Robert Wright's Nonzero

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org2:30 What era are we living in? 3:27 David Bowie: “The Internet is an alien life form.” 4:45 Bob: “It’s like aliens are approaching, and we don’t know their intentions” 5:57 Nikita: “COVID was weird, and nothing has been normal since” 8:32 The lab leak theory 13:28 How COVID killed consensus reality 17:06 Bob’s case for international biotech monitoring 18:55 Vaccine geopolitics 23:38 Biothreat from existing AI models 25:02 Bob’s candidate: We let machines guide our attention 31:21 Technological progress is like a cocaine high 32:35 How common is the idea that AI will be a big deal? 34:16 AI music is proliferating 39:28 When music is high stakes. Russian street musicians get arrested 41:00 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded December 22, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:28 What’s the long game in Venezuela? 19:53 MAGA’s Monroe Doctrine 17:27 Trump as deep state puppet 22:33 Will Trump oust Maduro? 26:08 Connor: Trump’s foreign policy is a “profoundly mixed bag” 38:55 Has Israel lost the American electorate? 45:19 Andrew: Trump’s Ukraine peace plan isn’t pro-Russia 50:54 Silicon Valley’s inept arms makers 58:32 The administration’s view(s) on China and Taiwan 1:11:51 Europe learns to speak TrumpRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Andrew Day (The American Conservative), and Connor Echols (Responsible Statecraft). Recorded December 18, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Elon’s reckless response to the Brown shooting 11:43 Susie Wiles gone wild 14:55 The weirdest thing about Trump’s weird Rob Reiner post 25:33 The Piers Morgan/Nick Fuentes encounter 38:22 Judging Oliver Sacks 43:50 Heading to 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 December 16, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 The incoherence of Trump’s foreign policy 7:40 The paucity of debate around Chinese chip restrictions 19:37 Danny: Is this the stupidest foreign policy establishment ever? 25:56 Should AGI worry us? 35:07 Bob’s Overtime baitRobert 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 December 11, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:00 Teaser 1:04 How AI helped shape cancer treatment for Nathan’s son 15:52 Should you tell your doctor about your AI medical adviser? 20:37 Big leaps for Gemini 3 and Claude Opus 4.5 27:59 How to get the best medical advice from your AI 34:37 The astonishing breadth of AI expertise 42:26 AI can help on the margins 55:55 Bob’s AI cancer journey 1:11:41 AI and “Right to try” 1:21:08 “Turning every stone” vs falling into anxiety rabbit holes 1:25:50 Gemini 3 vs Opus 4.5 1:31:58 Are scaling laws leveling off? 1:43:02 AI deception 1:47:36 Experiments in AI Consciousness Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nathan Labenz (Cognitive Revolution, Waymark AI). Recorded December 03, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsThe Cognitive Revolution podcast: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/Waymark AI: https://waymark.com/ This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:00 Teaser 1:03 Trump’s 28-point plan: first real negotiations? 3:09 Why Zelensky sounded so grim 8:23 Listing Russia’s advantages 10:08 The unknowable casualties numbers 12:32 Ukraine’s forced mobilization vs. Russia’s volunteer army 16:24 Why Russia won’t run out of money 19:39 Bob: “I want Putin to get the worst deal possible” 21:02 What is the Blob’s plan? 25:37 Bob answers a question from Discord 28:43 Trump’s failed bargaining strategy 31:00 Bob: Ukraine is “so much more complicated” than Gaza 32:41 The corruption scandal threatening Zelensky 35:25 Ukraine’s corruption scandal and Zelensky’s uncertain political future 38:10 Zaluzhnyi’s manifesto: The rival commander’s challenge 41:23 Why all decision-makers are ok with the war continuingRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded December 04, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:30 Sam’s epic new biography of William F. Buckley 5:53 Was Buckley the original Tucker Carlson? 