Maiden Mother Matriarch with Louise Perry

Are mothers oppressed by their children?

In this bonus episode, Mary Harrington and I spoke about the public response to the Lindsay Clancy murder case. Be warned, there are some dark themes discussed. Hosted on

Against Heteropessimism | Maiden Mother Matriarch 211

There is a certain kind of caricature of women that pops up in cultural commentary right now. Modern women, we are told, are inundated with male attention at all times, a

Are young adults actually poor?

For this bonus episode, I spoke with Johann Kurtz about his viral essay 'Young adults are poor despite every metric which suggests otherwise', which was partly inspired b

The post-literate society | Maiden Mother Matriarch 210

Samuel Johnson was one of his history's great readers. He read constantly: while he walked, while he ate, while he socialised. He insisted that one ought to read for five

'Woke 1' was crazy. 'Woke 2' will be crazier.

In this bonus episode for paid subscribers, Rob Henderson and I discussed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's comments on "woke 1" and the shift towards a new kind of progressive

Does populism end in disaster? | Maiden Mother Matriarch 209

Something called 'populism' is on the rise across much of the world. It's difficult to pin down exactly what the term means, but most of us have a sense that we know it w

Is it wrong to get botox?

In this bonus episode, I spoke to former radical feminist (well, sort of) Meghan Murphy about beauty treatments. How should feminists think about, for instance, botox? Ho

The children divorcing their parents | Maiden Mother Matriarch 208

Back in 2013, the Obama administration endorsed an ad campaign that came to be derisively known as the “pajama boy” campaign. “Pajama boy” was actually an adult man who e

English rebels

In this bonus episode, I spoke with Nina Power about the English village that is seeking independence from the UK in protest at a local asylum seeker accommodation centre

Children should read fairytales | Maiden Mother Matriarch 207

Humans love stories. Long before writing was developed, stories helped people to preserve knowledge, transmit moral ideas, warn against danger, and psychologically prepar

Louise & Helen review 'Obsession'

For this bonus episode I spoke with Helen Roy about the new cult horror movie ‘Obsession.’ Helen can found at Helen Roy Writes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for

In Defence of Stay-at-Home Parents | Maiden Mother Matriarch 206

Feminists have been arguing about the politics of homemaking for a long time. In her 1963 feminist classic, The Feminine Mystique, Betty Friedan famously compared the sub

The Lucky Country? | Maiden Mother Matriarch 205

I’ve just moved to Australia. I wrote a column about our move in the Wall Street Journal, which was also published in The Australian, but I haven’t otherwise spoken about

The loss of Ann Widdecombe

In this bonus episode, Ed West and I discussed the apparent murder of Ann Widdecombe, the role that she played in British public life, and the responses to this atrocity.

The politics of the downwardly mobile class

In this bonus episode, Rob Henderson and I discussed a recent viral article in The Cut titled ‘It’s Hard to See My Parents Live So Lavishly While We’re Struggling’ and th

Why we're still obsessed with the fall of Rome | Maiden Mother Matriarch 204

The empire that once controlled all or part of forty modern European, Asian, and African countries no longer exists. Rome didn’t fall all at once, and it didn’t fall for

How Hitler replaced the Devil

Alec Ryrie argues that the age of Hitler is not the 1930s and 1940s, it is our own lifetimes. As the influence of Christianity receded from the 1960s onwards, the figure

Who is to blame for the riots?

In this bonus episode, Nina Power and I discussed recent events in Britain, including the announced ban on social media use for under 16s and last week's rioting in Belfa

A Billion Years of Sex Differences | Maiden Mother Matriarch 203

The science of sex differences is intensely political. Traditionalists tend to exaggerate the innate differences between men and women, while progressives tend to minimis

Why Tradwives are hated

In this bonus episode, I spoke with Helen Roy about Caro Claire Burke’s bestselling novel ‘Yesteryear’ and we tried to explain why the ‘tradwife’ phenomenon attracts such