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RESTOCK ALERT: Just in time for your summer vacation, the Banned Books tote is back in stock.

Alt. title: Katie finally bites off more than she can chew and attempts a nuanced exploration of the Lean In, Girlboss cultural era.

13 years ago, Sheryl Sandberg published Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead. The following year, Sophia Amoruso published #GIRLBOSS.

The broad understanding of this period was that—for a few solid years—we widely embraced the edicts of “corporate feminism” or “Lean In feminism” or “Girlboss feminism,” so named for a societal shift that saw a recognition and celebration of women’s career ambition as a decidedly positive thing worthy of support and encouragement or, at the very least, a collection of sassy poly-blend T-shirts.

We tried it, and it didn’t work.

…but did we?

Diabolical Lies investigates.

“From Girl Boss to No Boss” in The New York Times (2025)

“Why young and old men are leaving the workforce at record rates” in The Washington Post (2026)

Beyond the Gap 2026: Redefining career success & compensation for women from Glassdoor

“The motherhood penalty isn’t empowering” by Stefanie O’Connell for The Purse (2026)

“A Titan’s How-To on Breaking the Glass Ceiling” by Jodi Kantor for The New York Times (February 21)

“Maybe You Should Read the Book: The Sheryl Sandberg Backlash” by Anna Holmes for The New Yorker (March 4)

“Pompom Girl for Feminism” by Maureen Dowd for The New York Times (February 24)

“Lean In, Trickle Down: The False Promise of Sheryl Sandberg’s Theory of Change” by Bryce Covert for Forbes (February 25)

“Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In campaign holds little for most women” by Melissa Gira Grant for The Washington Post (February 25)

“Why Sheryl Sandberg is no Betty Friedan” by Michael Kazin for The New Republic (February 26)

“How to do outrage” by Irin Carmon for Salon (February 28)

“The Absurd Backlash Against Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’” by Michelle Goldberg for Daily Beast (March 1)

“Sheryl Sandberg isn’t the perfect feminist, so what?” by Jessica Valenti for The Washington Post (March 1)

«IT’S AT THIS POINT THAT LEAN IN ACTUALLY COMES OUT, ON MARCH 11»

“Is Sheryl Sandberg’s ‘Lean In’ the next great feminist manifesto?” by Nisha Chittal for Ms. magazine (March 13)

“What Lean In misunderstands about gender differences” by Christina Hoff Summers for The Atlantic (March 19)

“Feminism’s Tipping Point: Who Wins from Leaning In?” by Kate Losse for Dissent (March 26)

“Facebook Feminism, Like It or Not” by Susan Faludi for The Baffler (August 2013)

“#GIRLBOSS by Sophia Amoruso Review” by Helen Lewis for The Guardian (2014)

» And a recent piece from Helen Lewis on the subject, “The Death of Millennial Feminism” by Helen Lewis for The Atlantic (2026)

“Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In philosophy doesn’t just ignore disadvantaged women, it hurts their cause” by Liz Bruenig in The New Republic (2015)

“What impact has Lean In had on women?” by Gianna Palmer for BBC (2015)

“Girlboss: A worrying caricature of women’s enterprise” by Karen Patel and Anne Graefer for The Sociological Review (2017)

A movie that came out around the same time, included here for no reason at all:

“Netflix’s First ‘Girlboss’ Trailer Looks Like a Female ‘Wolf of Wall Street’” by Sean Fitz-Gerald for Thrillist (April 3)

And the trailer for Girlboss, which debuted on April 21, 2017.

“TV Review: ‘Girlboss’ on Netflix” by Sonia Saraiya for Variety (April 17)

“Girlboss review: a tone-deaf rallying cry to millennial narcissists” by Julia Raeside for The Guardian (April 21)

“Girlboss is a feminist fraud” by Jennifer Wright in, um, the New York Post (April 22)

“What Does a Girlboss Look Like?” by Sophie Gilbert for The Atlantic (April 28)

“Take that, patriarchy! The horrific cack-handed ‘feminism’ of Netflix’s Girlboss” by Rachel Aroesti for The Guardian (May 10)

“How ‘Lean In’ Feminism Created Elizabeth Holmes and the Toxic Ladyboss” by EJ Dickson for Rolling Stone (2019)

“The Real Backlash Never Ended” by Molly Fischer for The New Yorker (2022)

