The Gray Area with Sean Illing
Episodes
Life is hard. Can philosophy help?
08 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Philosophy may seem like a theoretical or abstract discipline in which unanswerable questions are debated to the point of tedium. But MIT professor Ki...
The American dream is a pyramid scheme
01 Apr 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Jane Marie is an expert in American bullshit. Her podcast The Dream explores life coaching, wellness, marketing, and other fraudulent industries and e...
The chaplain who doesn't believe in God
25 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
As a non-believer, Devin Moss never thought he would become a chaplain or a spiritual adviser, much less one who counsels hospital patients with termi...
Can a friend be our most significant other?
18 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist Rhaina Cohen believes that modern culture undervalues friendships and discusses the ways in which deep friendships are distinct from but no...
The power of climate fiction
11 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Stephen Markley’s novel, “The Deluge,” is an ambitious and terrifyingly realistic look at our collective future on a warming planet. He joins Se...
The denial of death
04 Mar 2024
Contributed by Lukas
It’s been 50 years since Ernest Becker’s breakthrough book The Denial of Death was first published, and its thesis has become more relevant than e...
A brief history of extinction panics
26 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Silicon Valley is in the middle of an AI frenzy, and many of its leaders believe this technology could eventually result in human extinction. Tyler Au...
The new(ish) world order
19 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
America solidified its dominant posture in the international order following World War II and largely held that position for the following half-centur...
The free-market century is over
12 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with economic historian Brad DeLong about his new book Slouching Towards Utopia. In it, DeLong claims that the "long twentieth centu...
Music and mysticism
05 Feb 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Musician Laraaji joins Sean to talk about improvisation as meditation, the transcendent nature of laughter, and lessons from a long life in sound and ...
The case for banning...millionaires?
29 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Political philosopher Ingrid Robeyns believes that there should be a maximum amount of money and resources that one person can have. She tells Sean ho...
The joy of uncertainty
22 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
For much of her life, author Maggie Jackson disliked uncertainty and thought of it as something to eradicate as quickly as possible. But when she be...
A pro-worker work ethic
15 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
Americans have absorbed the “Protestant work ethic” — the idea that our value as human beings is determined by how hard we work and how much mon...
How psychedelics can reinvent learning
08 Jan 2024
Contributed by Lukas
If you’ve felt that learning new information or developing a new skill seems harder as you get older, you are not wrong. Neuroscientist Gul Dolen ha...
Seeing ourselves through the darkness
26 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we find ourselves in a dark place, what if we didn't "lighten things up"? Sean Illing talks with philosopher Mariana Alessandri, whose new book N...
Living Mindfully
18 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Jon Kabat-Zinn helped kick off the American mindfulness movement with his bestselling book Wherever You Go, There You Are. On its 30th anniversary, he...
Taking anarchism seriously
11 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most people think anarchists want to live in a lawless society devoid of any structure or order. But anarchism is actually a serious political philoso...
3,000 years of The Iliad
04 Dec 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Constance Grady, a culture writer at Vox, is joined by Emily Wilson to discuss her bestselling translations of The Iliad and The Odyssey. They unpack ...
Late-stage liberalism
27 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing is joined by John Gray, political philosopher and author of the new book, The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism. They discuss Thom...
The case against free will
20 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with Robert Sapolsky, a professor of biology and neurology at Stanford University and the author of a new book called Determined: A...
A Jew and a Muslim get honest about Israel and Gaza
13 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Zack Beauchamp, a Vox senior correspondent who writes about democracy and Israel, speaks with Shadi Hamid, a columnist at The Washington Post, researc...
How to keep panic from attacking
06 Nov 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing is joined by Matt Gutman, the chief national correspondent for ABC News, to talk about his new book, No Time to Panic: How I Curbed My Anx...
We Are What We Watch
30 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Alissa Wilkinson speaks with Walt Hickey about his new book, You Are What You Watch: How Movies and TV Affect Everything. They discuss how ...
Werner Herzog’s ecstatic truth
23 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with one of his heroes: Werner Herzog. Herzog is a filmmaker, poet, and author of the new memoir Every Man for Himself and God Agai...
