Episodes

  • A Wee Existential Crisis

    A Wee Existential Crisis
    Apr 14 2026
    What do you do when the thing that gave your life shape is finally, imperfectly, done? In this solo episode, Amanda Knox reads an original essay about arriving at the other side of an eighteen-year fight for her own story. She writes about motherhood, the fear of being called a narcissist for mining her own trauma, Bo Burnham, and the stubborn suspicion that measuring yourself against the worst thing that ever happened to you might be exactly the wrong way to keep score. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    15 mins
  • How Paying for Intimacy Changes Everything (Andrea Werhun)

    How Paying for Intimacy Changes Everything (Andrea Werhun)
    Apr 7 2026
    Andrea Werhun is an author, filmmaker, and former sex worker whose memoir and documentary Modern Whore challenge how we think about sex, labor, and stigma. In this wide ranging and often funny conversation, Andrea and Amanda dig into the making of the film, including its stylized recreations, dark humor, and the moment Amanda found herself rethinking whether sex work is truly different from other forms of intimate labor like therapy, caregiving, or au pairing. Along the way, they unpack the role of criminalization in creating harm, the politics of shame, and why putting a price on access to your body can radically change how you understand boundaries, value, and freedom. Modern Whore is out May 1, 2026 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 25 mins
  • Musing: Ignorance Is Not Objectivity

    Musing: Ignorance Is Not Objectivity
    Mar 31 2026
    What's the difference between bias and expertise? When a critic dismissed Amanda Knox's commentary on the Lucy Letby case as the grievance of a biased woman, the real question got buried: can lived experience be a form of expertise? And if so, what's the line between pattern recognition and confirmation bias? Amanda and Chris dig into the cognitive science, the structural failures of the justice system, and the countermeasures that might actually help us get it right. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Why You Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer)

    Why You Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer)
    Mar 24 2026
    What is truth, and why does finding it actually matter? Amanda sits down with Dr. Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, longtime Scientific American columnist, and author of Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters, for a conversation that starts with epistemology and ends in a full-throated debate about free will. They talk about why our brains evolved more like lawyers than scientists — to win arguments, not find facts. They get into the hard problem of consciousness, what meditation might reveal that neuroscience can't yet measure, and whether the legal system could ever be redesigned around actual truth-seeking. And then Amanda makes the case for hard determinism and nearly talks Shermer into it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 23 mins
  • Audio Essay: Kill the Buddha and Slay, Diva!

    Audio Essay: Kill the Buddha and Slay, Diva!
    Mar 17 2026
    After a stranger on Twitter told Amanda “Jesus, put on some makeup,” she responded with a joke: an AI image of Jesus wearing makeup and a one-word reply, “Fine.” The tweet went viral, drawing both laughter and accusations of blasphemy. In this episode, Amanda reflects on what that reaction reveals about fragile beliefs, the psychology of offense, and why learning not to be “capturable” by other people’s outrage is essential for living freely. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    22 mins
  • Why Prison Forces Us to Ask Hard Questions (John J. Lennon)

    Why Prison Forces Us to Ask Hard Questions (John J. Lennon)
    Mar 10 2026
    John J. Lennon is a journalist, author of The Tragedy of True Crime, and a convicted murderer who joined Amanda for this conversation from prison, where he is currently incarcerated. In this challenging and deeply reflective episode, Amanda confronts Lennon about the limits of compassion, the ethics of true crime storytelling, and the danger of narratives that lock people into their worst moments. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 33 mins
  • Crisis Chemistry or Trauma Bonds?

    Crisis Chemistry or Trauma Bonds?
    Mar 3 2026
    Amanda and Chris unpack the complicated idea of trauma bonds, from Amanda’s relationship with Raffaele during their wrongful imprisonment to the quieter survival mode of early parenthood. They explore how crisis can intensify connection, why Hollywood romanticizes trauma informed love, and what happens to relationships once the emergency ends. Along the way, they wrestle with whether trauma is objective or subjective, how identity shifts under pressure, and whether facing mortality together can create a bond that is destabilizing, transformative, or both. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    40 mins
  • Why the Arc of History Still Bends Toward Justice (Timothy Egan)

    Why the Arc of History Still Bends Toward Justice (Timothy Egan)
    Feb 24 2026
    Tim Egan is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, National Book Award–winning author, and longtime New York Times columnist who publicly challenged the media narrative around Amanda Knox’s case when few others would. In this episode, Amanda and Tim unpack how predatory journalism, cultural bias, and economic incentives fuel rushes to judgment, how misinformation erodes our ability to agree on basic facts, and why truth telling becomes harder and more necessary when narratives turn tribal. They also explore why history offers both warning signs and hope, and how ordinary individuals can still bend the arc toward justice. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 5 mins