“The fall of the girlboss is actually a good thing” for Business Insider

“Let 2020 be the year we get rid of girlboss culture for good” for Refinery29

“Slayed queens: the girlboss, dethroned” for The Spectator

“‘Girl boss’: When empowerment slogans backfire” for BBC

“The girlboss has left the building” for The Atlantic

Women in the Workplace 2025 from McKinsey & Company

The analysis of 2022 American Time Use Data that found that, for full-time workers, men get a month more per year of vacation compared to their women peers and that gender remains the primary predictor of this leisure gap discrepancy between full-time workers

The 2023 paper from The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas that found that if men were unable to marry, prime-age male work hours would fall by 7%

The Ambition Penalty by Stefanie O’Connell (2026)

Big Girls Don’t Cry by Rebecca Traister (2010)

The rise and fall of the girlboss: Gender, social expectations, and entrepreneurial hype (2025)

• “Sheryl Sandberg is more of a feminist crusader than people give her credit for” (The Guardian, 2013)

• “The corporate mystique” (The New Republic, 2013)

• “How Feminism Became Capitalism’s Handmaiden” (The Guardian, 2013)

• “Why corporate feminism is convenient for capitalism” (The Guardian, 2013)

• “Sheryl Sandberg never claimed she was writing a feminist manifesto” (The Guardian, 2013)

• “I wasn’t a fan of Sheryl Sandberg—until I couldn’t find a job” (The Atlantic, 2014)

• “Why Sheryl Sandberg’s brand of feminism isn’t for me” (Vogue, 2014)

• “How NastyGal’s Sophia Amoruso is Making Feminism Cool Again” (Business Insider, 2014)

• “Instead of leaning in, I leaned out: why women still need feminism” (The Guardian, 2014)

• “The failure of corner office feminism” (Time, 2015)

• “Sheryl Sandberg’s divisive pitch to #LeanInTogether” (The New Yorker, 2015)

• “Ivanka Trump Wants to See Women Shine at Work” (The Guardian, 2016)

• “Feminism is cool now. But actually being a feminist is still really hard” (Vox, 2016)

• “We’re Living in the Era of the Hypocritical ‘Feminist’ Boss” (Vice, 2017)

• “Lady Boss of Me” (Slate, 2018)

• “I spent a day in Girlboss’s millennial pink empowerment wasteland” (Jezebel, 2019)

• “The girlboss has evolved into an even more powerful form” (Vice, 2019)

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NEW SWAG ALERT 🚨 The Small Government line is back & better than ever. Get yours here.

Katie’s back on her metaphoric “What’s Charlie Kirk up to these days?” editorial grind1—checking in with one of the hottest new Gen Z Lady Voices taking the middle-aged men of the center-right by storm.

In this episode, we check in with a writer we haven’t discussed since one of our very first episodes:

Freya India, also known as three Jonathan Haidts in a very hot 26-year-old trenchcoat, just published her first book, Girls®—an excoriation of the modern world and its effects on The Youth (or, more specifically, the pathologies of liberal teen girls2, as she often puts it).

To hear India tell it, young girls have been Filtered, Diagnosed, Documented, Disconnected, Detached, and ‘Empowered,’ all thanks to the increasingly rapacious incentive structure of a pyramid-shaped economic system that necessitates a constantly growing consumer base wait, sorry, no. That’s not it. Actually, we’re not really sure why. You know what? It’s not important. Let’s move on.

What Girls® lacks in explanatory mechanisms, it makes up for in solutions: Regulation, redistribution, reform logging off, finding God, and starting a family.3

The ideological project underway here should be obvious to anyone whose brain hasn’t been marinated in a dutch oven full of expired bath salts, so why has this book been endorsed by a gaggle of high-profile, putatively left-wing men?

Diabolical Lies investigates.

