The Wright Show: Recent Episodes
Bloggingheads.tv
Conversations with a series of people who have nothing in common except that program host Robert Wright is curious about what they’re thinking.
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(Overtime segment available to paid subscribers below the paywall.)
1:23 Almut’s work as a feminist activist in the former Soviet Union 11:53 How economic anxiety helped tear Ukraine apart 23:12 The very complex coalition behind the Maidan Revolution 30:24 Could wiser European Union policy have averted the Russia-Ukraine conflict? 37:11 Queer feminists and the ultra-right in Ukraine 48:20 The nature of Ukrainian nationalism 59:12 Heading into Overtime
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Almut Rochowanski (https://discomfortzone.substack.com/). Recorded September 12, 2023.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:42 Nikki Haley beats Biden in new poll 8:14 How big is Ukraine’s military "breakthrough"? 15:35 Signs that Russia is ready for peace talks 26:49 Why are Americans feeling down on the economy? 33:52 DeSantis takes care of business in hurricane-wrecked Florida 41:06 Are the punishments for January 6 rioters too severe? 51:42 How much time is there for a formidable Democrat to challenge Biden for the nomination? 56:57 Bob and Mickey make big announcement
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded September 08, 2023.
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 nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
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0:33 Tim’s article explaining large language models 03:23 Do LLMs reverse engineer the human mind? 11:24 GPT’s mesmerizing emergent properties 17:43 The ‘T’ in Chat-GPT 30:33 How AI models evolve during training 41:59 Human intelligence compared to artificial intelligence 49:10 Heading to Overtime
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (Full Stack Economics, Understanding AI). Recorded August 16, 2023.
Tim's Substack newsletter: understandingAI.org
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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Seems like only last week I was saying there wouldn’t be a Nonzero Newsletter sent out today, owing to the end-of-summer quasi-vacation granted to hard-working NZN staffers. And it’s true that the Earthling, the weekend edition of NZN, is skipping this week and next. However, yesterday I had a conversation that was so timely and interesting that I figured I’d share some transcript excerpts—below—with NZN subscribers.
The conversation is with Nikita Petrov, who left Russia shortly after the invasion of Ukraine but is monitoring the Russian zeitgeist (and publishing his newsletter Psychopolitica) from Armenia. The subject of the conversation is Yevgeny Prigozhin, long-time leader of the mercenary Wagner Group.
This June, you might remember, Prigozhin staged a short-lived mutiny against Russia’s military leadership. So when his plane blew up a couple of days ago, pretty much everyone suspected Putin’s handiwork. (Although, as Nikita explains, according to a conspiracy theory circulating in Russia, there’s less to Prigozhin’s apparent death than meets the eye.)
Paid subscribers can listen to the full conversation via the audio player above or via their NZN member podcast feed. (To set up that feed, if you’re a paid subscriber and haven’t done that already, click “Listen on” in the audio player and follow the directions.)
Hope you enjoy the excerpts below. More of the conversation will be available in the public podcast we post next week, though the Overtime segment—the final 40 minutes or so—will remain exclusive to paid subscribers.
—Bob
Bob: We’re taping this on the day after a plane went down that apparently included Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner Group, along with his top commander, the guy from whom the Wagner Group got its name—“Wagner” was his call sign.
Nikita: Yep.
Bob: And I actually haven't even looked at the news this morning, but it didn't seem to me there was that much doubt, even though they hadn't identified bodies or anything. I assume no one's doubting that he's—
Nikita: Well, there are two main theories that I've been hearing. One is the straightforward one: Prigozhin and the top command are dead, and Putin is behind it.
The other version is: This is Prigozhin’s disappearance. He’s somewhere on an island right now drinking a martini, and this is his way out of the business. Normally I would say there's no reason whatsoever to contemplate that approach. But since this is Prigozhin, and we've seen like six fake passports of his with toupees and beards and whatnot. And generally, he’s, you know, a peculiar character, he's fighting in Africa, and then he's in Ukraine, and he also has a catering business, and a troll farm. I think that's not a zero-chance probability, but I don't think it's a high-chance probability either.
Bob: On the other hand, Russia has always been a hotbed for this kind of theorizing, right?
Nikita: Yes. Yes. It’s a normal thing for Russians. Whatever happens, there's always a conspiracy theory right away.
Bob: So there’s a pretty high false positive rate on conspiracy theories in Russia—and increasingly in America. Maybe this can bring the two nations together, that we have this in common.
Nikita: I think there is some overlap. I mean, before the war, there were tribes within Russia and the US who were growing closer together, like the QAnon people. And even with the war—
Bob: That kind of makes sense actually. Go ahead.
Nikita: I was surprised. About a month and a half ago, RFK [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.] got into that scandal because he said something about Covid, and the way his words were interpreted was that there is a chance that it was designed by the Chinese in a lab and it targets certain groups more than others.
Bob: Right.
Nikita: And he started talking about bioweapons and whatnot. I think he talked about biolabs in Ukraine.
Bob: Yeah. That's a thing. That’s a talking point.
Nikita: Until then, I was not aware that anybody in the West thinks that. But it was a big part of the Russian propaganda, some versions of which are very strange. On the one hand, according to Russian state propaganda, the Russians and Ukrainians are really the same people, but also, there are biolabs in Ukraine that were designing viruses that would target specifically Russians.
Bob: It’s a very discerning virus! It picks up on the most subtle differences in DNA.
. . .
Bob: But, on Prigozhin, tell me… presumably the [staged disappearance] theory is that he actually feared something like this happening for real, right? I mean, he didn't feel safe in this world.
Nikita: Either that, or another version of the same theory would be that he made a deal with Putin, that this is how I’m gonna go out.
