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