“The Anxious Generation” from If Books Could Kill

“Freya India can’t save our girls” by Zuzanna Lachendro for The New Statesman (2026)

“The 26-year-old Brit who is the anti-woke voice of Gen Z women” by Harriet Walker for The Times (2026)

“What does Gen Z have against motherhood?” by Freya India for The Spectator (2022)

“History Says That Female Leaders Are More Likely to Wage War Than Men” by Freya India for Evie (2020)

“Toxic Femininity Creates Dangerous Men” by Freya India for Evie (2020)

“Can Women Learn Anything from Jordan Peterson?” by Freya India for Evie (2021)

“Are Girls Being Lied to About Marriage?” by Freya India for GIRLS (2023)

“I’m So Sick of the Gender Divide” by Freya India for GIRLS (2023)

“Why I’m Worried About the Rise of Liberal Young Women” by Freya India for GIRLS (2023)

“Teens Spend Average of 4.8 Hours on Social Media per Day” by Jonathan Rothwell for Gallup (2023)

The CDC’s National Vital Statistics Reports, Births: Final Data for 2023

“The Age of Abandonment” by Freya India for GIRLS (2024)

“The Age of Abandonment” by Freya India for GIRLS (2024)

“How Social Media Feminised Us All” by Freya India for GIRLS (2026)

“The Women Joining the New Right” by Freya India for First Things (2026)

“Being Damaged is Not a Personality Trait” from the Modern Wisdom Podcast with Chris Williamson

“Differentiating Among Internality, Powerful Others, and Chance” from RESEARCH WITH THE LOCUS OF CONTROL CONSTRUCT (Vol. 1) by Hanna Levenson (1981)

“New Report Finds Conservatives Demonstrate More Self-Control Than Liberals” from the University of Cincinnati (2015)

“Red State Families: Better Than We Knew” by Brad Wilcox and Nicholas Zill for Institute for Family Studies (2015)

“ARE BOTH PARENTS ALWAYS BETTER THAN ONE? PARENTAL CONFLICT AND YOUNG ADULT WELL-BEING,” a study from Kelly Musick and Ann Meier in Social Science Research (2010)

“Child Sexual Abuse Fact Sheet” from The National Child Traumatic Stress Network”

“8 facts about divorce in the United States” by Jake Hays for the Pew Research Center (2025)

“Change in American Families: Favoring Cohabitation Over Marriage” by Jagadeesh Gokhale for Penn’s Wharton School (2025)

“Key findings on marriage and cohabitation in the US” by Nikki Graf for Pew Research Center (2019)

“At war with Freya India” by Ella Dorn for Fairyland

Get yours now and support your local mentally ill woman (Caro on book tour finding out she’s a #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER).

Buy it now

The Dirty Little Liar exclusive addition to this collection is at the bottom of this email with the subscriber password. As always, 33% of net revenue will be redistributed to some yet-undecided cause.

Thanks to our dauntless designer Kristmar Muldrow and our incredible partners at Ambient Inks for making our merchandise dreams come true.

And now for a speed run of the new in-stock items…

The “Small Government” Tee is BACK (Dirty Little Liar edition)

XS–3X | $35 | Guaranteed trickle-down economics conversation starter and 100% cotton; no, it’s not cropped, I don’t know why it seems cropped in the picture but rest assured it’s Modest and Approved by God™️

The “Small Government” Dad Hat (original Retro colorway)

One Size | $30 | Perfect for demonstrating ironic nationalism patriotism this Fourth of July or as a gift for your hard-of-eyesight GOP grandpa

The “Small Government” Tote

One Size | $25 | Sized specifically to fit one (1) copy of Yesteryear and three (3) copies of Rich Girl Nation because Katie is trying to sell another book and unfortunately has something to prove now

The Limited Edition YESTERYEAR IS DIABOLICAL Poster (!) for the Natalie Heller Mills stans in the house (aka Katie)

(what can I say, you know pathological levels of competence makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside)

One Size | Three Color Options | $40 | For those of you who know Yesteryear is going to be considered both an all-time American classic and a Top #10 Banned Book on the Casey DeSantis Banned Book Bestseller List and would like to secure your contraband before the Florida state legislature gets involved and prices go up

The “Small Government” Dad Hat (Dark Brandon Mode)

One Size | $30 | If you want to signal to friends and enemies that you have both good taste and at least $8/month in disposable income

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Order Yesteryear if you like nice things, have good taste, or don’t want Katie to firebomb your house.1

What does it feel like to spend 10 years of your life pursuing an uncertain dream when the chances of breakthrough success are one in a million?

What does it feel like to—finally, at long last—be “the one”?2

Caro Claire Burke, one-half of your favorite podcast, is publishing her debut novel this Tuesday, April 7. Yesteryear is mouthy, thrilling, important, ambitious, and, as one of my favorite reviews said, “moves like a freight train.”

