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How to be more creative | The Gray Area - May 18, 2026 - Vox

Sean talks with writer David Epstein about why unlimited freedom and endless choice often make us less creative, less focused, and less fulfilled. They discuss the hidden power of constraints, the psychology of attention, why humans struggle with too many options, and how useful limits can help us do better work and live more meaningful lives.

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Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: David Epstein (@DavidEpstein)

00:00 Intro

01:46 How restraints helped create the periodic table

03:41 The relationship between freedom and creativity

10:55 Is freedom the absence of limits?

16:50 Why does choice create anxiety?

22:20 How do we navigate a world with too many choices?

27:22 Making a decision vs ‘sliding’ into one

34:02 The value of ritual

37:55 Creative limits and Dr. Seuss

39:41 How David Epstein’s life changed after writing this book

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Americans oppose data centers. We went to find out why | America, Actually - May 16, 2026 - Vox

There’s a growing disconnect between a local community that says it’s being treated as the "guinea pigs" in a new industrial revolution, and Washington politicians. Astead Herndon heads to Vineland, New Jersey, this week to check out one of the Northeast’s biggest data centers that neighbors say was rushed into construction without community buy-in.

00:00 Why data centers are the new political flashpoint

02:26 On-site at one of the Northeast’s biggest data centers

05:01 The jobs debate

07:45 The extractive reality of data centers

12:39 Residents speak out at a town hall

18:11 AI anxiety and government trust

America, Actually publishes video episodes every Saturday tackling key issues in politics, culture, and the economy. Subscribe to Vox’s YouTube channel to get them. Listen to episodes of America, Actually on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite app.

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The college dream is falling apart | The Gray Area - May 15, 2026 - Vox

College was supposed to be a ticket to a better life. A degree meant a good job, a decent salary, and a brighter future. That promise is breaking down. For many graduates, a college degree no longer guarantees economic security or upward mobility.

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In today’s episode, guest host Miles Bryan talks with reporter and author Noam Scheiber about his new book, Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class, which argues that the economic prospects for college graduates have steadily eroded since the mid-2000s. The result is scrambling our politics. Miles and Noam discuss why college graduates are increasingly drawn to socialist politicians like Bernie Sanders and Zohran Mamdani, why they’ve become some of the strongest supporters of organized labor, and how economic frustration among educated workers could transform the American political landscape.

Host: Miles Bryan, Vox reporter and senior producer

Guest: Noam Scheiber, New York Times reporter and author of Mutiny: The Rise and Revolt of the College-Educated Working Class

00:00 Intro

01:36 What are college graduates revolting against?

07:53 Teddy: college grad to labor organizer

13:20 What happened to Apple ‘creatives?’

19:52 Baristas to doctors: everyone thinks they’re a ‘worker’

24:45 Why educated workers are moving left

32:14 Will AI replace white-collar workers?

43:07 Are we headed for a new era of labor unrest?

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What would J.R.R. Tolkien think of Palantir? - May 12, 2026 - Vox

Peter Thiel and Alex Karp’s Palantir Technologies is one of the most powerful and mysterious tech companies in Silicon Valley. Its namesake is also one of the most powerful and mysterious magical objects in the lore of J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic fantasy series The Lord of the Rings.

The palantiri of The Lord of the Rings are sort of like crystal balls or “seeing stones” that allow their users to communicate across vast distances, see events from afar, and sometimes even peer into the future. But just about everybody who tries to use a palantir in The Lord of the Rings is deceived by it, acting on the visions they’re receiving without the greater context or wisdom of what’s behind them. So why would the people behind Palantir want to name the company and build its culture around these powerful yet easily corruptible magical objects?

J.R.R. Tolkien was famously anti-tech and anti-government, expressing his fears of what would happen when those two forces combined through his fantasy works and his letters to friends, family, and colleagues. If he were alive in the age of Palantir, he might not be thrilled that a tech company with lucrative government contracts is name-checking his creations.

Vox producer Benjamin Stephen went on a quest to find out the story behind Palantir’s name, what the link to The Lord of the Rings reveals about the company, and what Tolkien might think about how his words are being used.

Read more about Palantir and The Lord of the Rings:

Vox senior correspondent Constance Grady’s piece on the conservative reading of The Lord of the Rings: https://www.vox.com/culture/466858/lord-of-the-rings-conservatives-right-republicans-elon-musk-jd-vance-peter-thiel

The Scouring of the Shire letter written by Palantir alumni: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/25930212/the-scouring-of-the-shire.pdf

Caroline Haskins’s WIRED piece on what Palantir actually does: https://www.wired.com/story/palantir-what-the-company-does/

"Tolkien's Deplorable Cultus," an essay by literature professor Robert Tally: https://spectrejournal.com/tolkiens-deplorable-cultus/

Today, Explained covers what the right gets wrong about Tolkien: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6p2Jxa9KRttPTF15vwPmjR

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Why progress is hard to see | The Gray Area - May 11, 2026 - Vox

If someone asked you to describe the state of the world right now, odds are you’d reach for the bad news first: political division, AI panic, war, ecological crisis, unraveling everywhere. And none of that is imaginary. But Rebecca Solnit thinks the pessimistic view is incomplete. We’re good at seeing catastrophe and reversal, and much worse at seeing the slower, more positive transformations that unfold over decades.

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Solnit’s new book, The Beginning Comes After the End, is an argument for noticing those changes without denying the darkness of the present. She joins Sean to talk about hope, backlash, political despair, and why fragile victories are still victories worth defending.

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Rebecca Solnit

00:00 Intro

02:17 Why we struggle to recognize change

08:44 What is driving today’s political backlash?

15:25 How to find hope in fragile victories

20:39 Is backlash an eternal political reality?

24:54 Power vs. culture: where does change really happen?

37:06 Does Rebecca Solnit ever lose hope?

And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. New episodes drop every Monday and Friday.

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