Your Brain Is Hiding the Truth From You
What if your brain isn’t showing you the world as it truly is?
Journalist, professor, and author of "A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness" Michael Pollan explores one of the deepest questions of all: why do we experience anything in the first place?
He discusses:
● What consciousness actually is
● Why the brain predicts reality instead of simply taking it in
● How perception may be a kind of “controlled hallucination”
● Why we may see the world in the most useful way, not the most accurate way
● What animals, plants, and AI reveal about consciousness
● Why feelings may be central to being conscious
● Why attention may be one of our most precious resources
● How social media and AI are putting consciousness under siege
● Why consciousness is something we may need to protect and cultivate
The world you see may feel solid, obvious, and real.
But Michael Pollan explains why the experience of being conscious is far stranger, more fragile, and more mysterious than most of us realize.
Putin’s Real Enemy Isn’t Ukraine
Why would the world’s largest country risk everything to destroy a smaller neighbor?
What is it about Ukraine that poses a greater threat to Vladimir Putin than any army?
Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and the Atlantic writer Anne Applebaum has spent decades studying Russia, Ukraine, and authoritarian regimes. She argues that the war is being fought over far more than territory and that the outcome will reshape democracy, military power, and global politics.
She discusses:
● What Putin was really trying to prevent when he invaded Ukraine
● Why nearly everyone underestimated the Ukrainian people
● How architects, engineers, and entrepreneurs began reinventing modern warfare
● What drones have revealed about the future of war
● The first warning sign that a democracy is beginning to fail
● How modern propaganda works without persuading anyone
● Why leaders often become dramatically richer as democracy weakens
The maps don’t tell the whole story of this war.
Anne Applebaum explains what’s actually at stake, why Putin hasn’t achieved what he expected, and what Ukraine may reveal about the hidden strengths of democracy.
The Wild True Stories Behind History's Greatest Art Thefts
How does someone steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre and simply walk away?
And how did an even more brazen crew rob the same museum in broad daylight last year with just a cherry picker and some power tools?
The real stories are stranger than Hollywood and best-selling author Noah Charney knows them all. One of the world’s leading experts on art crime, he has advised museums, governments, and law enforcement agencies around the world.
It turns out that stealing priceless art is often surprisingly easy. It’s turning the art into money that’s nearly impossible.
He explains:
◼ How a thief had unwitting Louvre workers help him walk out of the Louvre with the Mona Lisa
◼ How a brazen team used a cherry picker, power tools, and high-visibility vests to rob the Louvre in broad daylight
◼ Why most real art thieves are nothing like the elegant masterminds portrayed in movies
◼ How Napoleon turned art looting into an organized instrument of empire
◼ Why criminals steal art and how they get themselves apprehended
◼ How movies, fiction, and even the media can unintentionally help art criminals
Scientists May Soon Design Entirely New Life Forms
We’re entering a world where life itself could become programmable.
What if creating new forms of life becomes as simple as writing code?
Geneticist Adrian Woolfson explains how close we are — and why the consequences could be extraordinary.
The American Dream is Now a Coin Flip: Here's Why and What We Can Do
The American Dream promises that hard work leads to a better life. But for many children today, that promise depends less on effort and more on where they grow up.
Raj Chetty, a Harvard professor and the founder of Opportunity Insights, has spent years following millions of lives to understand what truly drives economic mobility. His findings challenge long-held assumptions about opportunity in America.
If the American Dream has started to feel like a coin flip, what’s quietly shaping the odds? And what would it take to give more children a real chance to get ahead?
In this conversation, we explore why neighborhoods matter more than we think and how expanding opportunity could strengthen not just individual lives, but the country as a whole.
Highlights of 2025
Some insights change how you see the world.
From the White House to the frontiers of AI drug discovery, we’ve gathered the most powerful moments from a year of extraordinary conversations.
This 2025 highlights episode brings you the thinkers and leaders who challenged assumptions, revealed hidden patterns, and reframed the biggest questions of our time.
What Happened When My Daughter Was Born Looking White - And I Wasn’t
In a Paris hospital delivery room, Thomas Chatterton Williams, writer for The Atlantic and author of Self-Portrait in Black and White, held his newborn daughter for the first time. Blonde hair. Blue eyes. And in that instant, everything he thought he knew about race shattered.
Thomas lives the questions about race and identity that most of us only debate. The son of a Black father who grew up under Jim Crow and a white mother, he had accepted America's racial categories without question. Until he couldn't.
What he decided is radical. Controversial. And will challenge how you think about identity, George Floyd, and the categories we use to define ourselves.
Space: The Invisible Infrastructure Behind Modern Life — And Its Growing Risks
Space may look empty, but it’s crowded, fragile, and under threat. Former Congresswoman Jane Harman and Lieutenant General (Ret.) Nina Armagno — former U.S. Space Force Director of Staff who oversaw missile warning, satellite operations, and space launches — reveal how satellites quietly keep the world running, and how quickly it could all go dark.