Sound like anyone else you know?3

Today, I finally get the opportunity to talk to about:

• whether publishing your debut novel is a dream come true or a nightmare

• who she was before she wrote Yesteryear

• her seemingly endless years writing clickbait for a paycheck in the content coal mines of various aggregators4

• how she felt when we met 🥰

• how I felt when we met 👹

• the psychological experience of feeling like everyone’s looking at you (Professionally™️) and knowing the precise dates and times when your life’s work will be dissected for sport in public lol

• to what extent it’s fair to infer someone’s politics from their fiction (a la this piece)

• her Official Stance on separating the art from the artist (compelling tbh)

• a spoiler-frenzied discussion of the Next Great American Novel

• and a very personal, very special update for Caro5

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Rich Girl Nation by Katie Gatti Tassin (2025)6

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Yesteryear by Caro Claire Burke (2026)

Here’s a little knock-knock joke for you: What do you call a group of producers?

A manipulation!

Please enjoy this deeply unplanned and off-the-cuff conversation in which Katie and Caro share Feelings about the strange symbiotic world of reality television and their foaming fanbases.

A few links below on the reality-television-is-inherently-reactionary of it all, as well as the reality-television-is-inherently-racist of it all:

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Some quick housekeeping to start this lovely Sunday:

If you’ve already pre-ordered Caro’s debut novel Yesteryear, or wish to do so now, Knopf wants to thank you. They’re sending custom, limited edition bandanas to DL Substack subscribers — all you have to do is input proof of your order in this link here, and they’ll ship you the bandana, clean and simple. (This is only for US subscribers.) Thanks so much for the support, y’all!

Jeffrey Epstein got away with it because he was richer than God. No — he got away with it because he had a rolodex filled with the most influential and powerful people on the planet. No — he got away with it because of his wiliness, and his almost preternatural ability to charm people.

All of these claims have been discussed to death in both mainstream and alternative media, and continue to serve as the prevailing theories for why this man was able to abuse young women at a terrifying scale for decades without suffering legal repercussions for it.

Today, we discuss an alternative hypothesis.

”A Young Jeffrey Epstein Made An Impression On His High School Students,” by Cat Schuknecht for NPR

“Scams, Schemes, Ruthless Cons: The Untold Story of How Jeffrey Epstein Got Rich,” by David Enrich, Steve Eder, Jessica Silver-Greenberg, and Matthew Goldstein for The New York Times

“The Talented Mr. Epstein,” a March 2003 profile by Vicky Ward for Vanity Fair

“Jeffrey Epstein: International Moneyman of Mystery,” a 2002 profile by Landon Thomas Jr. for New York Magazine

Here’s one of the many, many early pieces of reporting I leaned on from The Palm Beach Post; not going to link all of them because it would fill Substack’s word count limit but highly encourage poring through their 2005/2006 archives

And here’s a pretty interesting FBI transcript of an interview with former Palm Beach Police Chief Michael Reiter, conducted in 2020

And here’s the deposition interview between unproblematic king Brad Edwards and World-Renowned Fucking Loser Epstein:

Highly encourage anyone and everyone to read Virginia Roberts Giuffre’s memoir, Nobody’s Girl

Here is the deposition Katie and I role-played where a Very Smart Lawyer played Very Smart Gotcha with Giuffre about, checks notes, whether or not she was a bartender in 2007

Here’s where a federal judge decided that Giuffre’s testimony about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring was not relevant to a case about Epstein’s sex trafficking ring

Here is a timeline from the Miami Herald on all this gruesome shit; cc looking through their archives, too, as well as the archives for The Tampa Bay Times for any interested armchair sleuths

If you liked that timeline by reporter Julie K. Brown, consider reading her book, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story

”How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein,” by David Enrich, Matthew Goldstein, and Jessica Silver-Greenberg for The New York Times

“Newly Unsealed Epstein Records Shed Light on Years of His Financial Transactions with Wall St. Figures,” by Kara Scannell for CNN

Here’s a link to the Epstein email dump, neatly organized in this little faux-inbox

Here’s the meta study elaborating on the justice gap, which highlights precisely how fucked survivors of sexual assault are in their efforts to seek justice

Read Jessica Knoll’s phenomenal book, Bright Young Women, if you want a highly entertaining and cathartic literary experience to exorcise the fury from your body

Thanks (and also sorry???) for listening!