Bob: Oh, and then you [Putin] will look like you were the tough guy and did crack down.
Nikita: That's right. And I’ll [Prigozhin] get my pension and I’m fine.
Bob: I've got a feeling he doesn't need a pension. I forget how much cash was found in his apartment, but I suspect that he's got stashes in various places.
Nikita: [laughter] That’s right.
Bob: So anyway, your sense is, not that you're in Russia, but your sense is that this will be a minority interpretation anyway, that he's not actually dead?
Nikita: From what I've heard so far, most people say there's also this possibility, but it's probably a low possibility. So, I haven't met a true believer in this theory so far. I mean, it's been a day—it's been less than a day. But it's brought up and discussed as a low probability option.
And we will never know, I suppose, because the bodies are burned. We’re not going to see a picture of Prigozhin that we can recognize. And the people who will tell us (and they might have already; I saw some reports that sounded more official than what I saw last evening, saying yes, this is Prigozhin and Utkin and the other passengers who were supposed to be on the plane) the people who are going to tell us this are the authorities, which if they are the ones who decided to do this staged disappearance, you know, you're not supposed to trust them.
Bob: Right.
Nikita: But I don't think it matters, frankly. I think that’s the low probability version, and I don't think it matters, because both options lead to Prigozhin not being here anymore. If he lives a private life on an island somewhere—
Bob: He seems out of the picture. And everyone else will act on the assumption that Putin did it.
Nikita: That's right.
Bob: Is your sense that among those Russians who do believe Prigozhin’s dead, overwhelmingly the assumption is Putin decided to take him out?
Nikita: Yes. Yes.
Bob: I can't even come up with another theory. Has it been confirmed that there was an anti-aircraft missile fired at the plane, or is that still—
Nikita: No, I think they are saying now that there was an explosive in the chassis, the wheel of the plane. And they say they have a suspect, Prigozhin’s private pilot, who was supposed to be on the flight maybe, or at least was able to access the plane. And he’s MIA somewhere. Some friend of his said that he's trekking in Siberia, or something along those lines. So, they have a suspect and a theory. It doesn't go further than that guy so far, like, why would his pilot do this? But I think that might become the official narrative. This is what I'm seeing this morning.
Bob: So is it confirmed that the pilot was not on the plane, the regular pilot?
Nikita: I think. He was called Prigozhin’s private pilot. I'm not sure he was supposed to be on this plane. He just flew with Prigozhin before, so they are singling him out as a suspect.
Bob: I see. Do you think Putin would go to the trouble to frame somebody, and do the whole court proceeding, and put them in prison? I mean, it's weird, because presumably Putin wants a certain crowd to know he did it, including possibly much of the world, right? He wants some people to think, yeah, Putin cracked down, let's don't plot any mutinies anytime soon. I mean, that's the thing about this. It's so blatant, right?
With most of the past assassinations attributed to Putin, there wasn't rock solid evidence. And in fact, I would run into smart people who paid attention, and I'd say, what do you think the chances are that this guy was taken out by Putin? They'd say, well, probably, or 90 per cent or 95 per cent. I don't think you're going to hear many people as low as 95 per cent on this one. It seems like this time, it’s a more unabashed assassination.
Nikita: I think that's true. But also, nobody tried to, you know, take his private army and march on Moscow before.
Bob: Right, right. Absolutely. You know, right after this happened, right after the mutiny, and after the deal was negotiated, American Russia hawks like Michael McFaul said, see, all this stuff about how Putin if you corner him is dangerous, is wrong. We don't need to worry about pushing them out of Crimea and back into Russia and even, what is happening now, attacks on Russian territory. McFaul said, this just shows he'll fold; it's a bluff. What McFaul said is that he capitulated. And first of all, I pointed out, he did not capitulate. He didn't meet Prigozhin’s demands. That's capitulation, if you do fire Shoigu and Gerasimov, the two military chiefs he wanted fired.
And I'd be interested in your take on this. Leave aside the fact that apparently, ultimately, Prigozhin paid the ultimate price. I thought, given the situation Putin was in, he didn't handle it that badly. I mean, you’ve got 5,000 troops marching to Moscow. Things could get seriously out of hand, even if you're confident you can put it down. These people are considered war heroes by a lot of Russians, right? They're the guys who did Bakhmut. They have a base. And after Wagner had shot down the planes, to get out of it with no further bloodshed…
Leaving aside the fact that ultimately Putin had it both ways, he finessed it without a big confrontation and got Prigozhin killed, what did you think after the event?
Nikita: Well, first of all, during the event itself, and the few days after, the prevalent feeling among all the Russians I know, whether inside or outside Russia, was just how bizarre this whole thing is. Especially as the events were unfolding, like, he started to march, you start to get these audio messages, you get updates in Telegram from Prigozhin himself.
For a while, it wasn't clear whether this is actually happening or not. He’s saying that they're marching on Rostov and it’s like, is he? I haven't seen any pictures. It's just Prigozhin saying that, and he's known for playing games. And then suddenly there are tanks in Rostov.
And then he's saying he's marching on Moscow. My brother was in Moscow at the time, and he went into the streets, and he said it was a weird, weird feeling, having been there for a long time, that the cops and the people are on the same side, because the cops in Moscow and people in Moscow were expecting this army to show up. And the cops seemed nervous and unsure what to do.
. . .
Nikita: So the prevalent feeling from this whole experience was just: This is bizarre and weird. When the analysis started to come in three days, four days after the thing, I had the feeling that maybe this is us trying to pretend that we understand what is going on. Because these past couple of days, nobody knew what was happening. Every theory was thrown out there, whether it's staged, whether it's real. You've heard these, you know, Prigozhin agreed with Putin that he's going to do this thing to find the people who are actually not loyal enough. There was all of this, and nobody had a good theory because the straightforward one seemed also too weird.
