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by New York Times Opinion
The first draft of our future. Mapping the new world order through interviews and conversations.
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- 1 weeks ago46 min
Inside the White House’s Push for More A.I.
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 Intro00:54 Why American Science Is Broken02:49 The Case for A New Model04:49 Kratsios’s Funding Priorities08:52 Kratsios’s Silicon Valley Background10:53 The Role of Universities16:31 Immigration’s Effect on Scientific Research18:57 Who Controls Grantmaking?25:20 A.I. Regulation and Safety Tools36:03 Testing Models Before Release39:19 Ten-Year Vision and Risks43:21 A New Golden Age for Science45:53 Closing and CreditsNote: 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.
- 2 weeks ago49 min
Inside the Mind of A.I.’s Most Essential Chronicler
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 Intro01:31 What Inspired the “Dwarkesh Podcast”02:47 Documenting Wild Human History04:18 What The Public Doesn’t Understand About A.I.06:25 The Mood in San Francisco06:51 Dwarkesh Didn’t See This Coming09:08 Should More A.I. Researchers Resign?11:09 Unreleased Frontier Models13:26 Pausing A.I. 15:45 A.I. Psychosis & Consciousness21:14 What Tech Bros Do for Fun 23:50 Bay Area Culture24:06 A.I. Boyfriends v. Girlfriends26:02 Are A.I. Therapists Good?26:54 What Dwarkesh Got Wrong27:44 What’s The Next Big Thing?29:13 Robot Predictions30:26 What Jobs Are Safe?35:21 The Speed of A.I. Adoption37:12 Milestones To Watch42:58 What If 2035 Looks Normal?44:39 Dwarkesh In 204546:27 Skepticism On A.I. Revenue48:01 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.
- 3 weeks ago48 min
TikTok Is Taking Us Back to the Dark Ages
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 Intro00:52 Post-Literacy02:05 The Data Behind the Decline05:13 The Shift Toward Video08:48 Why Reading Is Hard10:45 Walter Ong on Orality and Literacy14:27 Tribal Politics and Emotion17:16 The Reading Revolution21:14 Literacy as an Engine for Democracy25:15 Scarcity and Authority27:27 Lessons from Medieval Times30:13 Remembering Everything and Nothing33:29 How Bukele Commands the Attention Economy37:04 Monarchy vs. Democracy40:16 Other Postliterate Leaders43:29 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.
- 4 weeks ago50 min
Silicon Valley’s Favorite Prophet Has a New Warning
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 Intro01:07 What is P(doom)?04:44 Bostrom’s Doomsday Scenarios06:14 Vulnerable World Hypothesis08:27 The Best-Case Scenario of Superintelligence12:37 The Problems We Can’t Solve in Utopia14:47 Paths to Superintelligence17:02 What Kind of Utopia Do We Want to Live In?21:56 The Values Worth Keeping in Utopia32:42 Bostrom’s Influence on Effective Altruism38:04 Are Existential Warnings Helpful?43:52 The Trajectory of Humanity46:51 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.
- Sep 24, 202645 min
How Worried Should We Be About the Midterm Elections?
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 Anxiety02:38 Era of Democratic Dissatisfaction04:21 Were Recent Election Reforms a Mistake?06:09 Campaign Finance Reform09:22 SCOTUS and Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Executive Order13:57 Why Did Trump Target Absentee Ballots?20:32 Should There Be a National Voter Database?23:58 Proof Of Citizenship Debate29:48 What Should SCOTUS Do?35:47 Partisan Manipulation in Elections42:24 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.
- Sep 10, 202643 min
Trump Is Getting Even Richer. Is That a Crime?
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 Unusual01:30 Presidential Ethics Before Trump02:28 Trump’s Crypto and Foreign Money Flows06:12 Is It a Kleptocracy?07:36 What’s Unconstitutional About Trump’s Finances10:43 The U.A.E. and Trump’s Foreign Policy13:41 How Trump’s Weaponization Is Changing Government16:42 What Congress Could Do18:59 The Tit for Tat Weaponization24:13 Can Trump Pardon Himself?26:57 The “Deep-State” Crackdown36:59 Oversight Norms and Voter Verdict42:46 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 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.
- Aug 27, 20261h 13m
Ross Douthat and Ezra Klein on the Art of Persuasion
“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 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.
- Aug 13, 20261h 4m
The Tech Mogul Who Refuses to Die
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 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.
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