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Does Usha Vance have free will? Do any of us? Are people really divided into camps of good and bad? What are the implications of a worldview that believes in such a binary?

These are some of (many) wandering quandaries we pose in today’s bonus episode, which (if you can believe it) was recorded without the aid of edibles.

Enjoy! And if Usha Vance is your Kristi Noem1, then maybe just skip this one! Up to you!

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Little bit of a heterosexual smackdown1 taking place today!

But first, some housekeeping:

As a reminder: Caro’s debut novel, YESTERYEAR, is coming out this spring (April 7th, to be exact), and she would love to see you all at the evening launch event in NYC. One can reasonably assume there will be laughter, tears, a book signing, and Caro on a stage looking incredibly sweaty while she talks about all things America, womanhood, tradwives, writing sex scenes in fiction, etc. She’ll be joined on stage by the famed pod duo Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton as moderators for the evening, which essentially means we have finagled this book launch into a pseudo Good Noticings/Diabolical Lies crossover event. Ur welcome.

Get Tickets

Also, we’d be so grateful if you humored us with a little anthropological insight by letting us know how you found the pod. Quick survey here.

Now, onto the show notes.

The Usha-Verse

“What Is Usha Vance Thinking?,” by Irin Carmon for The Cut

“From Yale to Newsmax, Usha Vance Has Helped J.D. Vance Chart His Path,” by Joseph Bernstein and Katherine Rosman for The New York Times

“Usha Vance Tries to Defend her Husband’s ‘Childless Cat Ladies’ Comment,” by Eric McDaniel for NPR

“The One Thing You Need to Know to Understand Usha Vance,” by Susan Matthews for Slate

…and of course, If Books Could Kill’s Coverage of Hillbilly Elegy

The Rama-Verse

“The Artist in Gracie Mansion,” by Danya Issawi for The Cut

“Artist Spotlight of Rama Duwaji,” by Nasri Atallah for YUNG

“Mamdani Names an All-Woman Transition Team,” by Nandika Chatterjee for TIME

The Tragedy of Heterosexuality

Read the book

“The invention of ‘heterosexuality’,” by Brandon Ambrosino for the BBC

Caro here — AGAIN!

Kill me. Anyways here is the email for my book launch sign-up with an actual working button.

You may or may not know that my debut novel, YESTERYEAR, is coming out this spring (April 7th, to be exact), and I would love to see you all at the evening launch event in NYC. One can reasonably assume there will be laughs, tears, a book signing, and me on a stage probably looking incredibly sweaty while I talk about all things America, womanhood, tradwives, writing sex scenes in fiction, etc. I’m so grateful that I’lll be joined on stage by the famed pod duo Claire Parker and Ashley Hamilton as moderators for the evening, which essentially means we have finagled my book launch into a pseudo Good Noticings/Diabolical Lies crossover event. Ur welcome.

Here’s the link to pre-sale tickets, which we’re sharing with the DL/GN community prior to the general public. Just make sure to use the code SYMPHONY at checkout!

Get Tickets

Going to stop talking now before I scare anyone away! I’ll send another email when the full book tour is finalized. TYSM BYE

Note: This episode was filmed on Monday, January 19 and the edit was finalized early on Saturday, January 24, before news broke about the second (known) ICE execution in Minneapolis of 37-year-old Minneapolis resident Alex Pretti.

Today, we’re talking about a beloved American pastime: killing civilians1 in the name of public safety.

On the right, you’ll watch JD Vance and his trademark charmless sneer2 explain that this is only happening because civilians are being disorderly. Kristi Noem will tell you—straight from her lying bitch face3—that ICE agents are being assaulted every day.

And on the liberal side of the aisle, you’re more likely to hear that the problem is that these agents aren’t “trained”4 to “follow the law.”

This conversation examines:

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Have you heard? The men of America are in the midst of an existential crisis. A battle for good, evil, and the future of humanity. Who will emerge out of the darkness to lead the masses to freedom?

Enter, stage left: one Scott Galloway.

Enter, stage right: two extremely hot and horny hockey players.

WHICH OF THESE HEROES WILL SLAY GLORIA STEINHEM RESTORE GLOBAL DIGNITY TO THE MEN?

Today, we find out.

