Philosophy often feels like a disconnected discipline, obsessed with tedious and abstract problems. But MIT professor Kieran Setiya believes philosophical inquiry has a practical purpose outside the classroom — to help guide us through life’s most challenging circumstances. He joins Sean to talk about self-help, FOMO, and midlife crises.

This episode originally aired in April 2024.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Kieran Setiya, author of Life Is Hard: How Philosophy Can Help Us Find Our Way and Midlife: A Philosophical Guide.

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What exactly is the basis for democracy?

Arguably Iiberalism, the belief that the government serves the people, is the stone on which modern democracy was founded. That notion is so ingrained in the US that we often forget that America could be governed any other way. But political philosopher John Gray believes that liberalism has been waning for a long, long time.

He joins Sean to discuss the great liberal thinker Thomas Hobbes and America’s decades-long transition away from liberalism.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: John Gray, political philosopher and author of The New Leviathans: Thoughts After Liberalism

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We have an exciting announcement! Vox Members now get access to ad-free podcasts. If you sign up, you’ll get unlimited access to reporting on vox.com, exclusive newsletters, and all of our podcasts — including The Gray Area — ad-free. Plus, you’ll play a crucial role in helping our show get made.

Check it out at vox.com/members.

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There’s a lot of uncertainty when it comes to artificial intelligence. Technologists love to talk about all the good these tools can do in the world, all the problems they might solve. Yet, many of those same technologists are also warning us about all the ways AI might upend society, how it might even destroy humanity.

Julia Longoria, Vox host and editorial director, spent a year trying to understand that dichotomy. The result is a four-part podcast series — called Good Robot — that explores the ideologies of the people funding, building, and driving the conversation about AI.

Today Julia speaks with Sean about how the hopes and fears of these individuals are influencing the technology that will change all of our lives.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Vox Host and Editorial Director Julia Longoria

Good Robot is available in the Vox Unexplainable feed.

Episode 1

Episode 2

Episode 3

Episode 4

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Why do we keep comparing AI to humans?

Jaron Lanier — virtual reality pioneer, digital philosopher, and the author of several best-selling books on technology — thinks that we should stop. In his view, technology is only valuable if it has beneficiaries. So instead of asking "What can AI do?," we should be asking, "What can AI do for us?"

In today’s episode, Jaron and Sean discuss a humanist approach to AI and how changing our understanding of AI tools could change how we use, develop, and improve them.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Jaron Lanier, computer scientist, artist, and writer.

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American government has a speed issue. Both parties are slow to solve problems. Slow to build new things. Slow to make any change at all.

Until now. The Trump administration is pushing through sweeping changes as fast as possible, completely changing the dynamic. And the Democrats? They’ve been slow to respond. Slow to mount a defense. Slow to change tactics. Still.

Ezra Klein — writer, co-founder of Vox, and host of The Ezra Klein Show for the New York Times — would like to offer a course correction.

In a new book, Abundance, Klein and co-author Derek Thompson, argue that the way to make a better, brighter future, is to build and invent the things we need. To do that, liberals need to push past hyper-coalitional and bureaucratic ways of getting things done.

In this episode, Ezra speaks with Sean about the policy decisions that have rendered government inert and how we can make it easier to build the things we want and need.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Ezra Klein, co-author of Abundance and host of The Ezra Klein Show

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Humans hate uncertainty. It makes us feel unsafe and uneasy. We often organize our lives to avoid it. When it's foisted upon us, we don’t always know how to act.

But writer and journalist Maggie Jackson argues that uncertainty can actually be good for us, and that we’re doing ourselves a disservice by avoiding it.

She tells Sean that embracing uncertainty can spark creativity, improve problem solving skills, and help us lead better, more hopeful lives.

This episode originally aired in January 2024.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Maggie Jackson, author of Uncertain: The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Unsure

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How often do you find silence? And do you know what to do with it when you do?

Today’s guest is essayist and travel writer Pico Iyer. His latest book is Aflame: Learning From Silence, which recounts his experiences living at a Catholic monastery in California after losing his home in a fire.

He speaks with Sean about the restorative power of silence, and how being quiet can prepare us for a busy and overstimulated world.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Pico Iyer, writer and author of Aflame: Learning From Silence

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If you could change anything about your personality, anything at all, what would it be?

And why would you want to change it?Writer Olga Khazan spent a year trying to answer those questions, and documented the experience in her new book Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change.

In this episode Sean speaks with Olga about the science of personality change, the work it takes to change yourself, and what makes up a personality, anyway.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Olga Khazan, author of Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change.

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Are you ever happier not knowing something?

As Aristotle famously claimed, “All human beings want to know.” But denial and avoidance are also human impulses. Sometimes they’re even more powerful than our curiosity.

In this episode Sean speaks with professor Mark Lilla about when we’re better off searching for knowledge and when we’re better off living in the dark. Lilla’s new book is called Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know.

Host: Sean Illing (@SeanIlling)

Guest: Mark Lilla, professor of humanities at Columbia University and author of Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know.

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What do you think of America’s institutions?

Alana Newhouse, founder and editor-in-chief of Tablet Magazine, says that may be the most important political question in America.

In an essay published more than two years ago, Newhouse argued that there is a new political divide, one in which your place — and the place of your allies and adversaries — is determined by whether you believe that America’s institutions should be fixed or destroyed. Her argument feels eerily prescient in light of the Trump administration’s recent efforts to dismantle government programs.

In this episode, which first aired in February of 2023, Alana and Sean debate what that divide means for America’s present and future, and whether it supersedes labels like "left" or "right" and "Democrat" or "Republican."

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), host, The Gray Area

Guest: Alana Newhouse (@alananewhouse) editor-in-chief, Tablet and author of "Brokenism."

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