If you’re someone who reflexively thanks Siri or Alexa for the answer to a question, you may be anticipating our future relationship with artificial intelligence. Sigal Samuel is a senior reporter for Vox’s Future Perfect and co-host of the Future Perfect podcast. She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what would happen if A.I. woke up to its own existence, if we would know if that happened, and how it might change our moral and ethical compass as humans. Her article is “A.I. systems could become conscious. What if they hate their lives?” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If Congress doesn’t act, social security will be drained in 8 years. Teresa Ghilarducci is professor of economics and policy analysis at the New School for Social Research, and she serves as the director of the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis and the New School’s Retirement Equity Lab (ReLab). She joins host Krys Boyd to discuss what’s happening with the social security funds so many Americans rely on, why that monthly money is still not enough to lift people out of poverty, and simple solutions Congress could take to protect the popular social safety net program. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

A language that was spoken thousands of years ago eventually morphed into nearly all of the languages spoken today in the West. Science writer Laura Spinney joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the proto-Indo-European language, how it connects languages as varied as English and Russian, and how researchers study ancient language with no written texts to guide them. Her book is “Proto: How One Ancient Language Went Global.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Adolescence looks a lot different from today’s parents or grandparents’ generations — and it’s beginning even earlier. Matt Richtel, health and science reporter at The New York Times, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why kids today are more careful physically but need more help mentally, why they might be safer today but much less independent, and how parents can better relate during these developmental years. His book is “How We Grow Up: Understanding Adolescence.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When we treat ourselves to “self-care,” maybe what we’re really trying to achieve is Nirvana? Amy Larocca is a journalist who spent 20 years at New York magazine as both fashion director and editor at large. She joins guest host Paige Phelps to discuss how the moneyed and elite have moved from fashion to the “wellness” space, how Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebrities peddle products with dubious claims, and why, in an increasingly secular world, wellness makes us feel closer to the divine. Her book is “How to Be Well: Navigating Our Self-Care Epidemic, One Dubious Cure at a Time.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Falling global birth rates could be setting us up for disastrous consequences down the line. Dean Spears is founding executive director of r.i.c.e., a nonprofit that works to promote children’s health, growth, and survival in rural India. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss a future with far fewer humans in just the next few decades and why stabilizing the diminishing population is such a monumentally difficult task. His book, written with co-author Michael Geruso, is “After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Wildfires are more dangerous than they’ve ever been — take if from a former firefighter. Jordan Thomas is a former Los Padres hotshot wildland firefighter and currently an anthropologist and chancellor’s fellow at the University of California. He joins host Krys Boyd to discuss why climate change doesn’t tell the whole story of why today’s fires rage out of control, our complicated relationship to fire, and what it’s like to run directly into the flames. His book is “When It All Burns: Fighting Fire in a Transformed World.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Last summer, former military officials testified to Congress about UFOs, and once again the nation’s imagination was ignited. Greg Eghigian, professor of history and bioethics at Pennsylvania State University, joins host Krys Boyd to discuss the history of America’s fascination with UFOs — an obsession that spread globally — and what it all means for our civilization back here on Earth. His book is “After the Flying Saucers Came: A Global History of the UFO Phenomenon.”This episode originally aired June 20th, 2025. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

If opioids treat pain like a hammer, what medical researchers are looking for is something more like a delicate scalpel. Rivka Galchen holds a medical degree in addition to being a staff writer for The New Yorker, and she joins guest host Courtney Collins to discuss progress on developing alternative painkillers and why pain is so hard to manage in the first place. Her article is “The Radical Development of an Entirely New Painkiller.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

To conquer the deserts of Africa or ice of Greenland, the U.S. military needed to get pretty crafty. Northeastern University history professor Gretchen Heefner joins host Krys Boyd to discuss how modern warfare has shaped the way the Army Corps of Engineers approaches the challenges of extreme environments, the havoc those efforts have brought to those communities, and the outlandish ideas that failed along the way. Her book is “Sand, Snow, and Stardust: How US Military Engineers Conquered Extreme Environments.” Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices