Interesting Times

Pornography gets the blame for a lot of societal problems, including the so-called “sex recession.” Can porn ever really be ethical? Erika Lust thinks so. The adult filmmaker sees porn as an art form. She’s a self-described feminist who centers women’s desires and fantasies in her work. But how different is the product she’s making? Lust sits down with Julia Yost, senior editor at “First Things,” to make the case for porn. Together, they discuss the adult film industry, stigmas around sex and translating fantasy into reality. Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. 00:00 - Intro 01:22 - How Erika Became a Pornographer 03:51 - Behind the Scenes of an Adult Film 08:07 - The Relationship With Performers 08:55 - Porn vs. “Euphoria” 10:16 - Ethical Porn 13:00 - Accurately Depicting Female Pleasure 14:22 - Making Porn as a Feminist 16:03 - Andrea Dworkin and the Anti-Porn Feminist Movement 19:06 - “The Golden Era of Porn” 20:55 - Fantasizing Under The Patriarchy 24:01 - Sexuality In Ancient Rome 26:15 - The Cornell Seven and Sexual Risk 34:30 - Why We Need Stigmas 40:55 - Is Porn Causing the Sex Recession? 42:23 - “The Most Vanilla People Have the Hottest Sex Lives” 43:23 - Porn Addiction and Compulsive Behavior 46:44 - Religious Conservatives Aren’t Ashamed of Sex (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The Trump administration wants to accelerate the use of artificial intelligence for scientific discovery. But can its plan succeed without prioritizing universities? Guest host Tyler Cowen speaks with Michael Kratsios, President Trump’s top science and technology adviser, about the White House’s new blueprint for American innovation and what it means for the next generation of scientists. 00:00 Intro 00:54 The model for scientific research today 02:49 What's the scientific evidence that science has been broken? 04:38 What are the administration’s science funding priorities? 10:55 What's the role of universities in training scientists? 16:31 Science and immigration policy: are we getting it wrong? 18:55 Who has the final say over what gets funded? 24:43 Should political appointees have the ability to block particular grants? 28:29 Longevity science vs. a man on the moon 29:16 Why is Trump calling it superintelligence vs. artificial intelligence? 30:46 Does the White House think AI safety concerns are a "hoax"? 34:50 Should the federal government fund a lot more AI safety research? 39:07 How much could scientific discovery be turbocharged in the next five years? 41:00 A.I. regulation & preventing backlash Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Dwarkesh Patel is one of the most important voices in the artificial intelligence world. Deeply embedded in San Francisco’s tech community, he has interviewed nearly every tech chief executive at length. This week’s guest host, Tyler Cowen, a professor of economics at George Mason University, sits down with Mr. Patel to discuss why researchers are resigning, whether A.I. could become conscious and if he’ll ever get an A.I. girlfriend. Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. 00:00 Intro 01:31 What Inspired the “Dwarkesh Podcast” 02:47 Documenting Wild Human History 04:18 What The Public Doesn’t Understand About A.I. 06:25 The Mood in San Francisco 06:51 Dwarkesh Didn’t See This Coming 09:08 Should More A.I. Researchers Resign? 11:09 Unreleased Frontier Models 13:26 Pausing A.I. 15:45 A.I. Psychosis & Consciousness 21:14 What Tech Bros Do for Fun 23:50 Bay Area Culture 24:06 A.I. Boyfriends v. Girlfriends 26:02 Are A.I. Therapists Good? 26:54 What Dwarkesh Got Wrong 27:44 What’s The Next Big Thing? 29:13 Robot Predictions 30:26 What Jobs Are Safe? 35:21 The Speed of A.I. Adoption 37:12 Milestones To Watch 42:58 What If 2035 Looks Normal? 44:39 Dwarkesh In 2045 46:27 Skepticism On A.I. Revenue 48:01 How Podcasting Has Changed Dwarkesh (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Literacy is declining sharply across the West. In the era of vertical video, who has the time or concentration to read a long article — let alone a whole book? As we lose the ability to read long-form text, we might also be losing the capacity for democratic deliberation and self-governance. That’s the argument this week’s guest, the Times of London columnist James Marriott, makes in his recent book, “ The New Dark Ages .” He sits down with guest host Mary Harrington to discuss our return to oral culture, the political consequences and what we can learn from the medieval era about storing information in a digital world. Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. 00:00 Intro 00:52 What Is Post-Literacy 02:05 The Data Behind the Decline 05:21 The Shift Toward Video 09:44 Why Reading Is Hard 10:45 Walter Ong on Oral vs. Literate Cultures 14:27 Tribal Politics and Emotion 18:21 The Reading Revolution 21:14 Literacy as an Engine for Democracy 25:15 Medieval Literary Culture 27:27 What We Can Learn the Medieval Era 30:13 Remembering Everything and Nothing 33:49 How Bukele Communicates Visually 37:04 Monarchy vs. Dictatorship 41:38 Is Postliteracy a Right-Wing Phenomenon? 43:29 Can We Resist the Slide? 46:33 Closing (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nick Bostrom rose to prominence for predicting artificial intelligence doom more than a decade ago — garnering support from figures like Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Bill Gates. But now he’s retreating from those warnings, focusing his attention on a more complex question: What if A.I. succeeds beyond humanity’s wildest imaginations? Will we be bored out of our minds? Are we too infantile to understand what’s coming? Guest host Spencer Klavan, the associate editor at the Claremont Review of Books, presses Bostrom on the potential uses and abuses of superintelligence, rationalist ethics and what makes us human. Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. 00:00 Intro 01:07 What is P(doom)? 04:44 Bostrom’s Doomsday Scenarios 06:14 Vulnerable World Hypothesis 08:27 The Best-Case Scenario of Superintelligence 12:37 The Problems We Can’t Solve in Utopia 14:47 Paths to Superintelligence 17:02 What Kind of Utopia Do We Want to Live In? 21:56 The Values Worth Keeping in Utopia 32:42 Bostrom’s Influence on Effective Altruism 38:04 Are Existential Warnings Helpful? 43:52 The Trajectory of Humanity 46:51 Why Bostrom Wants Utopia (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Many Americans are losing faith in elections. Proposed solutions from across the political spectrum to restore faith in the process — early voting, mail-in ballot restrictions and voter ID laws — seem to have the opposite effect. But lack of trust in elections is a symptom of a broader problem: America is living through an era of democratic dissatisfaction. That’s what the New York University law professor Richard Pildes argues on this episode of “Interesting Times.” He and the guest host, Sarah Isgur, the editor of SCOTUSblog, discuss why Americans are so worried about the midterms and how to fix our electoral system and restore trust. 00:00 Existential Election Anxiety 02:38 Era of Democratic Dissatisfaction 04:21 Were Recent Election Reforms a Mistake? 06:09 Campaign Finance Reform 09:22 SCOTUS and Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Executive Order 13:57 Why Did Trump Target Absentee Ballots? 20:32 Should There Be a National Voter Database? 23:58 Proof Of Citizenship Debate 29:48 What Should SCOTUS Do? 35:47 Partisan Manipulation in Elections 42:24 Can the Midterms Be Stolen? 44:51 Closing Thoughts (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

