Episodes

“The problems start when I conclude that only an uninformed, unintelligent, or evil person could hold the view that you hold.” — Julia Minson In a sneak preview of the 2028 Presidential election, Andy Beshear called JD Vance ...

“AI is a theft of knowledge. I can’t believe we as a society allowed this.” — Noam Cohen Ten years ago, Noam Cohen came on the show to ask if it was “Too Late to Save the Internet from Itself?” Back then, this early Silicon V...

“We read so as not to feel alone.” — C.S. Lewis (possibly) Dan Turello is a cultural historian of medieval Italy, a much published photographer, and the author of the new Connection: How Technology Can Make Us Better Humans ....

“Washington and Hamilton were governed by Willing.” — John Adams, 1813 Thomas Willing voted against the Declaration of Independence. He was the wealthiest man in Philadelphia, the largest merchant trader in North America, an ...

“I don’t know if any rational person ever became a billionaire running a disruptive company.” — Keith Teare Is capitalism by permission of democracy, or is democracy by permission of capitalism? That’s the question Keith Tear...

“We do not exist without nature — unless Silicon Valley figures something out in their bunkers.” — Natalie Kyriacou Forget the Middle East for a moment. Or rather, don’t — because today’s petroleum war is an environmental cat...

“Nobody’s reality is more or less real.” — Kevin Ashton It’s the chicken and egg question. What came first: stories or language? For Kevin Ashton , the answer is stories. In his new book, The Story of Stories , Ashton argues ...

“I don’t like the idea of losing out to a machine because I feel like I’m losing a part of myself in the process.” — Nelson Dellis, six-time USA Memory Champion Most of us can’t remember our spouse’s phone number. We barely k...

“If we don’t fight, then what are we doing?” — Jeff Boyd How do you write fiction about contemporary America when reality itself is stranger than fiction? A country in which “alternative facts” is policy rather than satire. W...

“Had another nation done this, we would regard this as an act of war.” — Arthur Levine, President of Brandeis University Forget Iran for a moment. I asked Brandeis President Arthur Levine whether the Trump administration has ...

“You would not want to be me.” — Elon Musk Yesterday I argued that Dario Amodei is the most interesting man in America because he’s doing something nobody else has the balls to do: acting like a human being in public. Elon Mu...

“Whether you like Amodei or not, at least he’s a leader.” — Andrew Keen Dario Amodei is the most interesting man in America right now. Not because he runs a $500 billion company or because he’s suing the Trump administration ...

“I can point to things. But is that a systemic explanation? I think there the answer is a little less clear. I mean, surely people need love and all of that, but then there’s this risk of just devolving into platitude.” — Dav...

“They all did it. They’re all guilty.” — Amy Littlefield Who killed Roe? Amy Littlefield , the abortion access correspondent at The Nation and big time Agatha Christie fan, has written a true crime book about it. Literally. K...

“It’s about blood. I cover a lot of bloodshed in the book, but I also talk about a different kind of blood: blood that ties, blood that binds families across time and distance.” — Jazmine Ulloa Kristi Noem is gone. Under her ...

“This is not the beginning of a new right-wing revanche fascist era; this is the end of something. But the problem is we can’t get to the new world because the new world is too filled with problems.” — Jonathan Taplin Trump f...

“Fidel Castro told his aides, ‘We’re going to fill his arms with shit.’ That is an example of weaponised migration. What we’re experiencing now is on a thermonuclear scale.” — Peter Schweizer Is best selling writer Peter Schw...

“I have always said that they are the same person. And the drama of this story is that one ends up dead in the darkest prison in America, and the other in the White House.” — Michael Wolff A few days ago we had Jason Pack on ...

“The fatal error is ours. Legislators set out a regulatory regime that keeps regulation at bay. The only other industry with a similar protection is the gun industry.” — Olivier Sylvain There are certain words in book titles ...

“They’re both naughty boys in the playground, leveraging the absence of clarity to their own advantage. Neither one of them is an authoritative leader of opinion with the interests of everyone at heart.” — Keith Teare What a ...

“All my life, I’ve absolutely opposed all terrorism by anyone under any circumstances. I define terrorism as the deliberate killing of noncombatants.” — Daniel Ellsberg, October 2001 Last week we had Tom Wells on the show tal...

“I don’t think we’re sleepwalking, because people have striven to be as thoughtful as possible. In some ways, they’ve been too thoughtful. We’re paralysed, in fact, by our risk awareness.” — Christopher Clark It’s 1830 in Eas...

“We should all be able to look at the numbers and agree that this is not sustainable and that whatever we’ve been doing is not working. Democrats have had their chance, and Republicans have had their chance, and it’s only got...

“If we let things continue in the direction that they are taking now, I think it is more likely than not that we will end up in some kind of Great Power war within the foreseeable future.” — Arne Westad This conversation was ...