A note from Caro before we begin: If the details within this episode cause your brain to overheat, I recommend pausing and listening to one of two auditory meditations:

1. any live version of Praying by Kesha

2. the West End Girl album from start to finish

Worked like a charm for me!

Below, you’ll find a summary of the three major debates we wish to have with Galloway, as well as an additional list of resources to pad your intellectual toolkit for your own interior monologue debates, followed by some love for Heated Rivalry to balm your restless soul.

Scott Galloway vs. Diabolical Lies, a Debate in Three Parts

1.) On educational biases against men

The argument made by Scott Galloway1: The crisis of modern masculinity begins in the schoolroom, with young boys falling rapidly behind in the educational system by the time they reach kindergarten. This is largely due to developmental differences and educational biases which put young girls at an advantage, one that carries on through to college and higher ed, where they now have majority representation.

TL;DR: Little girls have way better brains and the school system is totally set up for them to win, which is why they’re fully creaming little boys all around the world, and that is bad.

The rebuttal, from Diabolical Lies: It’s true that certain studies have shown broad neurological differences between the sexes during adolescence, but these differences do not constitute a monolith. Plenty of other studies have flat-out disputed the premise of neurological differences altogether, alternatively suggesting that the difference in behavior between young boys and girls in classrooms is culturally driven. And anyways, given how men have been known to cut out the frontal cortex of ladies who yap too much, I think we’re licensed to say: Stay the fuck away from our brains regardless, you weirdos!

It also seems like an example of profound biological cherry-picking to claim that women have an indisputable biological advantage to young boys during the educational period, when the onset of menstruation during this exact same time period puts women at a proven massive deficit on a global level.

An estimated one in five girls globally and one in four in the US end up missing class or dropping out of school altogether because they cannot afford menstrual products.

Is that a crisis?

How about the fact that unexpected pregnancy is the number one reason young women drop out of school altogether, a stat that translates to millions of educational dropouts globally each year?

How about that? Is that a crisis?

Additionally, while it’s true that young girls do score higher in class on average, and that they do attend higher education in greater numbers, there’s no evidence that this is due to an educational bias. On the contrary, there is strong evidence to suggest that girls score higher grades in class and go on to college and graduate school in high numbers because they have to.

Evidence shows that women need to have at least one more degree than men to achieve pay parity across a number of fields; even then, the pay gap is still stark. And beyond that, it’s worth asking a few questions: are young men no longer going to college because the system discriminates against them, or are they no longer going to college because college is now coded as feminine, and therefore perceived as undesirable? And if we’re going to worry about educational biases, is gender truly the lens we should be examining the problem through, or are race and class far more useful for exploring discrimination in educational outcomes?

TL;DR: idk, read a book or something

mental health break

I HOPE UR FUCKIN PRAYING SCOTT

2.) On men being specifically and exclusively screwed in this current economy

The argument made by Scott Galloway: The current economy increasingly punishes the many in favor of elevating the few. In recent decades, the cost of housing, education, and healthcare have skyrocketed, and wages haven’t even remotely kept up with inflation. For the first time in American history, younger generations no longer feel confident they will achieve a higher standard of living than their parents… and this dire economic situation is one that disproportionately impacts men.

TL;DR: Men care more than women about manly things like living in homes because rahm emanuel said so

The rebuttal from Diabolical Lies: Contrary to popular belief, women are also people, and therefore impacted by broad socioeconomic issues, not the least of which include the affordability and housing crisis in America. This is to say nothing of the childcare crisis. In fact, according to a recent University of Kansas analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data, more than 400,000 women left the workforce in the first half of 2025, marking the steepest decline in over 40 years for mothers of young children. The main reason why these women left the workforce? They wanted to be good Christian wives and mothers, of course! Neat little fun fact for you: When something has to give, societally speaking, it is always the woman who gives it.

TL;DR: Women also need homes and groceries and money for childcare. Radical concept, I know!

mental health break

3.) On men needing women to serve as the “guardrails” of culture

The argument made by Scott Galloway: In order to be functioning, contributing members of society, men need a sense of purpose in their lives. They need to feel victorious. And since world war is no longer a reliable failsafe for men feeling purpose, the goal of securing a wife and mother for your children is the best motivator for men to do the stuff they need to do, like stay in school and get a good job. Women like educated men with good jobs! That’s why people got married more in the 1950s: because women found men in uniforms attractive, and because those men in uniforms knew how to behave like gracious, respectful suitors worthy of female affection. That’s what we need to get back to: a 1950s-style of engagement.

