How Young White Men Got Screwed, with Jacob Savage
The Unspeakeasy With Meghan Daum
Meghan Daum
4.7 • 855 Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2026
⏱️ 64 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jacob Savage, author of the ultra-viral Compact essay "The Lost Generation," was digital media's man of the month in December. Meghan interviewed him on December 26 for a special episode for paying subscribers, and here it is now from behind the paywall. Jacob's argument in a nutshell, is this: Starting around 2014, the push to diversify hiring in elite institutions, particularly academia, journalism/book publishing and entertainment, hit millennial white men hardest. Despite talent, hardwork, and even privileged connections, many were denied professional opportunities solely because of identity. Many were left stuck, sidelined, or quietly drifting.
Jacob describes his path after graduating from Princeton in 2006 and sampling a few different fields before trying to become a television writer in Hollywood. Spoiler: it didn't work out well. Was his mistake his insistence that, as he writes, "the world treat me fairly, when the world was loudly telling me it had no intention of doing so"? Or were the systemic forces that conspired against him part of a larger movement that will have negative downstream consequences for generations to come?
Guest Bio:
Jacob Savage writes from Los Angeles.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hollywood was very brazen, and I almost think what's interesting now is looking at the reactions, |
| 0:05.0 | is the Hollywood reaction seems incredibly muted. |
| 0:07.6 | I feel like this is actually engendered a lot more discussion and anger and debate in academia and media. |
| 0:15.8 | And Hollywood just seems like institutionally, completely silent. |
| 0:20.2 | Partly, I think, because none of them ever, frankly, gave a shit. |
| 0:29.7 | Welcome to the unspeak-easy podcast. |
| 0:32.7 | The podcast, formerly known as the unspeakable, |
| 0:36.2 | a place for conversations that are surprising and thought-provoking |
| 0:39.7 | without being rage-baity or subject to audience capture. |
| 0:44.2 | Although I'm open to capture. |
| 0:47.1 | It's the most nuanced podcast in all of Podcastsland, and I am your host, Megan Down. |
| 0:52.8 | I'm here on the day after Christmas in a rainstorm with my guest, |
| 0:57.5 | Jacob Savage, who has written arguably the most talked about article of the year, at least when |
| 1:04.4 | it comes to cultural topics. You got in right under the wire. Normally, I would do a whole separate |
| 1:09.3 | introduction, as you know, but I'm going to try |
| 1:11.4 | to get this out to you guys sooner than later without my usual production help. So let's just |
| 1:16.8 | get into it. Jacob, thank you for being here. Thanks for having me. It's been 11 days since your article. |
| 1:24.3 | The Lost Generation appeared in Compact magazine. I think it posted on December 15th. |
| 1:30.0 | There's a lot going on in the piece that we're going to talk about. But I guess the gist of |
| 1:35.4 | your argument is that since around like 2014, DEI-driven hiring and just kind of cultural |
| 1:43.4 | norms in elite institutions have narrowed |
| 1:47.9 | professional pathways for white male millennials disproportionately. And you define this cohort as a lost |
... |
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