Some of the topics we covered:
Louise Perry and I spoke about how attractive women who are comfortable in their own skin drive people crazy—and why that gets channeled into political outrage
The Red Tribe vibes of Sydney Sweeney—what it means when a beautiful woman codes as “culturally conservative”
Louise suggests that certain actresses succeed not because they’re flawless like a supermodel, but rather because they’re interesting looking
How men use tactics like negging and insults to try to manipulate women’s self-perception and improve their own dating odds
What happens when dating advice from pickup artists gets used by the wrong guys on the wrong girls—and how it might’ve helped fuel the modern gender wars
I argue that online mobs often disguise status envy as moral critique
We spoke about one of my most popular essays about why you shouldn’t imitate high-status people
Criticizing attractive or fit people for living up to beauty standards is bad strategy. You’re admitting your enemies are hot. And beauty is always going to carry high status
Whether it’s hard to maintain a movement if you’re hostile to high-status traits like wealth, beauty, and strength—because people still aspire to those things, whether they admit it or not
The real meaning behind “simps” and “pick-mes”
The online right keeps proving that when given a choice between being politically effective and dunking on women, they choose the latter every time
Why did beauty in advertising disappear for a while? We discuss whether consumers wanted it gone, or whether it vanished because junior staffers in elite institutions pushed for it, and nervous executives went along with it
If beauty is to women what wealth and success is to men, maybe the male equivalent of “body positivity” is pretending status and money don’t matter
A reminder that paid subscribers can access these recordings on Apple Podcast and Spotify.
