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.
151
40 Acres: The old Jim Crow
43 min
152
40 Acres: $14 trillion and no mules
44 min
153
40 Acres: The original promise
49 min
154
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
155
Even Better: Don't call it a budget
45 min
156
The quest for authenticity
Better living through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir
46 min
157
Even Better: Setting your boundaries
43 min
158
Your gut instinct is usually wrong
A data scientist on how to make decisions
49 min
159
Even Better: Workplace equality 2.0
51 min
160
Why we're still postmodern (whatever that means)
53 min
161
Even Better: Activism when you don't know where...
47 min
162
The Supreme Court's power grab
60 min
163
How middlemen took over the economy
60 min
164
The necessity — and danger — of free speech
Free speech is essential for democracy. It may also be democracy's downfall.
50 min
165
Hacking coral sex to save the reefs
49 min
166
The price of keeping secrets
47 min
167
Does China control Hollywood?
58 min
168
Steve Bannon is still at war
45 min
169
The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
Constance Grady talks with author Jonathan Lethem about his prescient 2003 novel
34 min
170
The Philosophers: Stoic revival
59 min
171
Station Eleven's creator on the end of the world
Showrunner Patrick Somerville on why hope is necessary for survival
47 min
172
The racist origins of fat phobia
49 min
173
The fight for Ukraine — and democracy
49 min
174
The war on trans people
49 min
175
Michael Ian Black on being a better man
50 min