The Gray Area with Sean Illing

  • Rep. Katie Porter’s working-class politics

    Rep. Katie Porter became well-known for using a whiteboard and asking tough questions during Congressional hearings. Her frank questions resonated with the public because they represented the concerns of so many Americans. In this episode,…


  • The climate apocalypse will be televised

    Guest host Alissa Wilkinson talks with Dorothy Fortenberry, a co-showrunner, executive producer, and writer on Extrapolations, the new star-studded anthology series on Apple TV+ that imagines the ravages of climate change deeper and deeper into…


  • A philosopher takes on religious life

    What would drive someone to renounce all their possessions, relationships, and ambitions to join a religious community? Sean talks with Zena Hitz, whose new book A Philosopher Looks at the Religious Life explores this question…


  • Your brain isn’t so private anymore

    Guest host Sigal Samuel talks with professor of philosophy and law Nita Farahany about her new book The Battle for Your Brain. In it, Farahany details the new brain-scanning tech that has already arrived, and…


  • Brian Stelter thinks the news has a reliability problem

    Will the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against Fox News be a watershed moment? Is the media industry beyond repair? Sean Illing is joined by media reporter Brian Stelter, the former host of CNN’s Reliable Sources and the…


  • How corporations got all your data

    Sean Illing speaks with Matthew Jones, historian of science and technology, and co-author (with data scientist Chris Wiggins) of the new book How Data Happened. They discuss the surprisingly long history of data from the…


  • The case for failure

    Is our society’s fixation with success hindering our ability to find humility? Sean Illing speaks with Costica Bradatan about his new book In Praise of Failure: Four Lessons in Humility, which explores failure through the…


  • Poetry as religion

    Sean Illing speaks with poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht, whose new book The Wonder Paradox asks: if we don’t have God or religion, what — if anything — do we lose? They discuss how…


  • Revisiting the American Dream

    In America, there’s been an increase of available jobs, and there’s also been a series of high-profile layoffs, strikes, and calls for unionization. The social safety net for workers is disappearing, so what can people…


  • The cost of saving pandas

    The giant panda is no longer endangered. This, of course, is good news. But the model of conservation that worked to protect these iconic bears has failed to help the countless other threatened species on…