The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan's guest this week is author, legal scholar, and Manhattan Institute fellow Heather Mac Donald, whose fearless reporting on cultural sacred cows has long made her essential reading. Meghan has followed Heather's work for nearly two decades and brought her on to confront two complex issues where dominant public narratives frequently collide with reality. Together, they look at the recent high-profile sexual assault allegations at Cornell University alongside the escalating crisis of street homelessness in major American cities. Beneath both topics lies a troubling common thread: the tendency of media and institutional bureaucracies to ignore inconvenient facts in favor of ideological storylines. In this conversation, they examine: The Cornell Rape Narrative vs. Initial Facts: How omitted text messages, campus consent bureaucracy, and selective media coverage distorted the timeline and facts of a controversial fraternity encounter. The Reality of Street Homelessness: Why housing-first policies and harm-reduction strategies routinely fail to address the root drivers of severe addiction, mental illness, and shelter resistance. Institutional Incentive Structures: How both the campus rape bureaucracy and the vagrancy advocacy industry rely on perpetuating crises to sustain their funding and authority. Want to support the show and join our off-the-record community hangouts? Become a paid subscriber to The Unspeakeasy on Substack. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com 🎙️ About Our Guest Heather Mac Donald is a contributing editor to City Journal, a fellow at the Manhattan Institute, and a widely published journalist. She is the author of several influential books on criminal justice, immigration, campus culture, and higher education, including The Diversity Delusion and When Race Trumps Merit. You can follow her work and commentary on X. 👉 https://x.com/HMDatMI 🏡 Housekeeping & Links 🎏 New format: the "official" podcast will publish every other week. On the weeks in between, Meghan will do a Substack livestream — exact date and time may vary. The livestream itself is open to all, but the recording will be posted for paying subscribers only. So it's never been a better time to upgrade your subscription! 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/subscribe 📜 For the first time ever—and for a limited time on a limited basis— offering full-length manuscript consultation. Info here. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/p/full-manuscript-consultation-now 🏍️ Meghan is hosting Zoom hangouts for Founding Members. The next hangout will happen November 29. If you're not yet a Founding Member, you can upgrade your subscription here. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/subscribe 📺 Visit The Unspeakeasy on YouTube. 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@TheUnspeakablePodcast

Meghan's guest is Emma Pettit, a former Chronicle of Higher Education reporter who moved into audio this year at Longview, the new independent media outlet founded by veteran podcast creator Andy Mills. Her new three-part series, Street Fight, looks at a conflict playing out on sidewalks across the country: the rights of people living on the street versus the rights of everyone else. Emma traces the tramps and hobos who followed the Civil War and the Skid Row "bum era" that lasted into the 1970s. She explains why the problem looked so different by the 1980s, when the asylums had emptied, cheap housing had been zoned away, and crack had arrived. Meghan and Emma talk about the 1987 case of Joyce Brown, a woman who lived on a Manhattan heating grate. Mayor Ed Koch had her involuntarily committed, and the NYCLU fought him in court, arguing that she wasn't crazy, just homeless. She won her release, and Ronald Reagan later cited her case as proof of American freedom. From there the conversation moves to a topic Meghan has covered a lot lately: Los Angeles and the present day. Emma interviewed Estela Lopez, a past guest on The Unspeakeasy, about how Skid Row went from desperate to horrifying. They discuss the court rulings in Jones v. City of Los Angeles, Martin v. Boise, and Grants Pass v. Johnson that left cities unsure whether they could enforce anti-camping laws at all. They also examine what "available shelter beds" really means, how the new supply of methamphetamine and fentanyl has changed the street population, and why Meghan thinks we need to stop lumping every kind of homelessness together. This conversation covers: From Hobos to Encampments: The evolution of street life in America, the deinstitutionalization of public psychiatric care, and how hyper-potent modern street drugs transformed the landscape. The Joyce Brown Precedent: How a 1980s court battle over a homeless woman sleeping on a Manhattan heating grate set the template for modern legal paralysis. Rights, Wrongs, and Sidewalks: The fallout of court rulings like Martin v. Boise, the limitations of the "Housing First" framework, and what genuine compassion actually requires. Want to support the show and join our off-the-record community hangouts? Become a paid subscriber to The Unspeakeasy on Substack. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com 🎙️ About Our Guest Emma Pettit is a reporter and audio producer at Longview. Before stepping into audio with her three-part podcast series Street Fight, she spent a decade in print journalism, serving as a senior reporter for The Chronicle of Higher Education where she covered campus politics, faculty disputes, and institutional meltdowns. She began her journalism career at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette after graduating from Villanova University. 🏡 Housekeeping & Links Listen to Emma's full audio series Street Fight on Longview: 👉 https://www.longview.report/series/street-fight Join The Club: Become a paid subscriber to The Unspeakeasy on Substack to unlock monthly hangouts for Founding Members. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com Unspeakeasy Retreats: Off-the-record, curated conversations in beautiful settings. Registration for this fall's Small Gathering for Big Ideas in New York's Hudson Valley is now open. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/573a9vnu Meghan's Writing Workshops: Featuring a coed summer Zoom course and a 3-night women's writing retreat in upstate NY this fall. Is one right for you? 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast The Audiobook: Meghan's most recent book, The Catastrophe Hour, is out now. It's narrated by Meghan herself, in case you still haven't heard enough of her voice. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/ystzc5yz

