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Gen Z’s retreat from dating and sex | The Gray Area - May 29, 2026 - Vox

Sean talks with writer Christine Emba about the strange and increasingly anti-social world young people are inheriting online. They discuss the rise of “looksmaxxing,” the manosphere, Gen Z’s retreat from dating and sex, and how the internet has transformed what might have been normal insecurities into a permanent state of anxiety and self-optimization. Along the way, they explore loneliness, intimacy, masculinity, social media, and what happens to a society when human connection starts to feel unbearable.

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Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Christine Emba (@ChristineEmba)

00:00 Intro

01:47 The world of looksmaxxing: incels, bone smashing, and drugs

12:18 The digital doom loop: anxiety, optimization, and the death of dating

21:20 The growing gender divide of Gen Z

28:25 When digital substitutes replace real connections

38:27 Is the internet designed to destroy human connection?

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Can there ever really be “one China?” - May 28, 2026 - Vox

For decades, Taiwan’s passport didn’t say “Taiwan” at all. It said something else: the Republic of China. But if Taiwan has called itself China, who gets to be the “real” China?

This video traces the evolution of Taiwan’s identity through one simple object: its passport. From the booting of the Republic of China from the United Nations, to President Richard Nixon’s historic visit to Communist China in 1972, to the 2003 addition of the word “Taiwan” to the Republic of China passport, the story of “One China” is less about geography and more about history, power, and shifting global alliances.

As Beijing becomes more financially and politically powerful on today’s global stage, is it possible for Taiwan to hold onto its autonomy? And what is the US’s role in the triangulation between Beijing and Taipei, especially as Taiwan’s main weapons dealer?

Read more about Taiwan and the concept of “One China”:

The Many “One Chinas”: Multiple Approaches to Taiwan and China: https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2023/02/the-many-one-chinas-multiple-approaches-to-taiwan-and-china?lang=en

The Collapse of One China: https://www.csis.org/analysis/collapse-one-china

Do the Cairo and Potsdam Declarations “restore” Taiwan to China?: https://www.rfa.org/english/news/afcl/fact-check-potsdam-05082023093502.html

Tracking China’s Increased Military Activities in the Indo-Pacific in 2025: https://chinapower.csis.org/china-increased-military-activities-indo-pacific-2025/

Most people in Taiwan see themselves as primarily Taiwanese; few say they’re primarily Chinese: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2024/01/16/most-people-in-taiwan-see-themselves-as-primarily-taiwanese-few-say-theyre-primarily-chinese/

How Taiwan came to dominate the global chip industry: https://theconversation.com/how-taiwan-came-to-dominate-the-global-chip-industry-276939

U.S. Military Support for Taiwan in Five Charts: https://www.cfr.org/articles/us-military-support-taiwan-five-charts

Americans and Taiwanese Favor the Status Quo: https://globalaffairs.org/research/public-opinion-survey/americans-and-taiwanese-favor-status-quo

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Why we’re bad at being social | The Gray Area - May 25, 2026 - Vox

Sean talks with University of Chicago psychologist Nicholas Epley about the strange gap between our need to be social and how social we choose to be. They explore why we underestimate how good conversations will feel, why awkwardness looms so large in our minds, and how small acts of connection can make us happier, less lonely, and more open to the people around us.

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Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Nicholas Epley

00:00 Intro

00:59 The Paradox of Connection: Why We Avoid Being Social

11:03 The Fear of Awkwardness

19:31 Why We Get Cold Feet: The Approach-Avoidance Conflict

27:51 The Surprising Kindness of Honesty

38:21 Why We Should Skip Small Talk and Go Deep

46:17 Simple Social Experiment for connection

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Everyone’s an expert now | The Gray Area - May 22, 2026 - Vox

Almost a decade ago, Tom Nichols warned that Americans were losing respect for expertise. He didn’t expect things to get this bad.

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Sean talks with Nichols about his 2017 book “The Death of Expertise” and what’s happened since: why people don’t just distrust experts but actively push back against them, how the internet turns bad ideas into communities, and why a society that can’t agree on basic facts can’t function for long. They also dig into the deeper causes: loneliness, narcissism, and the weird psychology of living in a world where everything “just works.”

Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling)

Guest: Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom)

00:00 Intro

01:13 A Growing Contempt for Competence: Revisiting The Death of Expertise

08:14 Decadence and the collapse of respect for competence

18:07 How internet echo chambers destroys shared reality

21:59 Is the ruling class to blame for the death of expertise?

28:34 How to separate healthy skepticism from destructive contempt for expertise

35:04 What happens next in a post-expertise world?

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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

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

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Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com.

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