PODCAST · society
Forbidden Conversations
by Katherine Brodsky
FORBIDDEN CONVERSATIONS is a series that takes on topics that don't always get attention or are more challenging to tackle and seeks to address them through civil discourse and nuanced exploration. The podcast is hosted by Katherine Brodsky. As a journalist, she has served as a correspondent for VARIETY since 2011 and also written for publications like NEWSWEEK, WIRED, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE GUARDIAN, ESQUIRE, MASHABLE, VULTURE, and others.
Episodes
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Your gut biome with Dr. Joseph Petrosino
It's time for the gut microbiome to become a more central part of our conversation about health. That's why today I’m talking with Dr. Joseph Petrosino about the trillions of bacteria, viruses, and other microbes living in the gut, and why they reach far beyond digestion: into immunity…
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What your tech habits are trying to tell you
Jay Vidyarthi is a designer, author, entrepreneur, and attention activist working at the intersection of technology, mindfulness, and human wellbeing. He is the founder of Still Ape, a design firm that's focused on creating more mindful and human-centered technology. Jay has contributed to more...
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The future of aging and AI with Chia Lin Simmons
Chia Lin Simmons is a former executive at Google, Amazon/Audible, Samsung, Harman/JBL and series A to series D startups in Silicon Valley. She's the CEO of LogicMark, one of the leaders in medical alert, health communication, and personal safety technology. The tech helps empower patients and...
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The future of memory with Anthony Metivier
This conversation with memory expert Dr. Anthony Metivier explores practical strategies for remembering names, improving focus, and building a sharper memory, while also examining deeper questions about the internet as humanity's external memory, the "vanishing" of online information, and the...
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Can your phone help you sleep?
Mikael Kågebäck is Chief Technology & Product Officer at Sleep Cycle, a company that uses AI and signal processing to help people sleep better.Kågebäck started out as a software developer, then worked as a software architect, before going back to school to do a PhD in machine learning, with a…
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AI companions for everyone?
Doesn’t everyone deserve an AI companion of their own? It’s always available. It won’t reject or judge you. It will always be on your side. It won’t fight or insult you. It doesn’t have its own problems to deal with, so it can focus on the person who matters most: you. It will always “listen.” It...
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AI & the evolution of the human brain
In this episode, noted scientist Ilya Kolmanovsky, discusses the evolution of the human brain and its interaction with AI. We explore how our brains have developed over millions of years, the impact of digital technology on cognition, and the potential for brain-machine interfaces. The…
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The hidden power of curiosity
We live in a world where answers arrive instantly and algorithms predict what we want to see. Every spare moment can be filled with information, entertainment, or distraction. But what do we lose when there is no room left for wondering? I often say that curiosity can solve almost anything. Think...
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Engineering your meat in a lab?
Interview with Uma Valeti of Upside Foods, a food technology company that grows sustainable cultured meat. That is, lab-meat. As seen on Mr. Beast!
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Speaking to Andrew Tate's therapist, David Sutcliffe
David Sutcliffe is a coach, teacher, workshop facilitator, and podcast host. He is a certified Somatic Practitioner, trained in Core Energetics. A former actor, he's best known for his role on the popular TV series Gilmore Girls. Born and raised in Canada, he now lives in Valle de Bravo, Mexico...
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Is extremism on the rise? Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss
Dr. Cynthia Miller-Idriss is a leading scholar in the study of extremism, radicalization, and polarization, whose work bridges academic research and practical interventions. As the director of the Polarization and Extremism Research & Innovation Lab (PERIL) at American University, her research...
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Zion Lights: Going nuclear
Zion Lights is an award-winning science communicator and environmental advocate, widely recognised for challenging conventional environmental narratives. She champions a science-led vision of human progress, in which energy poverty is alleviated.Zion is notable particularly for her success with...
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The anger behind comedy
Can laughter solve everything? Clifford Myers is a 16-year stand-up comedy veteran, Founder of The Other Comedy Company (theothercomedy.co), and President of The Canadian Association of Stand-up, Sketch and Improv Comedians (CASC).Clifford uses his unique position at the intersection of comedy,...
