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.

Philosophy
Politics
News Commentary
351
How inequality and white identity politics feed...
Jacob Hacker and Paul Pierson on the conservative dilemma
73 min
352
Best of: Jia Tolentino on what happens when lif...
The New Yorker writer explains how technology has transformed the very nature of human interaction
100 min
353
Dadding out with Mike Birbiglia
73 min
354
A rabbi explains how to make sense of suffering
Why God can't solve our suffering problem
52 min
355
The crisis in the news
Margaret Sullivan on the disastrous state of local journalism -- and what we can do about it
46 min
356
Bryan Stevenson on how America can heal
A conversation is about truth and reconciliation in America
75 min
357
What a post-Trump Republican Party might look like
How Oren Cass is challenging conservative economic orthodoxy
76 min
358
Free speech, safety, and ‘the letter’
Yascha Mounk and I discuss free speech, safety, and ‘the letter’
85 min
359
The frightening fragility of America's politica...
Masha Gessen on whether American democracy can survive Donald Trump
63 min
360
Can artificial intelligence be emotionally inte...
A fun conversation about emotional intelligence, machine learning, and AI
72 min
361
Danielle Allen on the radicalism of the America...
The Harvard political theorist on democracy, prison abolition, and the American founding
67 min
362
Land of the Giants: The Netflix Effect
Land of the Giants is a podcast from our friends at Recode and the Vox Media Podcast Network that examines the most powerful tech companies of our time.
17 min
363
Nicholas Carr on deep reading and digital thinking
How technology literally changes our brains
70 min
364
Your questions, answered
Ask Ezra Anything 2020 edition
78 min
365
Which country has the world's best healthcare s...
Ezekiel Emanuel on healthcare reform, coronavirus response and presidential leadership
68 min
366
The transformative power of restorative justice
sujatha baliga on how to radically reimagine our criminal justice system
72 min
367
Ross Douthat and I debate American decadence
Ross Douthat on American decline, utopian ambition, and the Catholic right
89 min
368
A serious conversation about UFOs
A religion scholar on UFOs, belief systems, and purgatory
88 min
369
A former prosecutor's case for prison abolition
Paul Butler on how our criminal justice system is broken — and how to fix it
64 min
370
Why Ta-Nehisi Coates is hopeful
The award-winning author on police violence, protest, and "the public"
89 min
371
Are humans fundamentally good? (with Rutger Bre...
Rutger Bregman on human nature, hierarchy, and hunter-gatherer societies
94 min
372
From politician to priest
Why Lt. Governor Cyrus Habib is giving up elected office and joining the Jesuits
118 min
373
Robert Frank's radical idea
Using contagion economics to solve our hardest problems
69 min
374
Why “essential” workers are treated as disposable
Mary Kay Henry on essential jobs, organizing, and the future of work
66 min
375
"The world’s scariest economist” on coronavirus...
Mariana Mazzucato on her "plan to fix capitalism".
79 min