Meghan's guest this week is journalist Michael Powell, a staff writer at The Atlantic and longtime former New York Times reporter whom she has admired for years for his willingness to report on thorny, third-rail cultural topics. She talked with him about his recent reporting on chronic street homelessness, drug addiction, and the real-world consequences of progressive governance. Specifically, they discussed how the "harm reduction" model plays out in cities like Burlington and Seattle, and why mainstream media newsrooms have become so hesitant to cover complex cultural realities. This conversation covers: The Reality of "Harm Reduction": How an approach born during the AIDS crisis expanded into policies that enable public fentanyl use while leaving working-class neighborhoods to deal with the fallout. Navigating the "Third Rail" Beat: What Michael learned covering sensitive cultural flashpoints—from campus racial controversies to gender sports eligibility—at The New York Times. Ideology vs. Lived Experience: The disconnect between well-meaning policy rhetoric and the daily struggles of local residents, parents, and small business owners. The Culture of Modern Newsrooms: Why institutional conformity, luxury beliefs, and fear of social media backlash stifle honest journalism—and why independent inquiry matters. Read Michael Powell's writing for The Atlantic: 👉 https://www.theatlantic.com/author/powell-michael 🎙️ About Our Guest Michael Powell is a staff writer at The Atlantic. Prior to joining The Atlantic in 2023, he spent sixteen years at The New York Times, serving as a national reporter, metro columnist, sports columnist, and coverer of cultural "third rail" issues. Before his career in journalism, he worked as a cab driver, doorman, and tenant organizer, and previously reported for The Washington Post, The Bergen Record, and The Burlington Free Press. 🏡 Housekeeping & Links Michael Powell's writing for The Atlantic: 👉 https://www.theatlantic.com/author/powell-michael Join The Club: Become a paid subscriber to The Unspeakeasy on Substack to unlock monthly hangouts for Founding Members. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com Unspeakeasy Retreats: Off-the-record, curated conversations in beautiful settings. Registration for this fall's Small Gathering for Big Ideas in New York's Hudson Valley is now open. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/573a9vnu Meghan's Writing Workshops: Featuring a coed summer Zoom course and a 3-night women's writing retreat in upstate NY this fall. Is one right for you? 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast The Audiobook: Meghan's most recent book, The Catastrophe Hour, is out now. It's narrated by Meghan herself, in case you still haven't heard enough of her voice. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/ystzc5yz

