A Special Place in Hell

This week, the girlx hash it out about transhumanism and reproductive technology. Does this new technology trans away our humanity? Or is it doing the lord’s work without bothering any lords? Should surrogacy be banned? Or should is one of those “don’t knock it ’til you’ve tried it” kind of things? Finally, the co-hostessx talk about memory and how different people experience it. Or something like...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.com The womxn discuss their recent conversation with New York Magazine writer Rebecca Traister about marriage, mating, and feminism.  RELEVANT LINKS Check out our recent podcast with Rebecca Traister here . “The Return of the Marriage Plot: Why everyone is suddenly so eager for men and women to get hitched” for Ne...

New York Magazine writer, acclaimed author and old(ish) school GenX feminist Rebecca Traister joins the pod to talk about her September article, “The Return Of The Marriage Plot: Why  everyone is suddenly so eager for men and women to get hitched.”  Do trads have a point when they say the sexual revolution has led us down the primrose path and people need to start procreation early and often? Or i...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.com Billie Eilish gets ratioed for saying no one criticizes men’s bodies. She is SO WRONG! (Yet kind of right.) In other news, famed atheist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is now a Christian. What gives? Sarah has a few theories, Meghan is suspicious of the timing (Christmas is right around the corner…). Finally, the girls/women...

TikTokers discover Osama bin Laden’s Letter to America and have “existential crises”. Is it because it’s the first thing they’ve ever read that’s longer than a tweet? Or is OBL this generation’s Che Guevara? Plus, infighting breaks out in TERF world when an AGP confuses business casual with ballroom formal.  Relevant Links Osama bin Laden's TikTok popularity is based on childish notions of evil ....

High school debaters stand up to whiteness (finally). A-romantic, asexual novelist throws Twitter tantrum. Plus, are all-female colleges dangerous places for women? Do women tear down more posters than men? Would Sarah have been better off at an all-boy’s school? Should Meghan a cult leader? Or is she more assistant-to-the-cult leader material?  Get early access and bonus episodes? Upgrade your su...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.com The womenx answer listenerx question. You’re welcomex! Want to hear the whole episode and join the community? Upgrade your subscription . HOUSEKEEPING 💭 Follow Sarah’s Substack, “ Hold That Thought .” ☕Follow Meghan’s other podcast, “ The Unspeakable ”  🥂 Join The Unspeakeasy , Meghan’s community for freeth...

Premium subscribers get this episode 48 hours early. Become a member if you want early access to all episodes as well as access to the bonus-only episodes. Sarah and Meghan kick off their conversation by wondering whether you should be able to order a breastmilk latte at Starbucks and or if the Donner Party consulted YouTube for human meat recipes.  They then move on to the myth of the “decoloniza...

In this episode Sarah and Meghan consider the ethics of adoption, surrogacy and the future of reproductive technology. They discuss the “Baby Scoop” era, which lasted from just after World War II into the early 1970s, in which millions of unwed mother surrendered their babies to adoption agencies, many of which were profiting from the transaction. They discover that Meghan, who was born the year o...

Eliza Mondegreen visits the girls/women to talk about the relationship between online communities and gender identities. From Reddit to Tumblr, tens of thousands of strangers are poised to welcome confused kids into a sprawling and hyper-accepting “family.” But, as Eliza puts it, “finding these communities is like stepping in quicksand.” Eliza Mondegreen is a graduate student researching online tr...

This week, the girlx discuss the recent Washington Post article about Artemis Langford, a University of Wyoming student who was driven out of a sorority house for not being the right kind of girl — specifically, a 6’2” biological male with a five o’clock shadow and some strange hobbies. Relevant Links “Judge Rules against Female Sorority Members Who Sued after Chapter Admitted Male Student” from T...

An uncharacteristically somber episode in Hell, in which we share our frustrations and disbelief at the callous responses to the attacks by Hamas on Israel. Relevant Links Joint Statement by Harvard Palestine Solidarity Groups on the Situation in Palestine. Claudine Gay’s response to the student groups statement. “ Nothing will ever be the same again ” by Yael Bar-Tur Want to hear the whole episod...

