Politics & culture 🤔

The French republic "lives with her face uncovered," say the posters. But now face masks are mandatory. We look back at why covering your face in France used to be a sign of bad citizenship, until it ...Show More

How does India's caste system play out in the hiring practices of Silicon Valley? And what happens when dominant caste people in the U.S. grapple with their own inherited privilege for the first time?

Magic mushrooms have hit the headlines, with people saying that shrooms cured their depression and anxiety. But is this for real? How can taking a trip on psychedelics fix your brain? Today, magic mus...Show More

This episode contains strong language. Terry Albury joined the F.B.I. just before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, drawn in by the bureau’s work fighting child exploitation. His role quickly changed af...Show More

Mike and Sarah have big feelings about an enduring debate. Digressions include “Carrie,” party planning etiquette and Whole Foods cafeterias. Sarah’s sound quality changes midway through because she m...Show More

Invisibilia is a show that runs on empathy. We believe in it. But are we right? In this episode, we'll let you decide. We tell the same story twice in order to examine the questions: who deserves our ...Show More

China’s Lunar New Year movie season is like America’s summer blockbuster season… on steroids.  And it got that way thanks to THE DREAM FACTORY — a wry 1997 comedy directed by Feng Xiaogang, who’d come...Show More

The genius parade continues this week with co-host Dale Beran, author of It Came from Something Awful: How a Toxic Troll Army Accidentally Memed Donald Trump into Office. All three of us writers are l...Show More

You’ve probably heard that gentrification changes neighborhoods for the worse: first come the hipsters and then the bankers. Soon, the neighborhood is overrun with dog spas and wine bars, and the orig...Show More

The rift between police and Black Americans can feel impossible to bridge. But in his work with police departments across the U.S., Yale psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff has found novel ways to address...Show More

Birds Aren’t Real, a conspiracy theory with an apparently absurd premise, has become surprisingly popular in the past few years. But its followers were in on the joke: The movement’s aim was to poke ...Show More

Novak Djokovic, the world No. 1 player in men’s tennis, had a lot at stake going into this year’s Australian Open. A win there would have made him the most decorated male tennis player in history. Bu...Show More

Japan is the “grayest” nation in the world. Close to 30 percent of the population is over 65. The reason is its low birthrate, which has caused the population to contract since 2007. With the birthra...Show More

Through his media empire, Rupert Murdoch has reshaped the politics of countries across the English-speaking world, pushing their governments to the right. We look inside the struggle over who will con...Show More

Under President Xi Jinping, China is pioneering a new form of governance by surveillance. In the first of a two-part series, we look at how China tested that system by targeting one minority group. Gu...Show More

In Part 2 of our series, we tell the story of an American citizen whose family members have been detained in Chinese re-education camps for Uighurs and members of other Muslim minority groups. We look...Show More

The Chinese fashion brand Shein found rapid success by catering to young shoppers whose tastes are driven by social media. But making fast fashion even faster comes at a cost. Help support our indepen...Show More

This week, Eric Michael Garcia tells Sarah about America’s barely forgotten pastime, plus the Supreme Court’s long history of horrifying decisions. Digressions include due process, The Evil Dead, and ...Show More

Mei Fong is a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist who covered China for the Wall Street Journal for many years. Her book, "One Child", the story of China's most radical experiment details the repercussi...Show More

Everyone loves bánh mì because they’re cheap and satisfying, but have you ever thought about what the human cost is in keeping the price so low?

What do you do when you decide at the age of seven that the world is an unfair place and you need to try and change it? Raj Patel’s career has been dedicated to ending inequality. From studying philos...Show More

Why is it that we stumble when we discuss sexuality? It should be a joyous topic rather than one fraught with shame, confusion, and invisibility. Even as we get more shows and movies attempting to tac...Show More

Artist and activist Jesse Krimes joins Jameela to share his powerful story. He describes his experience being incarcerated, discusses how solitary confinement was used as a manipulation tactic, explai...Show More

I spoke with Matt McManus about Right-wing Postmodernism and his critiques of Jordan Peterson 
Follow me: @obaidomer Follow Matt: @MattPolProf
 Check out Matt’s website: https://left2right.webflow.io...Show More

References and further reading:Matt McManus on Rethinking Religion in the Postmodern Era | by Erik Haines | Integral Facticity | Nov, 2022 | MediumIntegral Humanitas | Erik Haines | Substack | Hosted ...Show More

Sean Illing talks with writer and reporter Jerusalem Demsas about the causes of homelessness in America. They discuss our ideas of home ownership, and how our country’s cultural expectations and polic...Show More

Violence in the occupied West Bank has entered a new era of escalation. Miriam Berger, reporting from the region, breaks down what’s behind this turmoil and its connection to a new right-wing governme...Show More

How do you do the most good in the world? Money and data! That's according to this new wave of philanthropy known as effective altruism, heralded by the likes of Sam Bankman-Fried. Today on the show w...Show More