Shane Smith Has Questions

For more than a decade, Gelareh Kiazand reported from some of the world's most complicated and misunderstood places. From covering life under the Taliban in Afghanistan to documenting everyday life inside Iran, her work focused on telling stories from the ground — often in places where politics, war, and international headlines rarely capture the full picture. In this conversation, Shane Smith sit...

Ken Burns has spent more than five decades telling America's story. From The Civil War and The Vietnam War to Baseball, Jazz, and The U.S. and the Holocaust, his films have shaped how generations of Americans understand their country. In this conversation, Shane Smith sits down with the legendary filmmaker to talk about much more than documentaries. Together they explore why America feels so divid...

Who actually controls the biggest secret in modern history? For decades, UFOs were treated as conspiracy theories, fringe science, or tabloid fodder. Today, senators, intelligence officials, military officers, and even presidents are publicly discussing unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs). What changed? This week, Shane sits down with filmmaker Dan Farah, director of The Age of Disclosure to d...

Shane Smith and Andrew Callaghan sit down with the anonymous creator behind Explosive Media, the Iranian team whose AI-generated LEGO videos became one of the most viewed and controversial media phenomena of the recent Iran-Israel conflict. With a team of fewer than ten people, their videos reached hundreds of millions of viewers and sparked debate about propaganda, AI, meme culture, and the futur...

What happens when artificial intelligence becomes more powerful than the institutions meant to govern it? Shane Smith sits down with Aza Raskin, co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, creator of Infinite Scroll, and one of the leading voices on AI ethics, for a wide-ranging conversation about the future of AI, warfare, work, politics, and humanity itself. This conversation is a starting p...

How is AI changing modern warfare? And are we already entering the age of autonomous war? Shane Smith and VICE News travel to Morocco for African Lion 2026 — one of the largest military exercises in the world — to get an inside look at the technologies rapidly transforming the battlefield. From AI-assisted targeting systems and autonomous combat vehicles to suicide drones, robotics, quantum comput...

As tensions between the United States, Israel, and Iran continue to escalate, Shane Smith travels to Tehran for a rare interview with Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for Iran’s Foreign Ministry. Esmail Baghaei has been in the news today, confirming that Iran is examining the U.S. response to Iran’s latest peace proposal, delivered through Pakistan. As a potential deal to end hostilities hangs in the...

After the latest U.S. government release of UAP/UFO files, filmmaker and investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell returns to Shane Smith Has Questions for a deep dive into what may be the biggest disclosure moment yet. Jeremy and Shane Smith break down the new government “data dump,” the whistleblowers testifying under oath, military footage from Syria and the famous Tic Tac encounters, alleged rev...

What happens when America never learns the lessons of its longest wars? Former Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko joins Shane Smith for a brutally honest conversation about Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Ukraine, corruption, contractors, the military-industrial complex, and the trillion-dollar cycle of endless war. After overseeing more than 700 investigations into waste...

San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan joins Shane Smith for a raw conversation about why California feels broken and what it would actually take to fix it. They discuss the reality behind homelessness, why housing is so expensive, and how bureaucracy and bad incentives have made it nearly impossible to build. Mahan explains how corporate power, regulation, and political complacency have created a system that...

Scott Galloway sits down with Shane Smith to talk through why the system feels off right now and why more people are starting to notice. They get into how wealth keeps concentrating at the top, why the middle class isn’t growing the way it used to, and how big tech and corporate power quietly shape the rules. Galloway lays out why capitalism only works when the middle class is strong and what happ...

Ian Bremmer, one of the most connected geopolitical minds on the planet, sits down to explain the Iran crisis in brutally honest terms: why regime change was a fantasy, how Iran is somehow making more money since the war started, and why the real pain at the pump, at the grocery store, in your portfolio hasn't even hit yet. This isn't cable news spin. This is the unfiltered truth from someone who...

The Strait of Hormuz is effectively closed, and energy expert Amos Hochstein is calling this the single greatest energy crisis in global history bigger than the 1973 OPEC embargo. With roughly 10 million barrels of oil per day missing from global markets, prices have surged from $60 to nearly $100 a barrel, gas is climbing toward $4 a gallon, and major producers like Kuwait, Iraq, and Qatar have a...

