The Honest Broker Podcast

The Honest Broker features in-depth conversations with the leading thinkers and writers of our time. It is a partnership between host Jared Henderson and culture critic Ted Gioia at The Honest Broker, a newsletter covering arts, culture, and media.

www.honest-broker.com

Last refreshed: May 15th, 2026 at 10:17 PM ⓘ

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Episodes

The New Counterculture

Welcome back to The Honest Broker interview series —also available on our new YouTube channel . You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms. Today, I’m pleased to share my conversation with Ted Gioia. Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). Ted needs no introduction here— The Honest Broker is his newsletter, after all. But I want to tell you a little bit about how Ted and I started this project. I received a message on ...

May 14, 2026•1 hr 18 min

How to Be a Serious Reader

Henry Oliver and Jared Henderson delve into the "Philistine supremacy" in contemporary culture, where popular media often overshadows serious literature, driven by commercial interests. They discuss the importance of cultivating genuine literary taste, distinct from mere preference, and explore the concept of the "common reader" and the rise of autodidactism outside traditional academia. The conversation also critically examines the argument that literature inherently fosters empathy, distinguishing between contagious and imaginative forms.

Apr 13, 2026•1 hr 15 min

Why Read the Classic Books?

Welcome back to The Honest Broker interview series—also available on our new YouTube channel . You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms. Today, I’m pleased to share my conversation with Naomi Kanakia . Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). Naomi is a writer. She’s published four novels, and her next book, What’s So Great About the Great Books? , will be released in May by Princeton University Press. She also writes...

Mar 16, 2026•1 hr 20 min

The Philosopher of Games

Welcome back to The Honest Broker interview series —also available on our new YouTube channel . You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms. Today, I’m pleased to share my conversation with C. Thi Nguyen. Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). Nguyen is a former food writer who became a philosopher. He’s now an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Utah, where he also teaches in the Division of Games. ...

Feb 12, 2026•1 hr 28 min

This University Built an Honors College — and Then Destroyed It

Welcome back to The Honest Broker interview series —also available on our new YouTube channel . You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms. Today, I’m sharing my conversation with Jennifer Frey. Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). Jennifer is a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Tulsa. She is also a faculty fellow at the Institute for Human Ecology at the Catholic University of America. She earned her PhD...

Jan 07, 2026•1 hr 13 min

Publishing Is Getting Smaller—and Maybe Better

Welcome to the latest installment of our interview series here at The Honest Broker— also available on our new YouTube channel . You can also find it on Apple Podcasts and other podcasting platforms. Today, I’m excited to share my conversation with Ross Barkan . Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). Ross is a busy man. He is not only the writer behind Political Currents by Ross Barkan — he’s also a contributor to venues like New York Magazine,...

Dec 05, 2025•1 hr 29 min

How Technology Tears Us Apart

The Honest Broker interview series continues with a very special guest, Nicholas Carr. He is the author of The Shallows , a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize, and more recently of Superbloom: How Technologies of Connection Tear Us Apart . You can watch here or on our YouTube channel . You can also find The Honest Broker Podcast on your favorite podcasting platforms. Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). Our conversation covers Nicholas’s tu...

Nov 19, 2025•54 min

Derek Thompson on the Anti-Social Century

Welcome to the third installment of our interview series here at The Honest Broker— also available on our new YouTube channel and Apple Podcasts . Today, I’m happy to share my conversation with Derek Thompson . Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). When Derek came to Substack, he said he wanted to focus on three issues: * The Abundance agenda, building on the bestselling book he’s published with Ezra Klein. * Science in a way that’s both curio...

Nov 04, 2025•1 hr 1 min

James Marriott on the Post-Literate Society

James Marriott is a columnist at The Times of London and the author of Cultural Capital here on Substack. He recently published ‘The Dawn of the Post-Literate Society’ , an article about the worldwide literacy crisis, which was a platform-wide sensation. The literacy crisis is one of my interests as well. I’ve previously been interviewed on the subject alongside James at UnHerd , and I’ve released multiple YouTube videos about the subject, too. So, I knew I needed to ask him to sit down for inte...

Oct 22, 2025•1 hr 15 min

The Honest Broker Launches an Interview Series with Our First Guest Cory Doctorow

This is a big day at The Honest Broker, and I have several important announcements to make. First, we’re launching a video interview series. In the coming weeks, we will share in-depth interviews with the leading thinkers and writers of our time. Our goal is simple: Smart conversations with smart people. Please support The Honest Broker by taking out a premium subscription (just $6 per month). These will be available here on Substack, but also on YouTube and other platforms. Here’s a link to our...

Oct 07, 2025•1 hr 17 min

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