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The dangerous new world of publishing
Adam Szetela is a Ph.D. student in the English department at Cornell University, and a former visiting fellow in the history department at Harvard University. His book, "That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing," will be published by the...
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What everyone gets wrong about DEI
About Paolo Gaudiano:With advanced degrees in aerospace engineering and neuroscience, Paolo jokes that he had already done rocket science and brain surgery before facing a really complex problem: convincing business leaders they can make more money by creating more inclusive organizations.Paolo…
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Babylon's Bee Seth Dillon: Is satire done?
Comedy has two roles: to entertain people and to expose societal absurdities. It can be a tool for critical thinking, encouraging audiences to reconsider and mock ideas that don't deserve their respect.Today's guest is Seth Dillon, the CEO of The Babylon Bee, the world's most trusted, factually...
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The Public Health Truth Crisis with Benjamin Ryan
Benjamin Ryan is a veteran independent journalist, specializing in science and health care coverage. He contributes to The New York Times, NBC News, the New York Post and The New York Sun and the Washington Post opinion section. He has also written for the The Atlantic, The Guardian, The Nation,...
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Habib Khan Totakhil: What REALLY happened to Afghanistan
Join this conversation with Habib Khan Totakhil, founder of Afghan Peace Watch and former Kabul-based reporter with The Wall Street Journal. Previously, he worked for Afghanistan Times daily newspaper. He received Rumi Award for “Best International Journalist in Afghanistan” in 2014.Find him on X...
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Bad Faith with David Josef Volodzko
In this episode, I chat with David Josef Volodzko about good faith discourse, how to deal with those who don’t want to engage honestly, and the nature of debate. How do we have good conversations? What's at the heart of bad faith?
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Dr. Steven Hassan on the Cults We Join
Steven Hassan, PhD is a mental health professional and expert in undue influence tactics used by authoritarian leaders and destructive cults. His expertise includes harmful influence in cases of destructive religious and political cults, human trafficking, extremist and terrorist groups…
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A pro-peace Palestinian refugee speaks up
Welcome to the Forbidden Conversations podcasts, which provides a nuanced and civil approach to difficult subjects. My guest today is Mo Ghaoui, a Palestinian-Lebanese refugee turned American who has spent 25 years in the tech sector, including some involvement with the more shadowy aspects of…
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Is it better to transition early? Brianna Wu & Christina Buttons
This isn't a debate, but rather a civil conversation that presents two different perspectives on the trans conversation—particularly around children. There's areas of agreement and disagreement, all in good faith. ---- Brianna Wu is an American video game developer and computer programmer. She...
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Warren Smith: Why aren't we using Critical thinking more?
Warren Smith is a teacher whose video of a conversation with a student went viral back as he challenged the student to think critically about his claim relating to author J.K. Rowling. He has since been laid off from his position and runs Secret Scholars on YouTube.
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7 Reasons Why We Believe Lies (bonus)
It's striking how many people believe things that are demonstrably false, even though we live in an era where information is more accessible than ever before. This phenomenon affects everything from personal medical decisions to global policies. In an age brimming with data and facts at our...
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Special Episode: A Conversation with Elon Musk
This conversation was streamed live on X on February 19, 2024. This episode features and interview between Katherine Brodsky & Elon Musk and a Q&A to follow. Warning: There were significant sound issues due to glitches and Elon doing this interview from an airplane.
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The Future of AI with Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. You can find him on X: @Scobleizer His podcast:...
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Emmanuel Maggiori: Is AI overhyped?
