Interesting Times with Ross Douthat

The work of Rod Dreher has a consistent theme: doom. He believes the collapse of Christianity has ushered civilizational decline in Europe, that we’ve traded our humanity for comfort, and he worries that totalitarianism is around the corner for the United States. “I’m worried about Weimar America,” he tells me. “It may not be Hitler 2.0, it may not be Stalin 2.0. It might be something all American, but it’s not going to be what we’re used to.” It’s best not to dismiss him; he’s been right before. We discuss how we got here and the dangers that still lie ahead when we grant godlike powers to our technology.

0:00 - Intro

1:41 - The role of Christianity in Western society

12:26 - Free speech in Western Europe

17:40 - Immigration and de-Christianization

23:55 - Viktor Orbán's Hungary

34:50 - "Weimar America" and the coming crisis

46:45 - Dreher's personal journey

55:12 - Dark re-enchantment and A.I. as a "vector for the demonic"

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

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My fellow Americans: On this 250th anniversary of our great republic, I think we’re unlikely to have a unifying address from any politician. So, I thought I’d get a little dressed up and offer one myself. Watch this video on YouTube Channel: Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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The growing alienation between men and women is, to my mind, one of the biggest stories of our time.

It’s warping our politics and culture through the rise of misogynistic influencers on the right and a growing sense of feminist despair on the left.

My guest this week believes that our problems today can be traced back to the sexual revolution. She argues that it reset relations between the sexes in a fundamentally negative way and ultimately benefited men. Louise Perry is a columnist for The Wall Street Journal’s Free Expression section and the author of “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution.”

0:00 - Intro

01:28 - “The Case Against the Sexual Revolution"

16:20 - What is reactionary feminism?

21:30 - The effects of the digital revolution on men and women

30:29 -  The tradwife phenomenon

34:58 - What about premarital sex?

43:38 - Can female emancipation and sexual restraint coexist?

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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“If you think this is a bad deal, what is your alternative?” Critics of JD Vance think that his key role in the Iran negotiations may end up being an albatross around his neck. (“If it doesn’t work out, I’m blaming JD,” President Trump said in France this week.)

But in our conversation, the vice president seemed buoyant and eager to play the salesman, insisting that the deal is better than the pact President Barack Obama sealed in 2015.

I asked him about his initial opposition to the war, his conflict with the pope and whether his political future is riding on the success of the Iran agreement. We also discussed Vance’s new book, “Communion,” about the vice president’s return to faith, and whether or not the Trump administration’s policies embody Christian values.

0:00 - Intro

01:06 - The implications of the US - Iran Peace deal

07:04 - Will Iran's internal politics transform?

17:30 - The US - Israel Relationship

22:19 - Vance's Protestant Christian upbringing

28:22 - From non-believer to rediscovering faith

35:18 - Christianity in Vance's life and in the Trump administration

47:07 - Tensions with Pope Francis

54:10 - The future of the Iran deal and a message to Republican critics

(A full transcript of this episode is available on the Times website.)

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. Please subscribe to our YouTube Channel, Interesting Times with Ross Douthat.

Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app.

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We can enhance athletic performance, lose weight with a pill and even take psychedelics to alter consciousness. At what point does all this self-optimization become self-obsession? When does it get in the way of our humanity itself? My guest this week is the German biotech entrepreneur Christian Angermayer, who believes scientific breakthroughs to extend our lives — and even put us in touch with the divine — are close at hand.

0:00 - Intro

01:40 - Investing in longevity, A.I. and psychedelics

6:06 - The vision for the Enhanced Games

13:45 - Normalizing enhancements for everyone

20:02 - Ozempic is the first of many...

30:00 - The five basics for health and well-being

36:52 - Psychedelics trips and spiritual revelations

59:20 - Christian skepticism

01:04:22 - "Jesus is not human-maxxing."

Thoughts? Email us at interestingtimes@nytimes.com. 

Read the full transcript here: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/11/opinion/better-sex-better-hair-better-sleep-humanmaxxing-is-here.html

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