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Jack Barsky is a former KGB spy who worked undercover in the United States for ten years, from 1978 to 1988. During our conversation, Jack talks about his early life in East Germany, being selected for espionage by the Soviet government, his prior commitment to and belief in Communism, his impression of the United States and its people upon entering the U.S., his objectives as a spy, his experienc...

Robert Greene is the author of many best-selling books, including "The Laws of Human Nature," "Mastery," "The Art of Seduction," "The 33 Strategies of War," and "The 48 Laws of Power," which is the primary subject of our conversation. During our conversation, Robert talks about his definition of power, why humans crave power, how a lack of power affects human beings, how individuals might increase...

Konstantin Kisin is a stand-up comedian, the co-host of the YouTube show and podcast "TRIGGERnometry," and is the author of the forthcoming book, " An Immigrant's Love Letter to the West ." During our conversation, Konstantin talks about the experience, terror, and totalitarianism of Soviet communism, his upbringing in and the lived experience of the collapse of the Soviet Union, differences in va...

Jeffrey Guss is a psychiatrist, a psychotherapist, a researcher, and was the Co-principal Investigator and Director of Psychedelic Therapy Training for psilocybin trials at the NYU School of Medicine. During our conversation, Jeff talks about his interest in psychedelics, its use for treating cancer-stricken patients with existential despair and those with addictions such as alcoholism, anecdotes...

Jon Birger is a journalist and is the author of " Date-onomics: How Dating Became a Lopsided Numbers Game ." During our conversation, Jon talks about the demographic data regarding college-educated men and women in America, how sex ratio differences in colleges and cities influence dating and mating behavior, the effect of #MeToo on modern romance, dating apps, assortative mating, evolution's effe...

Jonathan Rauch is a journalist, an essayist for "The Atlantic" magazine, and the author of "The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth." During our conversation, Jon talks about what "The Constitution of Knowledge" is and how its norms and practices are the backbone of how our civilization attempts to ascertain the truth and how this innovation in civil discourse has led to an unprecedented...

Richard Rhodes is a historian, a journalist, and is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning "The Making of the Atomic Bomb." During our conversation, Richard talks about the technology and the people that led to the creation of the atomic bomb, the threat of nuclear war in modern times, nuclear winter, how nuclear weapons are influencing the war in Ukraine, and how we might mitigate the risk of a...

Joseph Goldstein is an author, the co-founder of the Insight Meditation Society in Barre, MA, and is one of the most influential and important figures in bringing vipassana meditation practices into the American mainstream. During our conversation, Joseph talks about his journey from Columbia University to the Peace Corps in Thailand to his early meditation training in India, what mindfulness is a...

Helen Fisher is an anthropologist, a professor, an author, and one of the world's experts on the science of love. During our conversation, Helen talks about her background interest in love, the role that love plays in human existence, the evolutionary purpose of love, the possibility of love to endure for many years, how the subconscious influences who we fall in love with, how to know if you aren...

Daniel Schacter is a professor of psychology at Harvard University who specializes in memory and amnesia. During our conversation, Daniel talks about the evolutionary purpose of human memory, the biological basis of memory, the movie "Memento," the correlation between memory and intelligence, how fMRI technology can help detect false memories, what can be done to improve memory, and he explains th...

Sarah Haider is an activist, an immigrant, an essayist, and the co-founder of Ex-Muslims Of North America. During our conversation, Sarah talks about her journey to the U.S. from Pakistan, Western values, the Salman Rushdie fatwa, Charlie Hebdo, freedom of speech in the Muslim world, the life and example of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the safety of Muslims who leave their religion, feminism and Islam, and th...

Ian O'Connor is a journalist, a sports columnist for " The New York Post ," and the author of the new book, " Coach K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski ." During our conversation, Ian talks about Coach K's early life and career, the lesser-known, darker aspects of his personality, the juxtaposition of his love and loyalty towards his players with the fear he engenders and the rage he could ex...

