Podcast Episodes

A message from Sean

Sean Illing has a special message for all you listeners: Look at me!

We’ve made our first-ever video episode. See Sean in conversation with Yuval Noah…

1 year, 5 months ago

What if we get climate change right?

Climate change has become synonymous with doomsday, as though everyone is waiting for the worst to happen. But what is this mindset doing to us? Is c…

1 year, 5 months ago

Yuval Noah Harari on the eclipsing of human intelligence

Humans are good learners and teachers, constantly gathering information, archiving, and sharing knowledge. So why, after building the most sophistica…

1 year, 5 months ago

Why cynicism is bad for you

There’s a certain glamor to cynicism. As a culture, we’ve turned cynicism into a symbol of hard-earned wisdom, assuming that those who are cynical ar…

1 year, 5 months ago

Poetry as religion

Sean Illing speaks with poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht, whose book The Wonder Paradox asks: If we don't have God or religion, what — if an…

1 year, 6 months ago

The jazz musician’s guide to the universe

How is the origin of our universe like an improvised saxophone solo? This week, Sean Illing talks to Stephon Alexander, a theoretical physicist and w…

1 year, 6 months ago

Revisiting the "father of capitalism"

Sean Illing talks with Glory Liu, the author of Adam Smith’s America: How a Scottish Philosopher became an Icon of American Capitalism. Smith is most…

1 year, 6 months ago

Breaking our family patterns

Sean Illing speaks with marriage and family therapist Vienna Pharaon, whose book 'The Origins of You' aims to help us identify and heal the wounds th…

1 year, 6 months ago

Why Orwell matters

In an Orwellian twist, the word “Orwellian” has been misused so much over the decades that it’s essentially lost its meaning. But George Orwell, auth…

1 year, 6 months ago

The timebomb the founding fathers left us

The US Constitution is a brilliant political document, but it’s far from perfect. This week’s guest, Erwin Chemerinsky, argues that many of today’s t…

1 year, 7 months ago