Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe Problematic Mythology of Genius
Season 1 Episode 226
The word “genius” carries a seductive power—but it may explain far less than we think. Drawing on Helen Lewis’s critique, this episode unpicks the id…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Gukesh's Chess Triumph and India's Growing Clout
Season 1 Episode 225
When 18-year-old Dommaraju Gukesh returned to Chennai as the youngest world chess champion in history, the celebration felt like more than a sporting…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Age and Fitness of Presidential Candidates
Season 1 Episode 224
Never before have two leading presidential candidates been so old—and so closely scrutinized for it. With Joe Biden and Donald Trump both well beyond…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
The Evolution of Metropolitan Regional Planning
Season 1 Episode 223
More than a century ago, Daniel Burnham’s Plan of Chicago offered a bold idea: that cities should be planned not just block by block, but as regions,…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Building the Great Pyramid of Giza
Season 1 Episode 222
Rising from the desert with mathematical precision, the Great Pyramid of Giza remains one of humanity’s most astonishing feats of organization and be…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
The Questionable Value of Big Cities
Season 1 Episode 221
For more than a century, big cities have been celebrated as engines of growth, magnets for talent, and crucibles of innovation. Economists have long …
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Celebrity Culture and Coronavirus Inequality
Season 1 Episode 220
When the pandemic shut the world down, it also stripped away the illusions of celebrity. As millions struggled with illness, isolation, and lost inco…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
New York's Waterways: A Wildlife Renaissance
Season 1 Episode 219
Not long ago, New York Harbor was treated as an open sewer, written off as biologically dead—but today, whales surface beneath the skyline. After dec…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
China's New Thrifty Travelers and Economic Shifts
Season 1 Episode 218
China’s consumer slowdown is not unfolding the way many expected. While wealthier urbanites tighten their belts, spending is rising among lower-incom…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
South Korea's Kwichon: Young Farmers Return to Rural Life
Season 1 Episode 217
In South Korea, a quiet countercurrent is pulling young people away from the city and back to the land. Known as kwichon, the movement reflects post-…
6 months, 3 weeks ago