At a Distance
A podcast about the bigger picture. Host Spencer Bailey calls on leading minds, from scientists and technologists to artists and climate activists, to zoom out and look at some of the planet’s most pressing issues from a whole-earth, long-view perspective.
Latest episodes
Jun 3, 2020 • 32min
Shantell Martin on Getting to the Core of Who You Are
Artist Shantell Martin talks with us about the racial and economic inequality of Covid-19, the virus of racism, the power of reflection, and the importance of fighting against institutional memory loss.
Jun 1, 2020 • 40min
Tristan Harris on How Big Tech Is Distorting Our World
Tristan Harris, president and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology and co-host of the Your Undivided Attention podcast, discusses the speed blindness caused by our technology systems and how Silicon Valley could effectively engage in climate action.
May 28, 2020 • 31min
Susan Magsamen on the Intersection of Brain Sciences and the Arts
May 27, 2020 • 35min
Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley on the Past, Present, and Future of Quarantine
Geoff Manaugh and Nicola Twilley, the husband-and-wife author duo of the forthcoming book “The Coming Quarantine,” talk about quarantine’s historical origins, political abuses of power during shelter-in-place orders, and designing “pandemic-friendly” cities.
May 25, 2020 • 34min
Eric Maskin on the Quandary of Reopening
Economist, Nobel laureate, and Harvard University professor Eric Maskin discusses the supply-chain challenges in restarting the economy, the issues he foresees with the 2020 U.S. presidential election, and why he thinks America will remain a center for global innovation.
May 21, 2020 • 31min
Dr. David Katz on Understanding Covid-19 in a Big-Picture Context
Dr. David Katz, the CEO of the start-up Diet ID and the former director of Yale University’s Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center, speaks with us about the importance of acknowledging doubt and analyzing Covid-19 through science, sense, and consensus.
May 20, 2020 • 30min
Nina Jablonski on How Narratives Drive the Future of the Planet
Anthropologist and paleobiologist Nina Jablonski talks about how “this little piece of RNA with a punk haircut” is causing us to reflect on our relationship with nature and technology, and why future discourse needs to be structured around a classic liberal-arts education.
May 18, 2020 • 34min
Molly Jong-Fast on the Bewildering U.S. Election-Year Political Landscape
Molly Jong-Fast, editor-at-large of The Daily Beast and co-host of the podcast The New Abnormal, discusses the White House’s response to Covid-19, what’s ailing both the left and right in American politics right now, and her hopes for the November 2020 election.
May 14, 2020 • 31min
Sarah Williams Goldhagen on Building Better, Healthier Environments
Sarah Williams Goldhagen, author of the book “Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives,” speaks with us about how the pandemic may lead to a greater localization of place and the profound psychological and emotional effects of the built world.
May 13, 2020 • 32min
Christian Madsbjerg on the Pandemic as a Social Catastrophe
Christian Madsbjerg, a professor at The New School and co-founder of the consultancy Red Associates, talks about conducting better high-stakes decision making under stress and why we need to overhaul how knowledge is created and organized.
