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Transcript

Is Kamala Harris Secretly Relieved?

Lionel Shriver on the repudiation of wokeness, the volatility of a Trump presidency, and the newly relaxed Kamala Harris.

November 11, 2024 edition.

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For this first post-election episode, I welcome back author Lionel Shriver, who is arguably America’s (and the U.K.’s) most controversial woman of letters. We talk about the over/under on the end of democracy, whether J.D. Vance is following a Trump-mandated script, how trans issues replaced abortion rights as a priority for many female voters, and whether Kamala Harris is secretly relieved that she doesn’t have to be President of the United States. We also discuss why writers must oppose Israel to remain in good standing in the literary world and how we feel about the current pronatalism movement with respect to our own reproductive choices.

Lionel Shriver discusses the 2024 US election aftermath, including Kamala Harris's potential relief, the shift in women's voting priorities, and the literary world's stance on Israel.

Guest Bio

Lionel Shriver is a columnist for The Spectator and the author, most recently, of Mania, a novel. Her fiction includes The Mandibles, Property, So Much For That, the New York Times bestseller The Post-Birthday World, and the international bestseller We Need to Talk About Kevin. Her journalism has appeared in The Guardian, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Harper's, and the London Times, and she currently writes a regular column for The Spectator in the UK. A longtime American expat in the U.K, she now lives in Portugal.

Relevant Links:

Hundreds Of Authors Pledge To Boycott Israeli Institutions

Lionel Shriver contributed an essay to my 2015 anthology Selfish, Shallow and Self-Absorbed: Sixteen Writers On The Decision Not To Have Kids.

Lionel’s previous interviews on The Unspeakable: When Taking Control of Your Death Takes Over Your Life: Lionel Shriver on Getting Out Just In Time and It Should Have Been Over By Now. But It Isn’t

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The Unspeakable Podcast
The Unspeakable Podcast is a weekly interview show hosted by writer Meghan Daum. It's a place for conversations with writers, scientists, philosophers, artists and all kinds of interesting people about topics that have been deemed "unspeakable." Of the many podcasts offering nuanced conversations, this is the only one with official Nuanced AF merchandise available at the Nuance Store.
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