TL;DR: Women are, as we have discussed in a recent episode, the morality police for society. Their job is to alternately be the carrot and/or the stick to lure or prod men forward as good citizens of society, and that is…a really healthy perspective to have on how men and women should operate! For sure! No downsides detected here!

The rebuttal from Diabolical Lies: Ha ha, okay, so just to be clear here :) women did not enter into marriage and motherhood in the 1950s because the men were hotter and nicer back then :) they entered into marriage because they had very few legal rights of their own :) they were property, Scott :) do you know what property is? :) the first no-fault divorce law2 was passed in 1969 in California :) women were not allowed to access credit or bank loans3 free of male cosigners until 1974 :) there was no such thing as paid maternity leave until 19934 :) are you picking up what I’m putting down here :) did I stutter :) we had no rights :) and then we got some rights :) and now you’re very politely trying to take our rights :) get the fuck away from our rights, Scott :)

TL;DR: Scott Galloway I will drive to your house and lobotomize you myself and you can let me know how much you like a 1950s-style approach to dealing with our problems

In conclusion: We win the debate and are just flatly correct but Galloway will still continue to out-earn, out-panel, and out-scream us for the rest of his days, a truly delicious irony for a man who has made a career whining about men falling behind

More Galloway-related stats to peruse at your leisure

It might be true that there are differences in brain development between the sexes…

…but it also might not be!

It’s also been a proven fact for decade that race and class discrimination are far more impactful variables in the educational bias conversation than gender. Consider this NYT summary of a 2025 study on which kids are admitted to the best colleges, and why: “For applicants with the same SAT or ACT score, children from families in the top 1 percent were 34 percent more likely to be admitted than the average applicant, and those from the top 0.1 percent were more than twice as likely to get in.”

Moving past education to the workforce: boy, there also sure is a lot of evidence that (in spite of the assuredly profound systemic biases put in place against them) white men still manage to make way more money, serve in more executive positions, occupy the majority of seats in Congress, have larger net worths at the end of their careers, and found more companies!

oh also the gender wage gap has been at a virtual standstill for about two decades now, with women earning 85 cents on the dollar to men <3

Fear not tho, Richard Reeves wants you to consider how nuanced the gender gap really is in both directions, because again, if you are not listening, the boys are struggling in school and ladies live a bit longer and that is the most important thing5

As an aside you should listen to this IBCK podcast episode on Reeves’ book, Of Boys & Men, where Peter and Michael spend time deconstructing this whole idea of little boys and girls and their brains and their kindergarten teachers, etc.

It’s worth noting that affordability crises often lead to the worsening of gender and racial wage gaps. Just one of the many takeaways from this study that we wish Galloway would read: “Both women’s and men’s typical earnings increased in 2023, but women’s increased less than men’s. Adjusted for inflation, the earnings of a typical full-time year-round working woman increased by 1.5 percent in 2023, compared to a 3.0 percent annual increase for a typical man.”

As for deaths of despair: It’s true that men make up the majority of these deaths. In fact, the highest suicide rate among any demographic group in America is men 75 years or older—but even this stat contains more nuance than Galloway is willing to consider. First: Young women actually attempt suicide more often than young men. Second: One of the primary theories for why older women commit suicide less than men is because they are the primary caretakers for children and the elderly.

Oh, also, this is the date psychology site and YouTube channel I was talking about from which Galloway cribbed the “statistic” he repeats on every daytime television news program. Very legit, very cool!

….now some Heated Rivalry content to soothe your frayed nervous system after learning about the three Ps

“Popularity of Heated Rivalry has Surprised Even Television Executives,” by John Koblin for The New York Times

“The Delicious Anticipation — and Yes, Release — of Heated Rivalry,” by Naomi Fry for The New Yorker

“Heated Rivalry Is Gay Culture’s Next Frontier,” by Jim Downs for The New York Times

This YouTube Q&A with Connor Storrie, Hudson Williams, and Jacob Tierney

The Empty Netters Podcast and the What Chaos Podcast

Thanks for coming, folks, good luck sleeping at night after so much talk about men

The disgusting brothers circle jerk of love

The TikTok video primal scream for straight women everywhere

“Why Heated Rivalry’s Relationship of Equals Is Revolutionary,” by psychotherapist Leor Ram for Out Magazine

This gotcha journalism attack piece by Jessica Winter for The New Yorker: “What Did Men Do to Deserve This?”

