Conversation Starters

Meng Wanzhou lands in Vancouver on what was supposed to be a routine transit stop. Instead, she finds herself under arrest, accused of violating economic sanctions in Iran and facing the possibility o...Show More

On the premiere episode of The Dropout, you'll meet a young Elizabeth Holmes. Convinced of her own destiny even as a young child, she would come to drop out of Stanford in her late teens, intending to...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

With Ian Bremmer, Michèle Flournoy, Yasheng Huang, Parag Khanna, and Susan Thornton President Xi Jinping has made it clear: When it comes to big data, advanced weaponry, and other innovations in tech ...Show More

There’s nothing as intoxicating as piles of money, unless the Feds are watching you count it.

Have you ever opened your computer with the intention of sending one email — only to spend an hour scrolling through social media? Maybe two hours? In this episode, we examine the strategies media com...Show More

Nobody likes going to the hospital, whether it's because of the logistical challenges of getting there, the astronomical costs of procedures or the alarming risks of complications like antibiotic-resi...Show More

What if we incentivized doctors to keep us healthy instead of paying them only when we're already sick? Matthias Müllenbeck explains how this radical shift from a sick care system to a true health car...Show More

Ryerson's DMZ breaks the stigma around mental health in startup culture. Kids in Nunavut use role-playing computer games to manage depression. What we can expect from "Wifi 6." And philosopher Mark Ki...Show More

What do you do when someone you love makes a terrible mistake? Hanna presents one of her favorite episodes from the latest season of Embedded, that explores how far one woman will go to save her broth...Show More

Love is weird. How can this thing take over your body and bend it to its will? Tai looks to science, philosophy and his mom for answers.

A young woman discovers a pattern in her dating habits that disturbs her - a pattern that challenges her very conception of who she is and what she believes in. The realization sets her off on a quest...Show More

Neuroscientist Daniel Chao created a headset that hacks your brain with electricity so you can learn as fast as a kid again. It’s called Halo, and it helps you learn motor skills faster. Athletes use ...Show More

How does dating work in your 30s when you’ve been locked up since you were 15? How soon do you share your incarceration history with new love interests? And how the hell does online dating work? Recen...Show More

Placebos belong in clinical trials, not in the doctor's office. That's the conventional wisdom, anyway. This week, we ask what placebos might teach us about healing.

All over Oakland right now people are wearing Warriors shirts and flying their Warriors flags from their cars, and as much as we like our hometown team here at 99pi, we've been following these NBA fin...Show More

Bernie Sanders is a 2020 Presidential Candidate of the Democratic Party and is currently serving as the U.S. Senator of Vermont. https://berniesanders.com/

In 1965 a report from within the US government noted that the number of children born outside marriage, and the number of divorces, in the parts of the American population were rising rapidly. It argu...Show More

Protesters have flooded Hong Kong’s airport, paralyzing operations and escalating tensions between the semiautonomous territory and Beijing. The protesters are trying to send a message to government o...Show More

'Washington Post' tech columnist Geoffrey Fowler talks about how web browsers, phone apps, and smart speakers are tracking users, even when they're asleep. Fowler listened to four years' worth of audi...Show More

A trashy daytime talk show in Argentina does the unthinkable. It becomes a forum for feminism. How this happened and what it changed.

Dr Ruja promised financial revolution. And then, two years ago, she disappeared. Why? The Missing Cryptoqueen is an eight-part series for BBC Sounds, with new episodes every Thursday. Presenter: Jam...Show More

Debbie talks to author and conflict resolution mediator Priya Parker about meetings and gatherings and why so many of them don’t work.

