Best Common Descent Podcasts (2025)

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Episode 229 - Myrmecophagy (Ant-Eating) 2:21:06

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4d ago2:21:06

2:21:06

Generally speaking, it’s not a good idea to mess with ants. But several lineages of animals have evolved to be ant-eating specialists. This episode, we discuss anteaters, the suite of adaptations that allow them to focus on ant-eating, and the variety of other species that have evolved similar adaptations for the same purpose. We explore the evolut…

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Beth Macy: "When the Local Paper Dies, the Community Follows" 42:21

17m ago42:21

42:21

Journalist Beth Macy, author of Dopesick: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company That Addicted America, returns to her Ohio roots to chart what's been lost in the hollowing-out of middle America. Paper Girl: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America follows Macy's hometown of Urbana through addiction, poverty, and political drift, and her …

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Karine Jean-Pierre: "Independent," Evasion, and the Party She Says Left Her 43:08

1d ago43:08

43:08

Former Biden Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre joins to promote her memoir Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House Outside the Party Lines—and faces pointed questions about contradictions between her praise for Biden, her criticism of Democrats, and her claim of newfound political independence. Asked what makes her truly "independent," she…

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Steve Hayes & Damon Linker: The Hole Truth 1:04:42

1d ago1:04:42

1:04:42

Steve Hayes and Damon Linker debate whether Trump's demolition of the White House East Wing is another norm-busting outrage or just a gaudy renovation. They argue over visuals versus substance in anti-Trump outrage, Trump's manipulation of public opinion, and whether Congress's abdication of power is the true engine of American authoritarian drift.…

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Barista Michelle Eisen on Face Tattoos, Short Staffs, and Union Shots Fired 34:24

3d ago34:24

34:24

Michelle Eisen, barista-turned-organizer from Buffalo's first unionized Starbucks, breaks down how Workers United grew from one store to hundreds—and why the real fight now is over pay, scheduling, and the right to keep your piercings. She pushes back on what she calls "the most aggressive union-busting in modern labor history." Plus, examples of g…

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Jeremy Workman — "Walking Every Block, Hiding in a Mall" 38:11

5d ago38:11

38:11

Two conversations with documentarian Jeremy Workman: first on The World Before Your Feet (a quest to walk every NYC block), then on Secret Mall Apartment (artists who built a hidden flat inside Providence Place Mall). Curiosity, urban change, and the quiet stunts that reveal a city. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan Email us…

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Spook-E – Metroids 1:09:00

5d ago1:09:00

1:09:00

Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. Spook-E Season is back! All throughout October, we pick monsters from myth and media and speculate how they – or something like them – could evolve here on Earth, pulling inspiration from real-world species across our planet’s history. This year’s theme is Monsters of Nintendo! This episode, we take the hunt a…

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Funny You Should Mention: Ariel Elias 1:07:33

6d ago1:07:33

1:07:33

Kentucky-raised, New York-forged, and newly "A Jewish Star," Ariel Elias breaks down how outsider status becomes comic superpower. We talk growing up Jewish in the Bluegrass, explaining Kentucky to New Yorkers, the "Earl" name bit, airline misery (farewell, Southwest), and writing cleaner for synagogue gigs without losing edge. She unpacks her vira…

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No Capes, Real Peace: U Thant's UN and What We Lost 42:15

7d ago42:15

42:15

Historian and grandson of third secretary-general of the United Nations U Thant, Thant Myint-U, discusses Peacemaker: U Thant and the Forgotten Quest for a Just World—how the UN once brokered real ceasefires (Cuban Missile Crisis, India-Pakistan 1965), why its stature faded, what decolonization changed, and Myanmar's present. A reminder that boring…

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Alicia Wanless — "The Ecology of Information" 33:15

8d ago33:15

33:15

Carnegie Endowment's Alicia Wanless argues that disinformation isn't new—it's just our latest pollutant. In The Information Animal, she maps centuries of "information ecosystems," from King Charles I's pamphlet floods to the social-media deluge, and shows why attempts to "detoxify" them often fail. We trace the analogies between DDT and digital out…

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Michael Kirk — "RFK Jr.'s Latest Addiction: Attention" 43:46

9d ago43:46

43:46

Frontline's Michael Kirk discusses The Rise of RFK Jr., charting Kennedy's path from sex and drug addiction to what Kirk calls "an addiction to validation." He describes a man driven by grievance, and details how the alliance between Kennedy and Trump built the so-called "MAHA movement," and why it may collapse under its own contradictions. Plus: a…

