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
576
The surprising story of how American politics p...
62 min
577
The most important idea for understanding Ameri...
73 min
578
What economists and politicians get wrong about...
54 min
579
How to disagree better
94 min
580
Jaron Lanier’s case for deleting social media r...
77 min
581
The most clarifying conversation I’ve had about...
65 min
582
The Supreme Court vs. Democracy
64 min
583
Eric Garcetti on the lessons of Los Angeles
60 min
584
What Ellen Pao saw coming
51 min
585
The Green Pill
57 min
586
How Jane Mayer exposed Eric Schneiderman, Bush’...
71 min
587
Political power and the racial wealth gap
77 min
588
Tyler Cowen on the painful end of American comp...
84 min
589
A mind-expanding conversation with Michael Pollan
79 min
590
Optimism about America
78 min
591
The New York Times’s lead Clinton reporter refl...
55 min
592
The age of "mega-identity" politics
74 min
593
Is American democracy really in decline? A debate.
110 min
594
Special episode: The Syrian conflict, explained...
57 min
595
Is modern society making us depressed?
87 min
596
Carol Anderson on White Rage and Donald Trump
91 min
597
The Sam Harris Debate
128 min
598
Mark Zuckerberg on Facebook’s hardest year, and...
46 min
599
Is Mitch Landrieu the "White, Southern Anti-Tru...
80 min
600
Melinda Gates (live!) on stopping climate chang...
50 min