What is Men Yell at Me?

This newsletter sits at the intersection of patriarchy and politics in red state America. Think of reading this newsletter as sitting down with a good friend over bourbon and yelling about politics and chatting about life.

This newsletter is personal, political, sometimes funny, and always raises hell.

I’ve written about the rise and fall of Gateway Computers, analyzed the influence of gas station culture, and I’ve written about motherhood and ambition.

This newsletter has been mentioned on MSNBC, in Nieman Labs, in On the Media and on WNYC.

About Lyz

I grew up in Texas, a home schooled Evangelical and one of eight kids. I went to college in Minnesota and moved to Iowa, where I began my career as a writer.

I’m a regular contributor to the Columbia Journalism Review, where I write profiles of influential people in the media from Chris Cillizza, to Tucker Carlson, and Gretchen Carlson. I’ve also written about the divorce of the disgraced former “dapper Nazi” Richard Spencer and recently I wrote about the radical right roots of Chuck Grassley’s rise to power. And, I’ve written about my own divorce in a now viral essay. Also, for a time, I was a columnist at my local paper where I exposed Ashton Kutcher’s failed non-profit and Iowa’s failed Covid response. (Weirdly, this also has a Kutcher angle.)

I’m an author of two books. God Land: A Story of Faith, Loss and Renewal in Middle America is a deeply personal and deeply reported investigation into the changing role of faith in the middle of the country. My most recent book Belabored: A Vindication of the Rights of Pregnant Women is part memoir and part manifesto arguing for the bodily autonomy of all people. I am working on my third book, This American Ex Wife, which will be published by Crown in 2024. I also wrote an Audible original audiobook about my weird and wonderful childhood.

I live in Iowa with my two kids, my cat Waffles, my wolf dog Dolly and tiny dog Jolene.

What Is This Newsletter?

If you are new to the newsletter, let me show you around. Here is a round up of my most popular newsletters of 2021.

Men Yell at Me
The Top 10 Newsletters of 2021
This is the mid-week newsletter for Men Yell At Me. A newsletter of journalism, essays, and interviews that explores that place where our politics meets our personhood. It is written by me, Lyz Lenz, an author and journalist in Iowa. This newsletter is a year-end wrap up and I am currently on vacation until the new year. If you like this newsletter and …
Read more

And here are two popular newsletters from 2022:

Men Yell at Me
The Subversive Joy of Being a Single Mother
This is the mid-week essay for Men Yell at Me, a newsletter about the places our politics and our personhood collide. This week’s newsletter is about being a single mother and the stigma and joy of building a life outside the nuclear family. If you love this newsletter, consider becoming a subscriber…
Read more
Men Yell at Me
The Cult of Casey's: How Gas Stations Became Essential to American Culture
This is the mid-week version of Men Yell at Me, a newsletter about the politics and policies that inform life in the American Middle West. This week’s newsletter is about something I’ve been thinking about for a long time: namely, gas station pizza, why it’s so good and why it has a fanatical fan base. I hope you enjoy this! Also, if you value the work …
Read more

Why pay?

Small newsrooms are collapsing. Bigger media companies are shedding jobs like a snake sheds skin. Pandemic isn’t helping. The political realities of community reporting means that some stories don’t get told. And I believe writing and reporting is made richer when writers and reporters can live and work in places where “big media” isn’t.

Subscribing enables me to tell big bold stories, with a voice and passion.

Paying subscribers have full access to the archive and access to all the newsletters, weekly conversation threads, can comment, and get exclusive access to the Flyover Politics Discord server.


Subscribers have access to the Flyover Politics Discord server. That server is where Midwesterners can gather to talk about Kwik Trip, cheese curds, their annoying mayors, and the politics and culture that animate the Midwest.

Subscribe to Men Yell at Me

Written from a journalist in a red state, this newsletter is personal, political, sometimes funny and always raises hell.

People

lyz 

Lyz is a journalist and author living in Iowa. She has written three books, God Land, Belabored, and This American Ex Wife, will be published in 2024. In her newsletter Men Yell At Me, she explores politics and personhood in red state America.