This is the rough mix released to paying subscribers on Dec 26. It’s unpaywalled as of Jan 19 and the final version is also now available to everyone.
December 27, 2025
Here’s another rough mix for you, my paying subscribers. I’ll release the finished version next week when everyone’s back at work.
On December 26 (just hours after talking with Mike Pesca), I interviewed digital media’s man of the hour, Jacob Savage. Jacob is the author of the ultra-viral Compact essay “The Lost Generation” and has had a wild ride since the essay dropped on December 15. Jacob’s argument, in a nutshell, is this: Starting around 2014, the push to diversify hiring in elite institutions, particularly academia, journalism/book publishing, and entertainment, hit millennial white men hardest. Despite talent, hardwork, and even privileged connections, many were denied professional opportunities solely because of identity. Many were left stuck, sidelined, or quietly drifting.
Jacob describes what it’s been like to go from “published an essay” to “broke the internet” and describes his path after graduating from Princeton in 2006 and sampling a few different fields before trying to become a television writer in Hollywood. Spoiler: it didn’t work out well. Was his mistake his insistence that, as he writes, “the world treat me fairly, when the world was loudly telling me it had no intention of doing so”? Or were the systemic forces that conspired against him part of a larger movement that will have negative downstream consequences for generations to come?
We also discuss Jacob’s March 2025 compact article, The Vanishing White Male Writer.
Housekeeping
🎁 Make a one-time donation to the podcast. Everything helps and is deeply appreciated. 🙏
🤝 The Founding Member hangouts are coming back! Starting next year, we’ll do them monthly (still figuring out the best day and time). To join in, upgrade your subscription to Founding Member.
📖 Order my book, The Catastrophe Hour: Selected Essays, on Amazon or directly from the publisher here.
📺 Visit The Unspeakeasy on YouTube.
