Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

By New York Times Opinion

The first draft of our future. Mapping the new world order through interviews and conversations. Every Thursday, from New York Times Opinion.

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FAQs about Interesting Times with Ross Douthat:

How many episodes does Interesting Times with Ross Douthat have?

The podcast currently has 356 episodes available.

Interesting Times with Ross Douthat episodes:

June 26, 2025A Mind-Bending Conversation with Peter Thiel
The billionaire Peter Thiel is unimpressed with our pace of innovation. In this episode, he critiques artificial intelligence, longevity science and space travel — and warns that our lack of progress could lead to catastrophic outcomes, including the emergence of the Antichrist.
01:19 - What does stagnation mean in 2025?
06:30 - Peter Thiel's case for more progress and innovation
11:30 - Does taking more scientific risk include life extension?
15:14 - Peter Thiel's political history
18:34 - Did Trump live up to Thiel's expectations?
25:10 - Does Elon Musk still want to go to Mars?
28:09 - How Thiel defines A.I.
33:20 - Is A.I. Too Modest An Ambition?
35:23 - How will the human race evolve? Should it?
41:53 - Thiel's critique of Silicon Valley
43:40 - Who is the real Antichrist?
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
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1h 1min
June 19, 2025The Progressive Regulator Winning Over the Populist Right
Is the key to freedom a life without Amazon? This week, Ross talks to Lina Khan, former Chair of the Federal Trade Commission about how unchecked corporate power has limited choice in our day-to-day lives, and how her fight against Big Tech unites left and right.
02:41 - What’s wrong with big business?
09:27 - The political costs of corporate consolidation
11:39 - How the 2008 financial crisis shaped Lina Khan's philosophy
17:49 - The antitrust consensus from Reagan to Obama
21:54 - How the left and right align against big business
26:12 - Khan's wins and losses at the FTC
36:53 - Is the Trump administration embracing or rejecting Khan's vision?
42:32 - Is anti-monopoly policy the solution to our economic problems?
48:38 - Can Big Tech be broken up?
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
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1h 1min
June 12, 2025Trump’s Future Depends on His Immigration Crackdown
Has immigration become the new litmus test for the Republican Party? In this episode, Ross talks to Matthew Continetti, the author of “The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism,” about the party’s shifting coalition, the defining role of immigration and how today’s right echoes its past.
01:50 - What the Elon experiment (and fallout) tells us about the Republican Party
06:55 - Is there a tech right beyond DOGE?
10:09 - Is the “new right” really all that new?
18:16 - Where Trump’s agenda fits within the larger conservative story
25:16 - “Immigration is the biggest issue of our time”
28:39 - How border control will define conservatism around the world
34:05 - Is Silicon Valley out of step with Trump's immigration crackdown?
39:43 - Will Trump's ideas outlast Trump?
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
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44min
June 05, 2025What Makes Art ‘Left Wing’?
Does Hollywood have anything interesting left to say? In a world where franchises dominate and grown-up movies have fallen by the wayside, Ross talks to the showrunner Tony Gilroy, whose “Star Wars” spinoff “Andor” has, according to Ross, succeeded in being both original and smartly political in a Hollywood that is often neither.
03:04 - The political world of ”Andor”
08:36 - Tony Gilroy's syllabus for “Andor”
10:40 - Is “Andor” a left-wing show?
17:07 - What makes Hollywood progressive or liberal?
24:22 - Debating the politics of “Michael Clayton”
29:42 - Why aren't there more movies for grown-ups?
32:56 - “There are no movie stars anymore.”
35:55 - How A.I. changing the movie business
39:28 - Tony Gilroy's advice for future filmmakers
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
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43min
May 29, 2025How the iPhone Drove Men and Women Apart
What would make you want to have more children? This week on “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat speaks with Dr. Alice Evans, a social scientist who is as concerned about the global decline in fertility as he is. The two discuss why this isn’t just a gender issue — it’s “a solitude issue” – and whether there’s a way to bring relationships back.
02:03 - What are the stakes of declining fertility?
06:41 - Alice's master theory for why birth rates are falling
09:04 - There are too many single people
10:27 - We can thank technology for the coupling crisis
12:58 - The digital segregation of men and women
16:31 - Men have less to offer these days
20:11 - What can bring the sexes back together
24:31 - Could Hollywood help fix the problem?
25:46 - Can the government incentivize people to have babies?
27:30 - What role does religion play in all this?
28:59 - The role of IVF
40:50 - Does the fantasy of youth impact the numbers?
43:43 - The world in 2080...
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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55min
May 21, 2025JD Vance on His Faith and Trump’s Most Controversial Policies
On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat interviews Vice President JD Vance about the Trump administration’s deportations, the tariff backlash and how Vance’s faith influences his politics.
01:49 - How faith shapes JD Vance’s politics
04:26 - ‘Papal interventions in politics’
14:44 - How will the Trump administration measure success on immigration?