President Trump made more than $2 billion last year — far exceeding his presidential salary of $400,000. His growing fortunes are raising questions about his allegiance to investors, particularly foreign ones, as he makes policy decisions and shapes the direction of the country. The contributing Opinion writer Christopher Caldwell and the Harvard law professor Jack Goldsmith discuss how the president has amassed this fortune, whether it’s legal and if the United States is becoming a kleptocracy. Note: As we work on relaunching 'Interesting Times,' the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months. 00:00 Why Trump’s Wealth Is Unusual 01:30 Presidential Ethics Before Trump 02:28 Trump’s Crypto and Foreign Money Flows 06:12 Is It a Kleptocracy? 07:36 What’s Unconstitutional About Trump’s Finances 10:43 The U.A.E. and Trump’s Foreign Policy 13:41 How Trump’s Weaponization Is Changing Government 16:42 What Congress Could Do 18:59 The Tit for Tat Weaponization 24:13 Can Trump Pardon Himself? 26:57 The “Deep-State” Crackdown 36:59 Oversight Norms and Voter Verdict 42:46 Closing Thoughts (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

“Interesting Times” is on a brief hiatus. Before we return next month, we’re bringing you an interview from “The Ezra Klein Show” with Ross Douthat about his 17 years as a conservative columnist at The New York Times. But Ross and Ezra go back even further, to the nascent days of political blogging. They talk about the seismic changes they’ve witnessed in the media industry over the years and the art of changing minds. (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website here .) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

For my final episode as host of “Interesting Times,” I wanted a fitting finale — a conversation that encapsulates the ambition of this show: examining how seemingly radical ideas are steadily entering the mainstream of American politics, technology and culture. Few ideas are as radical as the hope of significant life extension and the quest to live forever. My guest today thinks he can outrun death. After selling his tech company for hundreds of millions of dollars and experiencing a profound religious crisis, Bryan Johnson turned his own body into the ultimate science project, centered on an explicit mission: Don’t die. But why does Johnson want to live forever, and what lessons can his algorithmically driven lifestyle bring to the rest of us? It’s been an honor hosting this podcast and navigating these strange waters with you. “Interesting Times” will be back with new episodes and new hosts in the fall. 0:00 Why Bryan Johnson Wants to Defeat Death 1:18 The Core Premise of "Don't Die" vs. Immortality 3:26 Selling Braintree/Venmo & Personal Collapse 6:33 Leaving the Mormon Church & Searching for Meaning 7:45 Launching Project Blueprint: Body as Philosophy 11:35 Bryan Johnson’s Daily Longevity Routine & Biological Age Metrics 15:06 How AI Builds "Autonomous Health" for the Human Body 17:58 The Best Habits to Optimize Health: Sleep & Heart Rate 21:32 Blueprint Products, Supplements, & Testing 23:46 Reversing Biological Aging: Saunas & HBOT 25:24 Can Psychedelics Extend Lifespan? Psilocybin Longevity Trials 31:07 How Falling in Love Has Changed His Perspective 34:06 Diagnosed with an Incurable Autoimmune Disease 35:51 The Risk of Gerontocracy 53:53 Can Humanity Defeat Death? Societal & Philosophical Impacts (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat . Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What does a liberal solution to the masculinity crisis look like? As men fall behind in the American educational system and the economy, they’re looking for meaning — and often find it in the wrong places. My guest today is Scott Galloway, a professor at N.Y.U.’s Stern School of Business. Galloway is an unlikely masculinity guru — he’s a liberal academic, a business founder and a married father. He had a lot to say about the social and economic reasons young men seem to be struggling, but he’s still optimistic about the future. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