Imagine waking up to no internet, no GPS, and no air travel. They share what’s happening above our heads, and why we can’t afford to ignore it.
Goodbye Baby Boom—Hello Population Bust: How a 60% Drop Could Change Everything
Global birth rates are collapsing—sometimes to half the level needed to keep populations stable. UT-Austin’s Michael Geruso explains how that trend could shrink the world’s population from eight billion to three billion in just three generations. He unpacks the silent drivers behind falling fertility, why cash incentives rarely work, and what disappearing people mean for innovation, cities, pensions, and geopolitical power.
If you’ve never worried about a world that’s too small, this conversation will change your mind.
Swipe, Tap, Ghost: The New Rules of Human Connection
What if your phone is quietly changing your brain—and your relationships? The brilliant Christine Rosen explores how digital life is reshaping everything from childhood to public discourse, often in ways we barely notice. With insight and urgency, she challenges the assumptions driving our always-online world. This conversation will make you see your screen—and our society—differently.
Your Brain’s Being Hijacked: The Hidden Psychology Behind Everyday Decisions
Ever wondered why we sometimes act irrationally, even when it’s not in our best interest? Ori Brafman has, and his answers are enlightening. Here, he talks about the hidden forces and human emotions that make us act irrationally, how pre-dispositions and labeling people can lead to irrationality, how we can become more rational, and more.
How Your DNA Interacts With the World Around You
Are we shaped by our genes or by our environment? For centuries, this question has fueled one of science's most enduring debates. But the truth is more shocking—and more fascinating—than either side ever imagined. Princeton professor Dalton Conley reveals why we need to abandon the idea of "nature vs. nurture" and embrace a radically new understanding of human development.
Don’t Believe the Doom: American Workers Are Moving Up
Is today's economy delivering for American workers? According to Georgetown University professor Michael Strain, the answer is absolutely “yes,” despite populist rhetoric… and there’s convincing data to back that up. Why is the American Dream in doubt? How can it be strengthened? Listen to this inspiring conversation for answers.
We Can’t Stop the Wildfires—But We Can Stop the Disaster
Wildfires have ravaged residential communities like never before, and confusion about the causes and solutions is out of control. Listen, as renowned fire scientist Jack Cohen reveals the keys to protecting homes, why more firefighting resources alone aren’t the answer, and the step L.A. does not appear to be taking to minimize future damage.
The Hidden Pattern in Fires, Earthquakes, Stock Market Crashes, and Even Wars
Catastrophes seem to be the new normal. There’s a stunning new scientific belief that although catastrophes are unpredictable, there’s a hidden pattern that explains them all. In other words, fires, avalanches, wars and even stock market crashes aren’t a glitch in the system, they are the system itself. Listen as noted physicist Mark Buchanan reveals more.
The Power of Leaderless Organizations: How Decentralized Groups are Changing the World
What happens when there’s no one in charge? You’d think chaos would reign—but in reality, leaderless organizations are thriving, disrupting industries, and shaping the future. In this episode of 3 Takeaways, New York Times bestselling author Ori Brafman explains why decentralized networks—from Wikipedia to Bitcoin to social movements—are more resilient, adaptable, and powerful than we might expect.
Whole Foods CEO on The Future of Food: More Than Taste
Food. People are demanding more from it these days than taste. They want food to meet their personal health needs. They want it produced using methods that improve the health of the planet, respect the people who grow it, and more. Here, the visionary CEO of Whole Foods Market, Jason Buechel, shares his thoughts on the food of the future and how to satisfy peoples’ appetite for it.
Former Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz: Tackling Global Warming and Energy Solutions
Energy is complicated. As global demand continues to grow, so does the need for realistic, climate-friendly solutions. Are renewables the answer? How about nuclear power? What is China’s role? Listen, as former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz provides smart answers to daunting questions about energy, and examines the threat of nuclear war.
Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO James Stavridis Does Not Mince Words
When Admiral James Stavridis (Ret) talks, everyone from Hillary Clinton to Donald Trump listens. Here, the brilliant former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO shares his thoughts on the U.S. relationship with China; how to fundamentally remake the Middle East; why the U.S. buying Greenland isn’t as crazy as it sounds; the impact of AI on the power of nations; and more.
Top Takeaways of 2024
The episode you’ve been waiting for is here: our Top Takeaways of 2024. Listen to some of the world’s smartest, most influential thinkers, business leaders, innovators, technologists, and other newsmakers — including Eric Schmidt, Mellody Hobson, Atul Gawande, Fareed Zakaria, Jill Abramson, Stephen Breyer, Niall Ferguson and others. You don’t want to miss this episode.