Bob: Yeah.
Nikita: But now in the aftermath, I agree with you that Putin did not lose control. And now, the Russian word they use is signal. This is a strong signal that he's sending that if you try to do this, you're going to blow up.
But I think a lot of people did feel as this was happening, surely, that this is not the behavior of a strong leader, because he was nowhere to be found. The day of, Peskov, his spokesperson, said that Putin knows about the situation. But that was all. And then in the morning, he [Putin] made this speech. And during the day, as this was happening, there weren't a lot of people who really jumped in front of the situation and said, I support the president of my country and this is mutiny. They started saying that as the situation progressed and it became more clear that this is what you're supposed to be doing.
. . .
(Overtime segment available to paid subscribers below the paywall.)
0:42 Nikita’s life as an expatriate 5:18 Theories among Russians about Prigozhin’s death 17:29 Putin’s handling of the Wagner mutiny, reassessed 25:46 Did Prigozhin lose his mind? 35:36 How worried should Putin be about Prigozhin’s supporters? 43:15 Russians’ evolving views of the invasion 50:50 Is Putin feeling heat from the nationalist right? Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com/). Recorded August 24, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66636 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:33 Mickey gets a C on the news quiz 10:11 Prigozhin postmortem: Is Putin’s regime more secure now? 17:31 The Ukraine war as “politics by other means” 20:24 The good, the bad, and the ugly of the GOP debate 25:45 Will the indictments help Trump in the general election? 34:21 Parrot room preview: Why Bob finds Vivek scary and “Rich Men North of Richmond” icky; Extraordinary Attorney Woo; Hurricane Hilary hype; retail “shrink” hits the big time; Bidenomics and E.J. Dionne; Do presidential candidates need to be optimistic?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded August 25, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66623 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:33 Has David’s grim outlook on the climate changed? 20:15 How “global warming” became “climate change” 13:38 What wilder wildfires signal about the environment 25:02 Which climate measures are the surest bet? 31:41 Climate science’s time-scale problem 39:03 The pros and cons of carbon capture 48:20 Heading to Overtime
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and David Wallace-Wells (The New York Times, The Uninhabitable Earth). Recorded August 17, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66601 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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2:52 Yet another Trump indictment—How strong is the case? 12:46 Is America becoming a banana republic? 20:47 DeSantis debate strategy goes public 31:35 Bob floats secret elite plot to get Biden off the Democratic ticket 37:07 Why Ukraine’s stalled offensive is politically hazardous for Biden 48:47 Parrot Room preview: US-China war games; Sam Bankman-Fried back in jail; Hunter Biden scandal updates; populist anthem sweeps America; colorful LA character passes away; San Diego’s successful homeless policy; Twitter versus Threads; and signs of AI enlightenment.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded August 18, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66569 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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Robert Wright and Tamler Sommers discuss what you can and can't say about UFOs.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Tamler Sommers (Very Bad Wizards, University of Houston, Why Honor Matters). Recorded August 03, 2023.
Nonzero Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Very Bad Wizards: https://verybadwizards.com/
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(Overtime segment available to paid subscribers below the paywall.)
0:33 Sohrab’s idiosyncratic ideological journey 10:04 What makes Sohrab a conservative? 15:58 Sohrab’s new book Tyranny, Inc.—a critique of neoliberal capitalism’s effects on American life 24:09 What happened to the labor movement in America? 36:12 Private equity’s role in Sears’s demise 45:19 “Ghost papers”: Wall Street's effect on local news 51:22 Overtime preview: Sohrab’s foreign policy; supporting Donald Trump; re-industrializing without Cold War II; and what is to be done?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Sohrab Ahmari (Compact Magazine, Tyranny, Inc.). Recorded August 15, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66557 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:33 New challenges for Ukraine 7:06 What do lead pipes have to do with climate migrants? Ask Biden 14:07 Are the Bidens corruption “disruptors”? 23:41 Mickey’s craziest theory of the week 26:32 Another wrinkle in the Hunter Biden scandal 32:20 What mainstream media won’t tell you about Iran 37:53 Mickey’s searing critique of Obama 47:24 Parrot room preview: Mickey on the Trump cases; RIP Robbie Robertson; Tim Scott’s campaign expense weirdness; Biden's strange Saudi-Israel plan; Code Pink; assessing the UFO whistleblower; San Francisco's autonomous cabs; Michael Lind vs Richard Hanania; losing Sugar Man; Oppenheimer (the documentary); Sohrab Ahmari; a cornucopia of comments
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded August 11, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66546 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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1:41 How US-China rivalry is shaking up the region 12:44 Why Washington wants to control the Middle East oil spigot 25:01 The odds of an imminent confrontation with Iran 30:49 Is America breaking international law in Syria? 42:55 What would a Middle East without US intervention look like? 48:25 Why Israel lacks a written constitution 55:27 Heading to Overtime
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joshua Landis (University of Oklahoma, SyriaComment.com). Recorded August 08, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66533 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:33 A PBS lament 5:24 Does Trump prosecutor Jack Smith have the goods? 21:48 Hunter Biden’s corruption defense: It was all an illusion 31:52 President Biden’s Ukraine quagmire 41:25 What Trump gets right about Russia-Ukraine 48:17 Is West Africa heading toward a major war? 52:08 Parrot Room preview: The tragedy of PBS NewsHour; Mickey’s border worries; Bob’s reflection on jury duty; the economics of electric vehicles; the UFO files; Italy pivots away from guaranteed income; over-the-counter Alzheimer’s test; US-China decoupling; room-temperature superconductors; and the limits of AI
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded August 04, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66526 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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1:06 Bob and Dan reminisce about blogging and Bloggingheads 8:17 Was the first year of Russia’s invasion a success for US foreign policy? 17:45 When will Putin be ready to cut a deal? 23:13 The odds of a wider war—or a nuclear one 27:45 What good can come from continuing the war? 41:08 Has the US mismanaged its relationship with Putin’s Russia? 50:56 Putin’s fear of western-backed color revolutions
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Daniel Drezner (PostEverything, Tufts University, Drezner's World). Recorded July 31, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66511 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:34 Bob extols the virtues of jury duty 4:27 Ukraine’s counter offensive surge 16:42 What does Hunter’s failed plea deal mean for Joe? 24:03 In search of a DeSantis strategy 32:13 The Niger coup and Cold War II 44:12 Parrot room preview: Israel’s issues; musings on late musicians; Is Ramaswamy surging?; New lab leak controversy; Mickey’s border question for Biden; Is DEI d-e-a-d?; A crazy (ex-)Twitter theory; AI self-regulation
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded July 28, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66501 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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(Overtime segment available to paid subscribers below the paywall.)
