This week, something a little different: Meghan is the interview subject! In a special end-of-summer episode, The Unspeakable pairs up with Michael Callahan and his podcast Where We Go Next. In a conversation that Michael posted earlier this month, he and Meghan talk about how to avoid audience capture in the “heterodox space,”  how the term “community” got tacked onto nearly everything, and how the concept of the “literary citizen” replaced the role of the working writer or even public intellectual. They vent their shared frustration with the marketing demands of algorithms, particularly the YouTube algorithm and its clickbait thumbnail images, and wonder whether Meghan’s Reddit haters are correct that she’s really just a conservative cosplaying as an old-school liberal. Finally, Meghan discusses the origins and current iteration of The Unspeakeasy and Michael reminds her that in her first visit to his podcast, back in July 2021, she declared that she would never launch a freethought community — oops!

Relevant Links

Original Where We Go Next episode

I Wasn’t Canceled. I Was Problematized.

Who Killed Creative Writing?

Was Alice Munro An Art Monster?

About Michael Callahan

Michael Callahan is an award-winning commercial director and the host of Where We Go Next, where he has deep-dive conversations with accomplished people doing fascinating things. He enjoys vacationing in the Pacific Northwest, hanging out with his awesome wife, and taking far too many photos of their 3 dogs.

Instagram: @wwgnpodcast

Follow WWGN on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Podcasts or Audible.

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Housekeeping

✈️ Unspeakeasy Retreats: 2025 retreats will be announced soon. Last call for our October retreat in Woodstock, NY!

🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.