The Gray Area with Sean Illing

  • Honoring Juneteenth with Ibram X. Kendi

    In this special edition of Vox Conversations in honor of the Juneteenth holiday, Vox race reporter Fabiola Cineas spoke with author and podcast host Ibram X. Kendi before a virtual audience about the big ideas…


  • Digital dictatorship

    The internet was first conceived as a tool to promote free expression, to foster and enliven debate, and to strengthen democratic ideals. But it didn’t quite work out that way. In this episode, Vox’s Zack…


  • The man who proposed reparations in the 1860s

    Vox’s Dylan Matthews talks with historian Bruce Levine about his book Thaddeus Stevens: Civil War Revolutionary and Fighter for Racial Justice. They discuss how Stevens — a person with anti-racist ideals so far outside the…


  • What pandemic recovery should look like

    Vox’s Emily Stewart talks with Janelle Jones, chief economist at the Labor Department, about what’s actually going on with the US economy — and who are the workers most dramatically affected by the pandemic. They…


  • The gift of getting old

    Vox’s Sean Illing talks with Max Linsky, host of the new podcast 70 Over 70, which features intimate conversations with people over 70 years old. They discuss Max’s relationship with his aging father, the sometimes…


  • Freedom, and what it means to have a body

    Vox’s Anna North talks with author Olivia Laing about her book Everybody: A Book About Freedom. Through the surprisingly connected lives of artists, activists, psychoanalysts, and sexologists, they discuss the different ways our bodies are…


  • Why are we so worried about Satan?

    Vox’s Sean Illing talks with Sarah Marshall, co-host of the You’re Wrong About podcast, about the Satanic Panic of the early 1980s. They discuss America’s penchant for moral panics, why the country latches onto outlandish…


  • How to be wrong less often

    Vox’s Dylan Matthews talks with Julia Galef, host of the podcast Rationally Speaking, and author of The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t. They discuss how we can overcome the…


  • The complicated history of wildlife conservation

    Vox environmental reporter Benji Jones talks with journalist and author Michelle Nijhuis about her book Beloved Beasts: Fighting for Life in an Age of Extinction. They talk about the history of the conservation movement and…


  • How to replace everything in the industrialized world

    Climate writer and Vox contributor David Roberts talks with Jessika Trancik, Associate Professor at the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at M.I.T. They discuss many aspects of the vast undertaking to remake our world…