On episode 261, we welcome Ilan Stavans to discuss the historical incarnations of god, god as a symbol of both oppression and liberty, Moses's rebellion against god and how it symbolizes modern faith, god as an ineffable experience, why we continue to create god, militant atheism as a response to deep-seated hope for the existence of god, Jesus dying for the sins of Yahweh, morality without religion, and god in the age of AI.

Ilan Stavans is the publisher of Restless Books and the Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. His books include On Borrowed Words, Spanglish, Dictionary Days, The Disappearance, and A Critic's Journey. He is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Chile's Presidential Medal, the International Latino Book Award, and the Jewish Book Award. Stavans's work, translated into twenty languages, has been adapted to the stage and screen. Ilan is also the host of the NPR-affiliated podcast "In Contrast." His new book, available on June 30, 2026, is called A Nation Wrestles With God: American Prophets, Philosophers, and Firebrands.

| Ilan Stavans |

► Website | https://restlessbooks.org/our-team

► Podcast | https://www.nepm.org/in-contrast-a-podcast-on-culture-in-the-making

► A Nation Wrestles With God Book | https://bit.ly/ANationWrestlesWithGod

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On episode 260, we welcome David Ost to discuss the philosophy of the red pill movement, the similarities and differences between red pill and fascism, why people are drawn to authoritarian figures, the rise of Trump, populism as an ideological framework for fascism, Soviet communism as the extreme end of the left's failures to improve lives, sports and worker's rights, and the New York Knicks as a symbol of class struggle.

David Ost is an emeritus professor of politics at Hobart and William Smith Colleges, who has written widely on eastern Europe, left and right politics, and labor and democracy. He is the author of Solidarity and the Politics of Anti-Politics, The Defeat of Solidarity: Anger and Politics in Postcommunist Europe, as well as editor/author of Class After Communism, and co-editor/author of Workers After Workers' States. He has written for a wide variety of scholarly and popular publications. His new book, available now, is called Red Pill Politics: Demystifying the Far Right from Fascism to Right-Wing Populism.

| David Ost |

► Website | https://annlarsonwrites.com, https://economichardship.org/author/annlarson

► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/david.ost.10

► Red Pill Politics Book | https://amzn.to/3S5ZWm9

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On episode 259, we welcome Ann Larson to discuss her experience working as a grocery cashier during the COVID-19 pandemic, the complex emotional and structural factors involved in professional success and failure, meritocracy as a simplification of economic outcomes, the multiple forms of labor involved in supermarket work, the difference between one's status and skillset, food waste at the expense of wages, and the importance of community in surviving low wage work.

Ann Larson's writing on education, debt, and low-wage work has appeared in The New Republic, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Fast Company, and The Nation, among other publications. She is coauthor of Can't Pay Won't Pay: The Case for Economic Disobedience and Debt Abolition and is a fellow with the Economic Hardship Reporting Project. Her new book, available June 9, 2026, is called Cleanup on Aisle Five: Essential Work, Poverty Wages, and the View from Behind the Supermarket Register.

| Ann Larson |

► Website | https://annlarsonwrites.com, https://economichardship.org/author/annlarson

► Twitter | https://x.com/AnnLLarson

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/annlarsonslc

► Cleanup on Aisle Five Book | https://bit.ly/CleanuponAisleFive

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On episode 258, we welcome David Samson to discuss sleep hygiene and the wellness industry, how we misunderstand the optimization of sleep, glorifying and idealizing ancestral societies, sleep's relationship with mental health, moving from sleeping in trees to communal "shells," sleep's importance in regulating brain health, the paleo gear and the optimal gear in sleep science, the trade-offs in sleep-loss and why it's sometimes beneficial, and how humans evolved for "just enough" sleep.

David R. Samson is associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at the University of Toronto and the author of Our Tribal Future: How to Channel Our Foundational Human Instincts into a Force for Good. His pioneering research has been featured in National Geographic, Time, The New York Times, NPR and the BBC. His new book, available now, is called The Sleepless Ape: The Story of Sleep in Human Evolution.

| David Samson |

► Website | https://davidrsamson.com

► Twitter | https://twitter.com/Primalprimate

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/primalprimatologist

► Research Gate | https://www.researchgate.net/profile/David-Samson-7

► The Sleepless Ape Book | https://amzn.to/49lVwNP

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On episode 257, we welcome Christian B. Miller to discuss the growing honesty crises shaping modern society, the philosophical and psychological roots of dishonesty and self-deception, the impact of AI and deepfakes on our ability to trust reality, the rise of AI use and academic integrity concerns in education, how social media rewards performance over authenticity, the spread of misinformation and political polarization online, whether technology is scaling deception faster than virtue can adapt, the importance of preserving honesty as a foundational human virtue, and what still gives Christian hope for humanity's relationship with truth in an increasingly dishonest world.

Christian B. Miller is the A. C. Reid Professor of Philosophy at Wake Forest University. He is the author of over 130 articles as well as Moral Psychology (2021) and four books with Oxford University Press, Moral Character: An Empirical Theory (2013), Character and Moral Psychology (2014), The Character Gap: How Good Are We? (2017), and Honesty: The Philosophy and Psychology of a Neglected Virtue (2021). He is a contributor for Forbes, and his writings have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Dallas Morning News, Slate, The Conversation, Newsweek, Aeon, and Christianity Today. His new book, available May 19, 2026, is called The Honesty Crisis: Preserving Our Most Treasured Virtue in an Increasingly Dishonest World.

| Christian Miller |

► Website | https://www.christianbmiller.com

► Twitter | https://twitter.com/CharacterGap

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/charactergap

► Facebook | https://www.facebook.com/CharacterGap

► The Honesty Crisis Book | https://amzn.to/4uSp1z1

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On episode 256, we welcome Gail Straub to discuss her work empowering women across the globe, being a civilian diplomat, not being taken seriously in Russia as an American Marxist, lessons about inner strength from traversing the Himalayan mountains, the complexity of political activism in China, diversity as a core component of peace, the elements of human nature uniting all of us, and what instills hope in Gail for our collective future.

Gail Straub is the author of eight books, including the best-selling Empowerment, The Rhythm of Compassion, and her feminist memoir Returning to My Mother's House. She is the co-founder of the Empowerment Institute and IMAGINE, a global initiative that has helped empower women across Africa, India, and the Middle East, impacting millions of lives. Her work has appeared in publications like Huffington Post and Spirituality & Health, and she has been a leading voice in human development and women's empowerment for over four decades. Her newest book, available now, is called Home Inside the Globe: Embracing Our Human Family.

| Gail Straub |

► Website | https://gailstraub.com

► Home Inside the Globe Book | https://amzn.to/4tRUXn8

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On episode 255, we welcome Jonathan Vigliotti to discuss the 2025 Palisades Fire, the systemic failures that caused and maintained it, the ethics of hiring private fire brigades, how climate change influenced the fire, the political neglect and flawed reasoning around effective management, fire safety standards as the bare minimum, bureaucratic collapse, Mayor Karen Bass's mistakes, incentivizing politicians to take natural disasters more seriously, the role of the 2028 Olympics in diverting attention, and problem of problem solving without accountability.

Jonathan Vigliotti is an Emmy and Edward R. Murrow Award–winning CBS News national correspondent whose work has appeared on numerous platforms including CBS Sunday Morning, Face the Nation, 48 Hours,and more. His reporting has taken him to more than forty countries and territories across six continents. His new book, available 5/12/2026, is called Torched: How a City Was Left to Burn, and the Olympic Rush to Rebuild L.A.

| Jonathan Vigliotti |

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/jonathanvigliotti

► Twitter | https://x.com/JonVigliotti

► Torched Book | https://amzn.to/3OwBGIm

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On episode 254, we welcome Aaron Poochigian to discuss his new translation of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, Aaron's struggles with addiction and how the book helped him in recovery, suffering as stemming from interpretations of rather than facts about the world, meaning as stemming from virtue rather than reputation, learning to accept all of nature to manage suffering, applying the concept of 'strange beauty' to discover it everywhere, and the psychotherapeutic elements of Stoic philosophy.

Aaron Poochigian is a poet, classics scholar, and translator who lives and writes in New York City. His work has appeared in such newspapers and journals as The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, and Poetry Magazine. He's the author of Four Walks in Central Park: A Poetic Guide to the Park, and his translations include Stung with Love (Penguin UK). His new translation, available now, is Marcus Aurelius' Meditations.

| Aaron Poochigian |

► Website | https://www.aaronpoochigian.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/Poochigian

► Meditations Book | https://amzn.to/4tO7Uyr

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On episode 253, we welcome Christopher Mathias to discuss the meaning of fascism and what ANTIFA is, fascism's ideological roots in greed and domination, the Charlottesville protests, fascist masking and the threat of being charmed by appearances, whether we owe it to fascism to allow for open debates, whether fascists care about finding the truth, if it's possible to differentiate between conservatives and fascists at this point, and why members of ANTIFA would disagree with being labeled extremists.

Christopher Mathias is a journalist covering the far right. Previously a senior reporter at HuffPost, he's done work for the Guardian, MSNBC, Zeteo, and WNYC. His reporting chronicled the rapid radicalization of the GOP, and has helped unmask white supremacist cops, soldiers, teachers, and politicians. Mathias was a Deadline Awards finalist for feature writing. His new book, available now, is called To Catch a Fascist: The Fight to Expose the Radical Right.

| Christopher Mathias |

► Twitter | https://x.com/letsgomathias

► Bluesky | https://bsky.app/profile/letsgomathias.bsky.social

► To Catch a Fascist Book | https://amzn.to/3OaBNJj

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On episode 252, welcome Benjamin Saltzman to discuss the gesture of turning away, the shame and grief behind it, how it became a moral topic, turning away in art and Timanthes's lost painting of Agamemnon, Plato's tripartite concept of the soul and turning away as a mark of confusion, rigidity and steadfastness as signs of courage and character, cognitive flexibility and knowing when to turn away, Hannah Arendt and misinterpreting averted gazes as the foundation of totalitarianism, and understanding aversion without its moral trappings.

Benjamin A. Saltzman is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago, where he coedits the journal Modern Philology. Saltzman is the author of Bonds of Secrecy: Law, Spirituality, and the Literature of Concealment in Early Medieval England and the coeditor of Thinking of the Medieval: Midcentury Intellectuals and the Middle Ages. His new book, available April 6, 2026, is called Turning Away: The Poetics of an Ancient Gesture.

| Benjamin A. Saltzman |

► Website | https://www.bsaltzman.com

► Twitter | https://x.com/b_a_saltzman

► Instagram | https://www.instagram.com/b_a_saltzman

► Turning Away Book | https://bit.ly/TurningAwayBook

Use the code "UCPNEW" for a 30% discount on Turning Away when ordering from the link above!

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