The Unspeakable Podcast

Playwright and performer Sandra Tsing Loh returns to the podcast (after four years!) to discuss her surprise hit play Madwomen of the West, which featured a superstar cast including Caroline Aaron, Marilu Henner, Melanie Mayron, and JoBeth Williams. After the Los Angeles theater establishment deemed the show too woman-centric, Sandra mounted an independent production, which she eventually took to New York and London. She now has a new one-woman show — a 70-minute "You’ll Never Eat Lunch In This Town Again”-style rant — about the “journey” of that production called I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It.

I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get To It will be performed for just two nights at the Odyssey Theater in Los Angeles. November 16 and November 23. Info and tickets here.

GUEST BIO

Sandra Tsing Loh is the author of several books, including "The Madwoman in the Volvo: My Year of Raging Hormones," which was selected as one of the New York Times' 100 Most Notable Books. Her previous book, "Mother on Fire," was inspired by her hit solo show about Los Angeles public education.

Her off-Broadway solo shows include "Aliens in America" and "Bad Sex With Bud Kemp." Her comic memoirs include The New York Times New and Noteworthy "Madwoman and the Roomba"; The New York Times 100 Notable Books "Madwoman in the Volvo"; "Mother on Fire"; "A Year in Van Nuys"; and "Depth Takes a Holiday." The Los Angeles Times named her 1998 novel "If You Lived Here, You'd Be Home By Now" a 100 Best Fiction Book. An Atlantic contributing editor, Loh has been heard on NPR's Morning Edition, PRI's Marketplace and This American Life. She currently hosts the LAist/NPR daily radio science minute “The Loh Down on Science.”

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!

✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

🔔 Did you like this episode? Don’t forget to like, subscribe and leave a comment down below.

✌️Upgrade your subscription if you want to hear the full conversation: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A

For this first post-election episode, Meghan welcomes back author Lionel Shriver, who is arguably America’s (and the U.K.’s) most controversial woman of letters. They talk about the over/under on the end of democracy, whether J.D. Vance is following a Trump-mandated script, how trans issues replaced abortion rights as a priority for many female voters, and whether Kamala Harris is secretly relieved that she doesn’t have to be President of the United States. They also discuss why writers must oppose Israel to remain in good standing in the literary world and how they feel about the current pronatalism movement with respect to their own reproductive choices.

You can upgrade your subscription here: https://bit.ly/3LgpZ3A

—————————

GUEST BIO

Lionel Shriver is a columnist for The Spectator and the author, most recently, of Mania, a novel. Her fiction includes The Mandibles, Property, So Much For That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper's, and the London Times, and she currently writes a regular column for The Spectator in the UK. A longtime American expat in the U.K, she now lives in Portugal.

Hundreds Of Authors Pledge To Boycott Israeli Institutions: https://bit.ly/40EBf2r

Lionel Shriver contributed an essay to Meghan’s 2015 anthology “Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers On The Decision Not To Have Kids”: https://amzn.to/40MHC3F

Lionel’s previous interviews on The Unspeakable: https://bit.ly/3O66FHu and https://bit.ly/3YOgNcC

—————————

HOUSEKEEPING

✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: https://bit.ly/3zl3Ezd

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women: https://bit.ly/4eEv5Dl

In this premium episode, writer, editor, and friend of the pod Leigh Stein returns to talk about the state of book publishing, including the importance of promotion via digital platforms like YouTube and TikTok. Leigh may be the Jane Goodall of BookTok. She has spent countless hours in the wild, studying the platform’s users and creators for insights into its addictive magic. As a book coach who helps authors sell their manuscripts to publishers and then (hopefully) sell lots of copies, she understands the changing landscape of publishing and sees endless potential and opportunity. Where many authors and editors feel only fear and dread, Leigh feels joy. Recently, she helped literary agent turned novelist Betsy Lerner become an unlikely TikTok star.

Want in on more of Leigh’s secrets? On November 14, The Unspeakeasy is offering a one-time webinar with Leigh called How To Get A Book Deal The Easy Way. It’s open to everyone (not just ladies) and may change your life. And it’s only $150! Visit the course page in The Unspeakeasy for more details and to sign up.

GUEST BIO

Leigh Stein is a writer exploring the impact of the internet on our identities, relationships, and politics. She has written five books, including the satirical novel Self Care (Penguin, 2020) and the poetry collection What to Miss When (Soft Skull Press, 2021). Her non-fiction work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, the New Yorker, Allure, ELLE, Poets & Writers, BuzzFeed, The Cut, Salon, and Slate.

