Zoë Booth (X, Substack) is the Content Director for Quillette and host of the Quillette Cetera podcast. Amid all the talk about Epstein, she mentioned to me that when she was 15–16, she had sexual relationships with older men, yet did not consider herself to have experienced pedophilia. I wanted to talk about it, so I invited her on to stream. Funnily enough, the guys got mad at her when she stopped being woke. Yet despite the financial and cultural incentives to do so, she refuses to identify as a “victim” or “survivor.” We also discuss age gap relationships, gooning, safetyism, neuroticism, the evils of locking up female teachers for having relationships with male students, and the causes of actual pedophilia. As you can hear, the Squatty Potty guy is on my mind today. I argue that society is pushing to make heterosexuality resemble lesbianism. This is what ties together pedo hysteria and opposition to age gaps and power disparities within couples.
Near the end, we move on to other topics like immigration to Australia, Zoë’s upcoming marriage, testosterone and hormone replacement therapy, Bryan Johnson and how he makes me root for death, and having kids. A fun conversation, and obviously an enjoyable viewing experience too.