Crazy/Genius

Holy Week: The story of a revolution undone. The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, is often recounted as a conclusion to a powerful era of civil rights in America, but how did this hero’s murder come to be the stitching used to tie together a narrative of victory? The[...]

On The Review, The Atlantic's writers and guests discuss how we entertain ourselves and how that shapes the way we understand the world. Subscribe and enjoy! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello Crazy/Genius listeners. We'd like to introduce you to a new show! In this series, host Arthur Brooks digs into research and offers tools to help you live more joyfully. Join us for deep conversations with psychologists, experts, and friends of The Atlantic's Chief Happiness Correspondent. For more info, visit www.theatlantic.com/happy, or search for How[...]

A new podcast from The Atlantic and WNYC Studios, The Experiment, tells stories from our unfinished country. On the first episode, host Julia Longoria tells the story of the “zone of death,” where a legal glitch could short-circuit the Constitution—a place where, technically, you could get away with murder. At a time when we’re surrounded[...]

The Atlantic has launched three new podcasts this year: Social Distance, Floodlines, and The Ticket. Subscribe to keep up with Atlantic journalism. Subscribe to Social Distance: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts Subscribe to Floodlines: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts Subscribe to The Ticket: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Pocket Casts Learn more about[...]

The numbers are staggering: thousands of titles for 160 million subscribers in 190 countries. Netflix has changed where we watch -- that's obvious. But has it also changed what we watch, and how? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Algorithms pervade our lives. They determine the news we see and the products we buy. But most Americans don’t understand how they are transforming every part of the criminal justice system—from policing and bail to sentencing and parole. Could computers make the legal system more fair? Or is it inherently unjust to put a person’s[...]

Instagram influencers are beloved by fans and mocked by critics, but is there more to influencing than meets the eye? A look at what a growing industry can teach us about the future of life online. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Beijing to Brooklyn, facial recognition is on the cutting edge of surveillance technology. But does the threat of this tech outweigh its benefits? A look at two communities living under the microscope. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Charlottesville, Virginia, to Christchurch, New Zealand, the last few years have been filled with examples of online hatred spilling over into offline violence. How did the Web become one big media channel for the far right, and how can we make the Internet safe from extremism? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Young people are having less sex, and access to digital pornography has never been greater. Coincidence? In this episode, we wade into the debate over pornography and determine what, if anything, can be said about its effect on our relationships. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Admit it: You have no idea what privacy means anymore. These days, virtually all online activity—searching, shopping, browsing—requires giving away our personal information to tech companies. In this episode, we review the 200 year history of privacy in America and explain what the new age of “surveillance capitalism” means for all of us who have[...]

Ten years ago, “Move fast and break things” was the clarion call of the world’s tech giants. Well, they moved fast and broke stuff, alright. Lots of stuff. Whether it’s Facebook privacy scandals, YouTube’s radicalization of the far right, or China’s brutal use of surveillance gadgetry, digital technology seems to be a relentless force for[...]

In a special bonus episode, computer scientist and data journalist Meredith Broussard explains how “technochauvinism” derailed the dream of the digital revolution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AI can beat human geniuses at Jeopardy, chess, and complex mathematics. But surely, these machines don’t have anything that even closely resembles human imagination. Or do they? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Americans eat more meat now than ever. That’s a problem for the planet’s future. Animal farming takes up 30 percent of the earth’s landmass (the equivalent of Asia), and livestock causes one-sixth of global greenhouse gas emissions. We need more than moral arguments against meat. We need a technological revolution in better, cleaner food.  Learn[...]

Some scientists see aging as a disease that can be cured—but what would immortality mean for humanity? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Over the last 130 years, the automobile shaped the modern world—it redefined the city, filled the suburbs, and revved up pop culture. With autonomous technology, everything about our relationship to cars is about to change. Then what? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Climate change could be the most important problem facing humanity. To address it, scientists are thinking seriously about an idea that might sound like something from a sci-fi dystopia: Spraying the skies with sulfuric acid to partially block out the sun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Crazy/Genius is back with a new season featuring five ideas to save the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s our best hope for life after earth—and a freezing, irradiated desert more than 30 million miles away. In our season finale, scientists and writers debate whether colonizing Mars is the most important mission in the history of the human race, or an absurd daydream. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Where is everybody?” That’s the question physicist Enrico Fermi asked in 1950. Nearly 70 years later, we’re getting tantalizingly close to solving the riddle known as Fermi’s Paradox: If the universe is so large and so old, why haven't we found life on other planets? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the Internet exploded journalism’s business revenue, local newsrooms around the country have been in free fall. We speak to The Denver Post's former managing editor and other experts to debate how to save the news—and, just possibly, democracy itself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Finding love on the Internet can be awkward, annoying, or downright scary. In this episode, two sociologists debate the merits of online dating and discuss their research on the history of romance in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Digital devices rob us of our attention, creativity, and, some studies show, our mental health. We ask psychologists and authors if smartphone and social media usage has triggered a national health crisis — and what we can do to free ourselves from the allure of modern technology. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Silicon Valley and Wall Street are obsessed with Bitcoin and its underlying technology called blockchain. Boosters say it'll fix everything from elections to shipping to identity theft. But what exactly is blockchain, how is it being used, and is the hype really worth it? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon might become the first trillion-dollar company in the history of the world. Has the Everything Store become a dangerous monopoly threatening the U.S. economy? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the last 18 months, Facebook has gone through one of the worst public relations crises of any major tech company. In this episode, two guests debate whether Facebook is fixable, or whether its business model is designed to sell us lies. Read more here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On Crazy/Genius, host Derek Thompson asks big questions about everything from online dating to blockchain to space exploration. Is technology moving us forward or backward? How did we get here — and where are we headed? Starting May 10. Music by Breakmaster Cylinder. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices