Interesting Times

Literacy is declining sharply across the West. In the era of vertical video, who has the time or concentration to read a long article — let alone a whole book?As we lose the ability to read long-form text, we might also be losing the capacity for democratic deliberation and self-governance. That’s the argument this week’s guest, the Times of London columnist James Marriott, makes in his recent book, “The New Dark Ages.” He sits down with guest host Mary Harrington to discuss our return to oral culture, the political consequences and what we can learn from the medieval era about storing information in a digital world.Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months.00:00 Intro00:52 What Is Post-Literacy02:05 The Data Behind the Decline05:21 The Shift Toward Video09:44 Why Reading Is Hard10:45 Walter Ong on Oral vs. Literate Cultures14:27 Tribal Politics and Emotion18:21 The Reading Revolution21:14 Literacy as an Engine for Democracy25:15 Medieval Literary Culture27:27 What We Can Learn the Medieval Era30:13 Remembering Everything and Nothing33:49 How Bukele Communicates Visually37:04 Monarchy vs. Dictatorship41:38 Is Postliteracy a Right-Wing Phenomenon?43:29 Can We Resist the Slide?46:33 Closing(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Nick Bostrom rose to prominence for predicting artificial intelligence doom more than a decade ago — garnering support from figures like Elon Musk, Sam Altman and Bill Gates. But now he’s retreating from those warnings, focusing his attention on a more complex question: What if A.I. succeeds beyond humanity’s wildest imaginations? Will we be bored out of our minds? Are we too infantile to understand what’s coming?Guest host Spencer Klavan, the associate editor at the Claremont Review of Books, presses Bostrom on the potential uses and abuses of superintelligence, rationalist ethics and what makes us human.Note: As we work on relaunching “Interesting Times,” the show will feature a series of guest hosts in the coming months.00:00 Intro01:07 What is P(doom)?04:44 Bostrom’s Doomsday Scenarios06:14 Vulnerable World Hypothesis08:27 The Best-Case Scenario of Superintelligence12:37 The Problems We Can’t Solve in Utopia14:47 Paths to Superintelligence17:02 What Kind of Utopia Do We Want to Live In?21:56 The Values Worth Keeping in Utopia32:42 Bostrom’s Influence on Effective Altruism38:04 Are Existential Warnings Helpful?43:52 The Trajectory of Humanity46:51 Why Bostrom Wants Utopia  (A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Many Americans are losing faith in elections. Proposed solutions from across the political spectrum to restore faith in the process — early voting, mail-in ballot restrictions and voter ID laws — seem to have the opposite effect.But lack of trust in elections is a symptom of a broader problem: America is living through an era of democratic dissatisfaction. That’s what the New York University law professor Richard Pildes argues on this episode of “Interesting Times.” He and the guest host, Sarah Isgur, the editor of SCOTUSblog, discuss why Americans are so worried about the midterms and how to fix our electoral system and restore trust.00:00 Existential Election Anxiety02:38 Era of Democratic Dissatisfaction04:21 Were Recent Election Reforms a Mistake?06:09 Campaign Finance Reform09:22 SCOTUS and Trump’s Mail-In Ballot Executive Order13:57 Why Did Trump Target Absentee Ballots?20:32 Should There Be a National Voter Database?23:58 Proof Of Citizenship Debate29:48 What Should SCOTUS Do?35:47 Partisan Manipulation in Elections42:24 Can the Midterms Be Stolen?44:51 Closing Thoughts(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.  Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

There’s a saying that comes to mind these days: May you live in interesting times. It’s understood to be a curse, even though it sounds like a blessing.“Interesting Times With Ross Douthat” is a new weekly podcast from New York Times Opinion. Every Thursday, he will map the new world order through interviews and conversations. Answering questions like: What does our new political era really look like? What is the future of democracy around the world, with American empire in retreat? What happens to movies and books — all of culture — in our digital and A.I.-dominated age?Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

The tech investor Marc Andreessen and his fellow Silicon Valley giant Elon Musk weren’t always the Donald Trump supporters they are today. In this episode, Ross asks Andreessen, a founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, about what led to Silicon Valley’s rightward shift and the new agenda of the tech-right faction. Editors’ note: This episode originally aired on the “Matter of Opinion” podcast on Jan. 17, 2025.(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.) Thoughts? Email us at [email protected]. Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.