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The Unspeakable Podcast

Playlist of Tears: The Catastrophe Hour Book Club Week 5

The Unspeakable Podcast

Meghan Daum

Society & Culture

4.8784 Ratings

🗓️ 4 July 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The next meeting of The Catastrophe Hour Book Club is scheduled for WednesdayJuly 9, at 3:00 p.m. ET. We will discuss the fifth essay of the collection, Playlist of Tears.

The book club meets for 14 consecutive Wednesdays at 3:00 p.m. ET. The book club is for yearly paid Substack subscribers only, so if you want to join, please upgrade your subscription at www.theunspeakablepodcast.com.

 
About The Catastrophe Hour 
 
"One of our most important essayists . . . The Catastrophe Hour is proof that writers and readers can choose to engage with their lives in a manner that is radically disengaged with the pointless noise of the day.” — Washington Examiner 
 
From the acclaimed author of The Unspeakable and The Problem with Everything comes a new collection of unputdownable essays. Written between 2017 and 2024, these essays are classic Meghan Daum, showcasing her wit, her intellect and her uncanny ability to throw new light on even the most ubiquitous of subjects. Arranged in the order that they were written, the essays touch on themes of aging, solitude, creative life, money, the changing media landscape, death, and the meaning of home. Daum’s unflinching honesty and exacting observations secure her reputation as one of our most important and enduring essayists.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Music, at least the foreground kind, the kind you choose based on your mood, the kind that

0:09.4

makes you feel like a kid sitting in your room, even if you're old enough to have your

0:13.4

own house, has largely left my life.

0:18.8

Hey there, before we get to this brief and extra special extra edition of the podcast, this is a quick reminder that tickets are now on sale for our co-ed, bigger and better than ever unspeak-easy retreat in New York City, October 11th and 12th.

0:36.5

This will feature multiple speakers and

0:39.0

accommodate more attendees than usual, but you still get the same small, off-the-record,

0:45.2

intimate discussions that you can only get with the unspeak-easy. Our speakers include John McWhorter,

0:51.5

Carol Hoeven, Rob Henderson, Mike Pesca, Peter Moskos, Alana Newhouse,

0:56.9

Andrew Hartz, Lisa Sullen Davis, Ben Appell, and myself. We're also adding speakers all the time,

1:02.7

so you never know who else might be there. This is a chance to meet and talk with your

1:07.3

intellectual heroes, as well as connect with like-minded and also not so like-minded

1:12.3

that's the whole point free-thinking people from all over space is limited and we're already

1:18.2

more than halfway sold out so please go to the unspeakeasy.com slash retreats to learn more and to

1:24.6

sign up this is not cheap i'm not going to lie. We don't do things

1:28.3

cheaply at the unspeak easy. We can't, but I can promise you that there is nothing else like

1:33.7

this out there will be in a beautiful space. We will feed you amazing food, real food,

1:39.5

as well as brain food. And this is a great opportunity to treat yourself in a way that you never

1:45.2

have before. Again, the unspeakeasy.com slash retreats. I am so excited about it, and I would

1:50.8

love to see you there. Hi, and welcome to this special edition of the podcast. What you're

1:58.3

about to hear is an excerpt from an essay in my new book, The Catastrophe Hour,

2:02.9

which was published in April. I am running a book club this summer, where we read an essay each week

2:08.5

and talk about it on Zoom. Since there are 14 essays in the book, the club will run for 14 consecutive

...

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