The writer and podcast heavyweight Kai Wright (of The United States of Anxiety, Caught, and There Goes the Neighborhood) started The Stakes this year with a clear objective: to examine the choices that created today’s America. While the concept sounds simple and broad, the show swiftly homes in on concrete stories. “Denial at Trump the Hotel” is about the people invested in stoking climate-change skepticism. “The Abortion Clinic That Won’t Go Silently” uncovers how gerrymandering enabled Alabama to pass the most restrictive abortion law in the U.S. In “A History of Persuasion,” the reporter Amanda Aronczyk writes to the Unabomber to learn more about what motivated him to violence; his response eventually leads her to explore how technology has commodified human attention. Filled with stark truths and collective regret, The Stakes is undeniably sobering—but fascinating all the way through.