The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

This week's guest is Estela Lopez, Executive Director of the LA Downtown Industrial Business Improvement District, which encompasses Los Angeles's Skid Row. With 25 years on the job and a lifetime in the neighborhood, Estela is one of the most clear-eyed, unsparing voices when it comes to what homelessness actually looks like at the ground level. In this conversation, she and Meghan talk about how a thriving industrial district became the nation's most concentrated homeless encampment, why Estela sees this less as a homelessness crisis than a lawlessness crisis, and how the open-air drug economy makes every other intervention nearly impossible. They also talk about the limits—and often the folly—of harm reduction policy, how COVID chaos led to the collapse of enforcement, and what the "housing first" approach gets wrong.

This week, Meghan sits down for an efficient but information-packed conversation with mindset coach Amanda Gertz-Hurdy, author of The Curiosity Workbook. They discuss how Amanda pivoted from a corporate career to a more creative path before building a thriving practice in the mindfulness and curiosity space—and why she believes radical self-acceptance can only come when you're ready to ask the radical questions. This episode is sponsored by Fecalicity. Visit myfecalmatters.biz to start your new gut health journey today. Guest bio: Amanda Gertz-Hurdy is a certified journaling coach, a top-rated curiosity practitioner, a mom to twins, and the author of The Curiosity Workbook: How to Stand in Your Truth, Sit in Your Intention, and Kick Ass by Cultivating Curiosity.

Bestselling novelist and commentator Lionel Shriver returns to the podcast to dicuss what might be her most controversial book yet. A Better Life takes on immigration through the story of a progressive Brooklyn woman who opens her home to a migrant. In this interview, she and Meghan discuss the book's themes and central characters, including the deliciously complicated Nico, a basement-dwelling fan of manospheric podcasts, and the role of the family's sprawling, Queen Anne-style house, which is almost a character in itself. They also talk about demography, population decline, and the cultural shift from seeing children as the default to seeing them as an elective. Lionel was a contributor to Meghan's 2015 book Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers On the Decision Not To Have Kids, and they revisit their respective choices in that regard, what people really mean when they talk about happiness and fulfillment, and why sacrifice may be more central to a meaningful life than our culture likes to admit. Guest Bio: A prolific journalist with a fortnightly column in Britain's The Spectator, Lionel Shriver has written widely for the New York Times, the London Times, the Financial Times, Harper's Magazine, and many other publications. She has written 16 novels, including Mania, Should We Stay or Should We Go, The Mandibles, and We Need to Talk About Kevin, and her work has been translated into 35 languages. Her latest novel is A Better Life.

Annabelle Gurwitch, actor, humorist, and bestselling memoirist, reflects on living with unexpected stage IV lung cancer. She talks about her surprise diagnosis, using gallows humor and contrarian storytelling, navigating scans and relationships, targeted therapy that made her an outlier, and her patient advocacy work with researchers and international conferences.

Sam Quinones, investigative journalist and bestselling author of Dreamland and The Least of Us, explains how new, mass-produced P2P meth reshaped visible street homelessness. He contrasts modern meth-induced psychosis with older stereotypes. He questions single-cause housing narratives, explores limits of Housing First, and even finds hope in band culture and his new book about the tuba as a counter to addiction.

Sarah Haider, writer and commentator and new mother, returns to spar and reflect. They unpack the Jeffrey Epstein files, debate who counts as a predator, and laugh about the infamous muffin emails. Conversation pivots to fertility discourse, Sarah’s GI Bill for moms idea, egg-freezing realities, and modern loneliness. They close with sharp takes on elite culture and why reviving their old show might be complicated.

A sharp take on a podcast controversy about whether recorded interviews must be released. Short history of a public dustup and the tweets that fanned it into an outrage. A clear explanation of why producers shelve interviews and the messy reasons behind those choices. A personal, painful Fresh Air story that shows how shelving can shape careers.

Dr. Debra Soh, neuroscientist and author of Sextinction, studies why younger generations are having less sex. She discusses technology as a new form of contraception, the roles of porn, dating apps, AI companions, and sex dolls. She also covers hormonal and environmental factors, changing sexual norms, and whether an analog rebound is possible.

Michael Shermer, science writer and founding publisher of Skeptic magazine, offers a short tour of how we lose track of basic facts. He talks about why people see the same videos differently. He covers conspiracies, activism’s effect on institutions, the lab leak theory, and how to rebuild trust in expertise.

Writer and essayist Jacob Savage, known for his viral piece 'The Lost Generation,' dives into the challenges faced by millennial white men in fields like media and academia. He shares his disappointing journey from Princeton to Hollywood, emphasizing the impact of recent diversity initiatives. Jacob discusses evolving hiring practices, personal accountability, and how exclusion has influenced political trends and mental health among his peers. Their conversation raises questions about artistic loss and the changing landscape of creativity, sparking a critical dialogue about societal shifts.