Sharing a good experience with another human deepens our enjoyment of the moment... but only if we abide by certain rules. Dr Laurie Santos shows us how we often get 'sharing' wrong and explains how w...Show More

The final episode takes an unexpected twist. Presenter: Jamie Bartlett Producer: Georgia Catt Additional Research: Ignatius Bahizi Editor: Philip Sellars Original music and sound design: Phil Chann...Show More

You know Malcolm Gladwell's “10,000-Hour Rule.” But did you know that, according to David Epstein, it doesn't work? That's what Epstein argues in his new book, “Range: Why Generalists Triumph In A Spe...Show More

How can winning the lottery ruin your life - while contracting an incurable disease feel like 'a gift'? Dr Laurie Santos hears about dreams come true and nightmares realised; and talks with Dr Dan Gil...Show More

Buddhist nun, author and a pioneer of the mindfulness movement, Pema Chödrön discusses her new book, Welcoming the Unwelcome. Pema reminds us how to connect to our basic goodness. She shares the first...Show More

Should you give up, or stay the course? Preface: This post is full of contradictions, so if you’re looking for a straight shot… it’s better to look within. As always. But! I have an array of options, ...Show More

It was one of the most valuable start-ups in the United States, with bold plans to revolutionize how and where people worked around the world. Today, we look at how the dream of WeWork crumbled — and ...Show More

Our world is awash in code, and those zeroes and ones aren't as impersonal as you might think. In his new book, "Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World," journalist Clive Thom...Show More

Singing with others is a powerful form of expression. That's why the composer Eric Whitacre started the Virtual Choir; an experiment that connects singers from every corner of the globe. In this episo...Show More

There are a lot of barriers to changing your mind: ego, overconfidence, inertia — and cost. Politicians who flip-flop get mocked; family and friends who cross tribal borders are shunned. But shouldn’t...Show More

The Chinese tech giant Huawei is in the news again. This week is the one-year anniversary since the company's CFO, Meng Wanzhou, was arrested at a Vancouver airport, which triggered a massive diplomat...Show More

This is the time of year for giving--whether that's a holiday gift for someone we love, or a charitable donation to a good cause. But why do we give? And how can we do it better? This week on Hidden B...Show More

Joshua and Ryan talk about birthday gifts, gifting experiences, their favorite consumables to give as gifts, and when it’s appropriate to give physical gifts, and they answer the following questions: ...Show More

Samantha Schmidt talks to the Argentine teens promoting a more inclusive Spanish. And Kevin Sieff reports from a squalid tent city in Matamoros, Mexico, where refugees are forced to wait for their asy...Show More

Westbank Corp. recently commissioned a 4.8 million dollar public art project known as the "Spinning Chandelier." Whether you love it or hate it, the piece brings up important questions about the value...Show More

Since 2016, Andrew Marantz has been reporting on how the extremist right has harnessed the Internet and social media to gain a startling prominence in American politics. One day, he was contacted by a...Show More

What’s up Con-gregation & welcome Scam Goddess, the #1 pod dedicated to all things fraud! In this initial episode comedian, actor, and podcast papi Paul F. Tompkins joins host Laci Mosley for a deep d...Show More

Before the Grammys, before the platinum records, before Destiny’s Child, there was just a shy girl growing up in Houston. We follow Beyoncé Knowles from the stages of local talent shows to her first c...Show More

Who qualifies for a visa? How much does it cost to become a U.S. citizen? Stories about the invisible barriers immigrants come up against when trying to apply for legal status. Don’t miss out on the ...Show More

A year ago, nobody was taking Andrew Yang very seriously. Now he is America’s favorite entrepre-nerd, with a candidacy that keeps gaining momentum. This episode includes our Jan. 2019 conversation wit...Show More

Rachel DeLoache Williams made a new friend named Anna Delvey. Anna came from a wealthy German family, lived in a New York City hotel, and was starting an ambitious foundation. But when a trip abroad g...Show More

Reporting by Vicky Baker Drama by Chloe Moss Anna Delvey was due to come into a trust fund of $67m on her 26th birthday. She was on her way to establishing the Anna Delvey Foundation, a multi-million...Show More

Should I stay or should I go? In every romantic relationship, there is a moment that you ask yourself, “Is it worth it?” Well, Rashied Amini, a NASA engineer with a broken heart, has the answer. He’s...Show More

If there's one thing that sets people apart from machines, it's creativity, right? Automation may take over certain jobs, but what happens when algorithms start to learn from our work to create their ...Show More

On bad days and bathtubs. On assassination and puppetry. On the mad that you feel.

