Episodes
-
Better Tech
We’re in the wild west of cyberspace. It is a man-made ecosystem, this cyberspace, where man-made AI lives and flourishes, but we’re coming to know that it’s a dangerous place, crawling with bullies and predators, ... The post Better Tech appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
AI Apocalypse?
We’re staring down the life-and-death hazard of artificial intelligence. That phrase “AI apocalypse” sounds a little panicky, but when the masters of the craft started arguing this summer about how soon, in the next 10 ... The post AI Apocalypse? appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
The Breakup
We’re between breakdown and breakup, or maybe between the AI monster and human extinction. Those are the rough choices that the all-purpose American writer Kurt Andersen is offering us in his vast portrait of a ... The post The Breakup appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Voice of a Century
We’re savoring a glorious story we thought we knew in the long ordeal of racial justice in America. It was the singer Marian Anderson’s moment in 1939, after the Daughters of the American Revolution barred ... The post Voice of a Century appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey
We’re at sea this time on our own Odyssey, a voyage between the ancient epic that refuses to die and Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster movie version for us in this summer of 2026. It’s the story ... The post Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
The World’s Sport
We’re high as a kite on World Cup football. The final test, coming Sunday, is down to Spain and Argentina. My question is whether this frenzied global contest might actually be rescuing our species from ... The post The World’s Sport appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
After the Fireworks
We’re still in the Fourth of July spirit around the 250th birthday of our nation, hooked in particular by one grand American historian’s question to it: is the United States on the road to a ... The post After the Fireworks appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
The Boston Watch Party
We’re in a sort of watch party for a season when World Cup soccer, championship basketball, sports of every kind, all seem to run deeper, more believable, much better played than the rest of our ... The post The Boston Watch Party appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
America’s Orwell
We’re unearthing a model writer for an anxious America. Dwight Macdonald was his own eccentric voice through the Cold War politics and culture of the 1950s and 60s. He was a peacenik at heart, otherwise ... The post America’s Orwell appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Here Where We Live Is Our Country
We’re entranced in Molly Crabapple’s reanimation of the Jewish Labour Bund in Europe and Russia, of a century ago. Yiddish Socialism was a nickname. You could plausibly describe that old Bund as forgotten but not ... The post Here Where We Live Is Our Country appeared first on Open Source with...
-
Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed
We’re talking about the new magic of money, or Musk-ism, as our guests call it. Quinn Slobodian and Ben Tarnoff are historians of different sorts—historians of the future. Oddly enough, their hair-raising new book is ... The post Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed appeared first on Open Source…
more -
The Pope and the President
We’re tuning in on the Pope and the President in what can sound like a historic showdown. Are we in the first rounds of an epic struggle between church and empire? Are we perhaps looking ... The post The Pope and the President appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Kings and Pawns
It’s Jackie Robinson Day, 2026, when every player in Major League Baseball wears the immortal Dodger’s number 42. Listeners, if you think you know the Jackie Robinson story, think again with us around the most ... The post Kings and Pawns appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Thoreau Meets ICE
In 1854, when the escaped slave Anthony Burns was captured in Boston and returned in chains to slave-owners in Virginia, despite riotous resistance on the dock in Boston, Henry David Thoreau himself was shattered. Lewis ... The post Thoreau Meets ICE appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
Fear and Fury
Who remembers Bernie Goetz? Who remembers his victims? Or was Bernie Goetz the victim—the subway shooter who, back in 1984, fired at four black teenagers in a crowded subway car in Manhattan because he felt ... The post Fear and Fury appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Hit-and-Run Belligerence
How should we see the Israeli-American War on Iran? How should we understand it, or maybe even escape it? The writer and historian Daniel Immerwahr is our guest, with the essential qualifications, starting with his ... The post Hit-and-Run Belligerence appeared first on Open Source with…
more -
Sleepwalking into World War III
I must say, among all the wise people commenting on this world’s situation, I honor Jeffrey Sachs especially for being relentless on the dangers out there, going back to the Biden years. Jeffrey Sachs. He ... The post Sleepwalking into World War III appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
War with Iran
We’re sorting puzzle pieces from the opening rounds of war with Iran. The U.S. and Israel started it. The Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic in Iran was among the first to die in it, ... The post War with Iran appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Bernie’s Journey
We’re tracking the Bernie Sanders story from a Brooklyn boyhood to the Green Mountain socialism that he implanted in Vermont, and then to his two offbeat campaigns for the Democratic presidential nomination: in 2016, and ... The post Bernie’s Journey appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
George Saunders on Life and the Afterlife
We’re going off script out here in the afterlife, in the imagination of the triple-threat novelist George Saunders. He’s eminent as a writer of stories and novels, as a critical reader, and as a teacher ... The post George Saunders on Life and the Afterlife appeared first on Open Source with...
