Lean Out with Tara Henley

For all of the mainstream media’s coverage of Donald Trump, there’s not a very deep understanding of the Republican Party under that president, or, indeed, the forces that led up to his election. In the liberal press, there just has not been that much curiosity about the nuances of the American conservative movement — and the historical and political forces driving it. But Tara's guest on the...

As the pandemic winds down, another public health emergency rages — and it is not getting as much attention. We're speaking, of course, about the opioid crisis. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief medical officer of health, recently tweeted that the latest data shows that in 2021, 7,560 people died of opioid-related overdose. On average, 21 people died and 17 were hospitalized every day. Tara's...

The realignment of left and right is something we talk about a lot on this podcast, as we try to make sense of the current moment. This political shakeup is producing new politics, new alliances, and new conversations.    To keep up with the pace of such shifts, Lean Out is now expanding to two episodes a week, to better document these developments in real time. Tara will still be interviewing an...

Last week, amid growing pressure, the Canadian government suspended vaccine mandates for domestic and outbound international air and rail travel — as well as for the federal civil service and the federally regulated transportation sectors. But this debate is far from over, as the government stated that it will not hesitate to reimplement vaccine mandates in the future. The question is: Is such a p...

There was big news out of the United States last week for those who follow the ongoing debate over the state of free speech. FIRE , the preeminent free speech organization for higher education, is expanding beyond campus. And the organization has been renamed the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.  Tara's guest on the podcast today says its expanded mandate is a result of 2020,...

The pandemic, as we know, has been a different experience for different people. Some of us, the laptop class, isolated and worked from home. But others of us, the essential workers, were out there every day doing the work that it took to keep society from collapsing. The stories of the working class have often gone untold, but Tara's guest on the podcast today has dedicated himself to intervi...

“Men and women exist. Occasionally, we even like each other. We exist because of these two simple truths.” These are the opening lines of a powerful new book that dives into the crisis in contemporary heterosexuality. It’s been called a “feminist defence of masculinity,” and it is a clear-headed and compassionate look at where we’ve gone wrong. Nina Power is a British writer, philosopher, and fell...

Some months ago, Tara discovered a podcast that gripped her from its very first episode. That podcast is Banished, from Substack’s Booksmart Studios , and it is a deeply thoughtful and nuanced look at the rising tide of censorship and intolerance. Its host is a remarkable academic who is fiercely committed to open inquiry. Amna Khalid is an historian and a professor at Carleton College. She is a p...

Many of us have had the feeling over the last few years that things were just not adding up, that the narratives in the mainstream media simply were not making sense. Well, my guest on the podcast today had that experience earlier than most, years back, with online feminism – and it sowed the seed that became her most recent book. Meghan Daum is an essayist and the author of six books. She’s a for...

How free is Canada as a country? It’s a question that Tara's guest on the podcast today tackled in a book, back in 2020. He concluded that our freedom was actually pretty precarious. Philip Slayton is a Canadian lawyer and a former dean of law at Western University. He’s also a former president of PEN Canada, and a bestselling author. His latest book is Nothing Left To Lose: An Impolite Repor...

“We’re liberated, and we’re miserable.” That’s a title of a chapter in Chrisine Emba’s new book, Rethinking Sex: A Provocation – and one a lot of people can relate to. The Sexual Revolution held lots of promises of freedom and liberation, but in many ways it just hasn’t delivered. We’re in the midst of a sex recession, marriage is in decline, and a recent Pew survey found that nearly half of Ameri...

When Antonio Michael Downing set out to write his memoir, he gave himself some written instructions: “Tell it plainly, let the sweet be sweet, let the sour be sour, let the truth ring its own bell.” This led to his critically-acclaimed book Saga Boy: My Life of Blackness and Becoming. In it, the Canadian author and musician recounts his childhood in Trinidad, and what he learned about humanity adj...