Ilya Ponomarev is an entrepreneur, a former member of the Russian duma, a political adversary of Vladimir Putin, a friend of Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, and a resident of Ukraine, currently fighting for his life and the future of his adopted homeland. During our conversation, Ilya talks about his political career in Russia, Russian vs. American culture, his assessment of the character and perso...

Walter Robinson is an investigative journalist, an editor-at-large at " The Boston Globe ," and is the Donald W. Reynolds Visiting Professor of Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University. During our conversation, Robby talks about his career in journalism, the Catholic Church's historic power in America and in Boston, how and why his "...

Ilya Shapiro is a legal scholar, an essayist, and an author who holds degrees from Princeton, The London School of Economics, and The University of Chicago. During our conversation, Ilya talks about his family's life in the Soviet Union, his journey to North America as a child, and his desire to become an American citizen. Ilya also talks about the foundational liberties of American civilization,...

Wade Davis is an author, an ethnobiologist, and a cultural anthropologist. He was an explorer-in-residence at The National Geographic Society from 2000-2013, has helped to produce more than a dozen documentary films, has authored best-selling books, with his work focusing on indigenous cultures across the world. During our conversation, Wade talks about how he became a world-traveler and an explor...

Glenn Loury is an economist, an essayist, and is the Merton P. Stoltz Professor of the Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Brown University. During our conversation, Glenn talks about his upbringing in the South Side of Chicago, his "Good Will Hunting-like" trajectory from inner-city black urban life to receiving his PhD in economics from MIT, and his becoming the first tenured African A...

Maud Maron is a lawyer, a mother of four, and a Congressional Candidate for New York's 12th District. During our conversation, Maud talks about her career as an attorney at The Legal Aid Society, her work providing legal services to poor Americans, how her views in favor of colorblindness and specialized admissions tests and against race essentialism in education resulted in her being publicly lab...

Wilfred Reilly is a professor and the author of " Taboo: 10 Facts You Can't Talk About. " During our conversation, Wilfred talks about his early life and upbringing, taboos in American society, using empirical data to assess political claims, incentives within the media for fomenting controversy, race and racism in America, the "St. George in Retirement Syndrome," how many unarmed black men are ki...

David Daley is a journalist, the former editor-in-chief of Salon.com, and the author of " Ratf**ked: Why Your Vote Doesn't Count ." During our conversation, David talks about the watershed 2010 REDMAP initiative (short for the Redistricting Majority Project) and how gerrymandering has essentially rigged U.S. Congressional elections. He also talks about the second-order consequences of the success...

Anna Lembke is a psychiatrist, Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic, and the author of "Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence." During our conversation, Anna talks about her journey to studying addiction, the downsides to dopamine surplus, modern addictions to devices and social media, what we can learn from drug addicts, the role of struggle in a heal...

Peter Verstrate is a businessman and the co-founder of Mosa Meat. During our conversation, Peter talks about Mosa Meat's technical breakthrough in making the world's first cultured hamburger - a burger that was created fully in a lab - without raising and killing livestock, the promise of cultured meat to combat climate change and decrease pollution and deforestation, its enormous potential for mi...

Ronan Levy is a lawyer, an entrepreneur, and the co-founder of Field Trip Health. During our conversation, Ronan talks about his journey into the psychedelic space, how currently-available ketamine therapy can help those with anxiety and depression, the possibility of the legalization of MDMA therapy in 2023, how Field Trip Health aims to provide a medically-supervised, professional "set and setti...

Paul Fletcher is a doctor, a researcher, and the Bernard Wolfe Professor of Health Neuroscience at Cambridge University. During our conversation, Paul talks about psychosis and the brain, the sheer strangeness of psychotic episodes, why the human mind produces delusions and hallucinations, some triggers and causes of temporary psychosis, how we might more ethically treat homeless people in a psych...

John McWhorter is a linguistics professor at Columbia University, an essayist for "The New York Times," and the author of "Woke Racism." During our conversation, John talks about the genesis of "The Elect" (his word for woke antiracists), the dangers and the flaws of the ideas of The Elect, how those ideas are counterproductive to helping black America, how The Elect abuse and intimidate those who...