12:35 Buckley’s paradoxical upbringing 22:36 How Yale turned Buckley into a “counter-intellectual” 36:08 Was Buckley racist or tribalist or what? 54:45 Buckley v. the Civil Rights Act 1:03:43 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Sam Tanenhaus (Louis Armstrong: Musician, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography, Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America). Recorded November 25, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Original post via Culturally Determined: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20-years-ago-bloggingheads-was-a-trailblazer-with/id981282353?i=1000735793526Bob and former Bloggingheads.tv staffer and contributor Aryeh Cohen-Wade reflect on the legacy of Bloggingheads.tv, the pioneering website Bob co-founded in 2005. Bob and Aryeh discuss how the site and the technology that powered it anticipated modern trends in online media. They also consider whether Twitter still has any use for journalists, the pros and cons of Substack, and whether Culturally Determined should pivot back to video.Recorded October 28, 2025Links Included:Max Read on his Substack statsAndrew Thompson on the economics of Substack and money vs. attentionhttps://components.news/the-desire-distribution/MeaningOfLife.tvhttps://meaningoflife.tv/Follow Bob on Twitter: https://x.com/robertwrighterFollow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:30 A brief history of American China hawkery 15:40 The 2008 financial crisis changed things 19:22 Xi Jinping and the great man theory of history 25:23 Can we get along with autocrats? 32:06 How China hawkery became bipartisan 38:21 Total eclipse of the hawks? 48:06 Kaiser’s “Great Reckoning” thesisRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Kaiser Kuo (https://www.sinicapodcast.com/). Recorded November 19, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Bob’s Doha trip takeaways 4:06 The Epstein-Bannon-Trump connection 9:34 Can MAGA survive the Epstein saga? 12:45 Email hygiene 101 18:02 Paul defends Larry Summers 29:17 Olivia Nuzzi hikes the Appalachian trail 41:43 Overtime preview: Top podcasting secrets revealed! The punishment problem; Pluribus; the “great feminization” debate; AI “bubble” update; and more!Robert 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 November 20, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Alex’s influential “Google PM Bible” 5:34 What is a tech aggregator? 13:09 AI is much more than chatbots 17:35 The dangers of centralized AI 24:17 What you want vs what you want to want 31:25 How an LLM’s memory locks you in 38:12 AGI vs ASI 44:20 Alex’s solution to the lock-in problem 51:49 Alex’s ode to “resonance”Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Alex Komoroske (Common Tools, https://www.thinkinginpublic.net/). Recorded November 18, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:29 What is Bob doing in Qatar? 3:34 “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Why Yeats felt this way 7:07 Peter Thiel’s Antichrist theory 9:16 Nikita: COVID was a weird time, and nothing has been the same since 14:27 Why Bob feels things are falling apart 17:58 Were things ever in order? 19:23 “Inner emigration”: tuning out the world as self-care 22:08 A reaction to a drone strike: “Loud noises don’t wake me up” 25:27 Young people are turning away from social media 26:35 When Spain lost all power and cellular coverage 30:06 War as a “major inconvenience” 33:58 Bob’s prediction about Ukraine’s future retaliation for Pokrovsk 38:26 Nikita’s impressions from Europe 41:37 Nonzero Reading Club THIS SATURDAY: Norbert Wiener’s God & Golem, Inc. 46:38 Deepfakes and the future of news 51:34 Russia’s first humanoid robot falls downRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded November 12, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsJoin NonZero’s newly established Discord server: https://discord.gg/Zy4jAhTQMFBook a time to chat with Nikita: https://calendly.com/psychopolitica/office-hoursSave the date for the first-ever NonZero Reading Club discussion on Zoom this Saturday (Nov. 15th) at 1pm ET: https://www.addevent.com/event/1yxb9cr5nk0z

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:30 Shadi’s path to his new book, The Case for American Power 9:50 George W. Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” 13:19 Does America’s role in Gaza undermine Shadi’s case? 16:47 Shadi’s case for US moral supremacy 23:36 What does China want? 34:19 What justifies military intervention? 40:32 Bob: International law is the answer 51:25 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Shadi Hamid (The Washington Post, The Case for American Power). Recorded October 29, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsOvertime titles:0:00 More on Chinese aspirations 4:52 America, f—k yea? 9:15 How the Iraq war propelled Donald Trump’s rise 14:46 Moscow’s view of American behavior 24:42 Could the US have shaped a better Putin path?Overtime video:

