The Gray Area with Sean Illing

What's your status?

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Sean Illing talks with writer Will Storr about his new book The Status Game, and its central idea: all human beings are constantly competing for status. They discuss how certain aspects of society "supercharge" our innate drive for status, how social media has hijacked these impulses, and the risks posed by the status game's most dangerous players.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling), Interviews Writer, Vox

Guest: Will Storr (@wstorr), author and journalist

References: 

  • The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It by Will Storr (Harper Collins UK; 2021)
  • Discourse on the Origin of Inequality Among Men by Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1755)
  • Selfie: How the West became self-obsessed by Will Storr (Picador; 2018)
  • "My Twisted World: The Story of Elliot Rodger" by Elliot Rodger (2014)


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    This episode was made by: 

    • Producer: Erikk Geannikis
    • Editor: Amy Drozdowska
    • Engineer: Paul Robert Mounsey
    • Deputy Editorial Director, Vox Talk: Amber Hall

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