The Gray Area
The Gray Area with Sean Illing takes a philosophy-minded look at culture, technology, politics, and the world of ideas. Each week, we invite a guest to explore a question or topic that matters. From the state of democracy, to the struggle with depression and anxiety, to the nature of identity in the digital age, each episode looks for nuance and honesty in the most important conversations of our time.
New episodes drop every Monday.
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The AI hype is real. We’re not prepared for what’s next.
The AI hype is real. We’re not prepared for what’s next.
The ‘gray area’ of addiction.
Gen Z men want kids. Gen Z women have questions.
The latest in The Gray Area
Is it time for the left to rethink its approach to guns?
A seemingly trivial practice has deep benefits — but there are times we simply don’t get them.
The sport feels unstoppable — yet also doomed.
A system built to stop government from doing harm stopped it from doing anything.
Too often, we place forgiveness and anger on opposite sides, as if they’re in competition. The truth is more complex.
A strange porn subculture reveals what life online is doing to us.
Technological progress and economic growth are preconditions for human happiness, not a guarantee.
Why you feel awkward and what to do about it.
How to change your mind on the climate’s future, according to data scientist Hannah Ritchie.
The decay of Google, Amazon, and Facebook are part of a larger trend.
An expert on the best ways to strengthen yours.
An expert on political violence offers warnings — and some hope.
Many used to worry about China’s power over the app — but American control is troubling, too.
Environmental activist and writer Bill McKibben on why “you can’t stop the sun.”
The contradictions at the heart of this fundamental right in democracies.
China’s engineers vs. America’s lawyers.
It’s so easy get addicted these days. The apps are counting on it.
A philosopher on humanity’s need for a new story — and a new way to defy where we’re headed.
Wesleyan President Michael Roth details the conservative agenda targeting American universities.
AI is creating a cheating utopia. Universities don’t know how to respond.
A leading conservative thinker on populism’s rise on the right.
What we’re missing in Machiavelli’s The Prince, explained by an expert.
What if we measured success in terms of how much good we do?
The strange connection between ideology and the brain.
Political scientist Frances Lee examines the “noble lies” and truth-seeking failures of the pandemic.
Tech pioneer Jaron Lanier argues for a different way to think about AI.
Mark Lilla, author of a new book on ignorance, discusses when we’re better off searching for knowledge and when we’re better off living in the dark.
How the attention economy is reshaping our world.
Technology and the cost of convenience, explained.
Why is it so hard to talk about masculinity?
How to feel alive, explained by a philosopher.
How Trump’s Republican Party left conservatism behind.
Musa al-Gharbi on his new book We Have Never Been Woke.
Caesar, Trump, and the future of American democracy.
What the author saw in Palestine.
The human mind is designed to predict, but uncertainty helps us thrive.
Laraaji — ambient musician and onetime actor and comic — on laughter, surrender, and transcending the thinking mind.
Essayist and author Meghan O’Gieblyn on the meaning of art in the age of artificial intelligence.
Our hotter planet doesn’t have to be a hopeless planet.
“If humans are so smart, why are we so stupid?”