The Gray Area with Sean Illing

  • What the internet took from us

    Sean Illing talks with writer and New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul about her book 100 Things We’ve Lost to the Internet and the ways, big and small, that the internet has changed…


  • Trapped inside with Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi

    Vox’s Constance Grady talks with novelist Susanna Clarke about her latest book, Piranesi, before a virtual audience for the Vox Book Club. They discuss how Clarke’s novel engages with themes that have come to characterize…


  • Bryan Stevenson on the legacy of enslavement

    Vox’s Jamil Smith talks with attorney, author, and activist Bryan Stevenson about the newly expanded Legacy Museum in Montgomery, Alabama. They discuss the museum’s project to connect America’s history of enslavement with the contemporary realities…


  • What’s your status?

    Sean Illing talks with writer Will Storr about his new book The Status Game, and its central idea: all human beings are constantly competing for status. They discuss how certain aspects of society “supercharge” our…


  • Is there a hack for enlightenment?

    Vox’s Sigal Samuel talks with scholars and authors Wesley Wildman and Kate Stockly about their book, Spirit Tech: The Brave New World of Consciousness Hacking and Enlightenment Engineering. They discuss high-tech tools like brain stimulation…


  • Fighting a world on fire with fire

    Sean Illing talks with climate scholar Andreas Malm about his book How to Blow Up A Pipeline. They discuss the failure of decades of protests and appeals to curb the actions of the fossil fuel…


  • Revolutionary Love

    Vox’s Jamil Smith talks with author, activist, and filmmaker Valarie Kaur about her memoir See No Stranger and the Revolutionary Love Project. They discuss Kaur’s personal experiences of the racism that followed 9/11, the idea…


  • How to make meaning out of suffering

    Vox’s Sean Illing talks with David Wolpe, senior rabbi of the Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, about the role and nature of God, how religion and spirituality can address our modern problems, and how to…


  • Ken Burns’s latest on The Greatest

    Vox’s Jamil Smith talks with acclaimed documentary filmmakers Ken and Sarah Burns. The father-daughter team discuss their latest documentary about The Greatest, Muhammad Ali, trying to say something new about a famous and already well-documented…


  • The road from 9/11 to Donald Trump

    Sean Illing talks with national security reporter Spencer Ackerman, author of the new book Reign of Terror. They discuss the staggering changes to our country in the 20 years since 9/11; the flaws, misdeeds, and…