Happy Thanksgiving! If you’re dreading your family’s impending political feuds over turkey and dinner rolls, we’re here to share an episode that just might help guide you. In August, Osita Nwanevu, a progressive and the author of “The Right of the People: Democracy and the Case for a New American Founding,” joined Ross for a respectful debate about how we should be interrogating the democratic system the country is built on — without yelling or threats.

• 5:21 - What's wrong with our democracy? 
• 10:43 - Our undemocratic founding 
• 18:36 - The case for more U.S. states and a new constitution
• 25:27 - Where economic reform fits into this problem 
• 30:54 - Does Trump represent the will of the people?
• 38:50- What Trump’s presidency says about democracy
• 42:06 - The elusive Bernie Sanders moment 
• 48:05 - The mystical element of our politics

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Is antisemitism the next chapter of “America First”? Many see the appeal of antisemitic ideas among younger conservatives as a natural consequence of a hard right nationalist turn. Yoram Hazony — a prominent advocate of nationalist politics — is trying to keep that from happening. He joins Ross to discuss the root of right-wing antisemitism and what right-wing leaders should do about it.

• 02:12 - Just how bad is antisemitism on the right?
• 06:24 - The generational and theological rebellion
• 14:35 - “The virtues of nationalism” and an American cultural center
• 25:33 - Foreign policy under nationalism
• 29:59 - The U.S. - Israel Relationship and antisemitism
• 45:59 - What can nationalist leaders do about antisemitism

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

“There’s something very spiritually dark about the internet,” the author Paul Kingsnorth tells Ross Douthat in this week’s episode of “Interesting Times.” Kingsnorth warns against the expanding presence of technology in our lives and declares it “the war against human nature.”

• 00:06:10 - Defining "The Machine"
• 00:08:03 - Ecological vs. Spiritual Collapse
• 00:15:03 - The Case for Modernity
• 00:24:02 - The Four Ps of a Healthy Culture
• 00:28:39 - Collapse, Revival, and The Internet
• 00:34:05 - Thiel, Musk, and The Antichrist
• 00:42:37 - The Choice in 'Alexandria'
• 00:46:44 - How to Live Within The Machine

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Is society too feminine or not feminine enough? Two conservative writers, Helen Andrews and Leah Libresco Sargeant, disagree on the answer. They join Ross Douthat to debate whether the feminization of institutions led to wokeism and a greater divide between men and women.

• 01:33 “Wokeness is distinctively feminine.”
• 06:17 - Has liberal feminism failed women?
• 16:26 - The feminization of institutions
• 20:47 - Defining feminine and masculine vices
• 24:09 - Toxic femininity 
• 39:09 - Defeminization in the workplace

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Does Zohran Mamdani’s win mean a new dawn for the Democratic Party? Not exactly, Ross Douthat argues. In this mini-episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross explains that the New York mayor’s office has historically been a “springboard to nowhere,” rather than a precursor for national politics.

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Who’s afraid of Palantir? The company’s chief technology officer, Shyam Sankar, joins Ross Douthat for a conversation about what the shadowy company actually does — and the thorny political and ethical questions it faces. They also discuss the new era of collaboration between Silicon Valley and the military, a personal project for Sankar, who was recently commissioned as a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve.

• 01:37 - So, what does Palantir do?
• 07:45 - The “kill chain”
• 13:27 - The tech company’s relationship with I.C.E.
• 18:09 - What happens to privacy?
• 25:30 - Palantir and Israel
• 27:22 - Sankar’s personal military journey
• 34:43 - Silicon Valley’s militarization
• 43:09 - TITAN, A.I. and the “Iron Man” suit

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Is Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” the soundtrack for the Trump era? Self-titled “conservative dad” Ross Douthat thinks so, and explains why in this mini-episode of “Interesting Times.

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Is the artificial intelligence revolution keeping the entire economy afloat? This week on “Interesting Times,” Ross talks with Jason Furman, an economist from the Harvard Kennedy School and a contributing writer for Times Opinion, about how investors, policymakers and consumers should think about the boom — and potential bust — of the fastest growing segment of the American economy and look to past bubbles for answers.

• 01:12 - Okay, so are we in a bubble?
• 08:51 - Historical comparisons of past bubbles
• 12:45 - The case for an A.I. bubble
• 22:07 - The case against an A.I. bubble
• 29:44 - What if it bursts?
• 34:15 - The economic health of the Trump administration
• 45:08 - “I'm reasonably optimistic.”

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett is playing the long game. In this week’s “Interesting Times,” she walks us through the current court’s most controversial rulings, why she believes that her originalist interpretations are resistant to ideological pressures and why she’s not comfortable thinking of herself as a cultural icon.

• 02:19 - Balancing the personal and the professional
• 11:45 - The theory and practice of originalism
• 18:00 - Why was Roe. v. Wade overruled?
• 27:19 - Stare Decisis and Overruling Decisions
• 35:29 - “Judges are human and judges are fallible.”
• 42:49 - The Supreme Court is taking the long view
• 53:20 - The Court's relationship with the executive branch

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

Evangelical pastor and self-proclaimed Christian nationalist Doug Wilson has been preaching for decades that America needs to reclaim its Puritan past. But in 2025, he believes he’s “significantly” more influential. Does that mean America is closer to Wilson’s goal of theocracy? In this episode, nothing is off limits — even Ross’s own salvation.

• 01:36 - Doug Wilson's vision for a Christian nation
• 08:37 - Wilson’s ideal theocratic republic
• 19:12 - Theocracy and religious diversity
• 30:50 - Do women have rights in this new republic?
• 36:59 - Christendom and slavery
• 46:50 - How far does Wilson’s influence go in a “clown world”?
• 59:54 - Calvinism activism and quietism

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.