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Cracks in the Noise: Attention as Sacred Currency (East Forest) 1:05:03

9d ago1:05:03

1:05:03

Are we creating cracks in the fog of our collective consciousness—or adding to the noise? In this conversation, I sit down with musician and spiritual artist ⁠East Forest⁠ to explore attention as sacred currency in a world that profits from our distraction. We speak about creating art that interrupts rather than performs, the tension of living with…

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Michael Townsend & Jeremy Workman: "Secret Mall Apartment" 33:26

10d ago33:26

33:26

Michael Townsend and director Jeremy Workman tell the wild true story of an eight-artist collective that built a hidden home inside Providence Place Mall—part prank, part art project, and a pointed reply to gentrification. They revisit grainy 2003–07 footage, a tape-art 9/11 memorial, and the logistics (and ethics) of living behind a cinderblock wa…

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Chris Murphy: "Congress needs to take war powers back." 23:26

12d ago23:26

23:26

Mike revisits his 2019 conversation with Senator Chris Murphy on the AUMF — the two-decade-old law still used to justify U.S. military strikes from Yemen to the Caribbean. Plus, a new strike on a Venezuelan vessel raises questions about presidential authority and transparency. We trace how "temporary" wartime powers became permanent policy, and wha…

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Spook-E – Kremlings 1:02:51

12d ago1:02:51

1:02:51

Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. Spook-E Season is back! All throughout October, we pick monsters from myth and media and speculate how they – or something like them – could evolve here on Earth, pulling inspiration from real-world species across our planet’s history. This year’s theme is Monsters of Nintendo! This time, we’re sailing with th…

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Lisa Graves: On The Roberts Court's Power Play 39:17

13d ago39:17

39:17

Lisa Graves joins to discuss Without Precedent: How Chief Justice Roberts and His Accomplices Rewrote the Constitution and Dismantled Our Rights—from court "capture" networks to why she sees the recent immunity ruling and emergency-docket moves as system-tilting, not umpiring. She and our host spar over what counts as a "constitutional crisis," con…

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Not Even Mad: Jonah Goldberg & Zee Cohen-Sanchez 1:06:06

14d ago1:06:06

1:06:06

Hamas hostages, Trump and autocracy, and the strangely quiet shutdown — we tackle all three. Why Trump's blunt style played in the Middle East, whether "competitive authoritarianism" really fits his second-term instincts and enablers, and who's taking the fall for Obamacare-premium brinkmanship. Plus: goat-grinders (pointless rebrands at Max and Ap…

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Jonathan Mahler: The Tabloids That Made The City That Made the Country 48:14

15d ago48:14

48:14

Mahler walks us through The Gods of New York: Egotists, Idealists, Opportunists, and the Birth of the Modern City, 1986–1990—how a late-'80s crucible of crime, crack, and tabloids minted characters like Spike Lee ("the coolest guy in America"), Al Sharpton, Donald Trump, Ed Koch, and Rudy Giuliani. We revisit Howard Beach, Yusuf Hawkins, Do the Rig…

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Cory Doctorow: Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It 35:52

16d ago35:52

35:52

Doctorow lays out his "enshittification" playbook—how tech platforms lure users, trap businesses, then extract value from both—tying it to interoperability, right-to-repair, and DMCA lock-ins, with Facebook as Exhibit A. He explains why incremental state laws can break Big Tech's coalitions better than sweeping federal reforms. Meanwhile, Venezuela…

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Episode 228 - Dinosaur Provincial Park 1:55:27

18d ago1:55:27

1:55:27

Located in southeastern Alberta is a stretch of gorgeous badlands that are home to some of the world’s absolute best Late Cretaceous fossils. This episode, we explore how Dinosaur Provincial Park earned its designation as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, we list off some of the famous dinosaurs who once lived there, and we discuss a fraction of the ma…

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Spook-E – Octoroks 57:06

19d ago57:06

57:06

Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. Spook-E Season is back! All throughout October, we pick monsters from myth and media and speculate how they – or something like them – could evolve here on Earth, pulling inspiration from real-world species across our planet’s history. This year’s theme is Monsters of Nintendo! This episode, we take a trip to …

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SCOTUS's Shadow Docket, Calibrated + Steven Vladeck 35:22

