The Gray Area with Sean Illing

The Gray Area with Sean Illing takes a philosophy-minded look at culture, technology, politics, and the world of ideas. Each week, we invite a guest to explore a question or topic that matters. From the the state of democracy, to the struggle with depression and anxiety, to the nature of identity in the digital age, each episode looks for nuance and honesty in the most important conversations of our time. New episodes drop every Monday. From the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Philosophy
Politics
News Commentary
251
40 Acres: The original promise
49 min
252
What Clarence Thomas really thinks
And why he's the most misunderstood Supreme Court Justice, according to the author of The Enigma of Clarence Thomas
59 min
253
Even Better: Don't call it a budget
45 min
254
The quest for authenticity
Better living through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir
46 min
255
Even Better: Setting your boundaries
43 min
256
Your gut instinct is usually wrong
A data scientist on how to make decisions
49 min
257
Even Better: Workplace equality 2.0
51 min
258
Why we're still postmodern (whatever that means)
53 min
259
Even Better: Activism when you don't know where...
47 min
260
The Supreme Court's power grab
60 min
261
How middlemen took over the economy
60 min
262
The necessity — and danger — of free speech
Free speech is essential for democracy. It may also be democracy's downfall.
50 min
263
Hacking coral sex to save the reefs
49 min
264
The price of keeping secrets
47 min
265
Does China control Hollywood?
58 min
266
Steve Bannon is still at war
45 min
267
The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
Constance Grady talks with author Jonathan Lethem about his prescient 2003 novel
34 min
268
The Philosophers: Stoic revival
59 min
269
Station Eleven's creator on the end of the world
Showrunner Patrick Somerville on why hope is necessary for survival
47 min
270
The racist origins of fat phobia
49 min
271
The fight for Ukraine — and democracy
49 min
272
The war on trans people
49 min
273
Michael Ian Black on being a better man
50 min
274
Carmen Maria Machado's haunted feminine
36 min
275
The rise and fall of America's monuments
45 min