March 20 @ 7:00 pm – 9:30 pm
Is satire possible anymore in a world that outstrips our imagination on a daily—or maybe even hourly—basis?
That’s the topic of the next Reason Speakeasy, a monthly unscripted conversation with outspoken defenders of free thinking and heterodoxy in an age of intellectual conformity and groupthink. The event doubles as a live taping of The Reason Interview, hosted by Reason Editor at Large Nick Gillespie.
In 1961, Philip Roth famously opined that the American novelist “has his hands full in trying to understand, and then describe, and then make credible much of the American reality. It stupefies, it sickens, it infuriates, and finally it is even a kind of embarrassment to one’s own meager imagination….Who, for example, could have invented Charles Van Doren? Roy Cohn and David Schine?…Dwight David Eisenhower?”
To which 2025 says confidently: Hold my beer.
Gillespie will talk with rising young writers Leigh Stein and Julius Taranto, each of whom has recently published extremely funny and spirited novels. Stein’s critically acclaimed Self Care took a withering behind-the-scenes look at a women’s wellness startup; her forthcoming novel, If You’re Seeing This, It’s Meant for You, is set at a Los Angeles social media “hype house.” Taranto is a recovering lawyer whose 2023 debut novel, How I Won a Nobel Prize, satirized a fictional university funded by a shadowy billionaire and staffed exclusively by academics who had been canceled. It was named among the best books of the year by The Times, Vogue, and Vox.
The evening’s conversation will take the measure of a widely pronounced vibe shift by which artists feel emboldened once again to slay sacred cows with impunity and explore whether markets for books, movies, plays, music, and other forms of creative expression are capable of supporting a new era of satire, parody, and self-examination.
The Reason Speakeasy will be hosted at the Blue Building at 222 E 46th St. in Midtown Manhattan. Doors will open at 7 p.m. and Nick’s discussion with Leigh and Julius will begin at 7:30 p.m., followed by audience Q&A. Beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks will be served.