The Gray Area with Sean Illing

iPad parents

When your aging parents can’t put down their phones, where does care end and control begin? In this episode, Vox reporter and producer Miles Bryan talks with internet cu

Who ruined your chocolate?

If even chocolate is getting worse, what does that tell us about our economy and the state of life’s small pleasures? In today’s episode, Vox host Jonquilyn Hill talks t

Why everyone is embracing populism

Today we’re bringing you an episode of the Vox daily news podcast Today, Explained. It’s a show that’s about the biggest stories of the day, and – like The Gray Area – it

How Silicon Valley learned to love war

Silicon Valley says it can build better weapons, faster and cheaper than traditional defense contractors. But what happens when the companies making those weapons also ge

Is America a gerontocracy?

What does the country lose when one generation refuses to yield power? In this episode, Vox host Jonquilyn Hill talks with Idrees Kahloon, staff writer at the Atlantic,

Inside the secret race to build artificial intelligence

What is happening behind the scenes of America’s largest AI companies? How could the squabbles, ideologies, and goals of their CEOs and engineers shape our future? In to

What makes a life good enough?

What does it mean to have a good life when so much feels wrong? In this episode of The Gray Area, guest host Jonquilyn Hill speaks with Vox journalist Rachel Wilkerson M

Can prediction markets be good for society?

Can prediction markets serve a purpose beyond gambling? In today’s episode, guest host Miles Bryan speaks with professor Finn Brunton in a conversation based on his rece

Our gender divide

What happens to a society when its members become increasingly wary of one another, and relationships break down based on gender lines? In today’s episode, guest host Ch

The death row assembly line

Is there a humane way for the state to kill someone?  Guest host Miles Bryan sits down with New York Times Magazine writer and ProPublica reporter Pamela Colloff to pull

Is it bad to want to be rich?

Is wanting to be rich selfish? Does making money require exploiting other people? Or can the pursuit of wealth actually benefit society? In this episode guest host Sally

Why does killing a bug feel wrong?

The Gray Area is taking a break today — but we’ve got something special for you. We’re dropping an episode from one of our favorite podcasts, Unexplainable from Vox. In

How trauma became a status symbol

We were told that airing our personal trauma in public would set us free. Instead, we got “the trauma script,” celebrity branding, and performative empathy. In today's e

Inside the world of cash advance apps

In today's episode, Vox senior reporter and producer Miles Bryan talks with writer Daniel Kolitz about his piece for The Baffler, "Paid Phones." Kolitz explains what it f

This is how you rule the world

What should a college teach? How to think? How to find a career? How to be a good citizen? What about how to acquire money, influence, and power? In today’s episode, gue

Is starting a family becoming impossible?

Why does it feel so hard to start a family today? How much of that is truly a personal choice? In this episode of The Gray Area, guest host Christine Emba sits down with

The millennial midlife crisis

Is "adulthood" a moving target? For millennials, hitting the milestones of the past — homeownership, secure careers, and financial independence — feels tougher than ever.

How to be less neurotic

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 an

Your body wasn’t built for a desk

We’ve all heard that "sitting is the new smoking," but the research behind that phrase goes much deeper. How bad is sitting for you really? In this episode guest host Br

Why we want to believe in aliens

Are we truly alone in the universe? Despite the lack of hard evidence, belief in aliens and UFOs, officially known as Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), has shifted