Photo credit: David Belusic
MEGHAN DAUM
Meghan Daum founded The Unspeakeasy in 2022. Her weekly interview podcast, launched in 2020 as The Unspeakable, is now called The Unspeakeasy and has featured guests ranging from Sam Harris to Jonathan Haight to Maria Bamford to Moon Unit Zappa. The recent winner of the Tom Wolfe Prize for reportage, Meghan is the author of seven books, including The Catastrophe Hour, The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars, The Unspeakable: And Other Subjects Of Discussion, and My Misspent Youth.
Meghan has written for numerous magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and Vogue, and was a Los Angeles Times opinion columnist for more than 12 years. She is the recipient of a 2015 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 2016 National Endowment for the Arts grant and has been on the adjunct faculty of the Writing Division at Columbia University’s School of the Arts. She also teaches private workshops in personal essay, memoir, and op-ed. You can also visit her author page at meghandaum.com.
FOUNDER
KATHLEEN SYKES
Kathleen is a freelance marketing strategist who specializes in working with event producers and arts organizations. In addition to launching The Unspeakeasy, she has done work for a symphony orchestra, an opera company, Chronicle Books, A Special Place in Hell podcast, and more.
She is an avid seamstress and a history enthusiast. She studied fashion design for two years and owns a dozen historical fashion textbooks just for fun. She loves travel and speaks Spanish fluently. She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, with her corgi, Jeff, and is always open to opportunities to relocate somewhere coastal.
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS
LUBA KAPLANSKAYA
Luba Kaplanskaya is a retreat coordination and marketing professional living in Los Angeles. She holds a bachelor’s degree from UC Santa Cruz and spent time studying in Baja California, Costa Rica, and Thailand. In her spare time, she lives a very active lifestyle as a regular at the gym while also going on many walks/jogs and playing in pickup soccer games. She is also a ceramics artist and a recurring attendee of standup comedy shows.
RETREAT COORDINATOR