Maiden Mother Matriarch with Louise Perry

In this bonus episode, I spoke to former radical feminist (well, sort of) Meghan Murphy about beauty treatments. How should feminists think about, for instance, botox? How should individual women navigate this issue? And what have we, personally, had done?

Back in 2013, the Obama administration endorsed an ad campaign that came to be derisively known as the “pajama boy” campaign. “Pajama boy” was actually an adult man who encouraged young adults to make the case for Obamacare over Thanksgiving dinner with their relatives. “Wear pajamas. Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance.” was the tag line. Most people thought it was pretty silly and the image survives now as an online meme.In retrospect, “pajama boy” was actually a little bit sinister because it was symptomatic of a shift in the culture. While families have always fallen out over personal conflict, it is now increasingly common for relationships to break down over politics. This is directly downstream of a new expectation that confronting relatives about political disagreements at the family dinner table is not just acceptable, but actually virtuous.My guest today has written a book about the rise of family estrangement, and particularly of adult children going ‘no contact’ with their parents. The proximate trigger for this new kind of divorce is often political: arguments about Trump, or Covid, or gender identity are common. But behind these individual conflicts, Noelle Mering argues, is a profound shift in our attitudes towards the family, and the mainstreaming of a troubling idea: that some members of our own families are expendable.Noelle Mering is a fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington D.C. and author of the new book ‘No Contact: How a Seductive Ideology Broke Families and Friendships and How We Can Repair Them.’ She is also a wife and mother of six children.

In this bonus episode, I spoke with Nina Power about the English village that is seeking independence from the UK in protest at a local asylum seeker accommodation centre. We discussed the issues with asylum policy, the growing spirit of rebellion in sleepy rural places, and whether the UK government is guilty of institutional misogyny.

Humans love stories. Long before writing was developed, stories helped people to preserve knowledge, transmit moral ideas, warn against danger, and psychologically prepare for future ordeals. The most enduring stories are those that organise experience into meaningful patterns, communicating through symbolism that often operates on a subconscious level. My guest today argues that these old stories do something important to us, particularly as children.Today we discussed fairytales and the Bible. We also discussed a lot of modern stories: Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, American Psycho, The Wizard of Oz, Christopher Nolan’s new adaptation of The Odyssey, and many more stories that play with symbolism. These cultural products have moral messages that we ought to pay attention to, particularly in an era when the subversion of old stories has become a part of the progressive political project.Jonathan Pageau is a Christian artist. You can find his podcast, writing, and teaching courses by going to thesymbolicworld.com, where you can also buy Jonathan’s illustrated editions of classic fairytales.

For this bonus episode I spoke with Helen Roy about the new cult horror movie ‘Obsession.’ Helen can found at Helen Roy Writes.

Feminists have been arguing about the politics of homemaking for a long time. In her 1963 feminist classic, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan famously compared the suburban American home to a “comfortable concentration camp”, arguing that homemaking was not just a waste of a woman’s talents, but a form of degradation.Maternal feminists reject this characterisation. But they also highlight the ways in which stay-at-home parents – mostly, but by no means exclusively, mothers – are made vulnerable, particularly financially. My guest today is focused on how public policy can best reduce this vulnerability.Ivana Greco is a homemaker and homeschooling mother of four. She has a degree from Harvard Law School and practiced law for ten years. She now writes about issues impacting homemakers, women, children and families.

I’ve just moved to Australia. I wrote a column about our move in the Wall Street Journal, which was also published in The Australian, but I haven’t otherwise spoken about our reasoning, and a lot of listeners have been asking. So today’s episode is about Australia: the issues the country is facing right now, why British people are so often attracted to moving here (including yours truly), the cultural differences between Britain and Australia, and the big political challenges that both countries are facing: immigration, economic stagnation, ageing populations, housing crises, and the rise of the populist Right.I’m joined by the perfect commentator with whom to discuss the state of Australia right now. Claire Lehmann is the founding editor of Quillette and also a columnist at The Australian newspaper.

In this bonus episode, Ed West and I discussed the apparent murder of Ann Widdecombe, the role that she played in British public life, and the responses to this atrocity.

In this bonus episode, Rob Henderson and I discussed a recent viral article in The Cut titled ‘It’s Hard to See My Parents Live So Lavishly While We’re Struggling’ and the broader issue of wealth inequality within families. Is it really true that millennials have it harder than boomers? Are downwardly mobile younger generations right to feel resentful? And how should wealthy parents protect their children from becoming spoilt and entitled?