Never Mind the Stasi
East Berlin, 1983. A teenage punk rocker finds himself in a Stasi interrogation cell. The choice is simple: inform on his friends, or go to prison. Hari travels to Berlin…
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Remembering Justice Ginsburg
Richard Primus, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School and a former clerk of Justice Ginsburg, discusses what it was like to work for the Justice, her legacy,…
Wildfire Ignition is Solvable
Eric Appel is a Professor of Materials Science & Engineering at Stanford University. His lab has designed an improved delivery system for fire retardant to keep fires from starting across…
Buffy Sainte-Marie
Buffy Sainte-Marie tells Rick Rubin there’s a reason she isn’t a household name in the U.S. A pioneering artist in the Greenwich Village folk scene, she could’ve been Bob Dylan,…
Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Plato
Plato likened us all to charioteers trying to control two wayward horses. The steeds represent the competing wants and desires that constantly pull us off course and away from a…
It’s Always Sunny in the Dialectic
Look on the bright side! In a country obsessed with positivity, Hari traces the path of exiled German intellectual Theodor Adorno to sunny California, where he gets stuck in traffic…
Why a Leading Election Scholar Can’t Sleep
Nathaniel Persily, a Stanford Law professor who specializes in election law, discusses his biggest concerns about the upcoming election.
BONUS: Storks, Smoking and the Power of Doubt
It’s easy to mock statistics or cast doubt on them, but we do so at our peril. Undermining our trust in facts and figures can cause great harm, and even…
COVID-19 Transmission is Solvable
Michael Mina is an epidemiologist and immunologist at the Harvard School of Public Health and a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He believes the transmission of COVID-19 is a…
Don Was
Photo: Mathieu BittonRick Rubin talks to Don Was about his early days in Detroit, his time in Was Not Was and his wide ranging career producing defining albums for the…
Happiness Lessons of The Ancients: Aristotle
He gave us biology, physics and drama… but Greek philosopher Aristotle also thought deeply about how humans can flourish and live happy lives of virtue.Yale professor Tamar Gendler tells Dr…
The Guru of Ojai
In the 1920s, a messianic visitor to Hari’s family home unveils the connection between Indian Independence movement and the astral plane. Nearly a century later, Hari travels to the orange…