2:21 Where AI fits in Connor’s tech threat taxonomy 15:10 What does the “general” in artificial general intelligence actually mean? 22:26 What should worry us about AI right now? 30:01 Connor: Don’t put your trust in AI companies 39:28 The promise and perils of open-sourcing AI 49:52 Why "interpretability" matters 56:31 What would an aligned AI actually look like? 1:01:00 Bridging the technology wisdom gap
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Connor Leahy (Conjecture). Recorded July 11, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66476 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:34 Senator Chris Murphy declares war on loneliness 8:58 Why is the Ukraine offensive going badly? 14:51 Why Biden should push for peace talks now 24:37 Threads unravels 35:23 Was RFK’s Covid conjecture anti-Semitic? 43:11 Mickey reviews the MSM version of DeSantis 52:15 American diplomacy update: murky scandals and trash talk 56:39 Parrot Room preview: Biden corruption scandal; electric car paranoia; what Trump will do if he wins; Mickey on Xi Jinping; Trump’s trials; Tony Bennett passes away; Meta’s dubious AI policy; Is the internet annoying, or is Bob just old?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded July 21, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/664663 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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00:33 What is this new Overton Windows series about? 10:05 Tamler’s connections to Israel and Bob’s experiences there19:22 What does Zionism mean in practice? 27:35 The shifting Overton window around Israel/Palestine45:35 The heavy-handed response to the BDS movement57:13 What the Israel/Palestine discourse says about Overton windows1:02:09 So where should the boundaries be set?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Tamler Sommers (Very Bad Wizards, University of Houston, Why Honor Matters). Recorded June 21, 2023.
Nonzero Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsVery Bad Wizards: https://verybadwizards.com/
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0:04 Mickey bats .500 on this week’s news quiz 5:19 Gen. “Spartacus” and other Russians with attitude 17:01 What (or who) is impeding peace in Ukraine? 24:00 What Biden has that other possible Dem candidates don’t 36:04 What Trump’s messaging has that DeSantis’s doesn’t 39:41 Untangling Threads’s early days 53:06 Parrot Room preview: AI update; the mysterious Gal Luft; the irony of Klaatu’s speech; Mickey’s diversity epiphany; Canadian euthanasia initiative; Silo spoilers; AMC Pacer maker passes; Bob’s China vindication; Alan Arkin speech debate round three
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded July 13, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66441 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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RWA Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@RussiansWith... RWA podcast episodes: https://www.patreon.com/rwapodcast 01:10 Why Bob invited Russians with Attitude onto the Nonzero Podcast 7:30 Why do Kirill and Nikolay support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? 15:23 Shortcomings of US mainstream media in covering Russia 25:40 The roots of the Donbass rebellion 37:33 Parallels between the Maidan Revolution and the Donbass rebellion 49:05 What was Putin’s main reason for invading? 1:00:53 Is Russia systematically committing war crimes? 1:14:23 Final thoughts from Nikolay and Kirill before heading into Overtime 1:22:23 What was the Prigozhin mutiny really about? 1:29:50 The chances of an imminent ceasefire 1:37:06 How do Nikolay and Kirill self-identify ideologically? 1:44:47 The extent of Russian government repression of dissidents 2:01:14 America’s missed opportunity to bolster global peace and prosperity
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikolay and Kirill (Russians with Attitude). Recorded July 5, 2023.
2:39 Should GOP candidates attack Trump—or praise him? 14:10 Prigozhin mutiny aftermath gets messy 22:56 Signs of a coming ceasefire in Ukraine 31:57 Does the foreign policy Blob really care about Ukrainians? 38:31 MSM deep-sixes affirmative action ruling 44:24 Is Zuckerberg’s Twitter clone anti-old people? 52:42 Parrot Room preview: New anti-censorship ruling; private companies and the First Amendment; The Day the Earth Stood Still; riots in France; Macron’s good policy idea; artificial intelligence and war; complaints about Timothy Snyder; complaints about the New York Times; Foundation episode 1 review; Elon-Zuckerberg cage match. Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded July 6, 2023. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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02:26 Why Tim thinks AI chatbots are more than just “stochastic parrots” 9:27 Do AIs “understand” things? 21:18 The multidimensional mind of AI 26:28 Humans designed AIs, so why don’t we fully understand how they work? 34:42 The real mystery of smart machines: They learn things we didn’t teach them 42:36 Why deep learning was such a game changer for AI research 57:22 The T in ChatGPT
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy Nguyen (Google).