The lessons of Sam Bankman-Fried
16 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Lewis joins Sean Illing to discuss his new book about Sam Bankman-Fried, Going Infinite: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon. They talk about th...
Is America getting meaner?
02 Oct 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing and David Brooks talk about Brooks’s recent essay, “How America Got Mean.” They discuss the country's moral history, how politics an...
Naomi Klein on her doppelganger (and yours)
25 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Every generation thinks they’re living through the strangest times, but is our generation right? Sean Illing speaks with writer and activist Naomi K...
Should we press pause on AI?
18 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How worried should we be about AI? Sean Illing is joined by Stuart J. Russell, a professor at the University of California Berkeley and director of th...
Democracy’s existential crisis
11 Sep 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why is democracy worth saving? Sean Illing is joined by Astra Taylor, the author of the new book The Age of Insecurity: Coming Together as Things Fall...
Conservative socialism?
28 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What will American politics look like after Trump? Sean Illing is joined by Sohrab Ahmari to discuss his new book, Tyranny, Inc. Ahmari is one of the ...
The benefits of utopian thinking
21 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why don’t we spend more time imagining a better future? Sean Illing is joined by Kristen R. Ghodsee, the author of Everyday Utopia: What 2,000 Years...
What Clarence Thomas really thinks
14 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, which was originally published in August 2022, Sean Illing talks with Corey Robin, author of a 2019 book about the life and thought o...
The new crisis of masculinity
07 Aug 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What does masculinity mean these days? Sean Illing speaks with Christine Emba, a columnist at The Washington Post who wrote the piece “Men are lost....
How we all became a brand
31 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be “authentic” in the digital age? Sean Illing speaks with Tara Isabella Burton about her new book, Self-Made: Creating Our I...
The therapeutic potential of MDMA
24 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In the ‘80s and ‘90s, MDMA (also known as molly or ecstasy) was dismissed as a club drug and became the target of anti-drug propaganda. Today, it’...
Is the journey to self-discovery pointless?
17 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are many ways people are trying to know themselves these days – from taking the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator test to analyzing their astrologic...
Parenting through the climate crisis
10 Jul 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Does being a parent today necessarily mean also being a climate activist? Sean Illing speaks with moral philosopher and political theorist Elizabeth C...
Seeing ourselves through darkness
29 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When we find ourselves in a dark place, what if we didn't "lighten things up"? Sean Illing talks with philosopher Mariana Alessandri, whose new book N...
Best of: A new philosophy of love
26 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Carrie Jenkins about her new book Sad Love, and her call to rethink the shape and boundaries of romantic love. In this far-rang...
The future of tribalism
22 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with evolutionary anthropologist David Samson, whose new book Our Tribal Future delves into how tribalism has shaped the human story...
When you can't separate art from artist
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What do we do when an artist we love does something monstrous? Constance Grady, a culture writer at Vox, talks with Claire Dederer, the author of Mons...
The case for not killing yourself
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Clancy Martin, professor of philosophy at University of Missouri Kansas City, about his powerful new book How Not to Kill Yours...
What comes after Black Lives Matter?
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What is the future of the racial justice movement in America? Sean Illing talks with Cedric Johnson, professor and author of After Black Lives Matter,...
Clickbait’s destructive legacy
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Have clicks, likes, and shares driven media and democracy to the point of disrepair? Sean Illing is joined by Ben Smith, the editor-in-chief of Semafo...
Simone Weil’s radical philosophy of love and attention
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with history professor Robert Zaretsky about Simone Weil, a 20th-century French writer and activist who dedicated her life to a rad...
Peter Singer on his ethical legacy
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Can we live a good life in a world where animals are factory farmed? Guest host Dylan Matthews talks with the world-famous ethicist Peter Singer, auth...
Why the poor in America stay poor
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Are we responsible for keeping poor people poor? Sean Illing is joined by Matt Desmond, a sociology professor at Princeton University and the author o...
The spiritual roots of our strange relationship to work
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic caused many to rethink our relationship to work. But how did that relationship develop in the first place? Sean Illing talks with George ...
