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PODCAST

Smart Girl Dumb Questions

It"s a curiosity party, and you"re invited. Every Tuesday on SGDQ, Nayeema Raza asks simple Qs about big ideas trying to make sense of life. Some of our faves? Neil deGrasse Tyson on how we"d know if we"re in a simulation, Esther Perel on why love gets harder with age, Diplo on why every guy I date is a DJ, and two 11 year olds on what it"s like to grow up right now. Send us your dumb (and smart) Qs: nayeema.raza101@gmail.com

society & culture comedy interviews

All Episodes

78:57

Iran ... Um, How Does This End?

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/04/28

Robert Malley was a Lead Negotiator of the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, so what does he think will happen next? And what does three decades at the forefront of Middle East peace (or war, in this case), teach him from Camp David (2000) to Israel and Gaza today? Nayeema and Rob walk through Donald Trump’s “Art of the Deal” to figure out whether one may be had here. They also discuss: are negotiators more like marriage therapists, hostage negotiators or plumbers? Are President Trump’s tweets (slash Truth

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55:04

Can String Be Sexy? with Grammy Winning Duo Arkai

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/04/21

How hard is it to win a Grammy? Does the Harvard of Music (aka Juilliard) . prepare musicians for a TikTok world? Will AI replace music? And what makes a band (or any relationship) function well and drama-free? Also: how many people make up a band?ARKAI just won a freaking Grammy… and they’re still somehow normal, kind, and willing to explain the whole political process. Nayeema sits down with electroacoustic duo Jonathan Miron (violin) and Philip Sheegog (cello) to ask: how do you actually win

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86:58

Can Anyone Get Rich Anymore? with Dick Costolo

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/04/14

Today I'm joined by a powerful rich dude: Silicon Valley icon, Dick Costolo, the CEO who took Twitter public 10+ years ago and investor who’s made smart bets since the 90s. Nayeema asks: Is Elon Musk an alien to go home? Is venture capital a Ponzi scheme? And did we just wake up in a K-shaped economy where the shareholders get richer and everyone else gets replaced by AI? Also on the agenda: SpaceX at a $1.5T+ IPO (??), why so much value gets captured in private markets before you even get a shot,

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60:55

Is Dry Cleaning … Really Dry?

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/04/07

Dry cleaning is the ultimate black box: you drop off your clothes… and somehow they come back looking better than your life choices. Nayeema goes inside the fairytale with the father/son duo behind Jeeves New York, Jerry and Zachary Pozniak to ask: how do you clean something “dry”? Where do the clothes actually go? And do they worry about the chemicals? They unpack what dry cleaning really is (spoiler: it’s not dry), why “dry clean only” labels can be… kind of fake and how to make a family

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73:54

Why Does Everyone Have a Podcast? Nayeema & Sammi Cohen

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/03/31

Why does everyone have a podcast… and do you need one too? Nayeema pulls back the curtain with Sammi Cohen of Social Currency fame. One has made it in podcasting, and is still building on social — the other has made it in social, and is building on podcasts. Both open up about the ups, downs and dollars .Also on the agenda: “is everything a scam?” (dentistry! eyeglasses! Forbes 30 Under 30!), why live streaming is coming for everyone, why people “watch your podcast on Instagram,” and the

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56:19

What’s Rich People Healthcare Like?! with Dr....

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/03/24

Dr. Florence Comite is a Yale-trained endocrinologist, longevity expert, and author of the forthcoming book Invincible. Her precision medicine clients include CEOs, founders, athletes, artists… and recently, Nayeema, who got a tiny and generous glimpse into the process. So Nayeema asks Comite: can I live forever? Would my health care be better if I were richer? And what's up with peptides, GLP-1s and other medical hype?Also on the agenda: why women’s heart attack symptoms get missed, the “black

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71:18

Is Every War About Oil? Pulitzer Prize Winner Daniel...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/03/17

Daniel Yergin has advised 4 different Presidents (Clinton, Bush, Obama and the first Trump administration). He’s also a Pulitzer-Prize winning author and energy expert and the vice chair at S&P Global. Nayeema asks Yergin: when will this oil crisis end? Is every election – and war – priced at the pump? And what’s the history – and future – of our dependence on fossil fuels? Is the energy transition … still transitioning? Also on the agenda: the Strait of Hormuz nightmare scenario, AI data

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71:40

Can AI Replace My Brain? I Ask a Child Prodigy

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/03/10

Suborno Isaac Bari cracked basic algebra before his 2nd birthday. He's now a 13-year-old college sophomore: will he have to move back in with his parents like so many college grads are doing these days? And does this genius worry about the job market?Nayeema sits down with Suborno — who plans to graduate from NYU next year with a double-major in math and physics. And gets to the big Q: is it dumb to be smart in an AI era where we could just put our brains in a jar, outsource intelligence to

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67:56

Is Weather a Conspiracy? With Dancing Weatherman Nick...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/03/05

How do you stay peppy when the world is on fire? Nayeema sits down with Nick Kosir — aka the Dancing Weatherman and Fox Weather meteorologist to ask: Why are all weather people hot … and what exactly do they do? Is it just vibes + a green screen? And is AI going to steal Nick’s, Nayeema’s and all of our jobs?Also on the agenda: cloud seeding, climate change, whether the World Meteorological Organization is the illuminati, the human cost of naming people after hurricanes and Nick’s compelling

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46:03

Another Iran War? with Professor Vali Nasr...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/03/04

Who picks Iran’s Ayatollah? What are the Israelis and Americans up to? How did we get here? AND: WILL IT EVER END? Today’s SGDQ bonus drop is an IRAN 101 cutdown of a Summer 2025 conversation Nayeema had with Dr. Vali Nasr, a John Hopkins SAIS professor, Middle East expert and author of Iran’s Grand Strategy.IMPORTANTLY: The original conversation (available in the show feed) was taped in June 2025, on the heels of the Twelve Day War. We hope this version provides context and perspective to

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62:36

Is It Time for An AI Boyfriend?