My guest, Emmanuel Maggiori (PhD), is a 10-year AI industry insider and author of the book Smart Until It's Dumb: Why artificial intelligence keeps making epic mistakes (and why the AI bubble will burst). He has developed AI for a wide variety of applications, from extracting objects from…
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Is Israel's response disproportionate? John Spencer on War and Disinformation
These days, wars aren’t merely fought on battlefields. The battle is also for public sentiment and perception. Whether we’re talking about government propaganda, or the massive spread of lies on an unprecedented scale due to speed of transmission—it is not something to be dismissed lightly. On…
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Gurwinder Bhogal: Is social media rotting our brain?
My guest, Gurwinder Bhogal, is a writer examining the intersection of psychology and technology. On this episode of Forbidden Conversations, we explore some of the ideas central to his work—namely—ways in which we tend to get fooled in the digital age. Why have we seemingly abandoned reason? Is…
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Greg Lukianoff: Is cancel culture getting worse?
Is freedom of speech really under attack? Are things getting worse? What is causing many people to be worried about too much free speech? Why are these issues of particular concern on campuses? Is cancel culture literally claiming lives? There’s probably no better guest to tackle these questions...
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Adam B. Coleman and Culture War's Agents of Chaos
My guest is on this episode of Forbidden Conversations is Adam B. Coleman. We speak about the increased radicalization in the world, hypocrisy, the state of journalism, how "culture wars" affect regular people, boycotts, the laptop class vs the working class, and more. Join us for a random...
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Carol Roth on the New Financial World Order
Carol Roth explains how much control the WEF might actually have on society or whether it’s a conspiracy. Are we really on the precipice of a ‘new financial world order’? Is the social credit system just something that’s restricted to China? What’s the role of ‘Big Tech’? Will we all “own…
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Changing Political Views with Freely Ashley
Freely Ashley is a former leftist turned independent conservative that shares political and cultural commentary on YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter. With a refreshingly healthy dose of common sense. I’ve always found it rather interesting to learn about what it is that causes people to change their...
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A Vaccine Injury Story with music photographer Michelle Grace Hunder
There’s unfortunately a level of concern that comes from having a conversation about vaccine injury in the current climate. On the one hand, one worries that a group would use such a case to spread radical claims and conspiracy theories to fully discredit vaccines in the service of…
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The Opioid Prohibition with disabled journalist Peter Pischke
Many of us only hear about opioids from one perspective—generally that of doctors over-prescribing them and patients getting addicted. Or worse, some of them ending up on the black market. I’ve heard many such stories myself, including directly from those who were affected by these addictions and...
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Stories the Media Won't Tell: Peter Santenello's Viral Mission
When Peter Santenello was 24 years old, he took his $20,000 in saving, left the U.S. for the first time and spent the next two years travelling around 50 countries, debunking for himself the fear-based narratives that he was taught in his youth and learning about the world around him. Today, he...
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Word Misappropriation
As of late, I’ve become increasingly aware of how specific words have been infecting our consciousness. How the oversimplification of language and, hence, concepts has been doing harm to our society and discourse. I call that: Word misappropriation. This phenomenon occurs when groups of people...
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FilmThreat's Chris Gore on What's up with Hollywood?
What happens when filmmakers and creative people begin to self-censor? This episode of the Forbidden Conversations Podcast has me going back to my cinematic roots as I get to speak with, Chris Gore, the founder and publisher of one of the top independent film review websites FilmThreat—which he...
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Talking "Trans Issues" with Buck Angel
My guest on this episode of Forbidden Conversations is Buck Angel, a motivational speaker, filmmaker, entrepreneur, and human rights activist. He is also someone who identifies as a transexual—a female who lives as a man. Born female in 1962, he never felt female and struggled with his identity...
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Compliance with Dr. Aaron Kheriaty
Masking. Standing 6 feet apart. Showing vaccine passports whenever you enter a public space. Whether you agree or disagree with such measures, those are just some of the ways we were asked to comply during the pandemic. Pupils of history will recognize that this situation is not unique and that...
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Touching Grass with Bridget Phetasy
My guest on this episode is none other than the wonderful writer, host, podcaster, and comedian Bridget Phetasy. This happens to be our second conversation, with the first taking place during my appearance on her own terrific podcast, Walk-Ins Welcome. So, in a way, this is round two for us. We...
