Episodi

  • The billionaires' utopia blueprint

    The billionaires' utopia blueprint
    Apr 23 2026
    Starbase. Prospera. California Forever. Mars. From private cities to interstellar colonies, tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel have backed experiments designed to operate beyond the borders — and laws — most of us live by. So we wondered: has this happened before? In this episode, we visit an Arctic archipelago, homesteads floating in the ocean, and a startup city in Honduras to explore where places built with the ultra-rich in mind leave all the rest of us.

    Guests:

    Atossa Araxia Abrahamian, author of The Cosmopolites and The Hidden Globe: How Wealth Hacks the World

    Wayne Gramlich, retired computer engineer

    Dan Girma, producer on NPR's Embedded podcast

    Jacob Silverman, author of Gilded Rage: Elon Musk and the Radicalization of Silicon Valley

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    49 min
  • Why the wall was built

    Why the wall was built
    Apr 21 2026
    As the United States expanded into a global superpower, it simultaneously strengthened its national borders and began to limit who could come in and out of the country. In this week’s episode, the story of how one of the very first walls meant to divide people was built on the US Southern border.

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    13 min
  • The original clickbait king

    The original clickbait king
    Apr 16 2026
    When we call something "clickbait," we don't mean it as a compliment. But let's be real: we also click. It's hard to resist a spicy story, and 19th-century newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst knew it. At a time when most papers merely reported events, his papers created them, sending reporters out to perform daring rescues, solve sensational murders, and even meddle in geopolitics. Today on the show: the man who brought spectacle and scandal to the news — and changed journalism forever.

    Guests:

    Karen Roggenkamp, professor of English at East Texas A&M University and author of Narrating the News and Sympathy, Madness, and Crime

    W. Joseph Campbell, emeritus professor of communication at American University and author of The Year That Defined American Journalism: 1897 and the Clash of Paradigms and Lost in a Gallup: Polling Failure in U.S. Presidential Elections

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    48 min
  • How the US became America

    How the US became America
    Apr 14 2026
    In the late 1890s, the United States fought wars and backed independence movements around the world. By the time the fighting was over, the US emerged as a new global power —and with it, a new identity. This week: how the U.S. became an empire, and why it started calling itself America.

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    16 min
  • Will AI destroy us... or save us?

    Will AI destroy us... or save us?
    Apr 9 2026
    Like it or not, artificial intelligence is deeply rooted in our lives. Its invisible architecture stretches everywhere from dating apps to medical care. In this new world, what remains uniquely human? On today's episode, we explore the tension between our love of AI and our fear of it — and try to decode the humans behind the machines. This episode originally published in March of 2023.

    Guests:

    George Zarkadakis    , author of In Our Own Image: Will Artificial Intelligence Save or Destroy Us?

    Francis Collins, physician-geneticist who led the Human Genome Project

    Stephanie Dick, assistant professor in the School of Communication at Simon Fraser University

    Meredith Broussard, data journalism professor at New York University, and author of More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender and Ability Bias in Tech

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    51 min
  • Who gets to be an American citizen?

    Who gets to be an American citizen?
    Apr 7 2026
    The 14th Amendment guaranteed equal citizenship after the Civil War, but who exactly counted as a citizen? Today on the show, the story of Wong Kim Ark, a man born in San Francisco to Chinese parents, whose Supreme Court case defined birthright citizenship more than a century ago.

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    15 min
  • Al Capone and the transformation of the IRS

    Al Capone and the transformation of the IRS
    Apr 2 2026
    Gangsters, banksters, and politicians. Today on the show, how the hunt for Al Capone helped turn the IRS into one of the U.S. government's most powerful tools — and most effective weapons. This episode originally published in May of 2025.

    Guests:
    Joe Thorndike    , historian for Tax Analysts and author of Their Fair Share: Taxing the Rich in the Age of FDR.

    Paul Camacho, retired special agent for the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and member of the board of directors at the Mob Museum in Las Vegas.

    Jason Scott Smith, historian at The University of New Mexico and author of two books about FDR and the New Deal.

    Lawrence Reed, president emeritus of The Foundation for Economic Education.

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    52 min
  • What the banana tells us about US history

    What the banana tells us about US history
    Mar 31 2026
    What do bananas have to do with American history? On this week’s episode, how the sweet fruit became an American staple because of one entrepreneur who took business off US shores, expanding the country’s economic reach and influence.

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    15 min