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/02/27

Is it time to date ChatDaddy? Today we're playing you a debate Nayeema hosted at New York's Comedy Cellar for a show we love: Open to Debate. Nayeema moderates an academic, fun and relevant showdown between Dr. Thao Ha of University of Arizona's HEART Lab, and Dr. Justin Garcia of the Kinsey Institute around this question: Could dating an AI be better than dating a human? Be sure to get more Open to Debate on Apple, Spotify, YouTube or Substack. They share SGDQ's values of curiosity and

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79:47

Rage Bait, 6 7, Algospeak … What Does It All Mean? w...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/02/17

Is our language becoming unrecognizable and is that the internet’s fault? Nayeema sits down with Adam Aleksic (aka Etymology Nerd), a linguistics nerd and author of Algospeak — to decode how social media is rewiring the words we use, the way we say them, and what counts as “normal” language now. They get into euphemisms, censorship, why some words go viral, why “woke” became a culture-war grenade, and what happens when the dictionary can’t keep up. Link to Yuval's speech at Davos: HERE Want

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90:10

Why Do Relationships Fail? with a Million Dollar...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/02/10

He’s watched thousands of marriages fail — so what did he learn about love? And from mandatory prenups to a newlyweds permit, how would he redesign the process? Nayeema sits down with the legendary NYC divorce attorney James Sexton, Esquire — a courtroom “pistol” who’s handled thousands of cases, got an epic education in human relationships in the process and even written a book about how to not f* up your marriage.. Nayeema and Jim discuss: why does marriage even exist? Is it a buzzkill for

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74:58

Calling Congress … Does It Work? with Rep. Melanie...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/01/29

After ICE officers shipped 5 year old Liam Ramos to a detention facility and federal agents shot and killed 37 year old ICU Nurse Alex Pretti, Nayeema called her congressperson for the first time. Turns out, it can make a dent. If you’d like to slide into those EMs, here are deets for House and Senate. Your Senator votes this week on funding for ICE and Homeland Security.So what happens when you email or vmail? Is it more impactful than posting on Insta? And, um, does Congress even matter these

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62:18

Stress: What’s the Solve? with Dr. Aditi Nerurkar

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/01/27

Do you think your phone is breaking your brain? Is the stress of the news cycle rewiring our physiology? And why do we feel so behind our Jan 1 resolutions … only 3 weeks in? Nayeema asks the Qs we all have to stress expert Dr. Aditi Nerurkar — a physician on faculty at Harvard Medical School and the author of the book: The Five Resets. They get into the science of neuroplasticity (yes, your brain is changing every day), why your brain needs time to build new circuits, and why multitasking is

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60:41

Why Do Venezuelans Want This?

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/01/19

The US is making unwanted moves on Denmark and toying with the idea of intervening in Iran — but one country where the administration waltzed in and was welcomed? Venezuela. So … what’s up with that? Nayeema talks to 3 millennial Venezuelans to make sense of this moment — journalist Mariana Atencio, comedian/writer Joanna Hausmann, and comedian/actor Francisco Ramos. It’s an exploration. of nuance in the form of a dumb question dinner party (minus the dinner). You can follow our guests on

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77:41

Can He Make America Healthy (and Trusting) Again?...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/01/13

Whether it’s the MAHA movement or COVID-19 management, can we trust American public health? Nayeema talks to NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya. He was appointed by President Trump last year, but originally came to fame in late 2020 as a Stanford Medical School Professor who challenged pandemic-era lockdowns. On the agenda: Why does the USA spend more for worse healthcare outcomes? Is Ozempic our magic bullet? With China moving so fast in biomedicine, will we rather go to Beijing or Boston for

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83:47

Will the Market Crash in 2026? with Andrew Ross Sorkin

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2026/01/06

Are we headed to another Great Depression? The 2026 market is booming, but economic vibes are no bueno. Have we learned enough from the 2008 recession or past crashes to avoid another? That’s the big Q for Andrew Ross Sorkin, the journalist behind New York Times DealBook and CNBC’s Squawk Box and co-creator of Showtime’s Billions. He’s out with a hot new book 1929 that makes sense of what precipitated the greatest tumult the American economy has ever seen. Nayeema asks Sorkin - Is our

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79:19

Mark Cuban: Why Does Healthcare Suck? And Can...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2025/12/23

In this extended re-air of the very first SGDQ Nayeema asks Mark Cuban if America's love-hate relationship with billionaires is justified, if we can count on rich dudes to solve problems like universal healthcare, and what happens on the group chats of the rich + famous. Also new: what does he make of a Kamala Harris 2028 run?They're pressing questions as the world’s wealth — and power — seems to be getting even more concentrated in our AI future, and candidates like Zohran Mamdani are willing

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43:00

Godfather Part II: Is AI Alive?! with Dr. Geoffrey...

Smart Girl Dumb Questions ·

2025/12/09

This is Part II of The Godfather (of AI) trilogy — where we learn if we can survive what we’ve built with one of the men who actually helped build it: Turing Prize Winner and Nobel Laureate Dr. Geoffrey Hinton. If you missed Part I you can scroll down to how AI (and your brain) actually work. Today, the “Godfather of AI” returns to map out the risks and the weird hope of finding “mama” in this machine. So is AI alive? And if so, is it alive like a weed, a bee, a baby, or something we don’t have

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