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The Gray Area with Sean Illing

The post-sex generation

The Gray Area with Sean Illing

Vox Media Podcast Network

Politics, News, News Commentary, Philosophy, Society & Culture

4.511.1K Ratings

🗓️ 29 May 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

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. Host: Sean Illing (@seanilling) Guest: Christine Emba (@ChristineEmba) We would love to hear from you. To tell us what you thought of this episode, email us at thegrayarea@vox.com or leave us a voicemail at 1-800-214-5749. Your comments and questions help us make a better show. And you can watch new episodes of The Gray Area on YouTube. New episodes drop every Monday and Friday.Listen to The Gray Area ad-free by becoming a Vox Member: vox.com/members. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

Support for this show comes from The Guardian and their news show, Stateside, where journalists

0:06.3

Kai Wright and Carter Sherman use the entire independent reporting resources of the Guardian to

0:11.7

slow down the news and wrestle with the questions we all have about what's actually happening

0:16.7

in the world. Join Kai and Carter three times a week as they utilize all the reporting resources

0:22.1

the Guardian has across news, international coverage, climate, culture, wellness, and much, much more.

0:29.0

Go to The Guardian.com slash stateside to learn more and listen wherever you get your podcasts

0:34.2

or watch on YouTube. That's theguardian.com slash stateside.

0:43.0

Support for this show comes from Odu.

0:45.9

Running a business is hard enough.

0:48.2

So why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other?

0:52.6

Introducing Odu.

0:53.9

It's the only business software you'll ever need.

0:56.8

It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier,

1:01.4

CRM, accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more.

1:05.0

And the best part, Odu replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost.

1:10.7

That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch.

1:14.0

So why not you?

1:15.3

Try Odu for free at Odu.com.

1:18.3

That's ODOO.com.

1:24.7

This is the gray area. I'm Sean Elling. My guest today is Christine Emba. She's a writer and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.

1:39.3

Christine writes about sex, dating, loneliness, gender, religion, social norms, basically all of the anxieties

1:47.5

of modern life, or at least most of the moral anxieties of modern life. But really, this is a

...

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