In 1937, a Rhode Island psychiatrist named Charles Bradley ran an experiment on 30 child patients who had complained of... more

Last week, a team of astrophysicists from the University of Cambridge announced that they had discovered the “strongest indication” ever... more

In the past three weeks, we've spoken to economists about the tariffs. We’ve spoken to a historian about the Smoot-Hawley... more

The U.S. is in the opening innings of a full-blown trade war with China. What does that actually mean? What... more

The 1920s and the 2020s share a special kinship. One hundred years ago, the U.S. was grappling with a mix... more

Donald Trump's tariff plan has set global markets on fire. What are they for? What are they trying to accomplish? Fresh... more

Donald Trump's second term has been a breakneck whirlwind: tariffs announced, tariffs unannounced, tariffs reannounced, allies threatened, and global coalitions... more

Corruption. Class wars. Technological splendor. The dawn of a new age of business and government. Rockefeller and Carnegie. The Gilded... more

Donald Trump is serving up a scarcity agenda to America. He and the White House say we don’t have an... more

Generation Z, which was born between the late 1990s and the early 2010s, has a unique economic, political, and cultural... more

Cancer is not a singular disease but a category of hundreds, even thousands, of rare diseases with different molecular signatures... more

Artificial intelligence tools for musicians are getting eerily good, very fast. Their work can be maddening, funny, ethically dubious, and... more

Something alarming is happening with reading in America. Leisure reading by some accounts has declined by about 50 percent this... more

If you had to describe the U.S. economy at the moment, I think you could do worse than the word stuck. The... more

Who is the most successful president in American history? George Washington secured American independence. Abraham Lincoln preserved the union and... more

For the past month, chaos and confusion have gripped Washington and the federal government. Elon Musk and his Department of... more

This is a conversation I've wanted to have for a long time. It's about the decline of religion in America,... more

Why is it so hard to find a cure for Alzheimer’s? A simple answer is that the brain and its... more

Fans of green energy like me face some inconvenient truths about the global energy picture. First, coal sounds like a... more

Wealth isn’t just about financial security, according to today’s guest, Sahil Bloom. It’s about time wealth (the freedom to control... more

In the past few years, we've learned that GLP-1 drugs don’t just help with diabetes or increase people’s feelings of... more

Today, tech talk with an old friend of the pod, Kevin Roose of The New York Times, who is also... more

This is the first episode of a little experiment we’re trying this year, a podcast within a podcast on history... more

Today's episode has been a long time coming. For years, more scientists and health influencers have claimed that even moderate... more

With so many confusing narratives unfolding around a fire that is still raging out of control, I wanted to talk... more

My new feature for The Atlantic magazine is called "The Anti-Social Century." It's a long article that revolves around a simple point: Americans are... more

Happy new year! And what better way to celebrate the freshly torn calendar page than by welcoming one of Derek's... more

Our final episode of the year is also my favorite annual tradition: conversations with scientists about the most important and,... more

Why do Americans die younger than citizens of other rich countries? The most important reason is that life in America... more

So, here’s a scenario: It’s Monday. And you open up whatever calendar or planner or to-do list you use to... more

Last week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death outside a hotel in Manhattan by a young man motivated... more

The crypto industry seems poised for a new golden age. But what exactly does that mean? Who would benefit? And,... more

In the last decade, several major findings in social psychology have turned out to be hogwash—or, worse, even fraud. This... more

Emily Oster, professor of economics at Brown University, joins the show to talk about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., his theories... more

What would a world of self-driven cars look like? How would it change shopping, transportation, and life, more broadly? A decade... more

Derek shares his big-picture theory for Trump's victory. Then, Republican pollster Kristen Soltis Anderson explains how Trump shifted practically the... more

Today’s guest (our final preelection guest) is David Wasserman, political analyst with the Cook Political Report, who also helps out... more

Today, a close look at the history of a Pennsylvania town and how that history contains within it the story... more

My favorite sort of social phenomenon is something that seems normal to modern eyes that is actually incredibly unusual. We... more

In 1900, the average US life expectancy was 47 years old. That's the current age of Tom Brady, Ryan Reynolds,... more

Today: the state of men and what's really happening in the gender divide in politics. Many young men are falling... more

Since October 7, 2023, many have feared that the conflict between Israel and Hamas would bloom into a wider war... more

Derek shares his biggest frustrations about the 2024 election, like the lack of a policy debate and blind spots in news coverage... more

Today, a mystery about what some people consider the most important position in sports: What the hell is going on... more

We may be on the cusp of a revolution in medicine, thanks to tools like AlphaFold, the technology for Google... more

Are conspiracy theories more popular than ever? Are Americans more conspiratorial than ever? Are conservatives more conspiratorial than liberals? Joseph... more

Derek offers a short but sweet review of the Democratic National Convention, the science of post-convention bounces, and the reality... more

Today's episode is about how we change our minds—and what political science tells us about the best ways to change... more

Laurie Santos is a superstar in the crowded field of happiness research. She is a cognitive scientist at Yale University... more