On kiddie pools and racism. On sharing a towel with Officer Clemmons. On how to say, and not to say, I love you.

Why do we see the past through rose-coloured glasses, but not the future? Psychologists tell us that human beings have a tendency to be fearful and pessimistic about the future, while simultaneously r...Show More

Carlos Ghosn’s trial was poised to be one of the most closely watched in Japanese history — a case involving claims of corporate greed, wounded national pride and a rigged legal system. Then the forme...Show More

The good, the bad, and the ugly of social media influencers, instafame, and what it has to do with feminism.

A decade ago, South Carolina was one of the most dangerous places in America for a baby to be born. But now, it’s taking an unconventional approach to fixing it: having pregnant women sit in circles w...Show More

There is so much a man can tell you, so much he can say... especially if that man is named Kirk, and the thing he's telling you about is Seal's "Kiss From a Rose." Kirk goes back to the 90s for a clos...Show More

In a moment of national insecurity, with the future of the United Kingdom seemingly hanging in the balance, a new royal couple offered the vision of a unified, progressive future. But the same forces ...Show More

Grace from Kenya was once disgusted at her own body. No more! This 100% independent and advertising-free podcast is created by host Brett de Hoedt with audio director Brian Wallace. It’s one of the mo...Show More

Sex hurts the first time, but then it gets better. Right? This is the message so many of us grew up with. We saw it in movies and heard it from friends. But what if sex isn’t supposed to hurt? How muc...Show More

After Nicola Thorp was fired for refusing to wear high heels on the job in 2015, she called bullsh*t all the way to British Parliament. Because from banks to bars, it’s not unusual for workplaces arou...Show More

Ellie Webb is the founder of Caleño, a non-alcoholic spirit inspired by the flavours and colours of Colombia. Since its launch in January 2019, the Bristol-based brand has sold almost 30,000 bottles o...Show More

Advertising has changed a lot. From jingles and magazine spreads to…. short films and well, what isn’t an ad, today? Once the internet came along, attention started to get fractured — and so did clien...Show More

A conversation with a psychologist about the importance of friends who cross racial lines—and those who don't.  Want to reflect on how race has factored into your friendships? Take our survey at death...Show More

When Asma Khan was born it was said her mother cried, but not tears of joy. As a second daughter born in 1960s India, Asma felt she was a disappointment, even a burden, because she could not inherit a...Show More

Last Friday, Gwyneth Paltrow launched her new TV series ‘Goop Lab’ on Netflix. It explores everything from reducing your biological age to having the best female orgasms and healing yourself with ener...Show More

Products and cures you can’t find at the doctor might just be the medicine you want.

When Terrell Starr started doing yoga in his 30s, it opened up his mind to new possibilities of what his body could do—not to mention what he could do as a man. He realized he’d been restricting himse...Show More

“Let’s build the largest networking community on the planet.” That was the email Adam Neumann sent at 1am to one of WeWork’s very first employees, before they had even a single tenant. So how do you t...Show More

with @cjgbest @robertcottrell @andrewchen @smc90 A new ecosystem is forming around the direct relationship between consumers, content creators, and the tools and business models to facilitate all tha...Show More

In this episode, Ric Elias, founder of Red Ventures, opens up about the fateful day he knew for certain that he was going to die as a passenger on US Airways Flight 1549. Ric dives deep into how that ...Show More

For seventeen years, Ornella Pedrozo thought of her mom's detainment by ICE as her deepest, darkest secret. When she was four years old, her mother Violeta, who had fled the armed conflict in Peru, wa...Show More

