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.
126
40 Acres: The old Jim Crow
43 min
127
40 Acres: $14 trillion and no mules
44 min
128
40 Acres: The original promise
49 min
129
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
130
Even Better: Don't call it a budget
45 min
131
The quest for authenticity
Better living through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir
46 min
132
Even Better: Setting your boundaries
43 min
133
Your gut instinct is usually wrong
A data scientist on how to make decisions
49 min
134
Even Better: Workplace equality 2.0
51 min
135
Why we're still postmodern (whatever that means)
53 min
136
Even Better: Activism when you don't know where...
47 min
137
The Supreme Court's power grab
60 min
138
How middlemen took over the economy
60 min
139
The necessity — and danger — of free speech
Free speech is essential for democracy. It may also be democracy's downfall.
50 min
140
Hacking coral sex to save the reefs
49 min
141
The price of keeping secrets
47 min
142
Does China control Hollywood?
58 min
143
Steve Bannon is still at war
45 min
144
The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
Constance Grady talks with author Jonathan Lethem about his prescient 2003 novel
34 min
145
The Philosophers: Stoic revival
59 min
146
Station Eleven's creator on the end of the world
Showrunner Patrick Somerville on why hope is necessary for survival
47 min
147
The racist origins of fat phobia
49 min
148
The fight for Ukraine — and democracy
49 min
149
The war on trans people
49 min
150
Michael Ian Black on being a better man
50 min