Episodes

  • «Ich will mit Jesus konkurrieren»: Raphaela Edelbauer über Longevity und Technofaschismus

    «Ich will mit Jesus konkurrieren»: Raphaela Edelbauer über Longevity und Technofaschismus
    Jul 2 2026
    In diesem Gespräch geht es um die katholische Gebets-App «Hallow», in die Peter Thiel investiert hat, und um den Longevity-Influencer Bryan Johnson aus dem Silicon Valley. Raphaela Edelbauer beschreibt die Zusammenhänge zwischen der Optimierung des Körpers und dem Beten per App – und erklärt, warum der Wunsch nach ewigem Leben zu einem Problem für die Demokratie werden kann.
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    35 mins
  • “You’re Doing the Work for Them”: Claudia Durastanti on Class and Literature

    “You’re Doing the Work for Them”: Claudia Durastanti on Class and Literature
    Jun 26 2026
    A writer grows up poor, escapes her circumstances and writes about it with a mix of shame, guilt and pride. It’s one of the most classic tales in modern literature, and Claudia Durastanti thinks the story stopped being true just as the genre boomed. In this conversation, she and Lauren Oyler talk about autofiction, transfuge de classe narratives and what could be written instead.
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    54 mins
  • Biao Xiang on Lonely Deaths, Involution, and the Disappearance of the Nearby

    Biao Xiang on Lonely Deaths, Involution, and the Disappearance of the Nearby
    Jun 10 2026
    Loneliness is no longer a luxury problem for philosophers and artists. Anthropologist Biao Xiang discusses how it became a mass condition and what gossip, Hannah Arendt, and hummingbirds reveal about a way out of this crisis.
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    47 mins
  • What Writers Get Wrong About AI

    What Writers Get Wrong About AI
    Jun 5 2026
    In May 2026, an award-winning short story turned out to be likely written by AI, and none of the editors who published it noticed. Lauren and Tobias talk about the scandal and what most writers, even good ones, get wrong about the technology and what it takes to keep writing human.
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    47 mins
  • Florian Meinel über Meinungsfreiheit in Deutschland

    Florian Meinel über Meinungsfreiheit in Deutschland
    May 29 2026
    Florian Meinel, Professor für Staatstheorie an der Universität Göttingen, erklärt, wie das strafrechtliche Regime der Bundesrepublik entstanden ist und warum es heute zu einem dysfunktionalen System geführt hat, das niemanden mehr schützt, aber viele bedroht. Im Mittelpunkt steht der Streit um „From the River to the Sea," die Verpolizeilichung des Meinungsregimes und was Walter Benjamin damit zu tun hat.
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    51 mins
  • Maaza Mengiste on Photography, War, and the Stories History Forgot

    Maaza Mengiste on Photography, War, and the Stories History Forgot
    May 22 2026
    Recorded live at Chapters Bookshop in Berlin, novelist Maaza Mengiste talks with Meret Weber about photography and war, the research that reshaped The Shadow King, and her new novel set among the Black Germans and Africans living in Berlin as the Nazis came to power.
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    52 mins
  • Why Are They Even Together? Two Films on Modern Relationships

    Why Are They Even Together? Two Films on Modern Relationships
    May 12 2026
    A conversation on two new films about modern love: Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama and Anna Roller’s Allegro Pastel. Lauren Oyler and Tobias Haberkorn discuss open relationships, commitment, and the strange emotional logic of dating in an age of endless options and shrinking futures.
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    44 mins
  • Writers Read: Alaa Al-Qaisi on Gaza, Berlin, and the Reading That Was Cancelled

    Writers Read: Alaa Al-Qaisi on Gaza, Berlin, and the Reading That Was Cancelled
    May 4 2026
    Palestinian writer Alaa Al-Qaisi reads her Berlin Review essay “Better Than Berlin,” a diary of exile, Wannsee, and the public reading that was cancelled.
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    24 mins