Mysteries of the mind
15 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What do we know — and what don't we know — about how the human mind works? Sean Illing talks with Paul Bloom, professor of psychology and author o...
Why we can’t just blame capitalism for everything
11 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
There are many debates within the American left, but the fundamental dispute is over the viability of the current system. Part of the left wants a rev...
Being human in the age of AI
08 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Will AI change what it means to be human? Sean Illing talks with essayist Meghan O'Gieblyn, author of God, Human, Animal, Machine, a book about how th...
A philosopher's psychedelic encounter with reality
04 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why don't more philosophers take psychedelic drugs seriously as a means of examining reality? Sean Illing talks with Justin Smith-Ruiu, professor of p...
The project of Socratic love with Agnes Callard
01 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you apply the Socratic method to personal relationships? Philosopher Agnes Callard joins Sean Illing to discuss how Socrates inspire...
The chemistry of connection
27 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Could our brains make us less lonely? Sean Illing talks with psychiatrist and author Julie Holland, whose new book Good Chemistry takes on the crisis ...
What a slow civil war looks like
24 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing is joined by reporter Jeff Sharlet, whose new book The Undertow: Scenes from a Slow Civil War takes readers on the ground across America r...
How to listen
20 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us don’t know how to truly listen, and it’s causing all sorts of problems. Sean Illing is joined by journalist Kate Murphy, the author of ...
Why we can't give up on persuasion
17 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing is joined by Anand Giridharadas, author of The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy. Together they...
Rep. Katie Porter's working-class politics
13 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Rep. Katie Porter became well-known for using a whiteboard and asking tough questions during Congressional hearings. Her frank questions resonated wit...
The climate apocalypse will be televised
10 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Alissa Wilkinson talks with Dorothy Fortenberry, a co-showrunner, executive producer, and writer on Extrapolations, the new star-studded an...
A philosopher takes on religious life
06 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What would drive someone to renounce all their possessions, relationships, and ambitions to join a religious community? Sean talks with Zena Hitz, who...
Your brain isn't so private anymore
03 Apr 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Sigal Samuel talks with professor of philosophy and law Nita Farahany about her new book The Battle for Your Brain. In it, Farahany details...
Brian Stelter thinks the news has a reliability problem
30 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Will the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News be a watershed moment? Is the media industry beyond repair? Sean Illing is joined by media r...
How corporations got all your data
27 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with Matthew Jones, historian of science and technology, and co-author (with data scientist Chris Wiggins) of the new book How Data...
The case for failure
16 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Is our society's fixation with success hindering our ability to find humility? Sean Illing speaks with Costica Bradatan about his new book In Praise o...
Poetry as religion
13 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht, whose new book The Wonder Paradox asks: if we don't have God or religion, what — ...
Revisiting the American Dream
09 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In America, there's been an increase of available jobs, and there's also been a series of high-profile layoffs, strikes, and calls for unionization. T...
The cost of saving pandas
06 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The giant panda is no longer endangered. This, of course, is good news. But the model of conservation that worked to protect these iconic bears has fa...
Breaking our family patterns
02 Mar 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with marriage and family therapist Vienna Pharaon, whose new book The Origins of You aims to help us identify and heal the wounds t...
For Black horror fans, fact is scarier than fiction
27 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Alissa Wilkinson talks with Dr. Robin R. Means Coleman about her new book, The Black Guy Dies First: Black Horror Cinema from Fodder to Osc...
Taking Nietzsche seriously
23 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with political science professor Matt McManus about the political thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosophe...
The dark history of Silicon Valley
16 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with Malcolm Harris, a journalist, critic, and author of the new book Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World...
The value of being a "hater"
13 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Rebecca Jennings talks with Justin Charity, cultural critic and senior staff writer at The Ringer, about what it means to be dubbed a "hate...
Behind the blue wall
09 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with Rosa Brooks, a former reserve police officer and current law professor at Georgetown University. Brooks wrote Tangled Up in Bl...
Best of: Imagine a future with no police
06 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Fabiola Cineas talks with author, lawyer, and organizer Derecka Purnell about her recent book Becoming Abolitionists. They discuss Derecka'...