-
Pico Supreme
Pico Iyer is the global citizen and now, inadvertently, the movie star—in the winter’s hot movie, Marty Supreme. Across a hundred conversations over the years, we thought we knew everything about him, the transcendentalist Buddhist ... The post Pico Supreme appeared first on Open Source with...
-
Age of Hemispheric Empires
We’re getting our heads around the invasion of Venezuela and what feels like a rough new rule book for the so-called world order. Cue Greg Grandin, the hemispheric historian who wrote that big book America, ... The post Age of Hemispheric Empires appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
A Thousand Years of Capitalism
We’re talking about capitalism this time, trying to reckon the power of big money to shape—even rule—the human species. Capitalism is the one-word name given to a thousand-year-old force. It’s not a science or doctrine ... The post A Thousand Years of Capitalism appeared first on Open Source with...
-
John Updike’s Vocation
We’re rediscovering John Updike in the afterlife of a great writer. The Selected Letters of John Updike, just published, come to 800 pages of unguarded messages to his wives and lovers, to his mother and ... The post John Updike’s Vocation appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope
Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope is Brandon Terry’s long-awaited personal and philosophical case for struggle and optimism in the long civil rights movement in our country. It’s a map of our minds and our memories, a ... The post Shattered Dreams, Infinite Hope appeared first on Open Source with...
-
Stress-Testing the Rule of Law
What is breaking down or what’s broken when the governor of Illinois says he’s being invaded by the National Guard of Texas under President Trump’s orders, or when the president is dueling with Oregon and ... The post Stress-Testing the Rule of Law appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
Mrs. Dalloway at 100
Call this Mrs. Dalloway’s podcast. We’re reading classic fiction from a century ago for light on the strangeness of the world in our day, or maybe just for relief reading a great old book. The ... The post Mrs. Dalloway at 100 appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Where Are the Intellectuals?
We’re with the cultural historian Robin D.G. Kelley at UCLA, who has the nerve to ask: where have our thinkers gone in Trump time? Not the experts or the influencers, but the grander minds who ... The post Where Are the Intellectuals? appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Russia and Ukraine in 2025
We’re in the fourth summer of hot warfare between Russia and Ukraine. It’s a cruel and deadly war that doesn’t know how to stop. Anatol Lieven. Our guest to offer a helping hand is the ... The post Russia and Ukraine in 2025 appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
America, América
We’re grappling with the prize historian Greg Grandin’s take on the making of the modern world. There’s a 600-page version in hard covers, but also a two-word version in his title, America, América, code for ... The post America, América appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
The Hard Work of Organizing
We’re retracing our steps out of the last bad-dream era in American life. Michael Ansara was in the thick of that struggle too, around war and justice. The Hard Work of Hope is his memoir ... The post The Hard Work of Organizing appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Occupied America
We’re in Saratoga, New York, with the soulful American believer Marilynne Robinson, prize novelist and teacher of novelists. She’s known over the decades as the storyteller we trust to observe the troubled heart of our ... The post Occupied America appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
Trump at War
We’re in the Orwellian aftermath of what President Trump has called his 12-day war in the Middle East. It’s over, he proclaimed on Monday. “Congratulations world,” he said on his Truth Social site, “it’s time ... The post Trump at War appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Divided, Defensive Democracy
This week, it’s a conversation on the democracy question and the embattled fate of our own, beset as it is from within. Philosopher-historian Danielle Allen is our guest examiner of the cranky American condition. It ... The post Divided, Defensive Democracy appeared first on Open Source with...