Leigh founded Out of the Binders/BinderCon, a feminist literary nonprofit organization that supported women and gender variant writers. BinderCon events in NYC and LA welcomed nearly 2,000 writers to hear speakers such as Lisa Kudrow, Anna Quindlen, Claudia Rankine, Jill Abramson, Elif Batuman, Effie Brown, Leslie Jamison, Suki Kim, and Adrian Nicole LeBlanc. Leigh also moderated a Facebook community of 40,000 writers. She is no longer on Facebook.

Leigh’s website.

Leigh’s newsletter.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!

✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

This week, journalist and legendary feminist activist Julie Bindel talks about her new podcast series, Julie in Genderland, which explores the complexities surrounding gender identity, particularly from the perspective of parents of children who’ve become caught up in gender ideology. Julie discusses the role of social services and educators in shaping children's understanding of gender, the intersection of class and gender issues, and the parallels with social justice movements around the sex trade and surrogacy. She also reflects on her reporting of grooming gangs in the UK, linking it to broader issues of misogyny and systemic failures in protecting vulnerable girls.

GUEST BIO

Julie Bindel is a British journalist, broadcaster, author and a feminist campaigner against male violence towards women and girls. Her latest book, Lesbians: Where Are We Now? will be published by Swift Press in Spring 2025 and her new podcast, Julie In Genderland, premiered in September 2024.

Follow Julie on Substack.

Listen to Julie in Genderland.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

📺 Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube!

✈️ The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

Learn about our upcoming Unspeakeasy School of Thought coed courses in fiction, memoir, and “How To Get A Book Deal The Easy Way.”

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

Stephanie Lepp is a video artist and producer whose work focuses on bringing together different viewpoints to arrive at a perspective that goes beyond “common ground” and emerges as a true integration, or synthesis. She was on the podcast in July 2022 to talk about a project called Deep Reckonings. In it, she considered the cases of public figures who’d responded to personal controversy in less-than-ideal ways and reimagined responses that would have conveyed genuine learning.

Now she’s back with a new video series, Faces of X, which illustrates an argument using a single performer to act out the three parts of the thesis, antithesis, synthesis schematic. Those performers include Buck Angel, Liv Boeree, Magatte Wade, and herself.

In this conversation, I talk with Stephanie about why it’s so hard to check your confirmation bias (even — and maybe even especially — when you pride yourself on being able to do so), the difference between synthesis and “both sidesism,” and why she’s optimistic about the future of public discourse about complicated issues.

GUEST BIO

Stephanie Lepp is the founder of Synthesis Media, a production studio devoted to integrating perspectives into a bigger picture. In 2022, she debuted Reckonings, a narrative podcast that explores how we change our hearts and minds, and Deep Reckonings, a series of explicitly-marked deepfake videos that imagine morally courageous versions of our public figures. Her new project is Faces of X.

Watch Deep Reckonings.

Watch Faces of X.

Listen to Stephanie Lepp’s previous interview on The Unspeakable.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

📺 Visit The Unspeakeasy on YouTube!

✈️ We have new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

✏️ Learn about our upcoming Unspeakeasy School of Thought coed courses in fiction, memoir, and humor writing.

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

To doomers and nihilists, the whole world is a joke — and it’s not even funny. Writer Neal Pollack may be a natural skeptic, but he thinks that’s nonsense and he returns to the podcast to talk about better living through laughter (and not in a “live, love, laugh” kind of way). He discusses his various careers — professional writer, professional poker player, three-time Jeopardy champion — his thoughts on COVID-19 lockdowns, the culture of Austin, and his recent battle with sofa dermatitis.

Most importantly, he talks about his upcoming course for The Unspeakeasy School of Thought, Writing Humor in Humorless Times. Unlike most writing workshops, which limit students to the arduous activity of writing, Neal will also be available to teach students how to be funny on Twitter/X, TikTok, at dinner parties, or even while muttering to themselves while walking down the street.

GUEST BIO

Neal Pollack is the author of 12 semi-bestselling works of fiction and nonfiction, including the memoirs Alternadad, Stretch, and Pothead, the novels Jewball, Keep Mars Weird, Edge of Safety, and Never Mind the Pollacks, and the cult short-fiction classic The Neal Pollack Anthology of American Literature. His “Greatest Living American Writer” satire pieces have appeared in McSweeney’s, Salon, The Federalist, The Spectator, and the Jewish Daily Forward/. He is a three-time Jeopardy! champion, a certified yoga instructor, a semi-professional poker player, a Generation X legend, and the editor-in-chief of Book and Film Globe.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

📺 Visit The Unspeakeasy on YouTube!