American leaders are staying in office past their prime. Boomers are reluctant to relinquish control — from political offices to corner offices — to the detriment of their juniors. In a society where the elderly hold so much power, should younger generations revolt? My guest today is Samuel Moyn, a professor at Yale Law School, and he argues that American democracy is distorted by the power of the old. We discuss how seniors have hoarded wealth and influence and how Americans can renew an intergenerational compact. 0:00 The Tyranny of the Elderly 2:01 From Joe Biden to Mitch McConnell 4:19 Europe's Anti-Gerontocracy 5:15 Politicians are the ‘Tip of the Iceberg’ 7:07 The Dark Side of Longevity 9:40 How Age Impacts Policy 15:10 The Age Wealth Gap 20:21 How About Millennials? 23:28 Age Limits and Youth Power 38:14 Care Hoarding and Family Burdens 44:54 The Assisted Suicide Debate 50:14 Personal Stakes (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Is President Trump’s grand strategy unraveling? The United States is at war with Iran, China is ascendant, Russia and Ukraine are stalemated and American allies are openly questioning our commitment to them. Elbridge Colby, the under secretary of defense for policy, joins me to discuss the state of America’s foreign policy and he makes the case that Trump’s approach to our allies and adversaries is making us stronger. 0:00 - Intro 1:24 - What Is Trump’s Approach to Foreign Policy? 5:00 - Is China Still America’s Main Rival? 7:08 - Colby’s Strategy of Denial in the Pacific 9:58 - How to Avoid a War with China & Taiwan 12:18 - Can U.S. Aircraft Carriers & Bases Survive a Pacific Conflict? 16:43 - Is the Iran War Draining Our Weapons and Resources? 17:49 - The U.S. Military Strategy in Iran War 19:44 - Does the Middle East Conflict Help or Hurt China? 22:04 - Trying and Failing to Reopen the Strait of Hormuz 28:13 - The Parallels of Iran to the Vietnam and Iraq Wars 33:17 - Trump’s Strategy With Russia & Ukraine 40:49 - "NATO 3.0" & Returning to the Cold War 43:21 - Did the Pentagon Try to Cut Support for Ukraine? 46:28 - How "Middle Powers" Fail 49:30 - Greenland, Canada, and the Monroe Doctrine 52:22 - Canada: Neighbor or 51st State? 54:23 - What We Expect From Allies (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Democratic socialists are having a moment. But can they actually remake the Democratic Party — and the American economy — in their image? My guest today, Bhaskar Sunkara, is longtime democratic socialist, and he makes the case that socialism has a universal appeal that transcends our current politics and will ultimately triumph against capitalism. 0:00 Intro 1:24 The rise of democratic socialism 5:00 Why is this a breakthrough moment for Democratic Socialism? 8:24 Class Realities: The demographics of socialist voters 9:26 The intellectual foundations of the American left 11:02 What socialists want: Affordable housing, Medicare for All 15:55 Socialist housing policy: construction, rent control, public housing 18:17 The socialist approach to AI and technological change 22:16 The case for unions 24:18 Is Democratic Socialism compatible with capitalism? 25:57 Class conflict vs. the identity politics of the wokeness era 29:00 The ideological conflict between Hillary Clinton liberals and the Bernie Sanders left 30:40 This Socialist wants the left to stop hating America 36:38 Why Israel-Palestine and anti-imperialism are central issues for Democratic Socialists 45:51 Luigi Mangione and the illiberal left 50:37 Is Zohran Mamdani a moderate? 51:54 Was Joe Biden's presidency a socialist experiment? 55:42 Raising taxes to expand the welfare state (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s a saying that comes to mind these days: May you live in interesting times. It’s understood to be a curse, even though it sounds like a blessing. “Interesting Times With Ross Douthat” is a new weekly podcast from New York Times Opinion. Every Thursday, he will map the new world order through interviews and conversations. Answering questions like: What does our new political era really look like? What is the future of democracy around the world, with American empire in retreat? What happens to movies and books — all of culture — in our digital and A.I.-dominated age? Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. 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. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.