After a decade of ideological conformity, is American theater ready to laugh at itself again? This week Meghan is joined by Broadway star, comedian, and producer PJ Adzima, founder of Stage Time NYC and producer of Slam Frank—a mind-melting new musical that reimagines The Diary of Anne Frank through "an intersectional, multi-ethnic, genderqueer, Afro-Latin hip-hop lens." (You read that right.) Slam Frank was conceived by composer and lyricist Andrew Fox, who was stunned and inspired by a Twitter thread in which someone asked, "Did Anne Frank ever examine her white privilege?" (You also read that right.) A play within a play about a progressive theater company twisting itself into knots trying to stay on the right side of history, the show has provoked both walkouts and rave reviews—including in The New York Times. (Again, you read that right.) PJ and Meghan discuss the transformation of the theater world over the past decade, the legacy of The Book of Mormon (in which he starred for many years), the "Dear White American Theater" manifesto, and why he believes great art cannot be created by checking ideological boxes. They also talk about what happens when artists prioritize pleasing everyone over having a point of view—and why live performance still matters in an era dominated by algorithms and social media. PJ was recently added as a guest at The Unspeakeasy's Small Gathering for Big Ideas retreat, Oct 19-21 in Kingston, NY. He joins fellow speakers John McWhorter and Lisa Marchiano. Spaces are filling fast. Info here. Slam Frank opens off-Broadway at New York's Orpheum Theater in September. Guest Bio: PJ Adzima starred on Broadway in The Book of Mormon and is the founder of Stage Time, an underground-style variety theater company and artist collective in New York City. He is also producer of Slam Frank. 🏡 Housekeeping & Links Join The Club: Become a paid subscriber to The Unspeakeasy on Substack to unlock monthly hangouts for Founding Members. 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com/ Unspeakeasy Retreats: Off-the-record, curated conversations in beautiful settings. Registration for this fall's Small Gathering for Big Ideas in New York's Hudson Valley is now open. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/573a9vnu Meghan's Writing Workshops: Featuring a coed summer Zoom course and a 3-night women's writing retreat in upstate NY this fall. Is one right for you? 👉 https://www.theunspeakablepodcast.com The Audiobook: Meghan's most recent book, The Catastrophe Hour, is out now. It's narrated by Meghan herself, in case you still haven't heard enough of her voice. 👉 https://tinyurl.com/ystzc5yz

Is it really true that no one—or at least no one under 30—is having sex anymore? In this episode, Meghan talks with neuroscientist, author, and former sex researcher Dr. Debra Soh about her new book Sextinction: The Decline of Sex and the Future of Intimacy, a data-packed look at why millennials and Gen Z are having less sex than any cohort on record despite living in the most sexually permissive culture in history. From declining testosterone and endocrine disruptors to porn, dating apps, kink culture, sex dolls, and the rise of AI boyfriends and girlfriends (she tried a few), Debra argues that technology has become the new contraception—reshaping not just sexual behavior but intimacy itself. They also discuss hypergamy, hookup culture backlash, "sex positivity" overreach, and whether the future holds a rebellion back toward real-life connection and analog pastimes. Guest Bio Dr. Debra Soh is a neuroscientist who specializes in human sexuality and biological explanations for behavior. Her previous book, The End of Gender, was published in 2020.

Jacob Savage, author of the ultra-viral Compact essay "The Lost Generation," was digital media's man of the month in December. Meghan interviewed him on December 26 for a special episode for paying subscribers, and here it is now from behind the paywall. Jacob's argument in a nutshell, is this: Starting around 2014, the push to diversify hiring in elite institutions, particularly academia, journalism/book publishing and entertainment, hit millennial white men hardest. Despite talent, hardwork, and even privileged connections, many were denied professional opportunities solely because of identity. Many were left stuck, sidelined, or quietly drifting. Jacob describes his path after graduating from Princeton in 2006 and sampling a few different fields before trying to become a television writer in Hollywood. Spoiler: it didn't work out well. Was his mistake his insistence that, as he writes, "the world treat me fairly, when the world was loudly telling me it had no intention of doing so"? Or were the systemic forces that conspired against him part of a larger movement that will have negative downstream consequences for generations to come? Guest Bio: Jacob Savage writes from Los Angeles.