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. From the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Philosophy
Politics
News Commentary
201
40 Acres: $14 trillion and no mules
44 min
202
40 Acres: The original promise
49 min
203
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
204
Even Better: Don't call it a budget
45 min
205
The quest for authenticity
Better living through the existentialism of Simone de Beauvoir
46 min
206
Even Better: Setting your boundaries
43 min
207
Your gut instinct is usually wrong
A data scientist on how to make decisions
49 min
208
Even Better: Workplace equality 2.0
51 min
209
Why we're still postmodern (whatever that means)
53 min
210
Even Better: Activism when you don't know where...
47 min
211
The Supreme Court's power grab
60 min
212
How middlemen took over the economy
60 min
213
The necessity — and danger — of free speech
Free speech is essential for democracy. It may also be democracy's downfall.
50 min
214
Hacking coral sex to save the reefs
49 min
215
The price of keeping secrets
47 min
216
Does China control Hollywood?
58 min
217
Steve Bannon is still at war
45 min
218
The Fortress of Solitude saw it all coming
Constance Grady talks with author Jonathan Lethem about his prescient 2003 novel
34 min
219
The Philosophers: Stoic revival
59 min
220
Station Eleven's creator on the end of the world
Showrunner Patrick Somerville on why hope is necessary for survival
47 min
221
The racist origins of fat phobia
49 min
222
The fight for Ukraine — and democracy
49 min
223
The war on trans people
49 min
224
Michael Ian Black on being a better man
50 min
225
Carmen Maria Machado's haunted feminine
36 min