✈️ We have new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

✏️ Learn about our upcoming Unspeakeasy School of Thought coed courses in fiction, memoir, and humor writing.

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

If you have a pet, you’ve probably wondered lately what in the world has happened to veterinary medicine. Why is it so expensive? Why is it so hard to get an appointment? And why, despite all of that, do domestic animals seem to have more health problems than ever?

In this conversation, financial reporter Helaine Olen, a longtime dog owner and author of the April 2024 Atlantic article Why Your Vet Bill Is So High, explains how a combination of advancing technologies, private equity, and let's face it, people being really, really attached to their pets have made it costlier and more complicated than ever to own a pet.

GUEST BIO

Helaine Olen is Managing Editor at the American Economic Liberties Project and a contributing columnist for MSNBC.com. She is the author of Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry and a co-author of The Index Card: Why Personal Finance Doesn’t Have to Be Complicated. A former columnist for The Washington Post opinion page and Slate, her work has also appeared in numerous other publications, including The Atlantic, where Why is Your Vet Bill So High appeared.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

📺 Visit The Unspeakeasy on YouTube!

✈️ We have new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

✏️ Learn about our upcoming Unspeakeasy School of Thought coed courses in fiction, memoir, and humor writing.

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

This interview with Kat Timpf is free to all subscribers. To hear bonus conversations and get early access to other episodes, become a paying subscriber here.

Meghan interviews Kat Timpf, Fox News analyst and co-host of Gutfeld, about her new book "I Used to Like You Until... (How Binary Thinking Divides Us)." They discuss Kat’s education and early political evolution, her frustrations with ideological tribalism, and her thoughts about red-pilled manosphere discourse regarding dating, mating, and female fertility.

GUEST BIO

Kat Timpf is a writer, comedian, and television personality. She’s currently the co-host of “Gutfeld!” on Fox News weeknights at 10 p.m. and a Fox News analyst. She’s also the author of the New York Times bestsellers "You Can’t Joke About That: Why Everything is Funny, Nothing is Sacred, and We’re All in This Together," and "I Used To Like You Until... (How Binary Thinking Divides Us).”

Follow Kat Timpf on Twitter and Instagram.

HOUSEKEEPING

✈️ We have new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

✏️ Learn about our upcoming Unspeakeasy School of Thought coed courses in fiction, memoir, and humor writing.

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

Over the last decade, Planned Parenthood has become one of the country’s leading providers of gender transition hormones for young adults, according to insurance claim data. In August, journalist Jennifer Block published an article in The Free Press entitled “How Did Planned Parenthood Become One of the Country’s Largest Suppliers of Testosterone?” The article follows the story of a teenager who visited her local Planned Parenthood and was fast-tracked into medical transition and then surgery that she almost immediately regretted. In this conversation, Jennifer talks about how this happened, why the public has been slow to realize it, and how to find an intellectual consistency between supporting abortion rights and opposing medicalized gender transition for young people.

GUEST BIO

Jennifer Block is an independent journalist who writes frequently about health, gender, and contested areas of medicine. Her articles and commentary have appeared in The Boston Globe, Romper, The BMJ, The Cut, The New York Times, The Baffler, **and many other outlets. Her 2007 book Pushed, led a wave of attention to the national crisis in maternity care and is a foundational text in university curricula and birth worker training. She’s also the author the 2019 book Everything Below the Waist: Why Health Care Needs a Feminist Revolution.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

✈️ We have new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

✏️ Learn about our upcoming Unspeakeasy School of Thought coed courses in fiction, memoir, and humor writing.

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.

Meghan interviews housing market analyst Melody Wright about why purchasing a home has reached historic levels of unaffordability. A rising star on YouTube, Melody was on the front lines of the mortgage implosion during the Great Financial Crisis and has devoted the last few years to scratching beneath the surface of the affordability crisis in housing. Though low inventory remains a problem in many regions, you might be surprised to learn that in many parts of the country, new construction has saturated the marketplace and countless homes are sitting empty. Melody talks about how this happened, why the media doesn’t report more on it, and where she sees similarities to the run-up to the housing market crash in 2008. Plus, fun fact: did you know that the word mortgage is derived from the very old French legal term “death pledge?”

ABOUT THE GUEST

Follow Melody on Substack.

Melody on YouTube.

Follow her on X.

Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here.

HOUSEKEEPING

✈️ We have new retreats for 2025. See where we'll be!

✏️ Take a memoir writing course with me (or another awesome course!) Learn more here.

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.