The Problem with Everything

My Journey Through the New Culture Wars

By: Meghan Daum

Narrated by: Meghan Daum

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's summary

From “one of the most emotionally exacting, mercilessly candid, deeply funny, and intellectually rigorous writers of our time” (Cheryl Strayed, author of Wild) comes a seminal new audiobook that reaches surprising truths about feminism, the Trump era, and the Resistance movement. You won’t be able to stop thinking and talking about it.

In the fall of 2016, New York Times best-selling author Meghan Daum began working on a book about the excesses of contemporary feminism. With Hilary Clinton soon to be elected, she figured even the most fiercely liberal of her friends and readers could take the criticisms in stride. But after the election, she knew she needed to do more, and her nearly completed manuscript went in the trash. What came out in its place is the most sharply observed and all-encompassing work of her career.

In this gripping new work, Meghan examines our country’s most intractable problems with clear-eyed honesty instead of exaggerated outrage. With passion, humor, and most importantly, nuance, she tries to make sense of the current landscape - from Donald Trump’s presidency to the #MeToo movement and beyond. In the process, she wades into the waters of identity politics and intersectionality, thinks deeply about the gender wage gap, and tests a theory about the divide between Gen Xers and millennials.

This signature work may well be the first to capture the essence of this era in all its nuances and contradictions. No matter where you stand on its issues, this audiobook will strike a chord.

©2019 Meghan Daum (P)2019 Simon & Schuster Audio

She Nails Gen X

If you’re a child of the 70s and 80s and are a bit confused about the fragility of millennials, perhaps even your own kids, you’ll love this book. It’s filled with gems that will resonate.

We valued resilience. Todays youth values fairness. We got on licenses the day we turned 16. These kids don’t mind being dropped off by mommy. We actually had a cool kind of gender equity and acceptance. They focus on imagined differences. Most important we grew up on “sticks and stones break our bones but words can never hurt me.”

Great stuff. It’s almost like there’s a non-crazy center forming in elite intellectual life. We can only hope.

Review

Didn't know of the author before reading this book. Took a few paragraphs into the first chapter to get fully settled with her style, but she's really good.

Very entertaining and an interesting take on our modern world

Witty! Meghan does a great job explaining our very complicated social narrative. Her take on social issues is a breath of fresh air.

Surprising:)

The hardest task in this genre would be to unify, and what better way to do that than give raw authenticity and perspective.

Finally a book for these times that I relate to.

Thank you, Meghan Daum, for corroborating most of my thoughts over the last three years with facts and spot-on commentary. I don't feel so alone. This book is so well done I am recommending it to anyone I know who has been scratching their heads and asking, "What is going on?"

I’m a hardcore fangirl (fanwomynx?) ;)

Disclaimer - I love pretty much everything Meghan Daum has to say, and am convinced that if I could get her to go get drinks with me we would be best Gen X friends. 😂

That disclaimer aside, this is a fantastic book and a wonderful listen. This is the book that I wish I could write – the one that encapsulates most of my thoughts about most of the problems in our ridiculous current culture. Reading it made me feel like I wasn’t alone.

I appreciate Megan so much – for her courage, for her nuance, for her thoughtful and intelligent ability to articulate what, exactly, is going on. And I love her especially for being a bad-ass Gen X b*** like myself (OK, that’s an inside joke for those who have read the book, but that is basically how I actually think of her).

If you are a historically liberal person who no longer recognizes your own tribe or your place within it anymore, read this book to feel less alone. You won’t regret it!

Meghan, if you’re reading this, just… Thank you. Thank you for The Unspeakable, for A Special Place in Hell, for this book, and for all your writing. You are a gem!!!

very enjoyable

I'm a genXer that's just as bemused by young leftism as Daum is, so I could seriously relate to everything in this book, I wish more people were willing to speak out about these things.
I liked her candor and humor, but I could've used more data, and the book was a bit short.
I guess I'll have to wait for the definitive genx takedown of the modern PC left, but this was a good start.

She hits the nail on the head

As someone who grew up in the 80s-90s I found Daum speaking directly to me at times. I take comfort in knowing others have observed the changes on society I have. Brilliant. Thank you

Feels like best NPR episode ever

I heard a snippet of an interview of the author on NPR and promptly snagged this audiobook version. It's a refreshing take on our current social media tainted reality that was so satisfying.

Buy this for your kids! (And you read it, too.)

What a wonderful book. Meghan Daum, a self-described liberal feminist and proud member of Gen X, provides a much needed antidote to the silliness that pervades much of the culture these days, in the guise of what she calls the “wokoscenti.” This book is full of common sense, and because it is written by someone on the political left, is bracing in a way that a conservative attack would not be. If you have a kid going off to college, buy them this book. Heck, you should probably buy it for a kid in high school, too, because the silliness indoctrination starts there, if not earlier. She also reads it wonderfully, with a wry voice that I found eminently bingeable. Just a great book.