Overtime segment:
00:00 Why Michael McFaul is wrong about Vladimir Putin 10:13 Is Putin ready for a ceasefire? 22:39 Has SCOTUS succeeded in killing affirmative action? 36:13 Americans do have to pay student loans, don’t have to make LGBT websites 47:29 Is RFK Jr. entering Trump’s orbit? 52:08 Parrot Room preview: GOP election strategy; Bidenomics and national conservatism; band name of the year; Yglesias says liberals have higher IQs; final episode of Silo; Bob reviews Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Titanic submarine tragedy; and reasons to worry about a false flag attack in Ukraine. Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded June 30, 2023.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:33 Sean’s new book, We May Dominate the World: Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American Colossus 3:52 China’s and Russia’s behavior today compared to America’s a century ago 14:00 If geopolitical realities don’t change, are great powers doomed to blow up the world? 21:12 Why did the US decide to dominate the western hemisphere? 28:19 American interventions from the Civil War to World War I 35:57 Why forceful US interventions in Latin America have become less common 44:45 Were the fears motivating the annexation of Hawaii based in reality? 54:54 Did the Spanish-American War have broad public support?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Sean Mirski (Hoover Institution, We May Dominate the World). Recorded June 22, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66385 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:34 Should Hunter Biden and Trump get the Tim Geithner treatment? 10:36 Bob’s latest evidence that Biden shouldn’t run again 18:43 Have we reached peak RFK Jr.? 23:19 Does the counteroffensive hurt Ukraine’s cause? 30:28 Leaky new dam collapse theory 40:14 The rapidly metastasizing GOP primary field 49:33 Israel-Palestine gets Black Mirror-y 55:43 Alito’s ill-considered trip 1:01:34 Parrot room preview: The right’s schism over capitalism; Prigozhin's insurrection; the Titanic sub tragedy; Why Mickey is growing to hate EVs; Janan Ganesh’s elite take on populism; Bob’s (possibly) new UFO thoughts; Cutting the tax cuts from supply-side economics?; Silo; Biden’s billion-dollar battery bonuses; Biden’s reverse-Epstein problem
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded June 23, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66369 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 The (fuzzy) distinction between cognitive and emotional empathy 7:01 Simon’s work on autism and empathy 15:59 Should we really view autism as a spectrum? 26:17 Are powerful people bad at cognitive empathy? 40:19 Hitler, tribalism, and the societal dynamics of empathy 53:58 Can cognitive empathy save the world? 1:00:50 The “double-empathy” problem 1:04:52 How autistic kids play differently
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Simon Baron-Cohen (University of Cambridge, The Science of Evil, The Pattern Seekers). Recorded May 18, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66341 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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1:42 Mickey gets a B+ on this week’s news quiz 11:30 Is RFK Jr. the Dem’s key to booting Biden? 20:12 Chris Christie’s chances vs. Trump 24:28 Has Tucker gone off the deep end? 37:16 No, Russia didn’t blow up Ukraine’s dam 43:21 Is the Ukrainian counteroffensive failing? 59:12 Parrot room preview: Remembering Daniel Ellsberg; Elizabeth Gilbert’s self-cancellation; the fake deepfake of John Lennon; Mickey’s AI question; a bit of Epstein news; LIV golf update; Mickey contra popular vote compact; the Blob’s pro-immigration argument; Who’s going to pardon Trump? And why?; Did Harvard or the CIA drive the Unabomber crazy?; RIP Ed Fredkin; Silo; Harvard and the Inuit
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded June 16, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66333 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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00:54 Frank’s book The End of History and the Last Man 10:35 Bob’s book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny 17:14 Do people have to be rational in order to cooperate? 24:07 Are AI and other technologies advancing too rapidly for society to adapt? 37:21 Frank’s take on Hegel 48:05 Why Frank’s a Russia hawk and Bob's a Russia dove 58:12 Will authoritarian regimes do a better job of dealing with advanced information technologies?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Francis Fukuyama (Stanford University, The End of History and the Last Man, Liberalism and Its Discontents). Recorded May 23, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66315Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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3:31 The GOP primary gets crowded 10:56 Will Trump’s indictment help him get the nomination? 19:07 Ukraine’s long-awaited counteroffensive begins 25:55 Dissecting Timothy Snyder’s Ukraine analysis 36:01 Looks like Ukraine blew up Nord Stream 41:47 Tucker’s new Twitter show 49:22 Parrot Room preview: Bob draws lesson from PGA’s merger with Saudi’s LIV; affirmative action set to fall; Apple’s new goggles; Taylor Swift; food stamps and the homeless; why Gen-Zers are more likely to be non-binary; Cracker Barrel goes woke; Chinese spy situation in Cuba; Bob on the sci-fi show Silo.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded June 09, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66298 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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2:00 The dam breaks in Ukraine 10:12 Is western media giving a clear picture of the war? 18:25 Why do some Ukrainian soldiers wear Nazi symbols? 27:37 How Russia-Ukraine could become a wider war 37:05 Could the US have prevented the war? 48:11 Seeing American foreign policy from Putin's point of view
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Branko Marcetic (Jacobin). Recorded June 06, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66277 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
1:31 China’s role in Saudi-Iran rapprochement7:10 The legacy of Trump’s withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal12:25 Does Israel have a Palestine plan?24:12 Tensions resurface in Kosovo29:03 NATO expansion and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine35:31 Has the US mismanaged its relationship with Russia?43:53 Prospects for peace in Ukraine—or for massive military escalation56:26 A message from Bob about this week's Parrot Room
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Thomas Friedman (The New York Times). Recorded May 31, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66256Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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(Overtime segment available to paid subscribers below the paywall.)
