Author of Secondhand and Junkyard Planet, Adam Minter, joins Adam to talk about the hidden world of globalized recycling, where our trash actually goes, and the trash, recycling and secondhand economy.

States, stores, and workplaces are reopening. But how can we tell which spaces and activities are safe, and which aren’t? UMass Dartmouth immunologist Erin Bromage joins Adam to reveal what situations to avoid, how to protect yourself, and which risky-seeming form of transportation is actually surprisingly safe.

Writer and reporter Adam Serwer joins Adam to talk about why the protests of the past two weeks go way beyond Trump, why the system behind racist police abuse is the problem and how recent events could affect the November election. 

In this special edition of Factually!, UPenn political scientist Daniel Gillion joins Adam to discuss the role that violence plays in protest movements both historical and present-day, the truth about what “the right way to protest” is, and gives an optimistic analysis of what’s going on in America right now. 

James Forman Jr., Professor of Law at Yale Law School and author of the book Locking Up Our Own, joins Adam this week to discuss the history of how mass incarceration became so distorted, juvenile court, confronting problems in the criminal justice system, and more.

American economist, professor and chief economist during the Obama administration, Michael Greenstone, joins Adam this week to discuss transitioning our economy during a pandemic, balancing safety with the economy and what the costs and benefits truly are, and how economics can clarify policy disputes.  

All of us care about equality. (At least, most of us do.) But how do we achieve equality, when the nation is so divided? And how can advocates for equality best make their case in the courts? American University law professor Robert L. Tsai joins Adam to discuss his book “Practical Equality” and more.

We're two months in to the pandemic, and some states are starting to reopen. Are we anywhere close to where we need to be to do so safely? Dr. Josh Sharfstein, current Vice Dean for Public Health Practice at Johns Hopkins and former principal deputy commissioner of the FDA, joins Adam to discuss the state of our fight against the pandemic, the importance of public health to our communities, and reinventing the world we used to know. 

The Grey Lady is the success story of the digital media age, but is it coming at the expense of other publications around the country? Veteran of online media, founding Editor-in-Chief of BuzzFeed News and now New York Times media columnist Ben Smith joins Adam this week to discuss the shockwaves that have rocked the media industry, and future prospects for the local journalism we desperately need.

For generations, American life expectancy has only improved. Then two economists discovered that for one group in particular, it’s actually falling: White Americans without a college degree. Nobel Prize winning economists Sir Angus Deaton and Anne Case join Adam this week to explain the causes of what they call “deaths of despair", and why capitalism is at the root of the problem.

Delivery workers are more important than ever - so why are they getting screwed? Business and tech reporter for the LA Times, Johana Bhuiyan, joins Adam to how tech companies are bungling the pandemic, the importance of gig workers to our economy and what will happen to these employees if it tanks. 

Political scientist and election forecaster Rachel Bitecofer joins Adam this week to discuss why “swing voters” don’t really exist, the dynamics that truly drive political trends, and how COVID-19 will affect the 2020 election.

Entomologist and professor, Akito Kawahara joins Adam to discuss why insects are disappearing at an alarming rate, how humans must play a critical role in their survival, and how incredible insects truly are.

The Bard Prison Initiative is a revolutionary program that provides a rigorous college education to men and women in prison. In one of our most power episodes ever, BPI’s founder Max Kenner and recent graduate Sebastian Yoon join Adam this week to discuss how lifechanging the program is, and how it proves that every person deserves an education, no matter the circumstances.

UCLA Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Undocumented Migration Project, Jason De León, joins Adam to uncover the truth about immigration across our southern border, how border militarization has been counterproductive and why it’s so critical to develop a full understanding who the people crossing the border truly are.

In this special episode, Director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, Dr. Ashish Jha, joins Adam to explain the reality and dispel myths about the coronavirus pandemic, what must be done to combat the illness, and how long the road ahead truly is.

Online security expert, Bruce Schneier, joins Adam this week to discuss the concept of "security theater", how the surveillance state makes us less secure, if we can change anything to help our vulnerability and more. 

Sex expert and scientist Nicole Prause joins Adam this week to reveal the truth about sex "addiction", debunk popular misconceptions about the science of sex, and explain how difficult it is to measure whether or not a test subject has *really* had an orgasm.

Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods, the forces behind the hit podcast Ear Hustle, join Adam this week to explain what it's like producing audio from inside San Quentin, shed light on misconceptions and myths about prison life, and how incarceration truly affects a human being.

Comedy writer and WGA West President David Goodman joins Adam for a deep dive into one of the most interesting labor unions in the country - the Writers Guild of America. They also cover what it's like when your boss is Seth MacFarlane and a member of your union, how solidarity powers the Guild's negotiations, and how the Guild is fighting back against the corporate consolidation that's transforming the entertainment industry.

MacArthur fellow and UCLA professor, Kelly Lytle Hernández, joins Adam to explain how explictly racist policies of the past created the incarceration and immigration systems we still have today.

Adam sits down with Celeste Kidd, Professor of Psychology and head of the Kidd Lab at UC Berkeley to discuss how humans form beliefs and knowledge, and how easily that process can be corrupted by outside forces.

Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California, Scott Soames, joins Adam this week to for a deep dive into how philosophy shaped the modern world, the relationship between philosophy and physics, and the age old question: “What are numbers?"

Climate scientist Dr. Daniel Swain joins Adam this week to shed light on how climate change affects the chances of more extreme weather events, the main misconceptions surrounding weather and climate and the importance of weather science as climate change thunders forward. 

UCLA Professor Safiya Noble joins Adam this week to discuss how racism is expressed through supposedly neutral algorithms, the real-life “Minority Report” technology that’s being used today in our cities, and why we all need to stop implicitly trusting technology just because it uses a lot of math.