Latest news with #RossDouthat
New York Times
19-07-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
She Exposed Epstein, and Shares MAGA's Anger
Julie K. Brown thinks Jeffrey Epstein didn't act alone. On this episode of 'Interesting Times,' Ross talks to Brown, the investigative reporter whose work ultimately led to Epstein's re-arrest, about what the government could release that it hasn't and how the story is bigger than Epstein. This conversation was taped before President Trump authorized the Justice Department to seek the release of grand jury testimony in Epstein's case. Below is an edited transcript of an episode of 'Interesting Times.' We recommend listening to it in its original form for the full effect. You can do so using the player above or on the NYT audio app, Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music, YouTube, iHeartRadio or wherever you get your podcasts. Ross Douthat: Julie K. Brown, welcome to 'Interesting Times.' Julie K. Brown: Thank you. Douthat: So for the last couple of weeks, ever since the Trump administration decided it was a good idea to tell the world that there was nothing more to say about the Jeffrey Epstein story, which has not been true, I feel like we've had a lot of these metaconversations about the case, conversations about Trump administration politics, MAGA infighting, theories about conspiracy theories. I just keep coming back to the man himself and all of the weird questions that, to me as a journalist and news consumer, still hang over this whole story. So I'm really hoping that together we can walk through the story — the actual story of how Jeffrey Epstein the man became Jeffrey Epstein the mythic villain of the early 21st century. I want to start in the middle for him or maybe near the end for him but at the beginning for you. How did you first get drawn into this story? What prompted you as a journalist to start looking into Jeffrey Epstein and his crimes? Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
New York Times
11-07-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Interesting Times: A Mind-Bending Conversation with Peter Thiel
Hosted by Ross Douthat Produced by Sophia Alvarez BoydAndrea BetanzosElisa Gutierrez and Katherine Sullivan Edited by Jordana Hochman Engineered by Isaac JonesSophia Lanman and Tim Brow Original music by Isaac JonesSonia HerreroPat McCusker and Aman Sahota This week, we're bringing you a recent interview from 'Interesting Times with Ross Douthat,' one of The New York Times's newest podcasts. In this episode, Ross sits down with Peter Thiel, the co-founder of PayPal and Palantir and one of the most contrarian thinkers in tech. Together, they unpack Thiel's theory that we're living through an era of technological stagnation, and debate whether President Trump's populism and the development of artificial intelligence will help us unlock new progress. Guest: Peter Thiel, co-founder of Paypal and Palantir. Additional Reading: Peter Thiel and the Antichrist 'Hard Fork' is hosted by Kevin Roose and Casey Newton and produced by Whitney Jones and Rachel Cohn. The show is edited by Jen Poyant. Engineering by Alyssa Moxley and original music by Dan Powell, Elisheba Ittoop, Marion Lozano, Sophia Lanman and Rowan Niemisto. Special thanks to Paula Szuchman, Pui-Wing Tam, Dahlia Haddad and Jeffrey Miranda.
Times
09-07-2025
- Times
Trans people aren't trans enough! The latest nutty views from Silicon Valley
There's a moment in the American journalist Ross Douthat's interview with the tech billionaire and PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel that is chilling and hilarious at the same time. 'You would prefer the human race to endure, right?' Douthat asks. Once upon a time you would have said something has gone catastrophically, Prince Andrew-level wrong if your interviewer feels the need to clarify this point. But this is 2025 and ultra-wealthy tech bro types don't work on the same moral plane as the rest of us. Thiel responds in a distinctly unenthusiastic tone of voice: 'Uhhh …' 'You're hesitating,' Douthat points out. 'Well, I don't know. I would … I would …' Thiel stammers. 'This is a long hesitation,' Douthat says. He does eventually manage to coax a reluctant 'yes' out of Thiel, but I suspect most listeners will not feel reassured.
Vogue
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Vogue
The Resort 2026 Trend Report: 11 Ways to Dress for Success in a Chaotic World
'Repetition is more the norm than innovation,' wrote Ross Douthat in The Decadent Society, and the 2026 resort collections seem to bear out this assertion. A survey of about 120 collections finds the wheel of fashion turning at a moderate, perhaps more realistic, pace. Wearing a garment just once is a kind of sartorial debauchery that the industry and the earth can no longer sustain. Also: absolutism in fashion seems to be a thing of the past. Among the 11 trends identified here, four—sports, utility, tailoring, and pajama dressing—build on tendencies that have been around for a season or two. The return to a skinny pants silhouette is newsworthy, but it should be noted that designers haven't abandoned trousers with more generous mall-rat proportions. Similarly, while the Roman Holiday-style circle skirt looks fresh to the eye, pencil skirts are also on offer. Chaos is a word that came up more than once in the season's reviews and some of the trends read as reactions to that feeling of unrest. You could hide under the covers in chic street-ready pajamas, but instead why don't you look… like you mean business in a dandified three-piece suit, run circles around your adversaries in sports-inflected looks, stun the crowds in wet-look sequins, don leather like soft armor, and act the superhero in a cape? Prettily taking the edge of things are Impressionistic colors and prints, while back details offer a 360° perspective. Overall, the 2026 resort season as a whole feels both well-rounded and even keeled, so that you can best navigate the extremes of the world. Round and Round: Take a Circle Skirt for a Whirl Designers summoned the charm of the 1950s—and Roman Holiday—with circle skirts, which fall in soft drapes when not flaring in movement.