0:00 Sam’s Bloggingheads bona fides 2:39 Is AI “interpretability” worth the trouble? 13:38 Natural selection and artificial intelligence 19:47 Are large language models absorbing human nature? 29:53 What Sam thinks singularitarian AI doomers get wrong 36:36 Is it time for an AI-safety Manhattan Project? 51:12 Sam: Let a thousand GPT-4 (but not GPT-5) plug-ins bloom. 57:09 Where are our AI safety blindspots?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Innovation, Second Best). Recorded May 30, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66231 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Bob quizzes Mickey on worrisome Ukraine war developments 8:26 What could push Putin to go nuclear? 16:34 How disastrous was the DeSantis launch really? 27:46 DeSantis’s possible anti-Trump trump card 37:03 Who’s losing the debt-ceiling fight? 40:15 Parrot room preview: Soul and dual Dune reviews; the latest on Epstein-Gates; Bob’s 12 Monkeys howler; AI; simply the best of Tina Turner; Mickey delineates new immigration bills
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded May 26, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66225 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 The watershed moment that led Ben to write his new book, "Cry, Baby"10:55 Does meditation make you less emotional?16:37 How different socio-cultural groups feel about crying23:18 Why do we cry anyway?36:42 Transformative and performative weeping42:29 Putting Joel Osteen’s tears under a microscope54:50 How does the nature of crying change over a lifetime?1:03:33 Overtime preview: Bob’s most embarrassing adult crying experience, psychedelics and crying, and more!1:06:03 Ben delivers a benediction on crying
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Benjamin Perry (Middle Church, "Cry, Baby"). Recorded May 22, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66201Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Mickey’s risky quiz for Bob 7:20 Biden, Feinstein, Fetterman: Compare and contrast 12:32 Does DeSantis have a path to the presidency? 16:28 Bob’s biggest takeaway from the AI hearings 18:41 How the chip war with China makes real war more likely 29:17 What senators should have asked OpenAI’s CEO 38:47 Ukraine war update 48:09 Parrot room preview: (Not much) debt deal talk; Robert Putnam essay assessed; the Thiel-Epstein and Botstein-Epstein and Chomsky-Epstein connections; an important note on inequality; examining 12 Monkeys; Tucker; new “woke-watch” items; more AI
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded May 19, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66189Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Tim’s tech background and his new newsletter, Understanding AI 4:12 Natural selection and artificial intelligence 11:12 Why Tim is a singularity skeptic 15:17 How exactly would AI take over? And will it even want to? 24:21 The bad AI vs good AI arms race 36:05 What exactly are "AI agents"? 40:09 Why Tim is an AI job-pocalypse skeptic 51:13 Has AI created the biggest tech hype wave ever? 55:45 How Tim thinks AI will actually transform human life
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (Full Stack Economics, Understanding AI) Recorded May 10, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66149 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:15 The food fight within Russia’s military establishment7:50 Could Ukraine’s looming offensive succeed? 12:44 The foreign policy Blob’s biggest blind spot 19:00 Was Trump’s town hall performance a tactical blunder?26:57 Is DeSantis’s attack on Disney anti-democratic?34:54 Tucker moves to Twitter
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded May 12, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66139Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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00:49 America’s missed opportunity to create a peaceful post-Cold-War world8:09 The moment US foreign policy went off track 14:19 Why didn’t the West invest in Russia’s post-Cold War recovery? 22:18 The foreign policy Blob’s continuity across presidential administrations 30:01 Has the American journalism gotten worse in recent decades?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Jeffrey Sachs (Columbia, The End of Poverty, The Ages of Globalization). Recorded May 01, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66121 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Mickey deflates a DeSantis challenger 10:52 Mickey’s ego-inflating podcast week 14:01 Who was behind the Kremlin drone attack? 18:38 Neocon propaganda outlet busted; Bob vindicated 25:45 Who has the bigger beef with Neera Tanden? 29:30 How bad was the leaked Tucker text about how “white men fight”? 40:03 Parrot room preview: Gordon Lightfoot trivia lightning-round; adjudicating the Ed Sheeran plagiarism case; new Epstein name-drops; Bob’s latest AI piece; DeSantis vs. Disney; the latest Twitter rival’s arrival; Elon’s subtle Tesla pricing strategy
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded May 05, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66111Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Israel’s many issues 2:52 How ugly could Israel’s judicial reform crisis get? 11:11 Are Palestinian citizens of Israel really under “apartheid”? 18:10 The demographic and ideological sources of Israel’s instability 32:44 If the two-state solution is dead, now what? 43:40 How might an increasingly multipolar world affect Israel? 59:22 Why climate change makes Israel-Palestine even more dire
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Daniel Levy (Prospects for Peace, NAF, The Century Foundation). Recorded May 01, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66091Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:48 Is MSM giving cheat sheets to Biden? 7:58 Trump says he might skip GOP debates 18:33 Will Tucker make a run for the White House? 27:57 Disney escalates its feud with DeSantis 32:59 Bob: Ukraine’s looming offensive is a bad idea
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded April 28, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66084 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 John’s upcoming book, How States Think: The Rationality of Foreign Policy2:51 Is the US to blame for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine?10:00 Is Putin less rational than John assumes?22:20 Why John is a Russia dove and a China hawk29:50 Does China pose a threat to freedom around the world?36:57 Why John thinks China’s rise threatens American security47:58 Has globalization made great-power peace possible?56:14 Should the US defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and John Mearsheimer (University of Chicago, The Great Delusion). Recorded April 19, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66062 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Is DeSantis done for? 9:14 Ro Khanna for president! 13:04 Why Cold War II makes AI scarier 22:45 Is Twitter done for? 27:23 How imminent is a recession, really? 31:52 Ukraine war update 45:06 The Blinken wrinkle in the Hunter Biden laptop story 47:43 Parrot room preview: Mickey’s AI revelation; Can the GOP win over the college crowd?; Is Fetterman out of the woods?; Is a border crisis incoming?; The slow-burn of Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice; more on DeSantis
