Robert Wright's Nonzero

0:28 Derek and Danny plug their new Crusades series 3:19 This week’s shift in Gaza discourse 12:20 The real danger Gaza poses for Israel 22:05 Does the left’s rhetoric on Israel miss the mark? 32:24 Elite media’s think tank problem 36:27 Is American imperialism really the problem? 40:04 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of ...

0:30 Trump’s AI Action plan 4:00 The contradictions inherent to Trump's plan 6:25 How Trump’s anti-globalism undermines his AI goals 10:52 Anthropic’s leaked memo: Ideals vs Persian Gulf cash 13:06 Bob: Dario Amodei is the true AI ideologue 17:17 How AI “safety” became a hawkish movement 18:18 Why true objectivity in LLMs is a fantasy 22:58 A Pal...

0:28 Josh’s hopes for post-Assad Syria—revisited 4:12 The challenge(s) facing the Syrian government 8:58 What’s driving Syria’s sectarian violence? 19:44 Josh’s personal window into the al-Sharaa regime’s brutality 22:51 The new regime’s church vs state problem 29:44 How the Druze became central to Israeli-Syrian hostilities 43:05 Why did Israel ...

0:28 The full reason for Bob’s absence—revealed 6:41 What’s the real story with Trump and Epstein? 15:02 A peek down the Epstein rabbit hole 31:18 Grok goes full Nazi-pornbot 40:15 The promise and perils of AI companions 47:55 Bob on dealing with cancer in the age of AI 1:10:39 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why ...

0:30 Why a Chinese invasion of Taiwan is so unlikely 4:01 Taiwan’s terrain: A defender’s dream, an invader’s nightmare 10:55 Why Taipei might be the hardest city in the world to conquer 12:45 Dan: China would need nearly 5 million soldiers to have a chance 14:18 The 2027 invasion theory—and why it doesn’t hold up 16:37 Is China trying to bankrupt...

0:00 A brief message from Bob 1:45 Why many intelligent people think we’re living in a simulation 12:44 The philosophical argument that you’re probably not real 28:24 How cosmic rays might (and might not) reveal that reality is fake 36:18 Preston’s dire warning against trying to determine if we’re in a simulation 50:06 Is the simulation hypothesis non-falsifiable? 56:40 Is “the simulation” just religion for atheists?

Robert Wright (...

0:00 A brief message from Bob 1:55 What Lee means when he says "time is fundamental" 11:40 Understanding the universe as a network 25:59 A (very) tentative theory of consciousness 37:42 Did the laws of physics evolve? 45:23 Is the universe fine-tuned for the emergence of life? 57:21 Applying Lee's theories of time to everyday life

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Lee Smolin (Perimeter Institute...

0:30 Why Neysun brings American students and scholars to China 3:05 Visiting China after Covid 5:17 Balancing US and Chinese red lines 11:03 When Neysun's students pushed Chinese officials on human rights 14:09 Do US students fear career risks for going to China? 16:08 Cultivating cognitive empathy 18:51 China's obsession with US politics 20:54 T...

0:00 A brief message from Bob 1:51 Greg’s new book, The Gutfeld Monologues 10:49 How going to Berkeley pushed Greg toward conservatism 17:03 Trumpism creates strange ideological bedfellows 26:10 Bob offers a magic solution to the freedom vs. security dilemma 32:19 Was Obama right to avoid the phrase “Islamic radicalism”? 47:56 Trump’s savvy use of identity politics 55:48 The secret ingredient to Greg’s meditation practice

Robert Wri...

0:00 A brief message from Bob 1:49 Why consciousness is so weird 11:29 Is consciousness like your brain’s shadow? 19:10 If David was a zombie, would anyone know? 23:21 Bob’s wacky theory about consciousness 44:49 Is consciousness what collapses the quantum wave function? 1:02:59 Can there be a true science of consciousness?

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and David Chalmers (New York University, T...

0:30 Are US-Iran talks dead? 4:24 Do normal Iranians care about the nuclear program? 6:40 Understanding Iran’s enrichment red line 9:42 Assessing the damage to Iran's nuclear facilities 12:25 Iran's decision to kick out inspectors 15:38 Could Iran build a bomb in secret? 17:52 Trump's "desultory" approach to talks with Iran 21:16 Alan's experienc...

0:00 A brief message from Bob 1:40 John’s upcoming book, How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy 4:31 Is the US to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? 11:40 Is Putin less rational than John assumes? 24:00 Why John is a Russia dove and a China hawk 31:30 Does China pose a threat to freedom around the world? 38:33 Why John thinks China’s rise threatens American security 49:32 Has globalization made great-power peace p...

0:00 A brief message from Bob 1:53 Why neocons like enemies 19:09 How to use power deftly 25:59 Is a nuclear Iran really all that scary? 31:31 Bob's arms-control dreams dashed again 41:18 China problem solved in under three minutes 44:03 Some cheerful thoughts about Hamas

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Francis Fukuyama (Stanford University, The End of History and the Last Man, Liberalism and ...

0:30 Barry’s new novel, ‘The System’ 2:33 CIA lessons & seeing like a Martian 7:17 Fiction, empathy, and geopolitics 9:55 No cartoon villains 10:58 How power really works in DC 15:25 Feinstein vs. Brennan: the 'sit down' 18:32 Why we excuse ourselves 20:05 Jobs, jets & hidden threats 21:28 The problem with the House 26:15 Valeria’s dilemma: bend ...

0:28 The dueling Sam Altman biographies 4:36 Who is the real Sam Altman? 16:06 OpenAI’s origin—did Sam scam Elon? 20:50 Why the OpenAI board coup failed 35:27 Good and bad critiques of OpenAI 47:14 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (Full Stack Economics, Understanding AI, AI ...

0:28 Courtney’s and Alex’s Always at War podcast 2:54 Have restrainers given up on Trump? 11:10 The legacies of Hamilton Jordan 16:31 Courtney: Money drives war 25:40 Palantir cashes in 32:45 Alex: Blame American exceptionalism first

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Alex Jordan (The Quincy Institute, Always at W...

0:30 Headlines 1:27 - Washington 2:08 - Silicon Valley 2:47 - China 3:31 - Africa 4:10 - Europe 5:01 Bob joins to discuss the Israel-Iran war 08:51 Has Trump had a change of heart? 13:44 The Pandora's Box of a US attack 18:21 Connor makes the pro-bombing-Iran argument 22:09 Bob: A diplomatic solution would have been 'trivially easy' 28:09 Trump's...

0:30 The time Alex blocked everyone's view of Jennifer Aniston 4:40 How Alex acquired the Bibi interrogation tapes 9:00 What the Bibi Files suggest about the Gaza war 11:58 Bibi's bribes 16:40 Bibi-Trump parallels 27:03 Barriers to getting the movie distributed (and where to watch it) 42:10 Heading to Overtime (and Bob’s and Alex's unfinished fil...