In the fall of 2015, Tara's guest on the podcast today had just arrived at Yale. He was an Air Force veteran, working-class, a former foster child. So, when a massive crisis erupted over emails about Halloween costumes and campus "safety," he was a bit perplexed. Rob Henderson is a PhD student in psychology at Cambridge University, and a rising academic star. He writes a popular new...

Does every human being deserve to have love in their life? The American prison system – through its policies – often answers that question with a “no.” But the human instinct to seek out companionship, affection, and care runs deep. And every year, some of the roughly 2 million people behind bars fall in love with people on the outside. And the way the prisons treat these bonds says a lot about th...

On the Lean Out podcast, we’ve talked a lot about the haves and the have nots. Our guest today has another way of thinking about this: he calls it the front row of America and the back row. The front row is in power; it values education, credentials, and consumerism. But the back row values different things – things like family, faith, and place. Chris Arnade is a writer and photographer who cover...

There are a lot of things that we don’t talk about in our society right now. And one of those things is fatherhood. The role of fathers – and the power of their presence, and care – is not explored that often, or in much detail. But our guest on the podcast this week says that needs to change. Shaka Senghor is a tech executive, a New York Times bestselling author, a former fellow at the MIT media...

If you're a regular listener of Lean Out, you know that Tara is pretty concerned about the state of the left. Her guest today has concerns of his own. Ben Burgis is a philosophy professor, a columnist for Jacobin magazine, and host of the Give Them An Argument podcast. His recent book, Canceling Comedians While the World Burns, is a brilliant critique of the contemporary left. Ben Burgis make...

In today’s media environment, there are often a lot of unanswered questions. Because narratives are so powerful, and because the media is so polarized, there are often pieces of information that don’t quite fit with any given story. For example: that Trump managed to increase his support among Black voters in the 2020 election, particularly Black men. What happened? Tara's guest on the podcas...

Given the state of the world right now, it’s probably fair to say that a whole lot of us are currently lost in a downward spiral of doomscrolling, utterly overwhelmed by the news. But Tara's guest on the podcast today says things have been bad like this for some time – that, in fact, our civilization is in a form of decline. Andrew Potter is an associate professor at the Max Bell School of Pu...

With the violence in Ukraine dominating headlines, the world is feeling dark — and uncertain. So today on the podcast, we’re going to spotlight a story of hope. Chris Hedges is a former war correspondent for the New York Times and a Pulitzer Prize winner. He’s also a Presbyterian minister and a bestselling author. In his latest book, The Class: Trauma and Transformation in an American Prison , he...

The world has gone mad. In recent weeks, many people have reached out to say they feel overwhelmed by how divided we are. Many feel like the mainstream media is not doing a good enough job at digging into the complexity of the issues we’re facing, and that it is failing to reflect the full spectrum of views and experiences out there. Today's guest has thought deeply about the challenges facin...

The trucker convoy protest in the capital has dominated the news for the past few weeks, with many Canadian commentators expressing shock and disbelief that the country is experiencing such a forceful wave of populism. But at least one person is not surprised at all. Jeff Rubin is an award-winning Canadian author. He’s the former chief economist at CIBC World Markets, and a former Senior Fellow at...

As we all think through the class tensions that have surfaced in Canada, it’s a good time to take a closer look at an ethos held by many of those shaping the dialogue. This group of decision-makers and opinion-shapers, which includes the media, is often referred to in leftist circles as the professional managerial class. Catherine Liu, professor of film and media studies at the University of Calif...

This week — as our culture finds itself embroiled in numerous debates around speech — Danish lawyer Jacob Mchangama has published a brilliant new book that provides a historical perspective. Jacob is the founder and executive director of Justitia, a human-rights think tank based in Copenhagen. Free Speech: A History From Socrates to Social Media is a deeply-researched, engaging, and humane title t...

Today on a special bonus episode of Lean Out, Tara speaks with lawyer, author, and broadcaster Jamil Jivani - who goes public about his recent firing from his radio show, and talks about why he thinks diversity of thought is such an important principle in media. You can find Tara Henley on Twitter at @TaraRHenley, and on Substack at tarahenley.substack.com