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded April 21, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66054 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 How Roko and Alex wound up debating on the Nonzero Podcast5:05 Could near-term AI disruption be worse than Covid?13:18 Is AI an existential threat? 25:31 How the sci-fi apocalypse scenario might unfold36:42 How is a renegade AI like a man wearing a condom?47:06 Why would an AI want to kill us?55:47 How the Cold War makes AI more dangerous1:09:49 Roko and Alex make final statements before Overtime
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True), Roko Mijic (Heretical Update), and Alexander Campbell (Rose AI). Recorded April 11, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66201 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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1:29 The promise (and perils) of Notes, Substack’s new social media platform10:08 One big way Notes could be a better Twitter24:47 Nikita’s grand vision for Notes—and Substack41:21 User control vs. the allure of algorithms48:09 Is a better culture of discourse possible through Notes?1:06:11 How Notes benefits from elite buy-in1:15:15 Bob’s advice for Substack: Don't be like Microsoft!1:24:40 Towards a civil society
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com/). Recorded April 15, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/66011Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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00:00 The Biden age issue 5:59 Are Republicans setting the stage for Biden’s re-election? 15:10 Bob: Right-wing “non-interventionists” are rabid China hawks 24:48 The Pentagon’s no good, very leaky week 31:39 Is Clarence Thomas corrupt? 37:50 The New York Times hunts down a leaker 43:39 Elon vs. Matt Taibbi and Substack 48:07 Parrot Room preview: The new legal theory for prosecuting Trump; Biden’s border policy; Mickey vs. Ross Douthat on AI alarmism; government programs Mickey likes; the movie Megan comes to life; the potential of Substack Notes.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65962Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:36 How freaked out is Michal by current AIs? 9:30 Why "theory of mind" (aka cognitive empathy)—even in humans—is mind-blowing 16:00 Michal’s theory-of-mind experiments with AI 19:49 Bob’s theory-of-mind experiments with AI 29:21 Do large language models construct representations of concepts? 42:26 Does AI have subjective experience? 49:56 What human neural networks do that AI doesn't
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Michal Kosinski (Stanford University). Recorded April 04, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65981 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 The SBF and Trump indictments: compare and contrast 8:32 Is DeSantis tanking? 15:25 How the Tennessee House controversy could boost Biden 24:06 Unpacking progressive wins in Wisconsin and Chicago 30:58 Is Twitter becoming a banana republic? 49:04 Ukraine war (and NATO) update 59:12 Parrot room preview: Russian pro-war blogger’s strange assassination; Jill Biden’s basketball misstep; Clarence Thomas’s controversial trips; Amazon against anti-woke reviews; M3GAN, the alignment problem, and more AI talk; GM’s EV blunder; Matt Taibbi vs. Mehdi Hasan; Dershowitz on Epstein
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded April 07, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65962Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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00:51 Paul’s book, The World Crisis and International Law7:25 Should we demand that other countries be as liberal as we are?20:06 What went wrong in Russia after the Soviet Union fell?33:32 How post-Cold war consensus gave way to global fragmentation39:29 Can international law prevent techno-authoritarianism?48:12 Paul’s skepticism about international law57:44 How the knowledge economy could lead to a Chinese Trump
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Stephan(University of Virginia, The World Crisis and International Law). Recorded March 15, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65935Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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00:00 A common conundrum: How to pay off your porn-star mistress 11:38 Ways to make Ron DeSantis seem human 20:49 Bob: The newest AI has cognitive empathy 28:01 How Cold War II makes AI more dangerous 35:47 Why are traditional American values in decline? 49:20 What foreign policy elites say about Russia-Ukraine behind closed doors 57:07 Parrot Room preview: Something smart Zelensky said; US think tank advocates murder; how the Nashville shooting was reported; Musk makes another Twitter policy change; why Elizabeth Holmes was ahead of her time
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded March 31, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65924 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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1:26 Is ChatGPT capable of “theory of mind”5:39 Is it like anything to be ChatGPT?7:44 ChatGPT passes a cognitive empathy test with flying colors.13:19 ChatGPT analyzes cognitive empathy.17:17 ChatGPT flatters Bob22:36 How ChatGPT uses cognitive empathy in everyday life.
A transcript of this conversation is available here:
Robert Wright’s simulated voice generated using Play.ht. “ChatGPT” simulated voice generated using Descript.
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0:00 Bob and David reminisce about Bloggingheads3:26 David’s book, American Psychosis: A Historical Investigation of How the Republican Party Went Crazy 9:18 Are Russiagaters moving the goalposts? 20:10 What the Trump team knew about Russian meddling 36:05 The missing “collusion” piece of the Russiagate puzzle 46:54 Why David thinks Russiagate's biggest critics are perpetuating a hoax 58:08 If Russiagaters are right, why didn’t Trump do Russia many favors?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and David Corn (Mother Jones, Russian Roulette, American Psychosis). Recorded March 16, 2023.
0:00 Bob: On foreign policy, there is no real Ron DeSantis 10:28 The difference between right-restrainers and left-restrainers 22:33 The dangerous politics of indicting Trump 29:17 Trump’s new plan to take out the deep state 36:12 Is the war turning in Ukraine’s favor? 47:31 Why did DeSantis change the pronunciation of his name? 53:16 Parrot Room preview: Everything Everywhere All At Once speaks to Bob; SVB fallout not over; banning the word “woke”; Camaro goes out of production—or does it?; likelihood of Covid lab-leak
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded March 24, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65879 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Richard’s banking and business bona fides 2:51 Was the Silicon Valley Bank crash a harbinger of worse to come? 10:06 What actually caused SVB’s collapse? 18:46 Richard: SVB failed risk management 101 31:41 Costs and benefits of the SVB bailout 38:13 The Fed’s oft-forgotten original role 43:32 Did the deregulation SVB lobbied for doom it? 45:09 Overtime preview: Richard’s career highlights; cognitive empathy in commerce; how to hire like a boss; and more!
