Advertise on podcast: Factually! with Adam Conover

The conversation about trauma is everywhere, and it seems like our culture is finally grappling with the concept openly. But here's the thing: if we don't get what trauma really is, on a psychological or biological level, it can be hard move past it. In this episode, Adam sits down with Dr. Edith Shiro, the author of The Unexpected Gift of Trauma: The Path to Posttraumatic Growth, to talk about what trauma truly means, the misconceptions around it, and the tools required to grow from it.

Is free will a scientific fact? Dr. Kevin Mitchell, neuroscientist and the author of Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will, certainly thinks so. While some, like recent guest Robert Sapolsky, argue that biology and physics can explain away free will, Kevin begs to differ. Join Adam and Kevin in this episode as they dive into how evolution paved the way for free will and unravel the common misconceptions surrounding the "I" that makes choices.

Capitalism has changed. A century ago, capitalists amassed untold wealth by manufacturing goods, but today, our economy appears to be dominated by massive tech corporations that don't actually produce anything. Instead, these tech giants offer platforms—such as search engines, AI, or marketplaces—through which they extract profits from users. Adam speaks with Yanis Varoufakis, former finance minister of Greece, about his book Technofeudalism: What Killed Capitalism, exploring how this new form of capitalism jeopardizes our livelihoods and what measures we can take to safeguard our future from big tech.

Does free will truly exist, or are we merely sophisticated meat machines running our biochemical programming with sentience as a byproduct? Stanford University neurologist Robert Sapolsky, having extensively studied the topic, asserts that not only is free will a myth but also that our insistence on its reality adversely affects the world we inhabit. In this episode, Adam speaks with Dr. Sapolsky about how choice is an illusion and the impact this has on our society, from workplace meritocracies to criminal justice reform.

For as long as there's been comedy, there have been people lamenting that "you can't do comedy anymore". This sentiment feels more prevalent than ever, but is it actual censorship or a shift in our culture? Adam talks with Kliph Nesteroff, a historian of comedy and author of Outrageous: A History of Showbiz and the Culture Wars, about the history of censorship in comedy, and how the idea of audiences being "too sensitive" is propaganda pushed by the very same people who censored comedians in years past

Gaza has been decimated by atrocious violence. Since the war erupted in October, 1 in every 100 Palestinians has been killed, and nearly all of those who survive have been displaced. In order to imagine what could possibly happen next, we have to look back at a century of history leading up to this moment. This week, Adam is joined by Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian-American historian of the Middle East and Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, to discuss what led to the escalating violence in Gaza and what could possibly happen next.

Recently, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman was ousted and then reinstated in a matter of days. No explanation has been made public, which is unsettling considering just how quickly OpenAI, ChatGPT, and DALL·E have become household names. What's actually happening behind closed doors at OpenAI? Adam is joined by tech journalist Karen Hao to discuss the history of this massively influential company, how they've struggled with the identity of being a non-profit, and how the future of AI is ultimately at the mercy of the capitalist forces that drive it.

While the rise of fentanyl may seem like it emerged out of nowhere, it has a long and complicated history dating back hundred years. The pharmaceutical industry, the illegal drug trade, and government response all have roles in the ongoing epidemic of overdoses. This week, Adam speaks with Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, an epidemiologist and street drug scientist at the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center, to explore why the opioid crisis is so frequently misunderstood and the multi-faceted approach required to mitigate the dangers of fentanyl.

In recent years, the number of young people identifying as trans has doubled. However, a common misinterpretation arises, suggesting that this surge implies a new phenomenon of being trans or gender non-conforming. Modern Western culture has strongly insisted on the conventional belief that the gender binary is natural, fostering the false assumption that human culture and history have always revolved around this binary. In reality, humans worldwide have expressed gender concepts outside that binary as far back as the 8th century BC. This week, Adam engages in conversation with Dr. Kit Heyam, author of "Before We Were Trans: A New History of Gender," to explore gender expressions of the past and move beyond the limited modern view of gender.

Social media is just media now. It has irreversibly changed how we engage with our world, yet it is often disregarded as frivolous. The dismissal of social media can be dangerous, as it minimizes not just the benefits but the dangers of our current media landscape. This week Adam is joined by Taylor Lorenz, an internet expert and author of "Extremely Online: The Untold Story of Fame, Influence, and Power on the Internet," to track the evolution of social media, from the birth of mommy bloggers to the current crisis of social platforms exploiting their audiences for free labor.

Over 34 million disabled Americans, but despite the commonality of having a disability, there's still a social tendency to want to "solve" disability out of view with technology. As useful as robotic limbs or exoskeletons for walking might seem on paper, they don't always consider the practicalities of living with a disability. In this episode, Adam speaks with Ashley Shew, author of "Against Technoableism," about how technology is best suited to make an impact for the disabled and when it's only used to hide disability to make the abled more comfortable.

When we donate to charity, we aim to have the most significant impact possible, yet it's easy to feel like our giving makes zero difference. The rise of effective altruism, a philosophical model designed to achieve the most substantial potential impact with giving, seemed poised to combat this, but does treating people like data help? Or does it exclude the dimensions of life and what actually makes us human? In this episode, Adam is joined by Amy Schiller, author of "The Price of Humanity: How Philanthropy Went Wrong—And How to Fix It," to discuss these cultural shifts in philanthropy and what we can do to ensure we are making an impact.