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Politics, psychology, and tips on averting the apocalypse.
171 Episodes
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Plus: Smart-bed bedlam! Job-killing AI! Google and Amazon's sleaziness! NZN book club launch!
Listen now | 0:00 Bob tries to lower American Prestige’s self-esteem 3:07 The Trump-Xi trade talks 6:44 Making sense of Trump’s nuclear saber-rattling 10:34 Signs of a US-China vibe shift 16:36 Is AI accelerating science? 23:25 Bill Gates’s climate change of heart 29:30 This week’s Gaza ceasefire death toll 34:19 Overtime preview: Bob vs Danny on international lawRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Derek Davison (Foreign Exchanges, American Prestige, Discontents), and Daniel Bessner (American Prestige, University of Washington). Recorded October 30, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Listen now | Join NonZero’s newly established Discord server: https://discord.gg/FByzCzWf0:28 Trump on drug cartels: “We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be like, dead.” 4:02 Venezuela: Regime change disguised as drug war 5:15 Marco Rubio holds all the foreign policy power 7:55 Trump Doctrine candidate #1: “Jump at the chance to use force” 11:08 Trump Doctrine candidate #2: Monroe 2.0 17:07 Roy Cohn’s philosophy: “It is a nation of men, not laws” 21:53 Bob: There’s value in hypocrisy 29:33 Trump is paving the way for a more competent tyrant 31:17 Could Trump actually be good for the world? 36:08 Trump the comedian 41:48 Heading to Overtime: Bob’s mysterious invitation-only conferenceRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded October 27, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
The assault on Venezuela as a window on Trump’s mind. Plus: The intra-partisan AI divide; Japan’s offshoring of robot minders.
Listen now | Robert Wright and Vince Fakhoury Horn explore Buddhist ethics, intergenerational trauma, and the cost of silence on Gaza
Listen now | 0:00 What triggered Trump’s 100-percent tariff threat? 9:13 How China is mirroring the US playbook 16:52 The real escalation: America’s “50% rule” 25:33 Why has US media coverage been so bad? 28:13 Biden’s role in fueling the trade war 39:44 US China policy as cognitive empathy failure 47:43 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Triolo (Albright Stonebridge Group, https://pstaidecrypted.substack.com/). Recorded October 17, 2025.
Plus: US-China tech showdown, Gaza update, OpenAI hunts bad guys, new Israel-Evangelical synergy
Listen now | 0:00 Teaser 0:58 Why Liron became a Yudkowskian 5:17 Eliezer Yudkowsky’s vision of AI apocalypse 12:45 Does intelligence want power? 19:24 Decoding Yudkowsky’s key Darwinian metaphor 31:12 Is doomerism crowding out other AI worries? 40:38 Liron: The silent majority is very AI anxious 45:41 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Liron Shapira (Pause AI, Relationship Hero). Recorded October 15, 2025.
Plus: Space junk tipping point; East-West AI fusion; NZN Discord server! and more!
Listen now | 0:00 Amazing Bob-Paul discount deal! 2:12 The Bari Weiss trivia test 18:54 Lasting peace in Gaza? 21:31 Why did Trump finally get tough on Bibi? 26:54 MAGA free speech debates 30:58 Is the AI bubble about to burst? 33:37 If anyone builds it, will everyone die? 41:24 Heading into Overtime: Ian McEwan, George Harrison, OpenAI, One Battle After AnotherRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded October 9, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Listen now | Join NonZero’s newly established Discord server: https://discord.gg/FByzCzWf0:00 Was the Free Press bought “to control US media”? 8:50 Why pay $150M for a Substack? 10:59 Netanyahu on the TikTok deal and “giving direction” to the Jewish people 13:22 Pro-Israel donors giving a $2M ultimatum to Charlie Kirk about his ties to Tucker Carlson 17:30 How much influence does Israel have over US media? 24:32 Why Tucker Carlson’s appeal to Christians is a problem for Bibi 32:50 Trump: “I would make TikTok 100% MAGA related if I could” 41:00 Why Hamas would be crazy to trust Trump on his Gaza deal 50:55 Prigozhin conspiracy theory: Why would the Russian government want people to think he’s alive? 57:07 Cognitive sovereignty 1:00:01 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded October 7, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Listen now | 0:00 Teaser 0:43 Steve’s book In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us 10:41 Were school closures smart policy? 18:03 The mask mandate question 24:12 Did medical experts get too much say? 30:39 The role of social class and political tribe 37:32 How dissent was suppressed 45:38 Bob takes a jab at Jay Bhattacharya 48:31 Heading to OT: Why Steve wrote the bookRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Stephen Macedo (Princeton University, In Covid’s Wake). Recorded September 16, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Listen now | 0:00 The deal Hamas offered Bibi before October 7 11:50 How October 7 changed the landscape 22:34 Why Clinton’s Camp David talks failed 37:44 What Arafat was actually offered at Camp David 46:01 The centrality of the right of return 51:35 Beyond two states 55:57 Heading into OT: Abandoning false optimism is not pessimismRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Robert Malley (Yale - Jackson School of Global Affairs, Tomorrow is Yesterday). Recorded September 23, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Plus: TikTok’s pro-Israel future; Trump’s neocon conversion; Eurovision impairment; and more!
Listen now | 0:28 How Eliezer Yudkowsky’s new book envisions AI takeover 8:48 Will we ever really know how AI works? 15:34 The “paperclip maximizer” problem revisited 26:37 Will advanced AIs be insatiable? 32:03 David’s alternative takeover scenario: gradual disempowerment 43:55 Can—and should—we keep humans in the loop? 52:10 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and David Krueger (The University of Montréal). Recorded September 24, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Listen now | Recorded September 20, 2025.
Listen now | 0:00 Teaser 1:04 Glenn’s latest book, Self-Censorship 4:31 Why the Manhattan Institute dropped Glenn 14:00 Glenn on Gaza: “I can’t bear it.” 27:27 “Genocide” and other Israel speech code flashpoints 37:01 Has Trump’s anti-antisemitism push chilled campus speech? 43:05 The irony of the antisemitism crackdown 51:23 A few kind and less kind words for Bari Weiss 56:45 Are Israel’s defenders hurting their cause? 1:02:24 Glenn’s next big project Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Glenn Loury (https://glennloury.substack.com/, Brown University, Hoover Institution, Late Admissions). Recorded September 15, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Plus: Chatbot homewreckers; Slippery Palantir; Gaza’s grim climax; Trump’s fake Caribbean drug war; Conflict entrepreneurs; and more!
Listen now | 0:00 Free speech after Charlie Kirk 20:04 Tyler Robinson’s strange messages 27:56 How influential was Kirk? 35:35 Do violent video games encourage violence? 48:07 Overtime topics: Paul’s debate triumph, Redford’s legacy, etc. 55:08 Heading into OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded September 18, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Listen now | 0:00 How this conversation came to be 1:34 What surprised Glenn most about the Kirk killing 7:38 Who (or what) is driving our polarization? 16:39 Cognitive empathy for MAGA 24:27 Reacting to Charlie Kirk on affirmative action 43:34 Are we re-running the 1960s? 50:50 Coming up in part 2: Israel-GazaRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Glenn Loury (https://glennloury.substack.com/, Brown University, Late Admissions, Self-Censorship). Recorded September 15, 2024.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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