The Rip Current

We’re in an upside-down moment, in which there seems to be no cost for lying and no respect for honesty. How did we get here? Jennifer Freyd can explain. Since the 1990s she’s been tracking the misbehavior of public figures and the ways that institutions unwittingly betray us. And in the process she discovered and revealed the secret, specific choreogra… This is a public episode. If you'd like to...

The historian and author Andrew Ward, grew up on the South Side of Chicago and then in India before becoming a historian of colonialism and slavery. He’s also my Dad. I think he’s just the person to discuss the weird moment we’re in, when politicians are trying to erase slavery and racism from the national discussion just when we were starting to take s… This is a public episode. If you'd like to...

This is the first episode of The Rip Current podcast. Each week I’m going to be interviewing experts in everything from venture capital to the economic impact of slavery to how bullies get the best of us. My first guest is Catherine Bracy, executive director of TechEquity , a nonprofit that examines the ways technology affects equity in areas like labor and housing. She's the author of the new boo...

A beautifully designed bar of soap from Lisbon, Portugal had a lot to teach me about life under dictatorship. From the 1920s to the 1970s, the fascist regime of Antonio de Oliveira Salazar suppressed free expression, leading artists to pour their creative energies into what they could, including the politically acceptable decorative arts. For me, this bar of soap from Claus Porto - it's gorgeous,...

I spent the long weekend interviewing technologists at CFPB who left behind the chance to make big money in the private sector so they could work to protect you instead…and got fired for it. The written piece is here , but I wanted to share a few extra takeaways with paid subscribers, including the ridiculousness of accusing these folks of being inefficient, and the self-enrichment potential posed...

This is a weekly audio digest of the latest content, exclusively for paid subscribers to The Rip Current. This week I write about the jingoistic tech posturing we're going to suffer in the coming weeks, after new Chinese AI models tanked American companies' stocks, and about the current politics of casual destruction and the way profit incentives gobble up everything around them, including your ti...

I was often first on the scene for big wildfires during my 10 years as a correspondent for Al Jazeera and NBC News. The lessons I learned, and the ways in which my mind began to shorthand otherwise unimaginable experiences, make the LA fires particularly hard to watch. Here’s some perspective from the front lines. Thinking of you, SoCal. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with...