Interesting Times with Ross Douthat – Details, episodes & analysis

There’s a saying that comes to mind these days: May you live in interesting times. It’s understood to be a curse, even though it sounds like a blessing.

“Interesting Times With Ross Douthat” is a new weekly podcast from New York Times Opinion. Every Thursday, he will map the new world order through interviews and conversations. Answering questions like: What does our new political era really look like? What is the future of democracy around the world, with American empire in retreat? What happens to movies and books — all of culture — in our digital and A.I.-dominated age?

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

Unlock full access to New York Times podcasts and explore everything from politics to pop culture. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

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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