Is America broken?
02 Feb 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing speaks with Alana Newhouse, the editor-in-chief of Tablet magazine. They discuss her recent essay on "brokenism," a term she coined in an ...
The creator of Fargo is done with good guys vs. bad guys
30 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Noah Hawley, the creator and showrunner of the anthology drama Fargo on FX, as well as a celebrated novelist whose newest book ...
Revisiting the "father of capitalism"
26 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
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 mos...
Can effective altruism be redeemed?
23 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Sigal Samuel talks with Holden Karnofsky about effective altruism, a movement flung into public scrutiny with the collapse of Sam Bankman-F...
The roots of homelessness
19 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with writer and reporter Jerusalem Demsas about the causes of homelessness in America. They discuss our ideas of home ownership, and...
Can race be transcended?
12 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with author Thomas Chatterton Williams about race and identity in America. Thomas has analyzed racial identity through the lens of h...
Is ethical AI possible?
09 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Timnit Gebru, the founder of the Distributed AI Research Institute. She studies the ethics of artificial intelligence and is an...
What do we owe animals?
05 Jan 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Sigal Samuel talks with philosopher and author Martha Nussbaum about her new book, Justice for Animals. Martha discusses several different ...
Best of: America's philosophy, with Cornel West
22 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Cornel West about the American philosophical tradition known as pragmatism. They talk about what makes pragmatism so distinctly...
Best of: The necessity — and danger — of free speech
19 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan about his new book The Paradox of Democracy, which he co-authored with media ...
The church of celebrity
15 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Guest host Alissa Wilkinson talks with Katelyn Beaty, author of the new book Celebrities for Jesus, about how the dynamics of fame, influence, and new...
Men and boys are struggling. Should we care?
12 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with author, researcher, and Brookings Institution senior fellow Richard V. Reeves about his new book Of Boys and Men, which documen...
The power of attention in a world of distraction
08 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Michael Sacasas, an author and teacher exploring the relationship between technology and society in his newsletter, The Convivi...
A veteran reporter on how to fix the news
05 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with James Fallows, veteran reporter and editor at The Atlantic, about the state of political journalism in America. Fallows has bee...
The end of social media
01 Dec 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with technology writer and philosopher Ian Bogost about the state of social media — especially in the wake of Elon Musk's recent a...
If society is making us sick, how can we heal?
28 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Dr. Gabor Maté, a physician, speaker, and bestselling author who has written on subjects like addiction, stress, and attention...
The free-market century is over
21 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with economic historian Brad DeLong about his new book Slouching Towards Utopia. In it, DeLong claims that the "long twentieth centu...
Your identity is a story you tell yourself
17 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with neuroscientist Gregory Berns, author of The Self Delusion. Berns claims that the idea of a unified, persistent self is a kind o...
James Carville unpacks the midterms
14 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with veteran political strategist James Carville about the U.S. midterm elections — and the surprising success for Democrats that ...
Why are billionaires prepping for the apocalypse?
10 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with technologist, media theorist, and author Douglas Rushkoff, whose new book Survival of the Richest explains how the ultra-wealth...
Today's Republicans were made in the 1990s
07 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Nicole Hemmer, history professor and author of the new book Partisans. In it, she gives a reinterpretation of the Reagan presid...
Yuval Noah Harari thinks humans are unstoppable
03 Nov 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Yuval Noah Harari, historian and bestselling author, about how humanity came to be the dominant species on earth, and what our ...
Dying with dignity
31 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with reporter Katie Engelhart, whose book The Inevitable is an up-close look at physician-assisted dying. This is the practice of re...
Finding hope in a world on the brink
27 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Jonathan Lear, a psychoanalyst and philosopher, about his new book Imagining the End: Mourning and Ethical Life. How can we con...
The new American Reconstruction
24 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with historian and author Peniel Joseph about his new book The Third Reconstruction, which argues that the time we're currently livi...
Is America losing its religion?
20 Oct 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Sean Illing talks with Reza Aslan, scholar of religions and author of multiple bestselling nonfiction works, to discuss the state of religion in Ameri...