'People are dying for content like this': Maureen Callahan on cultural honesty, true crime, and calling BS

Maureen Callahan is saying the quiet part out loud, and people (including this author) are obsessed.

If you’re not already listening to The Nerve, Callahan’s no-holds-barred podcast, you’re missing the cultural reckoning we’ve all been waiting for.

You might know her from Vanity Fair. Or SPIN. Or Daily Mail, where she’s built a reputation as one of the only mainstream columnists unafraid to name names and call out hypocrisy at the top of the media food chain.

Now, in the latest episode of Mediaweek's Newsmakers podcast, Callahan opens up about everything, cancel culture, celebrity journalism, the women the Kennedys destroyed, and why she thinks true crime is in danger of becoming emotionally dishonest.

"I used to think I was weird," she tells Mediaweek. "Then I had an editor who told me, no, that’s your superpower."

She talks about the moment Brad Pitt’s team leaked a deeply personal story about his adopted sons, and why not one entertainment journalist asked him to explain it.

"Nobody followed up. Nobody asked a thing. I thought, what are we even doing here?"

She talks about why she had to sue the FBI to tell the full story of Israel Keyes in her book American Predator, and why so many female victims' stories have been erased from history.

And she doesn’t hold back on the Kennedy dynasty, either.

"After JFK Jr's plane crash, they tried to blame Carolyn Bessette for being late because of a pedicure. And we all just swallowed it. That’s institutionalised misogyny. Pure and simple."

Callahan's podcast is not about being shocking for clicks. It’s about something more rare: honesty. The kind of honesty that doesn’t need approval. Doesn’t chase virality. And doesn’t apologise.

So if you’ve ever felt like you’re the only one seeing through the spin, this episode of Newsmakers is your permission slip.

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