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  • The Problem with Everything

  • My Journey Through the New Culture Wars
  • Written by: Meghan Daum
  • Narrated by: Meghan Daum
  • Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (23 ratings)

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The Problem with Everything

Written by: Meghan Daum
Narrated by: Meghan Daum
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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

What listeners say about The Problem with Everything

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Half memoir, half critique of woke feminism

Listened all the way through in the course of a day. A lot more memoir than I expected when I started, but I liked that part well enough. (Some of this may be due to being Gen X, going to college in New England, and passing through the New York of the early 90s, myself.) The other part, treating the problem of woke activism, was somewhat weaker.
Daum restricts herself to feminism, and she neither brings full force to knocking down its assumptions (she's prone to splitting the difference) nor has she put in a serious research effort to cataloging the excesses (she's an opinion journalist and sticks to things that happened to come into her own news feed). Still, I felt the enjoyment of listening to someone who writes well talk about something interesting in a way that was personal--humorous, self-deprecating, spirited, and vulnerable--and which chimed with my own ways of thinking about the culture. She is especially good on the generational aspect of the liberal split over today's version of "social justice."
A finite book, yes, but also one that reckons intimately with finitude, partiality, and irrelevance.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent and insightful read

I have yet to experience a critique of the present state of things that’s layered with as much humility and self reflection as this book. Meghan Daum is a fantastic storyteller and beautiful writer. She also is able to build a harsh analysis of the the culture without being to sanctimonious or judgemental. The true relevance and value of GenX is something that has mostly eluded the literature on demographics but Daum comes pretty close to something that makes me proud to be 47 years old in 2020.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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Worth a listen

This book makes some good points but isn't to pushy with the ideals. I felt like it brought awareness to areas of society that maybe should be looked at through another lense while trying to keep our self grounded to stuff that has already stood the test of time.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Best insights on Gen X vs Millennial perspectives on yesterday’s and today’s cultures

To a Gen-Xer, today’s “culture,” especially in social media and universities, can seem over-earnest, humourless, simplistic, nasty, closed-minded and Orwellian. Daum does a fantastic job on unpacking one Xer’s (her own) bewilderment at the current fraught political/social/intellectual situation, particularly looking at the morphing of feminism since the 1980s and 1990s and her own passage through life. I found it refreshingly frank and insightful and enjoyed the spirit in her voice. There’s been a lot written about generational differences and divides, but this is the best I’ve seen from a Gen X perspective.

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Thoughtful, personal, and authentic

I found out about the author on a podcast, and I decided to grab her book. I devoured it! I must admit that I read through it once for the subject material, but I'm going to listen to it for a second time just for the beautiful writing. For my soul, it was the equivalent of sipping on a glass of red while in a bubble bath. I also personally connected with her story, as I never quite knew why it seemed that everyone always had a quick go-to and cut-and-dry position on everything, whereas I'm constantly finding myself begging for nuance in situations. The only gripe that I had with this book was that it ended so soon, as I was hungry for more ;-)

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A most refreshing take on today's feminism

Simply a invigorating breath of fresh air. Honest, personal, with deadly insights on the stifling malaise facing our political climate today. Trust me, just read it.

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