also very funny.

Recorded May 8, 2026

LINKS

Sarah's new book, "New Skin"

https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sarah-wang/new-skin/9780316594523/

Sarah's Instagram account, @daikonoclast

https://www.instagram.com/daikonoclast/

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adrian Bonenberger, a writer and Army veteran, is running for governor of Connecticut on a platform of establishing a voluntary state guard. He explains how a state guard would decentralize power to the local level, and how his experience training military volunteers during the Ukraine War informed his view on threats to America and possibilities for a different kind of civic engagement.

Recorded March 24, 2026

LINKS

Adrian's campaign site

https://www.bonenbergerforgovernor.com/

Adrian's 2023 piece on "Civil War"

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4374348-a-second-american-civil-war-wouldnt-look-like-a-movie/

Follow Adrian on Twitter: https://x.com/AdrianBonenber1

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On an episode that surely will not make anyone mad, Dave discusses his recent essay on how Jeffrey Epstein used his Jewishness to further his crimes. Aryeh and Dave then debate the merits of staying on Musk's Twitter/X vs. fleeing to cringey Bluesky.

Recorded March 6, 2026

LINKS

Dave's piece, "The Line Between Affinity and Conspiracy"

https://jewishcurrents.org/the-line-between-affinity-and-conspiracy

NYT: "Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich"

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-money-scams-investigation.html

Times of Israel on antisemitic heckler in California

https://www.timesofisrael.com/san-francisco-mayor-daniel-lurie-denounces-tax-the-jews-chant-heard-during-protest/

Dave's 2108 piece on Woody Allen

https://jewishcurrents.org/unlearning-woody-allen

Aryeh and Dave's 2018 conversation about the NYT

https://bloggingheads.tv/videos/51348

Follow Dave on Twitter: https://x.com/DavidKlion

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Magdalene Taylor, a senior editor at Playboy Magazine who writes about sexuality and culture, talks about whether we are finally sick of dating apps, whether AI will change social interactions, the forces encouraging men and women to hate each other, the decline of the manosphere, and Trump's strange performance of masculinity.

Recorded January 20, 2026

LINKS

Magdalene's newsletter, "Many Such Cases"

https://www.sexual-culture.com/

Aryeh and Magdalene's 2021 conversation

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/juggalos-simps-and-cat-guys-with-magdalene-taylor/id981282353?i=1000517814150

NYT on a woman who fell in love with a chatbot

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/22/technology/ai-boyfriend-chatgpt.html

Magdalene's piece, "Do Men Even Like Women Anymore?"

https://www.sexual-culture.com/p/do-men-even-like-women-anymore

Magdalene's piece, "Do Women Even Like Men Anymore?"

https://www.sexual-culture.com/p/do-women-even-like-men-anymore

Puck on young men and Trump

https://puck.news/why-young-men-are-souring-on-trump/

Follow @magdajtaylor

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Adam Gurri, editor-in-chief and cofounder of the website Liberal Currents, discusses his recent piece about the fight against Trump titled "We Are Going to Win." 

Recorded January 6, 2025

LINKS

Liberal Currents

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/

Adam's piece, "We Are Going to Win"

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/we-are-going-to-win/

Adam's piece, "Impeach and Remove the Bastards"

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/impeach-and-remove-the-bastards/

Reporting on Stephen Miller ordering more ICE arrests

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/3425297/stephen-miller-eviscerated-ice-officials-deportation-numbers/

Adam on "The Reconstruction Papers"

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/a-preview-of-a-project-well-pursue-if-fully-funded/

Follow Adam on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Bob Wright reflects on the legacy of the Bloggingheads.tv, the pioneering website he co-founded in 2005. Aryeh and Bob discuss how the site and the technology that powered it anticipated modern trends in online media. They also consider whether Twitter still has any use for journalists, the pros and cons of Substack, and whether Culturally Determined should pivot back to video. 

Recorded October 28, 2025

LINKS

Robert Wright's Nonzero podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/robert-wrights-nonzero/id505824847

The Nonzero Newsletter

https://www.nonzero.org/

Max Read on his Substack stats

https://maxread.substack.com/p/four-years-of-read-max-on-substack

Andrew Thompson on the economics of Substack and money vs. attention

https://components.news/the-desire-distribution/

MeaningOfLife.tv

https://meaningoflife.tv/

Follow Bob on Twitter: https://x.com/robertwrighter

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Leigh talks about her new novel, a modern gothic with a satirical edge about an unemployed Millennial journalist who becomes the manager of a hype house for Gen Z content creators — one of whom goes missing. Aryeh and Leigh also discuss whether the internet is bad now.

Recorded September 3, 2025

LINKS

Leigh's new novel, "If You're Seeing This, It's Meant for You"

https://www.amazon.com/Youre-Seeing-This-Its-Meant/dp/0593983645

Profile of TikTok star William White

https://www.inverse.com/input/culture/will-white-tiktok-fandom-gen-x-middle-age-women-drama/amp

Jia Tolentino's review of Elizabeth Gilbert's new book

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2025/09/01/all-the-way-to-the-river-love-loss-and-liberation-elizabeth-gilbert-book-review

Leigh's Substack, "Attention Economy"

https://leighstein.substack.com/

Follow Leigh on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/leighstein/

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gina Tron discusses "Suspect," her recent memoir about her childhood growing up as an outsider in a small Vermont town and the bad teenage joke that led everyone to think she was planning to be a school shooter.

Recorded Feb 20, 2025

Follow Culturally Determined (still) on Twitter @CulturallyDet

LINKS

Gina's book,"Suspect"

https://www.ginatron.net/suspect/

Gina's website

https://www.ginatron.net

Follow Gina on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/ginatron.bsky.social

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aryeh and Phoebe discuss Bluesky, the newly popular Twitter alternative—and how Phoebe's mild critique of the site went mega-viral. Aryeh explains why he finally, finally quit Twitter. Is Bluesky for anti-Trump social media "refugees," or a retirement home for posting addicts? And are people on there actually nice?

Recorded December 20, 2024

Follow Culturally Determined (still) on Twitter @CulturallyDet

LINKS

Phoebe's piece, "The problem with Bluesky: It won’t broaden our horizons"

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-problem-with-bluesky-it-wont-broaden-our-horizons/

Aryeh and Phoebe's May 2023 episode about Twitter

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/twitter-taught-us-it-was-okay-to-be-weird-with-phoebe/id981282353?i=1000611578059

Montreal man dies after leaving hospital following six-hour wait

https://www.montrealgazette.com/news/article612894.html

Phoebe's piece, "Does this book read as too parochial—or too ‘Zionist’? The pitfalls of Writing While Jewish"

https://thecjn.ca/opinion/zibby-vs-philip/

Waikiki Wanda says Bluesky is hospice for posters

https://bsky.app/profile/wanda.bsky.social/post/3lcmbzupslk2v

Phoebe's Substack

https://phoebemaltzbovy.substack.com/

Feminine Chaos podcast

https://femchaospod.substack.com/

Bonjour Chai podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/bonjour-chai/id1555600279

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

Follow Phoebe on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/phoebebovy.bsky.social

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.