A secretive start-up promising the next generation of facial recognition software has compiled a database of images far bigger than anything ever constructed by the United States government: over thre...Show More

The Memory Palace is a proud member of Radiotopia, a collective of independently owned and operated podcasts. Help support this show and the network that makes it possible by making a donation today....Show More

Men are often the default subjects of design, which can have a huge impact on big and critical aspects of everyday life. Caroline Criado Perez is the author of Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World De...Show More

Many of us feel like something is wrong with us if we are single. Some times we don't feel loved or feel unlovable. But what does it mean to be "single?" And what does it mean to be "loved?" Those...Show More

Jodi Kantor was given a beat and had been pointed at a tweet - a single tweet, without any names included that would set her on a months-long investigation. Teaming up with Megan Twohey, the two New Y...Show More

How can beauty pageants, a competition steeped in tradition, reinvent itself in the wake of a seismic shift in women’s rights? The #MeToo movement has rocked Hollywood in a way that could not have bee...Show More

A new investigation reveals what you may have suspected: dating apps can be very dangerous. But there are safer ways to look for love online.(Transcript here.) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit ...Show More

This one is a personal interest one for me. I found the CoffeeZilla Youtube Channel through a friend of mine and I immediately wanted to interview the guy who does it. In this channel, he goes afte...Show More

Moving into a new apartment brings up intense feelings around identity and safety for Tranna. Then, writer-performer and former social worker Kai Cheng Thom talks about cancel culture and chosen famil...Show More

Best-selling Chilean-American author Isabel Allende speaks with the WSJ's Veronica Dagher about her new book, "A Long Petal of the Sea," a novel that tackles immigration, how she coped with enormous t...Show More

The investigation and subsequent prosecution of entertainment mogul Harvey Weinstein for sexual misconduct marked a watershed moment for an international conversation around sexual abuse and harassmen...Show More

Gretchen Carlson is a journalist, author, and advocate whose historic 2016 sexual harassment complaint against the chairman of Fox News helped pave the way for the #metoo movement. Gretchen joins Soph...Show More

The outbreak of new coronavirus cases around the world has led U.S. health officials to warn the disease may spread in the U.S. WSJ's Brianna Abbott explains what may complicate officials' efforts to ...Show More

Adam Neumann’s fate lays in the hands of the WeWork board. But even if he’s removed as CEO, Adam still holds some cards to ensure he won't walk away empty-handed. Meanwhile, rank-and-file employees ju...Show More

“I would like to live in a world where it’s not the loudest voice that wins, but instead it’s the best idea that wins.” If you enjoyed this episode, show notes and more at http://www.lewishowes.com/...Show More

In 1935, Merle Oberon became the first biracial actress to be nominated for a Best Actress Oscar, an incredible achievement in then-segregated Hollywood -- except that nobody in Hollywood knew Oberon ...Show More

Heather Booth got a call in 1965 that a friend was in desparate need of an abortion. She started an underground abortion clinic in Chicago called the JANE, that provided over 11,000 abortions before R...Show More

Have you been putting off taking care of your mental health? Then Reshma wants you to get brave and do something to change that. This week, she has a heart to heart with the one and only Karine Jean-P...Show More

A man in California is haunted by the memory of a pop song from his youth. He can remember the lyrics and the melody. But the song itself has vanished, completely scrubbed from the internet. PJ takes ...Show More

Molly and Nikki are best friends, and they can laugh about anything — even cancer. They call it “gallows humor.” When Molly receives her diagnosis, she begins her sexual exploration by learning how to...Show More

Anger, depression, and massive success… For David Chang, every restaurant he opens feels like life or death. That mentality is a major reason why he’s one of the biggest figures in the restaurant worl...Show More

#319: On this episode we are joined by Guy Raz. Guy is a journalist, correspondent and radio host, currently working at National Public Radio. He has been described by The New York Times as "one of th...Show More