Writer Pankaj Mishra traces the roots of contemporary political rage back to a surprising source: the 18th century Enlightenment. More
Intelligent. Optimistic. Curious.
Interviews By Topic
Could we, as a nation, be addicted to anger? That’s what science fiction writer and astrophysicist David Brin thinks. In fact, he wrote an open letter to addiction researchers and psychologists, asking them to investigate America’s epidemic of self-righteous indignation.More
Siri Hustvedt on developing voices on new platforms, all while coping with old-fashioned sexism. More
Facing the costs to being a victim of online harassment, where’s the law when you need it?More
A Teen Vogue editor finds herself arguing with Tucker Carlson. And then it gets worse.More
Writer Roxane Gay talks about tackling her trolls and “writing to the point of uncomfortability.”More
In 2015, Mingyur Rinpoche completed a four and a half year wandering retreat, an experience that nearly killed him. He told Steve Paulson about the incredible journey, and the meditative insights he learned along the way.More
Psychologist Clark McCauley has studied terrorist groups and lone actor extremists for years. He says in many cases, it's not ideology that inspires terrorists — it's social bonds.More
Can psychedelics help you find God? Clinical psychologist Bill Richards thinks so. More
Psychedelic drugs show remarkable promise for treating addiction and end-of-life anxiety.More
Katherine MacLean describes her work as a skilled guide to a psychedelic trip. More
Desperate for help with his PTSD, Dan Kasza took a strange brew of frog venom and ayahuasca.More
How taking microdoses of LSD for a month helped her find a calm she hadn’t known for years.More
Doug Eck directs Google’s new “Magenta” project, an experiment in teaching machines to make art, leveraging advances in machine learning like neural networks to enable computers to do things like compose music.More
As an acquisitions editor for Penguin Books, Jodie Archer saw many novelists struggling to write books that would sell. Then she went to grad school at Stanford, where she and her advisor created an algorithm to help.More
When a computer program fixes a writer’s novel, or improvises a few bars of music, is that real creativity? Are they not just doing what they were programmed to do? Blaise Agüera y Arcas would wholeheartedly disagree.More
We're asking listeners to show us what brings love into their lives. Share yours on Instagram by tagging it #TTBOOK.More
Our musical guest for this hour, Asumaya, talks about how one person can play the music of a full band. Alongside some performances, he...More