Gizmodo
27-06-2025
- Business
- Gizmodo
Peter Thiel on Whether He's Ushering in the Antichrist: Um, Uhh, Buh, Um Uhh, th th, Uhhhh
Peter Thiel has been talking about the Devil a lot lately. Over the past few years, the eccentric tech billionaire has made it a habit of showing up at events sponsored by Christian organizations, where he has proceeded to espouse a bizarre brand of New Age-y faith. The tech magnate's preoccupation with God has only become more prominent as time has passed. During a recent appearance on the Hoover Institution's podcast, Thiel went on at length about his views on Apocalypse, Armageddon, and, pivotally, the Antichrist, who he feels could usher in the end of the World. This week, an interview with New York Times columnist Ross Douthat gave Thiel yet another opportunity to wax on about the Evil One, though the conversation ultimately did not go exactly the way the billionaire wanted it to. When questioned by Douthat about what sort of qualities the Antichrist might have, he gave a very odd answer. It was, in part: …perhaps we should also talk about the risk of another type of a bad singularity, which I would describe as the one-world totalitarian state. Because I would say the default political solution people have for all these existential risks is one-world governance. What do you do about nuclear weapons? We have a United Nations with real teeth that controls them, and they're controlled by an international political order. And then something like this is also: What do we do about A.I.? And we need global compute governance. We need a one-world government to control all the computers, log every single keystroke, to make sure people don't program a dangerous A.I. And I've been wondering whether that's going from the frying pan into the fire. Thiel's suggestion seems to be that, if political organizations attempt to regulate the kinds of technology that he is invested in, they may actually be doing the Devil's work. These so-called religious views are obviously interesting for how closely they hew to the billionaire's political and economic interests. In the Palantir founder's eyes, Satan's vicar on Earth will be a loud supporter of stuff like nuclear non-proliferation, international law, and the regulation of AI. Later in the conversation, Thiel also suggested that the Antichrist could very well be someone like Greta Thunberg—in other words, a prominent social activist who cares less about stuff like profit margins and stock value and more about climate change and dead Palestinians. But is Thiel's preoccupation with supernatural evil even real? Frankly, it's unclear whether the billionaire is just a liar or a guy whose head is crammed so far up his ass that day looks like night and a peaceful global order unperturbed by nuclear war looks like the work of the Devil. If we start from the presumption that most people aspire to be the hero of their own story, and that Thiel is one of those people, and that he feels that his creepy technocratic endeavors are actually a force for good in the world instead of an obvious pox on humanity, then it would be safe to assume that he also feels that anything that gets in the way of those endeavors is decidedly not good—or, in his own words, the work of the 'Antichrist.' Anyway, later in Douthat and Thiel's conversation, the subject turned, again, to the Antichrist, and Douthat, to his credit, stuck the billionaire's feet to the fire somewhat. Douthat noted that, given Thiel's own investments and activities, it could very well be that he, himself, was laying the groundwork for his professed enemy. Douthat asks: You're an investor in A.I. You're deeply invested in Palantir, in military technology, in technologies of surveillance and technologies of warfare and so on. And it just seems to me that when you tell me a story about the Antichrist coming to power and using the fear of technological change to impose order on the world, I feel like that Antichrist would maybe be using the tools that you are building. Like, wouldn't the Antichrist be like: Great, we're not going to have any more technological progress, but I really like what Palantir has done so far. Isn't that a concern? Wouldn't that be the irony of history, that the man publicly worrying about the Antichrist accidentally hastens his or her arrival? Thiel's response was typical of his interviews: he stammered and sweated and looked like his face was going to fall off. That awkward moment Peter Thiel realized he might be the very Antichrist he warned about — Mykhaïlo Golub (@golub) June 27, 2025After an uncomfortably long period of time that mixed silence, stammering, and sweat, Thiel responded: 'Look, there are all these different scenarios. I obviously don't think that that's what I'm doing.' Douthat assured the billionaire tycoon that he didn't think that's what was happening, but he was hoping to get a better picture of 'how you get to a world willing to submit to permanent authoritarian rule.' At that point, it's possible that the Holy Spirit took the wheel as Thiel began to incoherently ramble about Thessalonians 5:3, the FDA, nuclear weapons regulations, Argentina, cultural stagnation, and historical predetermination. It's all a bit much. The internet subsequently had fun with the exchange, noting the possibility that Thiel, himself, might actually be a modern-day Damien. 'That awkward moment Peter Thiel realized he might be the very Antichrist he warned about,' one user wrote. Another user, meanwhile, referred to the venture capitalist as 'Satan.' Though he may share more than a passing resemblance to the Dark Lord, it seems pretty clear that Thiel could never be a serious contender for that role. That's because, unlike the honey-tongued underworld spawn that the Bible has long prophesied, Thiel is a complete verbal train wreck. Every interview with him—beset as they are by stammering and monotone intonations—is difficult to listen to. The Antichrist is supposed to be a compelling speaker, with the charm to cut across diverse constituencies. Entirely without rizz, Thiel obviously doesn't fit the profile. Donald Trump, on the other hand…
