Alain de Botton is a philosopher who likes the best of religion, but doesn’t believe in God. He says that the most boring question you can ask of any religion is whether it is true. But how to live, how to die, what is good, and what is bad — these are questions religion has sophisticated ways of addressing. So he’s created The School of Life — where people young and old explore ritual, community, beauty, and wisdom. He explains why these ideas shouldn’t be reserved just for believers.

Under President Xi Jinping, China is pioneering a new form of governance by surveillance. In the first of a two-part series, we look at how China tested that system by targeting one minority group. Guest: Paul Mozur, a technology reporter for The New York Times based in Shanghai. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Background reading:

• Chinese authorities are expanding an extensive surveillance net by using a vast, secret system of facial recognition technology to control the Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority.
• Technology built for China’s surveillance system is now being applied — and sometimes abused — by other governments.

How do you build a thriving online community? One human connection at a time. Caterina Fake is the host of our spinoff series "Should This Exist?” and she knows: Whatever you are when you're SMALL — gets amplified as you grow. So if you're building any kind of community (e-commerce, crowd-funding, social media), emphasize the human, and be careful what you cultivate. Caterina cofounded the pioneering photo site Flickr and helped build companies like Etsy, Kickstarter, Stack Overflow, and even Blue Bottle Coffee from their beginnings. Her wise words for every founder: You have has a responsibility to shape the community from day one -- because the tone you set is the tone you’re going to keep, even as you go viral.

For part two of our look back at 2018, we’re reviewing the year in climate change and news/politics. Katie and Brian invite former Vice President Al Gore to reflect on the devastating forest fires and hurricanes that happened this year, how they’re connected to climate change, and why it’s important to address the climate crisis now. Next, Michael Barbaro, from The New York Times’s “The Daily” podcast, walks Katie and Brian through the biggest names and moments in the news this year — from the Mueller investigation and Brett Kavanaugh to the war in Yemen and mass shootings.
Plus, Katie and Brian have an announcement: This is the last episode of the podcast. Thank you so much to all of our devoted listeners, and stay tuned on Katie and Brian’s social media accounts for more information about what’s next for them!
This episode is sponsored by ADT (www.ADT.com/SMART), Prudential (www.prudential.com/stateofus), Thrive Market (www.thrivemarket.com/KATIECOURIC), Warby Parker (www.warbyparker.com/KATIE).

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Tristan Harris about the arms race for human attention, the ethics of persuasion, the consequences of having an ad-based economy, the dynamics of regret, and other topics.

You can support the Making Sense podcast and receive subscriber-only content at samharris.org/subscribe.

Bill Gates is one of those people for whom "needs no introduction" is actually true. The polymathic Microsoft founder now leads the world's largest and most important private foundation, and he's predicting that we're on the cusp of the energy breakthrough that's going to save the world. He also talks about the controversial idea that technological innovation is slowing down, assesses how close we are to true artificial intelligence, and explains why you really want to save being sick for 20 years from now. 

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