Podcast Episodes
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Tyler Cowen on the painful end of American complacency
Episode 130
Headlining any conversation with Tyler Cowen is difficult. This one, for instance, covers how to write a book, single-payer health care, political co…
7 years, 9 months ago
A mind-expanding conversation with Michael Pollan
Episode 129
This is perhaps the most literal title I’ve given a conversation on this podcast. This is a discussion about how to expand your mind — how to expand …
7 years, 9 months ago
Optimism about America
Episode 128
In a February 2017 column, David Brooks wrote about "the Fallows Question, which I unfurl at dinner parties: If you could move to the place on earth …
7 years, 10 months ago
The New York Times’s lead Clinton reporter reflects on her coverage
Episode 127
It’s time to talk about the damn emails — and the way the media covered them. Amy Chozick reported on Hillary Clinton for a decade. She was there as …
7 years, 10 months ago
The age of "mega-identity" politics
Episode 126
Yes, identity politics is breaking our country. But it’s not identity politics as we’re used to thinking about it. In Uncivil Agreement: How Politics…
7 years, 10 months ago
Is American democracy really in decline? A debate.
Episode 125
Yascha Mounk’s new book, The People vs. Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It, is perhaps the year’s scariest read. In it, Mounk…
7 years, 10 months ago
Special episode: The Syrian conflict, explained by a UN diplomat who saw it start
Episode 124
Many of you will remember the interview I did with Grant Gordon, who works on humanitarian policy innovation at the International Rescue Committee. T…
7 years, 10 months ago
Is modern society making us depressed?
Episode 123
“What if depression is, in fact, a form of grief — for our own lives not being as they should?” asks Johann Hari. “What if it is a form of grief for …
7 years, 10 months ago
Carol Anderson on White Rage and Donald Trump
Episode 122
Carol Anderson is a professor of African-American studies at Emory University and the author of White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide. …
7 years, 11 months ago
The Sam Harris Debate
Episode 121
There’s a lot of backstory to this podcast, most of which is covered in this piece. The short version is that Sam Harris, the host of the Waking Up p…
7 years, 11 months ago