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Jennifer Sey on Corporate Censorship
What responsibility does an employee or executive have to its corporate employer when it comes to limiting or using their freedom of speech? Does a corporation have the right to control speech? What about their spouse's? What happens when it’s at cross-roads with their own agenda or image? Is…
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Michael Shellenberger on fixing "Homelessness"
This time, author, journalist, environmentalist, and former gubernatorial candidate Michael Shellenberger joins me on the FORBIDDEN CONVERSATIONS podcast to talk about “homelessness” as well as a bit of TwitterFiles discourse thrown in for good measure. We discuss the real problems, ethical and...
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A 'Forbidden Conversation' with Zuby
The latest guest on the FORBIDDEN CONVERSATIONS podcast series is none other than Zuby, an independent rapper, author, podcast host, public speaker and creative entrepreneur. Born in England and raised in Saudi Arabia, Zuby is a graduate of Oxford University. On this episode we discuss his roots...
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Angel Eduardo on whether 'bad people' exist
he conversation with my latest guest on 'Forbidden Conversations' was sparked by his insistence that he does not believe that there is such a thing as “bad people.” Naturally, we had to discuss his claim. But before we got around to it, we also end up covering an assortment of other topics...
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The Gift of Violence with BJJ legend Matt Thornton
Violence is not something that many of us often think of as a “gift” and yet my latest guest in the “Forbidden Conversations” series, Matt Thornton, wrote an entire book dedicated to the subject, under the title of The Gift of Violence. The truth is that violence is inherent to the fabric of our...
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Nicki Clyne on cults, power dynamics, and the NXIVM of things
Nicki Clyne began her career as an actor, most notably on the hit television series "Battlestar Galactica." She has worked as a writer, a news analyst and television host, but it wasn’t until she experienced the failings of the criminal justice system first-hand that she decided to dedicate…
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Free speech satire with cartoonist George Alexopoulos
This conversation is with American cartoonist George Alexopoulos (@GPrime85 on Twitter and Instagram). Here, we discuss whether there’s a limit to how far he can take a joke, censorship and its impact on exercising his free speech, why there’s fewer conservatives in the arts, the trouble with our...
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Tangle's Isaac Saul on the politics from left AND the right
This time, I chat with Isaac Saul, who I’ve been welcoming into my inbox for many months now. You see, Saul is a journalist and the founder of Tangle (readtangle.com), an independent, nonpartisan politics newsletter that summarizes the best arguments from the right and left on the big news of the...
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Evolutionary biologist Colin Wright on gender identity
Today's guest is Colin Wright, evolutionary biologist, the Founding Editor of Reality's Last Stand, and an academic advisor for the Society for Evidence-Based Gender Medicine. In this episode we discuss one of the topics that probably scares me most to talk about publicly. And that’s exactly why...
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
FORBIDDEN CONVERSATIONS is a series that takes on topics that don't always get attention or are more challenging to tackle and seeks to address them through civil discourse and nuanced exploration. The podcast is hosted by Katherine Brodsky. As a journalist, she has served as a correspondent for VARIETY since 2011 and also written for publications like NEWSWEEK, WIRED, THE WASHINGTON POST, THE GUARDIAN, ESQUIRE, MASHABLE, VULTURE, and others.
HOSTED BY
Katherine Brodsky
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Forbidden Conversations have?
Forbidden Conversations currently has 50 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Forbidden Conversations about?
FORBIDDEN CONVERSATIONS is a series that takes on topics that don't always get attention or are more challenging to tackle and seeks to address them through civil discourse and nuanced exploration. The podcast is hosted by Katherine Brodsky. As a journalist, she has served as a correspondent for...
How often does Forbidden Conversations release new episodes?
Forbidden Conversations has 50 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to Forbidden Conversations?
You can listen to Forbidden Conversations on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Forbidden Conversations?
Forbidden Conversations is created and hosted by Katherine Brodsky.
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