0:28 This week in underappreciated world history 7:19 Were the elections all—or just mostly—bad news for Trump? 28:55 Will Trump invade Venezuela? 36:30 What’s the shutdown fight really about? 43:04 Mickey vs Ezra Klein (in absentia) on healthcare 51:22 Back down the Epstein rabbit hole 1:17:28 Was Tucker playing 4D chess with the Fuentes interview? 1:28:03 What happened to the blogosphere? 1:36:42 The case for (and against) Bari Weiss 1:40:17 AI doom in fiction vs reality 1:44:49 The AI bubble: Dot-com déjà vu? 1:47:41 AOC in 2028? 1:53:23 Mickey: Beware of gym girls!Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded November 06, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 The Carlson-Fuentes interview controversy 4:32 Paul: Candidate Carlson is coming 7:04 Is gatekeeping dead? 13:40 Is Carlson’s show respectable? 20:17 Carlson and Fuentes on the Israel lobby 25:28 William F. Buckley as MAGA precursor 38:20 Is antisemitism more organic on the right or left? 46:13 Heading to 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 November 04, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Bob tries to lower American Prestige’s self-esteem 3:31 The Trump-Xi trade talks 7:08 Making sense of Trump’s nuclear saber-rattling 10:58 Signs of a US-China vibe shift 17:00 Is AI accelerating science? 23:49 Bill Gates’s climate change of heart 29:54 This week’s Gaza ceasefire death toll 34:43 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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.orgThis episode includes an Overtime segment that’s available to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we of course encourage you to become one. If you are a paid subscriber, you can access the complete conversation either via the audio and video on this post or by setting up the paid-subscriber podcast feed, which includes all exclusive audio content. To set that up, simply grab the RSS feed from this page (by first clicking the “...” icon on the audio player) and paste it into your favorite podcast app. If you have trouble completing the process, check out this super-simple how-to guide.Join NonZero’s newly established Discord server: https://discord.gg/Zy4jAhTQMFLink to schedule chat with Nikita: https://calendly.com/psychopolitica/office-hours0:00 Teaser 1:55 Trump on drug cartels: “We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be like, dead.” 4:31 Venezuela: Regime change disguised as drug war 5:44 Marco Rubio holds all the foreign policy power 8:24 Trump Doctrine candidate #1: “Jump at the chance to use force” 11:37 Trump Doctrine candidate #2: Monroe 2.0 17:36 Roy Cohn’s philosophy: “It is a nation of men, not laws” 22:22 Bob: There’s value in hypocrisy 30:02 Trump is paving the way for a more competent tyrant 31:46 Could Trump actually be good for the world? 36:37 Trump the comedian 42:17 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/NonzeroPodsOvertime titles:How to network when you hate networking.The Non-Zero mission and Peter Thiel’s “Antichrist.”What dreams are for.Nikita’s dream about the nature of modern media.Overtime video:

Via the post on the Buddhist Geeks Substack: In this Buddhist Geeks episode, Vince Fakhoury Horn and Robert Wright explore the intersection of Buddhism, ethics, and geopolitics as they reflect on Palestine, Jewish-Buddhist responses, moral responsibility, and the role of mindfulness amid global violence. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 What triggered Trump’s 100-percent tariff threat? 9:39 How China is mirroring the US playbook 17:14 The real escalation: America's "50% rule" 25:57 Why has US media coverage been so bad? 28:37 Biden's role in fueling the trade war 40:08 US China policy as cognitive empathy failure 48:06 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Triolo (Albright Stonebridge Group, https://pstaidecrypted.substack.com/). Recorded October 17, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Why Liron became a Yudkowskian 4:47 Eliezer Yudkowsky’s vision of AI apocalypse 12:15 Does intelligence want power? 18:54 Decoding Yudkowsky’s key Darwinian metaphor 30:42 Is doomerism crowding out other AI worries? 40:08 Liron: The silent majority is very AI anxious 45:11 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Liron Shapira (Pause AI, Relationship Hero). Recorded October 15, 2025.Join NonZero’s newly established Discord server: https://discord.gg/FByzCzWfTwitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods