Author, essayist and journalist Meghan Daum has spent decades giving voice—and bringing nuance, humor and surprising perspectives—to things that lots of people ...
Special Episode Part 3 Los Angeles Fires: Housing Wars
It’s been three weeks since my house burned to the ground in the Los Angeles wildfires. Here are some thoughts on rent gouging, couch surfing, and the lifestyles of the rich and unhoused. A note on this photo. I took it from Farnsworth Park in Altadena on New Year’s Day, one week before the fire. That thing in the sky is the Goodyear Blimp hovering over Rose Bowl Stadium during the game. Earlier dispatches. January 9: The First 24 Hours January 16: The Immaterial World How to help? Become a paying subscriber to this podcast on Substack or leave a donation of any amount in the tip jar. Your support is deeply appreciated. The podcast resumes its regular schedule very soon! Thanks for your patience. Housekeeping Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube. Learn about The Unspeakeasy, a community for freethinking women. Pre-order my new book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays. Coming April 15, 2025.
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Special Ep Part 2 Los Angeles Fires: The Immaterial World
In the hours of January 8, my house burned to the ground in the Eaton Fire in Altadena, CA. Here are some thoughts I recorded on January 15. How to help? Become a paying subscriber to this podcast on Substack. Or leave a donation in any amount in the tip jar. Housekeeping Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube. The Unspeakeasy has new retreats for 2025. Find out where we’re going. Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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Special Episode: Letter From the Los Angeles Fires
I’ve lost my home. I am safe. HOUSEKEEPING Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube! Unspeakeasy 2025 retreats. We’re going to Texas, Los Angeles, upstate NY and beyond. See where we'll be! Join The Unspeakeasy, my community for freethinking women.
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Topaz Adizes On How To Ask Questions (And Sell Them, Too.)
This week, Meghan is joined by filmmaker, YouTuber, and “experience design architect” Topaz Adizes. He is the founder of The Skin Deep, an experience design created to foster connection in human relationships, often through innovative products and curated live events. In this conversation, Topaz discusses the evolution of relationships in the digital age, the importance of asking the right questions, and how he built a sustainable business model around his project, The And, a video series in which two people sit face to face and engage with a series of simple yet surprising questions. He also explains the concept of experience design and how it shapes human interactions in a technology-driven world. Finally, he and Meghan talk about building a business, the meaning of “intimacy,” the changing rules of the dating market, and why he’s (theoretically) willing to accept that his grandchildren might never meet their spouses in real life. GUEST BIO Topaz Adizes is an Emmy Award-winning writer, director, and the founder and executive director of the experience design studio The Skin Deep, which has a popular YouTube channel. Topaz studied philosophy at UC Berkeley and Oxford University. He speaks four languages and currently lives in Mexico with his wife and two children. HOUSEKEEPING Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube! Unspeakeasy 2025 retreats. We’re going to Texas, Los Angeles, upstate NY and beyond. See where we'll be! Join The Unspeakeasy, my “women’s shelter for the politically homeless.”
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Is Your Media Consumption Making You Sick? Ruby Warrington’s “content diet” for better living
As you make your new year’s resolutions or plan for Dry January, returning guest Ruby Warrington has another idea for better living in 2025: go on a “content diet.” In this conversation, Ruby describes the overwhelming nature of content consumption and its impact on mental health and wellbeing. She draws parallels between the “sober curious” movement, which she spearheaded, and the need for conscious content consumption, emphasizing the importance of awareness in our media engagement. We also talk about the pressures of content creation, the role of intimacy in communication, the rise of AI-generated content in the digital landscape, and the important of reading novels and listening to music. GUEST BIO Ruby Warrington is the author of Women Without Kids: The Revolutionary Rise of an Unsung Sisterhood and is the creator of the term “sober curious." Author of the 2018 book Sober Curious and million-download podcast of the same title, her work has spearheaded a global movement to reevaluate our relationship to alcohol. Other works include Material Girl, Mystical World (2017), The Numinous Astro Deck (2019), and The Sober Curious Reset (2020). With 20+ years’ experience as a lifestyle journalist and editor, Ruby is also the founder of the self-publishing incubator Numinous Books. Get her book here: https://bit.ly/4gLN3oV. Want to hear the whole conversation? Upgrade your subscription here. HOUSEKEEPING Visit The Unspeakable on YouTube! Unspeakeasy 2025 retreats. We’re going to Texas, Los Angeles, upstate NY and beyond. See where we'll be! Join The Unspeakeasy, my “women’s shelter for the politically homeless.”
Author, essayist and journalist Meghan Daum has spent decades giving voice—and bringing nuance, humor and surprising perspectives—to things that lots of people are thinking but are afraid to say out loud. Now, she brings her observations to the realm of conversation. In candid, free-ranging interviews, Meghan talks with artists, entertainers, journalists, scientists, scholars, and anyone else who’s willing to do the “unspeakable” and question prevailing cultural and moral assumptions.
Australia