Future Perfect

Co-host Sigal Samuel talks to Nikki Mirghafori, a Buddhist meditation teacher and AI researcher, about how to practice mindfulness of death Relevant resources: “Our calm is contagious”: How to use mindfulness in a pandemic, by Sigal SamuelIt’s okay to be doing okay during the pandemic, by Sigal SamuelAre we morally obligated to meditate? by Sigal Samuel Featuring:Nikki Mirghafori, a Buddhist meditation teacher and AI researcher Host:Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel), staff writer, VoxMore to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.Credits:Producer/Editor: Jackson BierfeldtEditor: Elbert VenturaExecutive Producer: Liz NelsonAbout Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-host Sean Illing talks to Sister Ilia Delio, a Franciscan nun and Catholic theologian, about the power of love and suffering in Christianity.Relevant resources: The Unbearable Wholeness of Being: God, Evolution, and the Power of Love, Ilia DelioMaking All Things New: Catholicity, Cosmology, Consciousness, Ilia DelioFeaturing:Ilia Delio, a Franciscan Sister of Washington, DC, and Villanova University theology professorHost:Sean Illing (@seanilling), senior interviews writer, VoxMore to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.Credits:Producer/Editor: Jackson BierfeldtEditor: Elbert VenturaExecutive Producer: Liz NelsonAbout Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-host Sigal Samuel talks to Cornel West, professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at Harvard, about Black liberation theology, existentialism, and other philosophies that can help us through these times.Relevant resources: Cornel West and Tricia Rose on The Tight Rope, Apple Podcasts  Featuring:Cornel West (@CornelWest), professor of the Practice of Public Philosophy at HarvardHost:Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel), staff writer, Vox More to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.Credits:Producer/Editor - Jackson BierfeldtEditor - Elbert VenturaExecutive Producer Liz NelsonAbout Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-host Sean Illing talks to Robert Zaretsky, professor of French history at the University of Houston, about Albert Camus’s novel The Plague.Relevant resources: The Plague, by Albert CamusSimone Weil: An Anthology, by Simone WeilAlbert Camus: Elements of a Life, by Robert Zaretsky Featuring:Robert Zaretsky, professor of history at the University of HoustonHost:Sean Illing (@seanilling), senior interviews writer, Vox More to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.About Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-host Sigal Samuel talks to Omid Safi, professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University, about the benefits of solitude and suffering, according to Sufis like Rumi.Relevant resources: Radical Love: Teachings from the Islamic Mystical Tradition, by Omid Safi Featuring:Omid Safi (@ostadjaan), professor of Islamic Studies at Duke UniversityHost:Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel), staff writer, Vox More to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.About Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-host Sean Illing talks to David Wolpe, senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los Angeles, about God and how to make sense of suffering in human life.Relevant resources: Making Loss Matter : Creating Meaning in Difficult Times by Rabbi David WolpeReligion without God: Alain de Botton on "atheism 2.0." by Sean IlingFeaturing:David Wolpe (@RabbiWolpe), senior rabbi at Sinai Temple in Los AngelesHost:Sean Illing (@Seanilling), senior interviews writerMore to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down the big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.About Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts. Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Co-host Sigal Samuel talks to Valerie Brown, a mindfulness teacher with a racial justice lens, about how to use Buddhist spiritual teachings not just to soothe us as individuals, but to tackle broader inequality, especially racial inequality.Relevant resources: "A New Paradigm For Racial Justice and the Global Pandemic" by Valerie Brown and Marisela Gomez, Order of Interbeing"It’s okay to be doing okay during the pandemic" by Sigal Samuel, Vox"“Our calm is contagious”: How to use mindfulness in a pandemic" by Sigal Samuel, VoxFeaturing:Valerie Brown (@Valeriebrown951), Principal, Lead Smart CoachingHost:Sigal Samuel (@SigalSamuel), Staff writer, Vox More to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.About Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines.Please consider making a contribution to Vox to support this show: bit.ly/givepodcasts Your support will help us keep having ambitious conversations about big ideas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We’re living through challenging times: a pandemic, a historic economic collapse, racial injustice, and social unrest. But it would be a mistake to believe that what we’re experiencing is somehow unique in human experience. People have confronted crises for millennia, grappling with the same anguish and anxiety we’re feeling now. And they’ve left us with rich wisdom about how to navigate suffering.There’s comfort in that — and that’s the idea at the heart of a new podcast series from Vox’s Future Perfect. In eight episodes hosted by Vox’s Sean Illing and Sigal Samuel, we’ll explore different philosophical teachings and faith traditions from around the world to help us process what we’re living through — and maybe even find something meaningful, ennobling, and fortifying in this common experience.More to explore:Subscribe to Vox’s Future Perfect newsletter, which breaks down big, complicated problems the world faces and the most efficient ways to solve them.About Vox:Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fifty years ago this summer, Apollo 11 landed on the moon.Now, NASA’s talking about going back.But is it worth it?We talk to lunar geologists about what we’ve already learned from the first Apollo missions, and what’s left to discover.Then, we take a trip, not through space, but through time—back to a scientific expedition in Greenland almost a century ago. The science done there might have seemed insignificant at the time, but has since proved an important first step towards our current understanding of global warming.Further reading:Brian's in-depth explainer on moon rocksJon Gertner's book about epic Greenland expeditions, The Ice At The End of The WorldFor more on ice coring, this National Geographic article is great, as is this 60 Minutes episode Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dana Goldstein, an insightful commentator on parent-teacher associations (PTAs), and Rob Reich, an expert on educational equity, dive into the troubling dynamics of rich PTAs. They discuss how affluent groups can monopolize resources, leaving disadvantaged schools in the lurch. Goldstein recounts the Malibu-Santa Monica PTA wars, while Reich highlights the broader implications of private donations, calling for systemic changes. Their conversation reveals alarming disparities that challenge the notion of equal educational opportunities for all children.