Crazy/Genius
29 episodes - English - Latest episode: 11 months ago - ★★★★★ - 1K ratingsBig questions about technology, science, and culture, hosted by The Atlantic’s Derek Thompson. On Season 3 (launching May 9): Unbreak the internet.
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Episodes
Introducing Holy Week
May 19, 2023 16:01 - 3 minutesHoly 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 week that followed his killing was one of the most fiery, disruptive, and revolutionary, and is nearly forgotten. Over the course of eight episodes, Holy Week brings forward the stories of the activis...
Presenting: The Review, a new podcast from The Atlantic
October 22, 2021 21:30 - 2 minutesOn 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
How To Build A Happy Life: A new podcast from The Atlantic
October 12, 2021 17:55 - 2 minutesHello 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 to Build a Happy Life on your podcast app. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Introducing: The Experiment
February 05, 2021 20:16 - 34 minutesA 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 by preventable deaths, we document one journey to avert disaster. Listen and subscribe to The Experiment: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Stitcher | Google Podca...
Introducing New Atlantic Podcasts
April 02, 2020 20:20 - 3 minutesThe 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 your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How Has Netflix Changed Entertainment?
June 26, 2019 10:00 - 28 minutesThe 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
Should We Be Afraid of AI in the Criminal Justice System?
June 20, 2019 10:00 - 29 minutesAlgorithms 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 life in the hands of an algorithm? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Influencers: Frauds or the Future of Online Commerce?
June 06, 2019 10:00 - 24 minutesInstagram 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
The U.S. and China: A Tale of Two Surveillance States
May 30, 2019 10:00 - 28 minutesFrom 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
How Did the Far Right Take Over the Web?
May 23, 2019 10:00 - 27 minutesFrom 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
What Is Pornography Doing to Our Sex Lives?
May 16, 2019 10:00 - 26 minutesYoung 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
Why Should We Care About Privacy?
May 09, 2019 10:00 - 32 minutesAdmit 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 to live in it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Season 3 Trailer: Unbreak the Internet
May 02, 2019 11:00 - 1 minuteTen 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 greed, bad faith, and tyranny these days. Let’s talk about it. “Unbreak the Internet” is the theme for the third season of Crazy/Genius, The Atlantic’s podc...
Tech Was Supposed to Be Society’s Great Equalizer. What Happened?
September 28, 2018 10:00 - 25 minutesIn 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
Can Artificial Intelligence Be Smarter Than a Human Being?
September 27, 2018 10:00 - 30 minutesAI 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
Will We Ever Stop Eating Animal Meat?
September 20, 2018 10:00 - 28 minutesAmericans 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 more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Can We Extend Human Lifespans to 150?
September 13, 2018 10:00 - 28 minutesSome 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
How Will Self-Driving Cars Change the World?
September 06, 2018 10:00 - 28 minutesOver 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
Should We Dim the Skies to Save the World?
August 30, 2018 10:00 - 24 minutesClimate 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
Season 2 Trailer
August 23, 2018 10:00 - 1 minuteCrazy/Genius is back with a new season featuring five ideas to save the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Should We Go to Mars?
June 28, 2018 10:00 - 23 minutesIt’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
Why Haven’t We Found Aliens?
June 21, 2018 10:00 - 24 minutes“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
Who Killed Local News?
June 14, 2018 10:00 - 24 minutesSince 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
Is Online Dating Destroying Romance?
June 07, 2018 10:00 - 23 minutesFinding 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
Are Smartphones Ruining Our Lives?
May 31, 2018 10:00 - 25 minutesDigital 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
Blockchain: The Next Internet, or the Next Beanie Baby?
May 24, 2018 10:00 - 23 minutesSilicon 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
Should We Break Up Amazon?
May 17, 2018 10:00 - 23 minutesAmazon 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
Why Can’t Facebook Tell the Truth?
May 10, 2018 13:05 - 23 minutesIn 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
Introducing Crazy/Genius
May 01, 2018 14:36 - 2 minutesOn 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