Greg Lukianoff, President of the Foundation For Individual Rights And Expression (FIRE) and author of the new book, “The Canceling Of The American Mind,” visits A Special Place to explain once and for all that cancel culture is real . For the much-anticipated followup to the seminal “The Coddling Of The American Mind,” Greg teamed up with 23-year-old wunderkind Rikki Schlott to show how cancel cul...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.com This episode is for premium subscribers only. Become a member if you want early access to all episodes, and to get access to the bonus-only episodes like this one. In this episode, the girls/women cover the Coleman Hughes vs. TED saga, and try their best to come up with a fresh take on race and cancel culture,...

This very book-heavy episode, the girls/women discuss the relevance of Banned Books Week since no one really reads and libraries are essentially homeless masturbation zones. Meghan shares her distaste for the morally-dubious lessons of The Giving Tree (the Shel Silverstein classic), but Sarah defends it as a necessary parenthood redpill.  Finally, they discuss a problematic listener comment about...

In this episode, Sarah and Meghan do their podcasterly duties and discuss the scandal (or is it merely a juicy nothingburger?) surrounding Ibram X Kendi’s mishandling of the more than $43 million that poured into his Center for Anti-Racist Research at Boston University. After getting high on schadenfreude fumes, they ultimately decide it’s not Kendi’s fault but the well-meaning (mostly white) enab...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.com And what was the outcome? Despite being an uncharismatic, humorless scold with a normie American accent, Sarah won the debate! It hardly seemed possible, but she and her partner Grimes (aka “Techno Mechanicus’s mother) proved to a packed house that The Sexual Revolution™ was an unmitigated success a net positi...

In this episode, the girls/wom(y)n — aka Meghan Daum and Sarah Haider — tackle the subject of academic tenure and ask whether it actually encourages ideological conformity at universities. Also under discussion: have the social sciences have been captured? Why are so many administrators? Moreover, why do universities bend over backward to cater to 18-year-olds when the people who really matter are...

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit aspecialplace.substack.com In this episode, the girls/wom(y)n — aka Meghan Daum and Sarah Haider — tackle the subject of academic tenure and ask whether it actually encourages ideological conformity at universities. Also under discussion: have the social sciences have been captured? Why are so many administrators? Moreover, why do unive...

Today the girls/women discuss the phenomenon of Oliver Anthony, the breakout star behind the hit song Rich Men North of Richmond Is he actually a music industry plant and does it matter? Are political songs all terrible, or is it just Sarah’s opinions? Next, they talk about the New York Times’ evangelical zeal of reporting on hate crimes. In two recent, high-profile cases, a store owner was shot f...

Why do women find things disgusting? Is your toddler secretly trying to cock block you? Evolutionary psychologist Diana Fleischman visited us in Hell to discuss all of the above PLUS weigh in on our debate about whether women get breast implants for themselves, men or other women.  In the bonus segment, we followed up on all the questions that we missed in the Penelope Trunk episode of “Do As We S...

Today in Hell: The girls/women discuss Neil Degrasse Tyson’s various ruminations about gender, and very belatedly breaking down his discussion with Ben Shapiro from 2019 about gender ideology. And in the BONUS segment for members only, the girls/women discuss NARCOFEMINISM: What is it? What can be done about it? Is it contagious? Watch the episode on YouTube: Ben Shapio and Neil deGrasse Tyson's T...

She’s back! Accomplished fem-trepreneur, take-no-prisoners life coach and model Aspergian Penelope Trunk returns to a special place – this time to help launch us in our new roles as advice ladies. Subscribers shared their problems (and, boy do you have problems) and we enlisted Penelope to help us help you. Along the way, Penelope registered her disapproval of our listeners' hobbies, Meghan’s hair...

Is it literally impossible to be a woman? Is Sarah a mean boss? Is Meghan a men’s rights activist? In this episode, Meghan reports back from seeing Barbie and offers her rewrite of America Ferrera’s “epic” feminist speech. Sarah does some global politics ‘splaining about why Western occupation couldn’t topple the Taliban and, along the way, reveals that her father named her after Linda Hamilton’s...

On this episode, the girls/women go in search of the secrets of school-age lassies who do double duty as saint-adjacent as moral sages. Is this the kind of work no grown woman can do? To wit, is it the final frontier of ageism? At age 20, Greta Thunberg look a day over 11. So why is she refusing to share her skincare secrets? FYI: The girls/women are launching an advice segment–send in your person...