Why Orwell matters
In an Orwellian twist, the word “Orwellian” has been misused so much over the decades that it’s essentially lost its meaning. But George Orwell, author of the classics Animal Farm and 1984, was very c...
5 Aug 202452min
The timebomb the founding fathers left us
The US Constitution is a brilliant political document, but it’s far from perfect. This week’s guest, Erwin Chemerinsky, argues that many of today’s threats to democracy are a direct result of compromi...
29 Jul 202451min
Swear like a philosopher
You can’t drop an f-bomb on the radio, but fortunately for our guest, you can say anything you want in a podcast. This week, host Sean Illing talks to philosopher Rebecca Roache, author of For F*ck’s ...
22 Jul 202444min
Taking Nietzsche seriously
Sean Illing talks with political science professor Matt McManus about the political thought of Friedrich Nietzsche, the 19th-century German philosopher with a complicated legacy, despite his crossover...
15 Jul 20241h 2min
What India teaches us about liberalism — and its decline
Authoritarian tendencies have been on the rise globally and the liberal world order is on the decline. One hotspot of this tension lies in India, where Prime Minister Narendra Modi employs autocratic ...
8 Jul 202446min
1992: The year politics broke
We’re living in an era of extreme partisan politics, rising resentment, and fractured news media. Writer John Ganz believes that we can trace the dysfunction to the 1990s, when right-wing populists li...
1 Jul 202444min
The existential struggle of being Black
Nathalie Etoke joins The Gray Area to talk about existentialism, the Black experience, and the legacy of dehumanization. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area Guest: Nathalie Etoke. He...
24 Jun 202455min
The world after nuclear war
A mile of pure fire. A flash that melts everything — titanium, steel, lead, people. A blast that mows down every structure in its path, 3 miles out in every direction. Journalist Annie Jacobsen spent ...
17 Jun 202457min
