The Jordan Harbinger Show

Female genital mutilation (FGM) is happening right now to girls worldwide. Jessica Wynn explains why — and what stops it — on Skeptical Sunday.
Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Jessica Wynn!
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1378
On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:
Female Genital Mutilation isn't a fringe practice — an estimated 230 million women and girls alive today have undergone FGM, and the number is climbing, up 15 percent in eight years. More than two million girls are cut each year, most before their fifth birthday, some within days of being born.
FGM isn't Islamic — it predates Islam and appears among Christian and non-religious communities alike; the common thread is culture, not theology. "God requires this" is used as control, which is also why trusted religious leaders are among the strongest voices for ending it.
The decision is overwhelmingly made by women — mothers, grandmothers, aunts — not fathers. But they act inside a system where marriage, status, and inheritance hinge on being cut, so it isn't simply men oppressing women. FGM and child marriage are two gears in one machine.
The fastest-growing myth is that cutting is safer in a clinic — about one in four recent cases were done by healthcare workers, up to 75 percent in Egypt. There is no safe version. Medicalizing FGM doesn't reduce harm; it lends the practice a veil of legitimacy that helps it survive.
Here's what actually works: change from the inside out. When communities talk their own way to abandoning FGM, as in Somaliland and Tostan's villages, it sticks. You can help: fund survivor-led groups, check whether your state bans FGM, back healthcare training, and keep the conversation alive.
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You carry an attraction you never chose and never acted on, but therapy could trigger a report that ruins you. Get help, or hide? It's Feedback Friday!
And in case you didn't already know it, Jordan Harbinger (@JordanHarbinger) and Gabriel Mizrahi (@GabeMizrahi) banter and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday right here every week! If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now let's dive in!
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1377
On This Week's Feedback Friday:
If you want to take a siesta on Gabe's Barcelona adventures and resident post-traumatic growth expert Arseny Thumb von Neuburg's thoughts on cognitive empathy vs. affective empathy, skip forward about 16 minutes and 30 seconds!
You're a pedophile who's never acted on it and swears you never will — but the secret is crushing you. You want a therapist to help you rewire your brain, yet you're terrified that opening up triggers mandatory reporting and torches the life you've built. Where does someone in your position even find real help?
Remember the lonely wife from episode 1365 — the one whose husband grinds 80-90 hours a week and never plans the date night or trip she keeps asking for? A sharp listener writes in to reframe the whole thing: maybe it was never about a vacation, but about who quietly carries everything else. So who's really right?
You're a vegan wellness pro who buried your father, brother, and mother from heart disease — and now you're watching your partner of 20 years surrender to four medications, a widening waistline, and financial shame. You have the knowledge to help him; what you lack is the key to reaching him. How do you break through?
Recommendation of the Week: My Dad Wrote a Porno — the podcast where a man discovers his mild-mannered retired dad secretly wrote a gloriously terrible erotic novel, then reads it aloud with two friends, chapter by chapter. Some of the finest comedy around!
You've quietly become the person your kid self dreamed of — great job, a dog you adore, hobbies, real friends. Now an inheritance could bankroll the wild dream: a plot in northern England, your own planted forest, a hand-built cabin, food you grow yourself. Do you leap, or is that just skipping down delulu lane?
Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com!
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What if humanity is actually making progress after all? The What Could Go Right podcast is presented by the Progress Network and covers current affairs with a more balanced way of looking at what’s happening in the world. I hope you will enjoy it just like I have.

How does shame curdle into addiction? Ex-dealer and federal informant Sean Hemeon retraces his descent and the long climb back to sober.
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1376
What We Discuss with Sean Hemeon:
Sean Hemeon was primed for addiction before he ever tried meth. Abandoned at four, taught by his church that being gay made him diseased, meth gave him the confidence and belonging shame had denied him. It didn't create the void, but filled one that was already there.
Moral collapse is gradual, not sudden. A year without a sober breath is how a smart person ends up stuffing meth into a dying stranger's nose, hoping to restart his heart. Boundaries don't break all at once — they give way one rationalization at a time.
The system meant to stop the harm made it worse. Agents saved in Sean's phone as 'yes' and 'no' pushed him back into dealing to gather intel. A judge charmed by his school's basketball team let him walk. The outcome had less to do with the crime than with luck.
A grieving mother found Sean's number on her dead son's last phone bill and called, begging him not to hang up. He hung up. That choice broke his image of himself as a good person and left a debt he's still trying to pay.
You can't undo the worst thing you've done, but you can stop running from it. 21 years sober, Sean tells the truth, stays reachable, and would fly to that mother tomorrow if she called. Accountability isn't feeling guilty, but facing the damage.
And much more...
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Think you need to be an "alpha" to win? Nick Pell debunks the wolf-pack myth and reveals what actually earns respect here on Skeptical Sunday!
Welcome to Skeptical Sunday, a special edition of The Jordan Harbinger Show where Jordan and a guest break down a topic that you may have never thought about, open things up, and debunk common misconceptions. This time around, we’re joined by writer and researcher Nick Pell!
Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/1375
On This Week's Skeptical Sunday:
An "alpha" is supposedly the dominant top dog — the leader who takes 90% of life's spoils while the lesser "betas" scrap for crumbs. But the whole pecking order traces back to a 1940s study of captive wolves crammed into a pen — the "wolf prison yard," not real pack life.
The biologist who made "alpha" famous, L. David Mech, spent decades disavowing his own bestseller. The so-called alpha wolves aren't the toughest fighters who clawed their way up — they're just the parents. The pack defers to them because they bring the food.
Humans didn't conquer the planet by bullying — we did it by cooperating. We're "obligate cooperators," self-domesticated apes who arguably bred aggression out of ourselves. Nobody builds a pencil, let alone a moon rocket, alone. Dominance is a liability, not a cheat code.
Real influence runs on prestige, not dominance (a distinction from anthropologist Joseph Henrich). Fear makes people hide problems — think D-Day, when nobody dared wake Hitler, or Vietnam-era "fragging." Domineering bosses get avoided; competent ones get followed.
Want to actually lead? Drop the dominance act and build competence instead. Lead by example, stay approachable so small problems reach you while they're still small, and treat people as collaborators rather than rivals. Prestige is freely given — and it's what makes people want to follow you.
Connect with Jordan on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. If you have something you'd like us to tackle here on Skeptical Sunday, drop Jordan a line at jordan@jordanharbinger.com and let him know!
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