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