Shane Smith sits down with Senator Bernie Sanders for a conversation that cuts straight to the heart of America's biggest crisis artificial intelligence. Bernie warns that a handful of the world's wealthiest men are quietly engineering the most consequential revolution in human history, one that could wipe out millions of jobs overnight and leave ordinary Americans with nothing but unanswered ques...

Shane Smith travels to Venezuela for a special episode of Shane Smith Has Questions, on the ground for the first meeting between U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and acting Venezuelan President Delcy Rodríguez — the Trump administration’s first official visit since the regime change. Reporting from Caracas, Shane gets rare access as U.S. officials engage Venezuela’s new leadership and begin shap...

Shane sits down with Andrew Yang, entrepreneur, Forward Party founder, and former presidential and mayoral candidate for a wide-open conversation about what happens to America when AI collides with a political system stuck in the 1800s. They start with why anyone even runs for office in the age of opposition-research-as-bloodsport, then rewind to Yang’s 2020 run, when he was dismissed as the “magi...

Harvard Law’s Lawrence Lessig, founder of Creative Commons and Equal Citizens, joins Shane for look at how money captured American politics and what it will take to break its grip. Lessig explains why the real super PAC problem wasn’t created by Citizens United but by a lower-court ruling, and why a new Maine initiative could become the test case that finally reins in unlimited outside spending, p...

Shane sits down with Maverick Carter, CEO of SpringHill Company, business partner to LeBron James, and one of the most influential figures in modern sports and entertainment, for an unfiltered, masterclass conversation about capitalism, culture, and coming up from nothing. Maverick opens up about his roots in Akron, Ohio, where his grandmother ran an underground after-hours club that doubled as a...

Shane Smith sits down with Aaron Parnas, the 26-year-old lawyer, journalist, and viral political commentator who’s redefining how Americans get their news. Together, they unpack the collapse of public trust in mainstream media, the rise of social platforms as new journalism hubs, and how Gen Z’s relationship to truth and power differs from every generation before. Parnas opens up about growing up...

Shane Smith sits down with Hollywood titan Barry Diller, the media mogul behind Paramount Pictures, 20th Century Fox, QVC, Expedia, and IAC, for a sweeping journey through one of the most remarkable careers in modern entertainment. From his mailroom days at William Morris to creating the “Movie of the Week” at ABC, Diller recounts how failure, luck, and relentless curiosity shaped his path to beco...

Shane Smith sits down with Sam Harris, philosopher, neuroscientist, and bestselling author for a deep conversation about artificial intelligence, consciousness, and the fragile future of humanity. They begin with Sam’s early life and unlikely path, from studying English at Stanford to dropping out after a transformative MDMA experience that led him to India and Nepal, where he meditated and even s...

Shane Smith sits down with veteran journalist Chuck Todd, former Meet the Press moderator and current host of Sunday Night with Chuck Todd, in a deep dive on the state of American politics and media today. Chuck opens up about his decision to leave legacy media behind and reinvent political journalism for the long-form podcast era, why Meet the Press became “an aircraft carrier that couldn’t turn,...

Scott Galloway and Shane Smith dive into the growing tension in today’s society, exploring how economic instability, digital culture, and political unrest are shaping people’s frustrations and anger. They analyze the rise of digital platforms, the deepening wealth divide, and the decline of traditional work structures, which have fueled a wave of anxiety and frustration. Galloway breaks down how c...

Psychedelics are reshaping medicine and culture. Ayahuasca ceremonies, ibogaine treatments, and ketamine clinics promise breakthroughs but raise hard questions about safety, tradition, and control. Hamilton Morris joins Shane Smith to unpack the science, myths, and politics behind today’s psychedelic movement. He breaks down the promises of ibogaine clinics, the rise of ketamine in psychiatry, and...

Drone warfare is changing the battlefield fast. Cheap swarms can overwhelm defenses, strike deep, and create new security threats—from war zones to stadiums. Add cyber attacks and grid probes, and the gray zone keeps expanding with no clear rules or deterrents. Global power dynamics are shifting. Trump’s tough talk on Xi, Putin, and Kim clashes with stalled diplomacy and a rising China filling glo...