Episode summary: David, Helen and Chris Brooke have one more go at making sense of the tangled web that is British politics. Can Johnson really survive, and even if he does, can his brand ever recover? Is this a scandal, is it a crisis, or is it something else entirely? Does history offer any guide...

Episode summary: The most high stakes game of roshambo ever, plus a SF Muni bus driver breaks down the runaway bus fight scene in Shang-Chi.

Episode summary: At 83, Stewart Brand has been first in a multitude of movements—and he’s not slowing down.

Episode summary: Jason Cotter grows heritage wheat and mills it into flour at Tuerong Farm on the Mornington Peninsula. The Peninsula, an hour from Melbourne, is better known as a wine region but Jason’s interest in local grain economies and his fascination with the fundamental place of wheat in the...

Episode summary: What two SCOTUS rulings about COVID vaccine mandates tell us about the future of the Administrative State

Episode summary: After testing positive in Lisbon, your host assesses Portugal’s expat and exile scenes. Plus! lunch with the writer Joseph Roth at a hotel on the waterfront.

Episode summary: Under lockdown, couples were destined to find themselves closer than ever before, but despite what you’d think – this didn’t result in a higher birth rate. In fact in developed countries across the world the birth rate is falling, we spoke to Professor Marina Adshade about why this...

Episode summary: When it comes to Kentucky bourbon, Pappy Van Winkle is among the most exclusive. You can’t get it unless you’re exceptionally lucky, exceptionally wealthy, or willing to break the law. The Pappy frenzy has the police, bartenders, and even the Van Winkle family themselves wringing th...

Episode summary: Casteism pervades the Hindu diaspora, not just across borders, but across the Internet too. This week, Dalit activist Thenmozhi Soundararajan offers us a look at how Dalits face discrimination and inequity on social media and in the ranks of Silicon Valley tech companies.

Episode summary: Tyler asks Russ all the easy questions about Israeli life.