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
551
The surprising story of how American politics p...
62 min
552
The most important idea for understanding Ameri...
73 min
553
What economists and politicians get wrong about...
54 min
554
How to disagree better
94 min
555
Jaron Lanier’s case for deleting social media r...
77 min
556
The most clarifying conversation I’ve had about...
65 min
557
The Supreme Court vs. Democracy
64 min
558
Eric Garcetti on the lessons of Los Angeles
60 min
559
What Ellen Pao saw coming
51 min
560
The Green Pill
57 min
561
How Jane Mayer exposed Eric Schneiderman, Bush’...
71 min
562
Political power and the racial wealth gap
77 min
563
Tyler Cowen on the painful end of American comp...
84 min
564
A mind-expanding conversation with Michael Pollan
79 min
565
Optimism about America
78 min
566
The New York Times’s lead Clinton reporter refl...
55 min
567
The age of "mega-identity" politics
74 min
568
Is American democracy really in decline? A debate.
110 min
569
Special episode: The Syrian conflict, explained...
57 min
570
Is modern society making us depressed?
87 min
571
Carol Anderson on White Rage and Donald Trump
91 min
572
The Sam Harris Debate
128 min
573
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s hardest year, and...
46 min
574
Is Mitch Landrieu the "White, Southern Anti-Tru...
80 min
575
Melinda Gates (live!) on stopping climate chang...
50 min