21:22 - ‘The courts are trying to overturn the will of the American people’
23:55 - Are migrants really at war against the US?
28:48 - The parallels between the War on Terror and Trump's deportation policies
40:29 - What does a successful trade policy look like?
48:10 - The "big, beautiful bill"
58:57 - Does the Trump administration expect the AI revolution will take jobs?
54:05 - What worries Vance about AI
58:33 - JD Vance's message to shocked Trump voters
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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1h 7min
May 15, 2025An Interview With the Herald of the Apocalypse
Is artificial intelligence about to take your job? According to Daniel Kokotajlo, the executive director of the A.I. Futures Project, that should be the least of your worries. Kokotajlo was once a researcher for OpenAI, but left after losing confidence in the company’s commitment to A.I. safety. This week, he joins Ross to talk about “AI 2027,” a series of predictions and warnings about the risks A.I. poses to humanity in the coming years, from radically transforming the economy to developing armies of robots.
03:59 - What effect could AI have on jobs?
06:45 - But wait, how does this make society richer?
10:08 - Robot plumbers and electricians
14:53 - The geopolitical stakes
18:58 - AI’s honesty problem
22:43 - The fork in the road
27:55 - The best case scenario
29:38 - The power structure in an AI-dominated world
32:32 - What AI leaders think about this power structure
38:30 - AI's hallucinations and limitations
43:45 - Theories of AI consciousness
47:05 - Is AI consciousness inevitable?
50:59 - Humanity in an AI-dominated world
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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59min
May 08, 2025The Democratic Senator Taking Cues From Trumpism
Democrats are stumbling — badly. While the Trump administration redefines the limits of executive overreach, the Democratic party remains at odds over how to — even whether to — respond. But Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut has a plan for beating Republicans in 2026, and it involves taking a cue from President Trump. He shares it with Ross Douthat on this episode of Interesting Times.
02:07 - The First 100 Days for Trump and the Democrats
04:06 - The Threat to Democracy Wasn’t Enough Then or Now.
06:49 - How Dems Fight Trump
13:41 - Where Chris Murphy Can Agree With the Populist Right
16:38 - Is Connecticut a Model of What is Wrong with Democrats?
25:54 - The Spiritual Crisis in American Life
27:56 - The Problem with Big Tech
33:45 - How Do Democrats (And Murphy) Talk About Religion? Should They?
45:35 - Is Trump Really Running An Oligarchy?
50:34 - Does the Democratic Party Need a Bigger Tent?
53:54 - A Need for a National Consensus on Immigration
57:09 - “A Democracy Dies Without a High Stakes Confrontation”
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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1h 4min
May 01, 2025The New Culture of the Right: Vital, Masculine and Intentionally Offensive
The Trump era is ushering in a new age of right wing counterculture, one defined by masculinity and transgression. In this episode of Interesting Times, Ross speaks with Jonathan Keeperman, the founder of Passage Press, about the influence of an edgy, reactionary, right-wing “vibe shift” on American politics and culture.
2:09 - Jonathan Keeperman’s Lomez days
5:25 - 2014: An inflection point in American culture?
7:40 - The emergence of a “conservative counter elite”
9:41 - The creation of a right wing counterweight to the dominant left
12:32 - What makes something “conservative art”?
15:18 - Are David Lynch films right wing art? Is Girls?
18:11 - Is there such a thing as good left wing art?
19:32 - Right wing counterculture’s obsession with “vitalism”
22:56 - Longhouse culture: Is the “over feminization” of society making America weaker?
27:55 - Is the longhouse argument just a “long male whine”?
30:41 - Is right wing counterculture anti-Christian?
35:48 - Trump as mythic hero
43:31 - What is the function of racism in right wing counterculture?
53:50 - Are racist means transgressive or just racist?
1:05:43 - Will the rightward vibe shift show up in pop culture?
1:07:37 - Why every high school senior should read “Moby Dick” and watch “No Country for Old Men”
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
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1h 13min
April 24, 2025Can the Catholic Church Quit the Culture Wars?
On this episode of “Interesting Times,” Ross Douthat is joined by the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and an editor of America Magazine, to reflect on the legacy of Pope Francis and the challenges facing the next papacy.
02:20 The First Jesuit Pope
05:23 Google Translate and Exchanging Emails
06:05 The Visual Element of Francis’s Legacy
07:48 The Concrete Changes Made
16:19 Christian Sexual Ethics
25:22 The Church in the Modern World
27:14 What Kind of Leader Will the Next Pope Be?
31:57 The Latin Mass Controversy
34:54 What Draws People to Christianity?
39:21 What Holds Such a Diverse Church Together?
43:09 The Influence of the Pope and the Hierarchy
46:41 A Renewed Interest in Religion
48:30 The Church as a Field Hospital
49:13 What Father Martin Hopes to See in the Next Pope
49:59 Where Should the New Pope Go?
52:27 Who Will Be the Next Pope?
(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)
Thoughts? Email us at [email protected].
Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
...more
58min

FAQs about Interesting Times with Ross Douthat:

How many episodes does Interesting Times with Ross Douthat have?

The podcast currently has 356 episodes available.

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