Distinguished research scientist at NYU’s AI Now Institute and former Google employee/organizer Meredith Whittaker joins Adam to break down Prop 22.  They cover workers’ rights for tech companies like Uber and Doordash, why Uber and others spent 200 million dollars on Prop 22’s ad campaign, Meredith’s experience organizing at Google and pushing back at their foray into military tech, and the dangerous myths around artificial intelligence.

This week, journalist and author Angela Chen answers every question you have about asexuality. She and Adam discuss the difference between asexuality and aromanticism, explore how aces fit into the LGBTQ+ spectrum, share how pop-culture has influenced the growth of the ace community, and differentiate between asexuality and sexual dysfunction.

Harvard law professor Susan Crawford joins Adam this week to discuss why America - the country that invented the internet - struggles to provide access to affordable, high-speed internet. She explains why just a few telecom companies monopolize the industry, fiber vs. wireless, the real deal with 5G, and why the internet should become a public utility.

Adam brings on author and academic psychologist Rob Brotherton to discuss why our brains are wired for conspiracy. They how classism and elitism shape our opinions about conspiracy theorists, how the word “fact,” and how humility is the key to meaningful conversations about truth.

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening across the country, so past guest Dr. Ashish Jha is returning with more answers to Adam’s questions. They discuss what the scientific community has learned about Covid-19 since March, what we now understand to be safe and unsafe, the government’s failures, why certain activities are safer than you may think, and the light at the end of the tunnel.

Author and professor Eric J. Segall joins Adam to explode the myth that the Supreme Court makes decisions by a dispassionate evaluation of the law. In reality, he argues, the Justices actually just “make shit up.” Adam and Eric dig into the real history of Brown vs. Board of Education, the ways "originalism" mirrors religion, and why Segall believes the Court should ultimately be weaker than it is.

Just a century and change ago, it wasn’t a given that children would actually survive childhood. Dr. Perri Klass and Adam discuss the shocking decline in child mortality since, what life was like in a time when the deaths of children were routine, and the pressures still facing parents in a now child-friendlier world.

In the final episode before the American election, Adam explores the history of conservative reactionary politics in America with acclaimed historian Rick Perlstein, who explains where the false narrative of the hippies “winning” the 60s came from, the historical “hinge” moments which bring progress, and how progressive and reactionary politics have evolved through the decades.

Daryl Atkinson joins Adam to break down a recent partial-victory in voter rights in North Carolina, the historic disenfranchisement of black voters, why it is unconstitutional to connect someone’s right to vote with their ability to pay off fines, the set precedents for allowing felons the right to vote, and the work Atkinson’s group Forward Justice is currently doing in voter rights advocacy.To learn more about Forward Justice and support the work they do, visit forwardjustice.org.

Philosopher and author, Carol Hay, joins Adam to discuss the intellectual history of feminism, its challenges (including what she calls its historic “PR problem”), and how it’s evolved as a system of thought in the 21st century. 

Physician Vikram Krishnasamy joins Adam to discuss his work fighting the opioid epidemic at the CDC, for which he won the 2020 Service to America Medal, and why he decided to devote himself to public service.

While the national election hogs the spotlight, the low-turnout, little-covered local election in your city or county can have just as big an impact on your life. Nithya Raman, candidate for Los Angeles City Council joins Adam this week to explain why the best way to make a difference is to focus on the candidates right in your own backyard.

What’s worse than a pandemic? The economic consequences on the poorest Americans. Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality talks with Adam this week about how the pandemic has affected those already struggling with poverty, and how things look moving forward. 

Drug discovery chemist Derek Lowe joins Adam to break down why producing an effective COVID-19 vaccine is so challenging, the science of how vaccines work, and the issues that arise when pharmaceutical research is conducted for profit.

Hip-hop artist Open Mike Eagle joins Adam this week to speak candidly on what it's really like to be a musician in the midst of a pandemic, how rapidly the industry has changed and if you can really have a career in music in 2020.

Princeton University professor Ruha Benjamin joins Adam to reveal the issues at play at the intersection of technology and race, her concept of the “New Jim Code", digital redlining and and how the technology can’t be relied on to solve what are ultimately social problems.

Philosophy has the reputation for being dry and technical, but this week Stephen West, the host of Philosophize This! and self-taught philosophy expert joins Adam to explain how discovering philosophy transformed his life, and how it can improve yours.

Is it really possible to upload your mind to the cloud, or is the entire idea fatally confused? Philosopher Susan Schneider joins Adam to explain how your brain differs from a computer, the limits of AI, and why philosophy must be an essential part of the study and development of artificial minds.

Internet linguist Gretchen McCulloch joins Adam to break down how technology has changed the way we write, reveal the hidden truth about what your texting style says about you, and finally solve the mystery of why boomers can’t stop using… ellipses.

Just in time for the 100 year anniversary of the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment, author and professor Ellen Carol DuBois joins Adam to discuss the history of the women's suffrage, the movement’s difficult history with the issue of race, how the temperance movement helped the cause, and the winding path America took to win women the power to vote. 

So many charities try to fix poverty by giving away goods, services, and training. But why not address the actual problem and give away… money? Michael Faye, President and co-founder of the charity GiveDirectly, joins Adam to explain the evidence behind direct cash giving, and wrestles with the question of whether philanthropy can ever create systemic change.

Philosophy isn't exactly a science; so what is it? In this fascinating interview, Georgetown philosopher Quill Rebecca Kukla argues that it's more like comedy than you might think, and explains what being an amateur competitive boxing has taught them about how to think.

Journalist Ted Conover joins Adam to talk about his experience becoming a prison guard to report on Sing Sing Prison, and how his unique form of immersion can help develop empathy in his audience and encourage real change.

How does COVID-19 affect men and women differently — and what the heck is a virus in the first place? Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health microbiologist Sabra Klein joins Adam this week to explain.

Former Baltimore City police officer Larry Smith joins Adam to dig deep on the causes of police violence and racism, what stops fellow cops from speaking up about it and what needs to change about policing in America.