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
526
The surprising story of how American politics p...
62 min
527
The most important idea for understanding Ameri...
73 min
528
What economists and politicians get wrong about...
54 min
529
How to disagree better
94 min
530
Jaron Lanier’s case for deleting social media r...
77 min
531
The most clarifying conversation I’ve had about...
65 min
532
The Supreme Court vs. Democracy
64 min
533
Eric Garcetti on the lessons of Los Angeles
60 min
534
What Ellen Pao saw coming
51 min
535
The Green Pill
57 min
536
How Jane Mayer exposed Eric Schneiderman, Bush’...
71 min
537
Political power and the racial wealth gap
77 min
538
Tyler Cowen on the painful end of American comp...
84 min
539
A mind-expanding conversation with Michael Pollan
79 min
540
Optimism about America
78 min
541
The New York Times’s lead Clinton reporter refl...
55 min
542
The age of "mega-identity" politics
74 min
543
Is American democracy really in decline? A debate.
110 min
544
Special episode: The Syrian conflict, explained...
57 min
545
Is modern society making us depressed?
87 min
546
Carol Anderson on White Rage and Donald Trump
91 min
547
The Sam Harris Debate
128 min
548
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s hardest year, and...
46 min
549
Is Mitch Landrieu the "White, Southern Anti-Tru...
80 min
550
Melinda Gates (live!) on stopping climate chang...
50 min