Factually! with Adam Conover

Where do cities… come from? Are they created by committee? Or do they just spring up out of the earth? Adam explores this question with journalist Annalee Newitz, author of the new book Four Lost Cities: A Secret History of the Urban Age. They take an audio tour from Cahokia, an indigenous city near St. Louis that somehow got left out of American textbook; the Neolithic city of Çatalhöyük, where p...

Is humanity innately good or bad? Historian and author Rutger Bregman joins Adam to discuss his decidedly optimistic answer to this question. They discuss research showing that people are more likely to help each other during national disasters, the true story behind Kitty Genovese, and how the real-life Lord of The Flies had a very different ending. You can find Rutger Bregman’s book, Humankind:...

This week, Dr. Carl Hart - professor of neuroscience and psychology at Columbia - joins Adam to argue that we’ve been approaching recreational drugs all wrong. Together they discuss how we have historically exaggerated the harmful effects of drugs on the brain, how stigma and criminalization create greater adverse effects than the drugs themselves, and more. Dr. Hart’s new book, Drug Use for Grown...

To stop a deadly disease, you need more than medicine -- you need to change people’s minds. Journalist and doctor Seema Yasmin joins Adam this week to discuss how to combat harmful medical myths. They discuss how much more powerful narratives are than statistics, the difference between being anti-vaxx and being vaccine-hesitant, and why you shouldn’t eat your placenta after giving birth no matter...

Aaniin - which is hello in the Algonquin language of Ojibwe! This week, Adam speaks with Anton Treuer, the professor of Ojibwe at Bemidji State University. He walks us through where Ojibwe language has historically been spoken - as well as where it is spoken now, why we should keep this and other indiginous languages alive, how native culture is both historical and modern, what we AREN’T taught ab...

Dr. Rebecca Puhl, Deputy Director of the Rudd Center for Food Policy & Obesity, joins Adam to deep dive into the concept of weight stigma and how often we misunderstand the science of weight gain. Rebecca covers the relationship between weight stigma and eating disorders, the role personal behavior does and does not play into weight gain, how “genes load the gun but environment pulls the trigger,”...

Just in time for the lazy holiday break, legendary game designer Sid Meier joins Adam to discuss the genesis of his seminal game series “Civilization.” Sid and Adam explore how the early years of game design were driven by programmers following their passions, how good games need “interested decisions,” and the advice he gives budding young game designers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit m...

LA Times reporter Liam Dillon joins Adam to discuss his recent exposé on how “crime-free housing” policies discriminate against black renters and deepen the housing crisis. They also break down the coming Covid-caused eviction wave, and how we might finally dig our way out of the housing crisis. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/...

Distinguished research scientist at NYU’s AI Now Institute and former Google employee/organizer Meredith Whittaker joins Adam to break down Prop 22. They cover workers’ rights for tech companies like Uber and Doordash, why Uber and others spent 200 million dollars on Prop 22’s ad campaign, Meredith’s experience organizing at Google and pushing back at their foray into military tech, and the danger...

This week, journalist and author Angela Chen answers every question you have about asexuality. She and Adam discuss the difference between asexuality and aromanticism, explore how aces fit into the LGBTQ+ spectrum, share how pop-culture has influenced the growth of the ace community, and differentiate between asexuality and sexual dysfunction. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/a...

Harvard law professor Susan Crawford joins Adam this week to discuss why America - the country that invented the internet - struggles to provide access to affordable, high-speed internet. She explains why just a few telecom companies monopolize the industry, fiber vs. wireless, the real deal with 5G, and why the internet should become a public utility. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megap...

Adam brings on author and academic psychologist Rob Brotherton to discuss why our brains are wired for conspiracy. They how classism and elitism shape our opinions about conspiracy theorists, how the word “fact,” and how humility is the key to meaningful conversations about truth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and Cal...

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening across the country, so past guest Dr. Ashish Jha is returning with more answers to Adam’s questions. They discuss what the scientific community has learned about Covid-19 since March, what we now understand to be safe and unsafe, the government’s failures, why certain activities are safer than you may think, and the light at the end of the tunnel. Learn more abou...

Author and professor Eric J. Segall joins Adam to explode the myth that the Supreme Court makes decisions by a dispassionate evaluation of the law. In reality, he argues, the Justices actually just “make shit up.” Adam and Eric dig into the real history of Brown vs. Board of Education, the ways "originalism" mirrors religion, and why Segall believes the Court should ultimately be weaker than it is...

Just a century and change ago, it wasn’t a given that children would actually survive childhood. Dr. Perri Klass and Adam discuss the shocking decline in child mortality since, what life was like in a time when the deaths of children were routine, and the pressures still facing parents in a now child-friendlier world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Polic...

In the final episode before the American election, Adam explores the history of conservative reactionary politics in America with acclaimed historian Rick Perlstein, who explains where the false narrative of the hippies “winning” the 60s came from, the historical “hinge” moments which bring progress, and how progressive and reactionary politics have evolved through the decades. Learn more about yo...

Daryl Atkinson joins Adam to break down a recent partial-victory in voter rights in North Carolina, the historic disenfranchisement of black voters, why it is unconstitutional to connect someone’s right to vote with their ability to pay off fines, the set precedents for allowing felons the right to vote, and the work Atkinson’s group Forward Justice is currently doing in voter rights advocacy. To...

Philosopher and author, Carol Hay, joins Adam to discuss the intellectual history of feminism, its challenges (including what she calls its historic “PR problem”), and how it’s evolved as a system of thought in the 21st century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#d...

Physician Vikram Krishnasamy joins Adam to discuss his work fighting the opioid epidemic at the CDC, for which he won the 2020 Service to America Medal, and why he decided to devote himself to public service. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

While the national election hogs the spotlight, the low-turnout, little-covered local election in your city or county can have just as big an impact on your life. Nithya Raman, candidate for Los Angeles City Council joins Adam this week to explain why the best way to make a difference is to focus on the candidates right in your own backyard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adc...

What’s worse than a pandemic? The economic consequences on the poorest Americans. Indi Dutta-Gupta of the Georgetown Center on Poverty & Inequality talks with Adam this week about how the pandemic has affected those already struggling with poverty, and how things look moving forward. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and...

Drug discovery chemist Derek Lowe joins Adam to break down why producing an effective COVID-19 vaccine is so challenging, the science of how vaccines work, and the issues that arise when pharmaceutical research is conducted for profit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/pr...

Hip-hop artist Open Mike Eagle joins Adam this week to speak candidly on what it's really like to be a musician in the midst of a pandemic, how rapidly the industry has changed and if you can really have a career in music in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy...

Princeton University professor Ruha Benjamin joins Adam to reveal the issues at play at the intersection of technology and race, her concept of the “New Jim Code", digital redlining and and how the technology can’t be relied on to solve what are ultimately social problems. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California...

Philosophy has the reputation for being dry and technical, but this week Stephen West, the host of Philosophize This! and self-taught philosophy expert joins Adam to explain how discovering philosophy transformed his life, and how it can improve yours. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at htt...