It feels funny to write to you instead of sending a tight, 140-minute deconstructive romp through some expletive-laced topic, but I come bearing thanks and an update.

If you’ve been here for a while (or you’re a paid supporter of Diabolical Lies, technical term: Dirty Little Liar), you know we redistribute 33% of our net revenue to causes relevant to our subject matter. This year, our reach goal was to donate $100,000.1

Thanks to those of you who bravely fork over $8/month, this year we gave:

• $15,000 to Run for Something (an organization that works with aspiring political candidates, to keep corporate interests out of politics)

• $15,000 to the Sanabel Team (a mutual aid organization on the ground in Gaza feeding Palestinians)

• $1,000 to Adriana Smith’s family’s GoFundMe

• $15,000 to the Young Center (an organization that provides legal representation to children stuck in the immigration system)

• $20,000 to World Central Kitchen

Around this point in the year, we decided to hand the reins to you, our Dirty Little Liars, who had assembled yourselves into local groups with all the fervor and competency of Gifted & Talented Program kids in search of their next book club.2

Up first, the Colorado Liars received $30,000, and chose to donate:

• $10,000 to the Trans Continental Pipeline (an organization which helps trans, queer, and LGBT people relocate from unsafe environments or jurisdictions into accepting ones)

• $10,000 to the Colorado Doula Project

• $10,000 to Colorado Immigrant Rights

Then, we got grabby with the controls and snatched them back for one last Katie & Caro-led donation:

• $20,000 to the Starbucks Workers United general strike fund*

*We’re still trying to find wire information to get this money to them, but anticipate having it completed before EOY.

…and finished the year off with the Diabolical Queers, who received around $50,000 and gave it to:

• $13,227 to the Gender Justice League

• $13,227 to Rainbow Road

• $26,453 to seven more local organizations

Grand Total: $168,907

Pretty hard to believe that a scrappy little podcast featuring two dumb bitches telling each other exaccccccctly could have such a big impact, but it’s all thanks to (a) the support you’ve chosen to give us in pursuing this project exactly how we wanted to—no advertisers, just lists of snarky fake sponsors and vibes—and (b) Bari Weiss, whose tomfoolery this year assured we were never short on material. Who knows what we’ll do next? Buy a Texas state representative, perhaps?

If you’re not yet a Dirty Little Liar but the idea of taking part in this sort of thing makes you feel excited, join today and gain access to our entire back catalog, with bangers like:

Plus, an honorable mention:

Happy deconstructing—

And may 2026 be bigger, better, and brighter than 2025! Because we have new goals to hit! And Katie’s unemployed now, which means she’s about to start cracking the whip!3

💚 Katie & Caro

Earlier this month, the Office of the Texas Governor Greg Abbott quietly released a statement that “emphasized the importance of TPUSA1 Club America2 chapter enrollment and involvement on high school campuses across the state,” in effect signaling their intent to support after-school programs for right-wing extremism in Texas public schools.

Read more

Surprise! Caro & Katie react in real time to the programming1 we all should’ve seen coming: “CBS News Presents: A Town Hall with Erika Kirk.”

Read more

Coming at you with our first ever bonus conversation for the public, in which we1 discuss the ongoing Starbucks Workers United strike taking place at hundreds of locations (and growing) all over the country right now. It’s also a conversation in which we offer a humble request of you this holiday season: Don’t go to Starbucks right now, if you can manage it.

If, for whatever reason, you do need to go to Starbucks right now, fine. This is not a game of purity tests! It’s a game of numbers. As such, consider cutting your usual order or frequency of visits in half. Get your kid the cake pop, but cut out your regular cappuccino, or take the venti to a tall, etc. Every dollar you withhold from this corporation during a sustained labor strike is going to hit them that much harder, and the potential ripple effect of a combined consumer and labor boycott on one of the largest food & beverage corporations in America is hard to overstate.

• As of Monday, 3,800 baristas across 130 cities are holding the line

• Workers in 10 other countries (!) began protesting in support

• If you’re a Starbucks barista thinking about organizing your store, you can reach out here

• Starbucks Workers United national strike fund