Lean Out with Tara Henley

The summer of 2020 was one of the most explosive periods of recent memory — with pandemic lockdowns, the death of George Floyd, nationwide protests and riots, and workplace purges and online mobbings. And yet, so much of what went on has now been forgotten. In his new book, our guest on the program today encourages us to take a good, hard look at the insanity of those months, and how they shaped the era we’re now living through.

Thomas Chatterton Williams is a staff writer at The Atlantic. His latest book, out this week, is Summer of Our Discontent: The Age of Certainty and the Demise of Discourse.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In the United States right now, we are witnessing the decline of what has often been called the woke left — and a backlash from an increasingly woke right that is now seeking to impose its own beliefs on society in similar ways. Our guest on the program this week has been an outspoken critic of illiberalism, wherever it originates on the political spectrum, and he believes that defending liberal values has never been more important.

Andrew Doyle is a UK broadcaster, commentator, and comedian. His latest book is The End of Woke: How the Culture War Went Too Far and What to Expect from the Counter-Revolution.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

One of the themes of the Lean Out podcast is the ongoing tensions between men and women. This past week saw a shot fired on that front: a piece published in The New York Times Magazine, titled “The Trouble With Wanting Men.” For this special joint episode, we unpack this essay with podcaster Meghan Daum and a Gen Z guest.

Meghan Daum is an American author and essayist, and the host of the Unspeakable podcast, soon to be renamed the Unspeakeasy. Lily Isaacs is a British writer, and an editorial assistant for UnHerd.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

The working poor in Canada are often largely invisible. The struggle to make ends meet in an explosively expensive era tends to be a private matter. But our guest on the show today has taken the step to make her own battle public, with a new cover story for Maclean’s that’s sparking discussion across the country.

Jeni Gunn is a gig worker in Victoria, B.C. Her new essay for Maclean’s is “Confessions of the Working Poor.”

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In recent weeks and months, a number of you have reached out to Tara about the debate on gender medicine for minors — and a lack of media coverage about it, particularly in this country. 

This is a topic that she recently covered on her other podcast, Full Press. And The Hub has been kind enough to let us bring you the free version of that episode today, where you can hear her entire conversation on gender medicine and the media, with co-hosts Harrison Lowman and Peter Menzies. 

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In recent years, we’ve read a lot of memoirs from women who feel stuck in specific ways: single, childless, consumed by work, and disillusioned with hook-up culture. Our guest on today’s program is the author of the first memoir we have read about breaking free from that pattern — and the story of how it happened is as moving as it is surprising.

Beth Kaplan is a Canadian writer, and the author of Loose Woman: My Odyssey From Lost to Found.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

With the excesses of 2020 now being examined in mainstream outlets like The New York Times, we are witnessing a moment of introspection on the American left. To unpack this development, we're joined by a writer who has studied the history of the left. And in this week's conversation, we wrestle with our own complicated — and at times conflicted — relationships to these politics.

Daniel Oppenheimer is an American writer and podcaster. He runs the Substack newsletter Eminent Americans and hosts a podcast of the same name. He’s the author of Exit Right: The People Who Left the Left and Reshaped the American Century, and his latest essay for Persuasion is “How the Left Loses its People.”

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

It’s common knowledge these days that the left has lost the working class. But there is little curiosity about how, and why, and what that means for our politics. Our guest on this week's program has written a deeply researched book on the subject — and she has some ideas on where the left should go from here.

Joan C. Williams is a Distinguished Professor of Law (Emerita) and Founding Director of the Equality Action Center at the University of California College of the Law in San Francisco. Her latest book is Outclassed: How the Left Lost the Working Class and How to Win Them Back. (You can find the class bubble quiz at www.classbubblequiz.com.)

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

Three and a half years ago, during the pandemic era, we launched Lean Out to explore some basic questions about illiberalism in our response to the crisis — and in our culture, our politics, and our newsrooms. Today, for our 200th episode of the show, we're thrilled to be joined by two academics who have written a deeply researched book that provides some answers.

Stephen Macedo is the Laurance S. Rockefeller Professor of Politics and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. And Frances Lee is professor of politics and public affairs at Princeton University. Their new book is In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com

In polarized times, our tolerance for different perspectives decreases. Groupthink becomes common, and we can often find ourselves either censored, or self-censoring. Our guest on the program today has done a deep dive into this topic, and she has some thoughts on how we can begin to speak up — while still seeing our ideological opponents as human.

Jenara Nerenberg is an American author, and the founder of The Neurodiversity Project and The Interracial Project. Her latest book is Trust Your Mind: Embracing Nuance in a World of Self-Silencing.

You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com