-
The Last Supper
We’re with the writer Paul Elie, recalling the moment when popular culture came to sound like public prayer. There was Madonna in 1989, singing her number one hit “Like a Prayer.” The song is a ... The post The Last Supper appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Capitalism and Its Critics
We’re staring down the several crises in our economy—and recalling the grand old joke that it’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism. John Cassidy. John Cassidy of The ... The post Capitalism and Its Critics appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Trade, Trumped
We’re staring down the global trade war with Mark Blyth at Brown University. He is the People’s Economist from Scotland, who takes us home to his village pub in Dundee every once in a while ... The post Trade, Trumped appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Gatsby at 100: Fitzgerald’s Warning about Trumpism
We have a key, finally, to the mystery of Donald Trump and where he came from. He was born almost exactly 100 years ago in the imagination of the novelist F. Scott Fitzgerald. What he ... The post Gatsby at 100: Fitzgerald’s Warning about Trumpism appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
Miracles and Wonder
We’re considering the Jesus story with the historian Elaine Pagels. Her new book is a marvel, crowning a lifetime of bestselling scholarship, sifting the sources and retuning the narrative in and around the Christian Gospels. ... The post Miracles and Wonder appeared first on Open Source with...
-
Trump vs. Harvard
We’re tracking President Trump’s squeeze on higher education, and the argument in the Ivy League: whether or not to make a fight of it. First, Columbia surrendered under a Trump threat to cut $400 million ... The post Trump vs. Harvard appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
From Social to Spiritual Media
We’re reading our way out of a ruined time with the model reader, Patricia Lockwood. She’s the poet laureate of the internet, for starters. She’s a big-league literary critic, master of social media and the ... The post From Social to Spiritual Media appeared first on Open Source with Christopher...
-
A New World
We’re looking for our American place in what can feel like a new world order, with Stephen Walt, our first and favorite so-called realist in the foreign policy game—realists being the people who steer by ... The post A New World appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Angus King’s Civics Lesson
Angus King is the anti-partisan, independent United States Senator from the cranky Yankee state of Maine. He is giving us a conversational civics lesson in the tradition of James Madison and also of Schoolhouse Rock, ... The post Angus King’s Civics Lesson appeared first on Open Source with...
-
Muskology
In the fog of Trump Two, we’re asking: what’s new? The co-presidency with Elon Musk is surely new, also the raging battle of exotic ideas among techno-optimists and libertarian anarcho-capitalists at war with the very ... The post Muskology appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Trump Part II
We’re picking up the pieces of our country in the age of Trump, Part II. Is the USA still here? Is it still us? Kurt Andersen. Cue Kurt Andersen, with his finger in the wind. ... The post Trump Part II appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Aflame
We’re with writer-world’s exotic traveller and truth-teller Pico Iyer. He’s been the Dalai Lama’s friend from boyhood, and our friend, too, in years now of reading and talk. In his new book, Aflame, subtitled Learning ... The post Aflame appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
From Boston to Bethlehem
We’re here with a capsule of memory from late last year. It was a spark of generosity in Liz Walker’s story that lit up the Christmas season for lots of us, and maybe the path ... The post From Boston to Bethlehem appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
A Geopolitical Check-Up
We’re with the one-off diplomat, strategist, and historian Chas Freeman. Chas Freeman. Call this “Curious Citizen Meets the Most Knowledgeable Straight-Talker Anywhere Near the U.S. Government.” At a turn in the calendar, a transition in ... The post A Geopolitical Check-Up appeared first on Open...
-
Blyth is Back
We’re with the celebrated Scots-accented people’s economist—celebrated above all when he’s home with the locals in his own old pub in Dundee, settling all the arguments there are around money and power, and populism on ... The post Blyth is Back appeared first on Open Source with Christopher Lydon.
-
Not Your Standard Book Chat
We’re with the Nobel Prize novelist from Turkey, Orhan Pamuk. It’s not your standard book chat: closer to head-butting than conversation, as you’ll hear. But it’s polite enough and nobody gets hurt. Chris and Orhan ... The post Not Your Standard Book Chat appeared first on Open Source with...
About this show
Christopher Lydon in conversation on arts, ideas and politics
Hosted by
Christopher Lydon
Categories