“It’s so insidious, people don’t realize it,” Barbara Kingsolver told me, describing the prejudice against “country people.” Kingsolver is one of those “country people,” as well as a literary legend in her own time, who set out to write the “great Appalachian novel.” And I think she did.
“Demon Copperhead” won the Pulitzer Prize in 2023, and we taped this ... Show More
Yesterday
Stewart Brand, Silicon Valley’s Favorite Prophet, on Life’s Most Important Principle
Stewart Brand might be the most influential philosopher of the internet – at least in its more idealistic era. In the 1960s, Brand was the central bridge figure between the San Francisco counterculture and the emerging technology scene. He created the legendary Trips Festival wit ... Show More
50 m
Apr 21
Why Are Palantir and OpenAI Scared of Alex Bores?
Leading the Future, a super PAC whose funders include the founders of companies like Palantir and OpenAI, is spending millions of dollars this election cycle, and a considerable amount of that money is going toward attack ads against Alex Bores – even though Bores himself used to ... Show More
1h 32m
Apr 17
Our Tax System Should Make You Furious
Jeff Bezos, Michael Bloomberg and Warren Buffett are three of the richest people in the world, but they pay little in income tax relative to their wealth. In 2021, ProPublica published an investigation built on leaked tax documents that reveal what some of the richest Americans r ... Show More
1h 5m
Mar 2024
Women of Sound: Jean Ritchie
Jean Ritchie (1922-2015) was the mother of folk music. She was an instrumental voice in the American folk music revival of the 1940s and 60s, and introduced a traditional dulcimer sound to a wider audience. For Further Reading: Jean Ritchie, Lyrical Voice of Appalachia, Dies at 9 ... Show More
7m 44s
Jan 2022
Culture Gabfest - Fool's Gold
This week, Slate’s TV critic and host of the podcast Decoder Ring, Willa Paskin, and poet, essayist, podcast host, and author, Nichole Perkins, fill in for Dana and Julia. The panel begins by taking a spin with Julian Fellowes’ (creator of Downton Abbey) new show The Gilded Age. ... Show More
58m 49s
Aug 2024
This Is What A Generation Sounds Like: Sara
We're away on our summer break until September, but this week and next week we're re-releasing two of our favourite episodes from The Europeans' award-winning series, 'This Is What A Generation Sounds Like. This week, a story that spans three generations of women: Sara, her mothe ... Show More
27m 13s
Aug 2025
JOANNA MACY on the World as Lover and Self⌠HOMAGE⌡ /371
On July 19th, Joanna Macy, beloved teacher and past guest, passed away peacefully at home in Berkeley, California. In honor of her legacy, we are rebroadcasting her episode “The World as Lover and Self,” originally released in 2015 when the show was titled Unlearn and Rewild.In t ... Show More
59m 43s
<p>Plus, why you’re wrong about your Zodiac sign.</p><p><strong>On Today’s Episode:</strong></p><p><a href="http://nytimes.com/2025/09/08/magazine/jeffrey-epstein-jp-morgan.html" target="_blank"><strong>How JPMorgan Enabled the Crimes of Jeffrey Epstein</strong></a>, <i>by David ... Show More