19d ago35:22

35:22

Mike previews the new Supreme Court term: Colorado's conversion-therapy ban, transgender athlete cases out of Idaho and West Virginia, a Louisiana Voting Rights Act fight, and a Rastafarian grooming claim, then dials in the panic meter on the "shadow docket": what it is, why Trump's emergency-order wins look so lopsided, and where concern beats cat…

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Funny You Should Mention: Steph Tolev 1:07:34

19d ago1:07:34

1:07:34

Season 3 of Funny You Should Mention begins with the "Filth Queen" herself Steph Tolev to explore why gross can be smart, how crowd work goes viral, Bill Burr's boost to her career, and the Canadian comedy grind. Big laughs, sharp ideas, adult themes. We also get into slapstick dummies, family lore, and why Boston brings the best chaos. Come for th…

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Plestia Alaqad: "The Eyes of Gaza," Witness and Journalist 51:48

21d ago51:48

51:48

Today on the Gist, a tough conversation with Plestia Alaqad about what she saw in Gaza and how she frames it for a global audience. They dig into sympathy versus credence, terminology like IDF versus IOF, the Al-Ahli Hospital claim, and whether journalism requires shared vocabulary. Plus, a spiel on U Thant, transliteration, and the "clean" versus …

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Jake Tapper and the Race Against Terror 35:55

21d ago35:55

35:55

Today on The Gist. Jake Tapper breaks down the first U.S. criminal trial of a foreign combatant: why prosecutors chose court over Gitmo, and the painstaking sleuthing that turned a shaky confession into a conviction. We talk DOJ institutional memory, the politics orbiting the Comey case, and why trials rather than commissions lock terrorists away. …

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Obama CDC Director Tom Frieden: "'Believe in Science' Is a Terrible Idea." 37:35

23d ago37:35

37:35

The former CDC director lays out his "See, Believe, Create" playbook from The Formula for Better Health: How to Save Millions of Lives—Including Your Own. He separates settled facts (hypertension control, PM2.5, tobacco) from guesswork, owns early COVID failures, and argues vaccine mandates and long school closures were mismatched to risk. Practica…

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Steven Pinker: "Common Knowledge Changes Everything" 37:39

23d ago37:39

37:39

Steven Pinker joins to discuss his new book, When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows: Common Knowledge and the Mysteries of Money, Power, and Everyday Life, exploring how shared awareness coordinates everything from markets to manners. He traces spirals of silence, costly signals, and why a single public moment can flip private hunches into history…

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Spook-E – Piranha Plants 1:06:10

26d ago1:06:10

1:06:10

Welcome ... to Spookulative Evolution. Spook-E Season is back! All throughout October, we pick monsters from myth and media and speculate how they – or something like them – could evolve here on Earth, pulling inspiration from real-world species across our planet’s history. This year’s theme is Monsters of Nintendo! This episode, we begin with a ba…

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Diane Foley on America's Hostage Blind Spot 29:12

26d ago29:12

29:12

Diane Foley, founder of the Foley Foundation and mother of slain journalist James Foley, joins Mike to discuss America's fragmented hostage-recovery system, wrongful detentions, and why the U.S. response lags far behind countries like Israel. In the Spiel, Mike looks at the 20-point Gaza plan, Israeli hostages, and the very different ways nations v…

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Jonah Blank: "Very Quickly and Then Very Slowly" in Nepal 34:51

27d ago34:51

34:51

South Asia expert Jonah Blank explains how a Gen-Z–driven uprising—fueled by social media, flaunted elite wealth, and ubiquitous VPNs—toppled Nepal's government. He sketches a country where remittances power daily life, institutions lack public trust, and political parties play musical chairs. Also: Trump fires another U.S. attorney and pressures M…

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Not Even Mad: Ben Wizner & Ilya Shapiro 1:02:34

28d ago1:02:34

1:02:34

Free speech under heat: the ACLU's Ben Wizner and the Manhattan Institute's Ilya Shapiro square off (and sometimes align) on the "ethos" of the First Amendment—from the Ball State firing over Charlie Kirk comments to cancel culture, government jawboning, and campus heckler's vetoes. We dig into the Supreme Court's shadow docket and unitary-executiv…

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Yaakov Katz - While Israel Slept: Winning Tunnels, Losing Time 44:58

29d ago44:58

44:58

Yaakov Katz co-author with Amir Bohbot, of While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East, traces the failures that led to October 7 and how Israel's security establishment misread Hamas's strength and intent. He explains how world opinion, hostage leverage, and casualty ratios constrain Israel differently in …

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KJ Steinberg, on The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox 37:30

