In Episode #221, author John A. Powell joins Osi to discuss his new book, Belonging without Othering. They explore how deeply ingrained tendencies to "other" shape societies, why current DEI efforts fall short, and what it truly takes to create inclusive communities where everyone belongs.

john a. powell (who spells his name in lowercase in the belief that we should be "part of the universe, not over it, as capitals signify") is an internationally recognized expert in the areas of civil rights, civil liberties, structural racism, housing, poverty, and democracy.  He is the Director of the Othering & Belonging Institute at the University of California, Berkeley, a research institute that brings together scholars, community advocates, communicators, and policymakers to identify and eliminate the barriers to an inclusive, just, and sustainable society and to create transformative change toward a more equitable world.

In Episode #220, political scientist Mark Lilla joins Osi to discuss the paradoxical human impulse to seek knowledge while often resisting it at the same time. They examine this phenomenon of willful ignorance through history and examine how it shapes much of today’s American politics.

Mark Lilla, Professor of Humanities, specializes in intellectual history, with a particular focus on Western political and religious thought. Before moving to Columbia in 2007 he taught in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago and at New York University. A regular contributor to the New York Review of Books, he is the author of Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know (2024),The Once and Future Liberal: After Identity Politics (2017), The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction (2016), The Stillborn God: Religion, Politics, and the Modern West (2007),The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics (2001),and G.B. Vico: The Making of an Anti-Modern (1993). He has also edited The Legacy of Isaiah Berlin (2001) with Ronald Dworkin and Robert Silvers, and The Public Face of Architecture (1987) with Nathan Glazer. His latest book is Ignorance and Bliss: On Wanting Not to Know (2024)

In Episode #219, journalist and author Alex Cuadros joins Osi to discuss the remarkable story of the Cinta Larga, an Amazonian tribe that remained isolated from the Western world until the 1960s and later became involved in operating an illegal diamond mine in the 2000s—based on six years of immersive reporting and research.

Alex Cuadros is the author ofWhen We Sold God's Eye, published in December 2024, and Brazillionaires, which was recognized as a Financial Times Best Book of 2016 and a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice. A former Bloomberg reporter, his work has appeared inThe New York Times Magazine,The New Yorker,Harper's,The Atlantic, andThe Washington Post. His stories have been featured on Longform, and his article on the Amazon's ecological tipping point was included inThe Best American Science and Nature Writing 2024. Cuadros has received grants from the Pulitzer Center, the Fund for Investigative Journalism, and the Alicia Patterson Foundation.

In Episode #218, author Patrick Winn joins Osi to discuss Narcotopia, his latest book chronicling the gripping story of the Wa, a 30,000-strong narcotics empire at the heart of Asia’s $60 billion meth trade. Operating out of the infamous Golden Triangle, the Wa have built nation-like infrastructure funded by pink, vanilla-scented speed pills, their rise entangled with CIA operations gone wrong.

Patrick Winn is an award-winning American journalist who covers crime in Southeast Asia. His work has appeared on NBC News, The Atlantic, the BBC and other outlets. Currently the Asia correspondent for Public Radio International, each week Winn's voice is heard by millions on NPR stations. Since 2008, he has lived in Bangkok and reported almost exclusively on Southeast Asia.

In Episode #217, clinical psychologist Meg Jay joins Osi to discuss the mental health challenges young adults in their 20s face today, exploring why anxiety and depression have become so prevalent in this generation and examining how societal attitudes and approaches contribute to the issue.

Meg Jay, PhD, is a developmental clinical psychologist who specializes in twentysomethings. She is the author of The Twentysomething Treatment: A Revolutionary Remedy for an Uncertain Age, the cult classic The Defining Decade: Why Your Twenties Matter and How to Make the Most of Them Now and Supernormal: The Secret World of the Family Hero. Her books have been translated into more than a dozen languages and her work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review and on NPR, BBC and—maybe most important for her audience—TikTok.

In Episode #216, science journalist Sarah Scoles joins Osi to discuss why nuclear weapons are still a big deal today and question whether they really keep us safe or prevent wars. They explore what she learned from visiting U.S. nuclear weapons labs, explaining how modern nuclear technology works, what the people who maintain these weapons think about them, and why the risk of a nuclear disaster is still very real.

Sarah Scoles is a Colorado-based science journalist, a contributing writer at Popular Science, and a senior contributor at Undark. Her work has appeared in publications like the New York Times, Wired, Scientific American, and others. She is also the author of the books Making Contact: Jill Tarter and the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, and Astronomical Mindfulness. Her forthcoming book is called Countdown: The Blinding Future of Nuclear Weapons. Her articles have won the American Geophysical Union's David Perlman Award for Excellence in Science Writing (2021) and the American Astronomical Society Solar Physics Division's Popular Media Award (2019, 2020). Previously, she was an associate editor at Astronomy and a public education officer at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, West Virginia.

In Episode #215, neuroscientist Tony Nader joins Osi to discuss a groundbreaking perspective on consciousness, exploring how it serves as the essence of all existence and offering practical tools and methods to connect with our authentic inner nature.

Tony Nader, M.D., Ph.D., MARR, is a medical doctor trained at Harvard University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Ph.D. in neuroscience), and a globally recognised Vedic scholar. As Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s successor, Dr Nader is head of the international Transcendental Meditation® organisations in over 100 countries. From the Americas to Asia, from Europe to Africa, Dr Nader guides the Transcendental Meditation program and its advanced practices, and the practical applications of this technology in all areas of national life – education, health, business, defense, agriculture, and more.

In Episode #214, author Ajay Chaudhary join Osi to discuss how our current systems of power and economy are making climate change worse, deepening inequality, and wearing down both people and the planet. They also discuss the current fires happening in Los Angeles and how they connect to these broader issues.

Ajay Singh Chaudhary is the executive director of the Brooklyn Institute for Social Research and a core faculty member specializing in social and political theory. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics. His research focuses on social and political theory, Frankfurt School critical theory, political economy, political ecology, media, religion, and post-colonial studies. He has written for The Guardian, The Nation, The Baffler, n+1, Los Angeles Review of Books, Quartz, Social Text, Dialectical Anthropology, The Hedgehog Review, Filmmaker Magazine, and 3quarksdaily, among other venues. Ajay’s book on the politics of climate change, The Exhausted of the Earth: Politics in a Burning World, was published by Repeater Books in February, 2024.

In Episode #213, author and journalist Gwendolyn Bounds joins Osi to explore the art of reinvention, overcoming personal limits, and navigating the challenges along the way. In her book Not Too Late, Gwendolyn recounts her transformative journey from a sedentary office executive to a medal-winning obstacle course racer. She intertwines her own story of conquering physical and mental hurdles with expert insights on longevity, motivation, and human potential.

Gwendolyn (Wendy) Bounds is a writer and editor for The Wall Street Journal, where she has worked since 1993. Bounds has written about culture, travel, technology, retail and fashion, and has also published several first-person pieces and columns about family for the newspaper. Her first-person essay "Amid the Ashes, Baby Carriages, Shoes, Family Photos," which she wrote with her partner Kathryn Kranhold, won the 2002 Front Page Award for September 11th commentary from the Newswoman’s Club of New York.

In Episode #212, author and public policy advocate Ryan Hampton joins Osi to discuss the policy failures and systemic biases that have fueled the fentanyl crisis, as well as the broader consequences of America's failed War on Drugs.

A prominent advocate, speaker, author, and media commentator, Ryan Hampton travels coast-to-coast to add solutions to our national addiction and drug overdose crisis. In recovery from a decade-long opioid addiction, Hampton is regarded as a forefront expert and thought leader in America’s rising addiction recovery advocacy & drug policy reform movements. An alumnus of the Clinton White House, he’s worked with multiple non-profits and addiction recovery organizing campaigns. He’s now a prominent, leading face and voice of recovery advocacy and is working to change the longstanding negative narratives about those impacted by addiction, recovery, and overdose.

Through his books and media, organizing campaigns, and social content that reaches millions, Ryan breaks down cultural barriers that have kept people suffering in silence and is helping to inspire a new generation of advocates recovering out loud, pushing for common-sense policy.