Armie Hammer's Blunt Force Trauma: Jamie Kirchick On The Story No One Will Tell

The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.7 • 855 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2023

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

This week Meghan welcomes back journalist Jamie Kirchick. Jamie was on The Unspeakable last fall with Mike Pesca and Virginia Heffernan, his co-hosts on the political analysis podcast Not Even Mad, which is currently on hiatus. Now, he's here for a very different reason. On February 4, Jamie published an extraordinarily long and quite remarkable–even shocking– article about the case of the film actor Armie Hammer, whose reputation was annihilated in early 2021 when he was accused by a series of women of physical and sexual violence and even cannibalism. Though investigations have so far turned up nothing along these lines, the court of public opinion has held firm in its rebuke of Hammer and there's been little incentive in Hollywood or the news media to take an honest look at the facts. But Jamie's article may be a significant turning point and he came on the podcast to recap the story, talk about what it was like to report it, and reflect on the various cultural dynamics that allowed things to play out as they did. Jamie is a columnist for Tablet Magazine and a writer for the digital news and culture site Air Mail, where his story, Armie Hammer Breaks His Silence, was published.

Jamie stuck around for some bonus chat about Meghan's favorite question; how he feels about being the age he is (spoiler: 39). That led to other topics; for instance how he feels about being gay amidst a so-called "queer" revolution and how, as an elder millennial, he feels about Gen Z. To hear that portion, go to meghandaudm.substack.com and become a paying subscriber.

Guest Bio:

Jamie Kirchick is a columnist for Tablet magazine, a writer-at-large for Air Mail and the author of the bestseller Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Unspeakable Podcast. I'm your host, Megan Dahl. My guest is James, better known as Jamie Kirchick. This is his second time on the podcast. Jamie came on last fall with Mike Peska and Virginia Heffernan, his co-hosts on the Political Analysis Podcast, Not Even Mad, which is currently on
0:22.9	hiatus. He's back for a very different reason. On February 4th, Jamie published a very long and
0:30.1	quite remarkable, even shocking article about the case of the film actor Army Hammer,
0:35.6	whose reputation was annihilated back in early
0:38.8	2021 when he was accused of sexual violence and also cannibalism.
0:45.5	Even though investigations have turned up nothing along those lines, the court of public opinion
0:51.2	has held firm in its rebuke of Hammer, and there's been little
0:54.7	incentive in Hollywood or the news media to take an honest look at the actual facts. But Jamie's
1:00.7	article may be a significant turning point, and he came on the podcast to recap the story,
1:06.5	talk about what it was like to report it and reflect on the various cultural dynamics that
1:11.4	allowed things to play out as they did. Jamie is a columnist for tablet magazine and a writer for the
1:17.7	digital news and culture site airmail where his Army Hammer article was published.
1:23.6	Jamie stuck around for some unrelated bonus chat about my pet question, how he feels about being the age he is, and that led to some other topics.
1:33.9	For instance, how he feels about being gay amidst the so-called queer revolution and how as an elder millennial he feels about Gen Z.
1:43.4	That is great stuff as usual. So if you want to hear it,
1:47.4	go to megandaum.substack.com and become a paying subscriber. In the meantime, here is my conversation
1:55.3	about Army Hammer with Jamie Kirchick. Jamie Kerchick, welcome back to The Unspeakable.
2:03.9	Thank you, Megan.
2:04.8	You were on here a few months ago with your erstwhile podcast co-hosts from Not Even Mad,
2:11.9	Mike Peskin, Virginia Heffernan.
2:13.5	Now for something completely different, you have written an astonishing piece very long and just exquisitely reported about a subject that I thought I didn't really care very much about, which is Army Hammer.
2:30.5	And just what the sort of constellation of events that led to this incredible reputational catastrophe.
	...

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