A Political Scientist on How Protests Can Change Minds or Backfire
In the last week, hundreds of protests across college campuses and American cities have taken place in response to the war in Gaza. Campus life has shut down at Columbia University in NYC. The news is...
26 Apr 202455min
What Kind of a Superpower Is India Becoming?
Today’s episode is all about India.You don’t have to believe that demography is pure destiny to appreciate the fact that the future of India is the future of the world. In 2024, today, India is the la...
23 Apr 20241h
Health Fads and Fictions: VO2 Max, Supplement Mania, Sunlight, and Immortality
Today's show is a critical look at some of the most popular health fads of the moment, with return guests Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg, from the Growth Equation and the ‘FAREWELL’ podcast. We’re ta...
19 Apr 20241h
U.S. Economy FAQ: Skyrocketing Insurance Prices, Stuck Inflation, Higher Rates, and Wrong Experts
Jason Furman, a professor of economics at Harvard, returns to the show to discuss the biggest economic questions of the moment, including: - Why have home and auto insurance prices skyrocketed? - Why ...
16 Apr 202447min
If the 2024 Election Is So Important, Why Does It Feel So Boring?
"This presidential election is not very interesting, but it is important," the political commentator Josh Barro wrote in his newsletter, 'Very Serious.' Americans certainly seem to agree with the firs...
12 Apr 202450min
A Psychologist Explains Four Reasons the Internet Feels So Broken
Jay Van Bavel is a professor of psychology and neural science at New York University. His lab has published papers on how the internet became a fun-house mirror of extreme political opinions, why the ...
9 Apr 202453min
Why School Absences Have "Exploded" Across America
The other day, I read a statistic about my hometown of Washington D.C. that knocked my socks off. In D.C. high schools, 60 percent of students were chronically absent in the last school year. That mea...
5 Apr 202443min
What Evolutionary Biology Can Teach Us About Diet, Exercise, and Staying Alive
What can the science of ancient humans and the lifestyle of hunter-gatherers teach us about how to be healthy today? Harvard evolutionary biologist Daniel Lieberman joins the show to talk about his pr...
2 Apr 202451min