29d ago37:30

37:30

We talk with KJ Steinberg, showrunner of Hulu's The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox, about concentrating on Knox's perspective while still showing how others perceived her, and the legal tightropes that shaped the series. She details the refracted structure (episodes from the prosecutor's to the co-defendant's POVs) and why the story follows Knox throu…

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Amanda Knox — "You don't have to be a psychopath to wrongly convict somebody." 33:31

1M ago33:31

33:31

Knox recounts confronting prosecutor Giuliano Mignini and explores how certainty, incentive structures, and "alternate realities" turned her story into a sprawling international conspiracy. She parses the feedback loop between media and Italian justice, and why today's true-crime-savvy public might have questioned the case sooner. Also: the 21 poin…

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Episode 227 - Beaks 2:26:52

1M ago2:26:52

2:26:52

The faces of vertebrate animals are often soft and full of teeth, but there is a common alternative. Birds, turtles, and many more groups have developed toothless snouts covered in a tough sheath. This episode, we’ll explore the defining features of beaks and their various functions. And we’ll take a tour through animal life past and present to inv…

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Is Masculinity A Prison? - Mike on Open to Debate 41:51

1M ago41:51

41:51

Listen to the full debate on Open to Debate's podcast channel or watch it on YouTube: https://bit.ly/MikePesca Men are falling behind in our society, and some point to traditional ideas of masculinity as the cause. What does it mean to "be a man" today, and how do labels like toxic masculinity impact that question? For some men, masculinity is a co…

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Andrew J. Taylor: "Blue-Collar Voters Don't Want Blue-Collar Politicians" 31:58

1M ago31:58

31:58

We talk with North Carolina State political scientist Andrew J. Taylor about his new book, A Tolerance for Inequality: American Public Opinion and Economic Policy, probing why voters often prefer public goods and tax cuts over classic redistribution—and how policy frequently tracks aggregate opinion more than pundits admit. Taylor also explores why…

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Justin Driver: "The Fall of Affirmative Action" 41:38

1M ago41:38

41:38

Yale Law's Justin Driver argues that SFFA v. Harvard/UNC broke with precedent and embraced a faux "colorblindness," spotlighting the Court's creative reading of Grutter's 2028 "sunset." He lays out the early fallout—sharp drops in Black enrollment at elite schools, Asian American gains, and the perverse incentive for applicants to "essay their trau…

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Laura Spinney on the Language That Conquered the World 31:36

1M ago31:36

31:36

Laura Spinney joins to discuss her new book Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global, tracing the unlikely rise of Indo-European and why most of the world now speaks it. Also, a look at the Dallas ICE field office shooting in the broader context of political violence and how we categorize it. And in the Spiel: Jimmy Kimmel's comeback monologue, …

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Sadie Dingfelder on Mosquito Magnets and Who Tastes Best to Bugs 26:22

1M ago26:22

26:22

President Trump mangles acetaminophen and issues a sweeping "don't take Tylenol" decree. Are some people truly more attractive to mosquitoes than others? Sadie Dingfelder joins to walk through decades of mosquito studies, from Gambian huts filled with human volunteers to modern lab assays with paraffin membranes, and explains why carbon dioxide, sw…

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Andrew Fox on "Slam Frank": Make Something Dangerous 51:11

1M ago51:11

51:11

The writer-composer behind the viral Slam Frank (an Anne Frank musical staged as if by the most social-justice-forward regional theater) explains why he pushes rules to their reductio ad absurdum and why "art should lift up the people who are beneath me." Fox walks through a contentious table read, a Change.org backlash, and the joy/rage of craftin…

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Attention as Activism: The Power of Thresholds (Dr. Patrick O’Neill) 1:18:14

1M ago1:18:14

1:18:14

How do we navigate times of disorientation and change without losing ourselves? In this conversation, Dr. Patrick O’Neill brings his background in organizational psychology and years of guiding leaders through transformation to reflect on thresholds as spaces of both challenge and possibility. We talk about attention as a radical act, vocation as a…

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JD Vance, Jimmy Kimmel, and America's Radical Underground 14:13

1M ago14:13

14:13

It's the Saturday show. One from the week, one from the vault. First, a look at JD Vance on the mic with Charlie Kirk and the culture wars of today. Then, we rewind a decade to my interview with Brian Burrow, author of Days of Rage, on the radical underground and the turbulence of the 1970s. Produced by Corey Wara Production Coordinator Ashley Khan…