The Extreme Crisis of Young Women - Freya India - #1090

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 27 April 2026

⏱️ 115 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Freya India is a writer and journalist focused on female mental health and modern culture. What’s happening with modern women? By almost every measure, life has improved; more freedom, opportunity, and independence than ever before. So why are many women reporting lower levels of happiness? What’s driving this paradox, and what would actually fix it? Sponsors: See discounts for all the products I use and recommend: ⁠⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/deals⁠⁠⁠ Get up to $350 off the Eight Sleep Pod 5 at ⁠https://eightsleep.com/modernwisdom⁠ Get 35% off your first subscription on the best supplements from Momentous at ⁠https://livemomentous.com/modernwisdom⁠ Get a Free Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular flavours with your first purchase at ⁠https://drinklmnt.com/modernwisdom⁠ Get up to $50 off the RP Hypertrophy App at ⁠https://rpstrength.com/modernwisdom Get ChatGPT to explore ideas, solve problems, and learn faster at ⁠⁠⁠https://chatgpt.com⁠⁠ Timestamps: (0:00) The One-Star Controversy Around Freya’s Book (0:56) How Freya Entered the Debate on Women and Girls (2:01) Why Women’s Advocates Are Under Fire (8:30) What Do Women Want in 2026? (10:48) Are Women Getting What They Want But Not What They Need? (12:23) Settle Down or Stay Single: The Modern Dilemma (15:22) Should Social Media Be Banned for Young People? (17:56) Do Young Women Really Want a Child-Free Life? (28:30) Are Young Women Turning Against Capitalism? (30:04) The Harmful Narratives Shaping Modern Sex (33:37) Are Young Women Porn-Brained? (38:13) Is It Healthy to Share Everything Online? (44:26) Is Suicide Rising Among Young Women? (46:40) Is Social Media Radicalising Young Women? (50:30) Why 2020 Changed Everything for Women (53:43) The Rise of Appearance Anxiety Among Women (59:37) Is “Self-Love” Just Another Marketing Strategy? (01:03:18) How Filters Distort Our Self-Image (01:05:47) Have We All Regressed to Mean Teenagers? (01:10:33) Are Influencers Just Modern-Day Salespeople? (01:14:15) Is the Internet Teaching Women to Hate Men? (01:17:40) How Social Media Is Straining Relationships (01:23:27) Are Women Actually Empathetic to Global Conflicts? (01:27:17) The Real Reception of Freya’s Book (01:30:16) Is Divorce Being Glamourised? (01:35:39) Are Progressive Ideals Internally Contradictory? (01:41:02) The Harshest Critiques of Freya’s Work (01:42:45) We Need to Bind Over Love, Not Hatred (01:46:03) Do Tax Systems Discourage Motherhood? (01:51:11) Have Women’s Preferences Fundamentally Shifted? (01:52:42) How Do We Know When the Left Has Gone Too Far? (01:54:49) Find Out More About Freya Extra Stuff: Get my free reading list of 100 books to read before you die: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/books⁠⁠ Try my productivity energy drink Neutonic: ⁠⁠https://neutonic.com/modernwisdom⁠⁠ Episodes You Might Enjoy: #577 - David Goggins - This Is How To Master Your Life: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Goggins⁠⁠ #712 - Dr Jordan Peterson - How To Destroy Your Negative Beliefs: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Peterson⁠⁠ #700 - Dr Andrew Huberman - The Secret Tools To Hack Your Brain: ⁠⁠lnkfi.re/SN-Huberman⁠⁠ - Get In Touch: Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ Twitter: ⁠⁠https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx⁠⁠ YouTube: ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/modernwisdompodcast⁠⁠ Email: ⁠⁠https://chriswillx.com/contact⁠⁠ - Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Why has your book got one star on Goodreads?
0:04.2	Because I'm being attacked by normy liberal women, I think.
0:10.7	So we sent out some galleys, some free copies to just avid Goodreads readers and women who are not in our sort of sphere thinking about things that we are.
0:24.5	And I think also because the book looks like an anti-capitalist Marxist book, there's no indication
0:31.5	that I would sort of be skeptical of the mental health industry or talk about cultural trends like family breakdown. And so a lot of the reviews are women warning each other that this is not what you expect and you might be hit with a viewpoint you disagree with. And so it's a lot of girls who've got through the first chapter and then I've said something like about trans and they've just given up and warned each other not to carry on.
0:55.2	You're horrendous.
0:56.0	Yeah.
0:56.5	When did you start writing about women and girls?
0:59.9	I started, um, 2021.
1:03.1	So it's been a long time.
1:05.1	Um, and it was mostly because I felt anxious and I wanted to figure out what was going on. And so I was trying to
1:13.1	map it all out and it's taken me sort of five, six years to finally finish the book. So it's,
1:20.8	it's not only research that I've done, but it's basically years of my life. I've carried it
1:25.1	through different phases and seasons of my life and this is where I've ended up. I was talking to William Costello. You and him wrote an article together
1:31.4	in Quillette and I think you were in still, you were still in sixth form college. It was so long ago.
1:36.3	Yeah, yeah. So I've been writing for a really long time. But part of the criticism against me is
1:42.2	that I just picked a topic and I'm using it to sort of funnel in my right wing agenda.
1:49.5	So it will be Freya just noticed that the mental health crisis was happening.
1:53.5	And she's using that to spread her sort of fascist ideas.
1:57.5	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
1:58.0	Well, you're in good company here because I'm a fascist as well, apparently.
2:00.3	Oh, nice.
	...

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