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Richard Vague (Gabriel Investments, The Next Economic Disaster). Recorded March 21, 2023.
Richard's article about the SVB crash in Democracy Journal: https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/the-svb-failure-why-it-happened-and-what-it-means/
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65853 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
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0:00 Mickey’s mind-bending analogy between romance and politics 5:11 Bob triggered by DeSantis’s “territorial dispute” line about Russia-Ukraine 21:29 How to prevent the next bank collapse? 32:03 Was “wokeness” behind SVB’s demise? 36:56 Ukraine war update 47:53 Are Democrats ditching Israel? 51:50 Winners and losers of Iran-Saudi détente 58:15 Parrot room preview: Mickey’s quibble with Bob’s AI piece; SBF news; Silicon Valley’s campaign to ban TikTok; the sad state of the Metaverse; RIP Jim Gordon; Summer of Soul; Is DeSantis too wine-track? Too beer-track? Who cares?; New segment: Brushes with Greatness
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded March 17, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65843Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:25 Ananyo’s book, The Man from the Future, about game theory inventor and polymath John von Neumann 6:38 Early life as a mathematical wunderkind 10:16 Von Neumann’s foundational contributions to quantum physics 24:39 Was entanglement as "spooky" to von Neumann as it was to Einstein? 33:46 Building—and reckoning with—the atomic bomb 47:22 Did von Neumann really want to nuke the USSR? 52:30 Why was early game theory so zero-sum–focused? 1:05:44 Influence on Turing, the open source movement, and modern computing 1:22:27 How brushes with totalitarianism shaped von Neumann’s views 1:28:56 Programming pioneer Klára Dán von Neumann 1:33:26 The duality of von Neumann’s social life 1:39:58 Did von Neumann grok incompleteness before Gödel? 1:42:45 Unfinished work comparing computers and the brain 1:50:23 Von Neumann’s deathbed conversion: Pascal's wager or something more?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Ananyo Bhattacharya (The Man from the Future). Recorded January 17, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65817 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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4:24 Biden’s soak-the-rich budget: big news or borefest? 16:03 How Biden insulting Xi Jinping endangers Ukraine 23:38 Bob finds another reason Biden shouldn’t run for re-election 27:54 Ukraine war update 35:53 Nordstream’s hobbyist saboteurs 43:05 Tucker Carlson outed as anti-Trump phony 52:00 Parrot Room preview: Gavin Newsom takes on Walgreens; Twitter community notes annoy Mickey; Semafor's China racket; Bob’s Washington Post lab leak piece; Peter Thiel’s techno-optimism
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded March 10, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65808 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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1:46 Paul’s new book, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind 12:13 Does psychology need more evolutionary thinking? 20:33 Freud and Skinner and parts in between 30:47 Mind-body dualism’s enduring intuitive appeal 33:16 ChatGPT and the human mind: compare and contrast 38:22 Are cognitive biases overblown? 47:59 A brief note about the podcast 51:24 Implicit biases, memory, and other topics covered in the book
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded March 07, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65784Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:00 Mickey celebrates good week for JD Vance, Ron DeSantis 11:37 The Biden admin’s “all sticks, no carrots” approach to foreign policy 15:55 Is China’s plummeting birth rate a problem? 17:16 Will Bibi wag the dog? 31:07 Will AI kill the journalism star? 36:42 Ukraine war update 44:11 Alarmism about a China-Russia axis 47:04 Parrot room preview: more Ukraine; Dilbert creator gets canceled; why the kids aren’t alright; Will student loan cancellation pass Supreme Court muster?; Buy books before it’s too late?; Mickey’s flick pick; wrapping up The Long Goodbye; Lab-leak theory gets a boost; more AI; The real story being Elon’s algorithmic boost
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded March 03, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65772 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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00:37 Paul’s new book, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence 11:42 Will AIs replace humans in future wars? 29:24 China as an AI superpower 39:29 Will Beijing spread high-tech authoritarianism globally? 48:51 How useful is the “democracy versus autocracy” framework? 54:01 Why Paul’s worried about a race to the bottom in AI safety 1:00:00 Tom Cruise can’t hold a candle to AI pilots
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Scharre (Center for a New American Security, Army of None, Four Battlegrounds). Recorded February 8, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65750 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:00 Washington Post highlights a cost of US hypocrisy 6:54 Will China push for peace—or fund Russia’s war effort (or both)? 17:49 Can Trump use Biden’s support for Ukraine against him? 28:42 Russia’s offensive, Ukraine’s rope-a-dope 37:59 Bob’s evolving view of America’s role in the Maidan Revolution 44:43 The US vows to back Israel if it attacks Iran 47:32 Parrot Room preview: AI updates; Republicans and Social Security; How Blobbish is Fiona Hill?; Carlos Watson arrested
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded February 24, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65731 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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01:25 Coleman’s definition of “wokeness”—and why he’s against it 13:07 Poverty or privilege: Which predicts wokeness among black Americans? 22:46 How much progress has America made since Jim Crow? 32:17 Why writers in particular are haunted by their past 41:59 How racists and criminals are made 51:25 Does "hip-hop culture exist"—and is it bad? 1:02:22 Coleman diversifies his controversy portfolio
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Coleman Hughes (Conversations with Coleman). Recorded February 14, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65724 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:00 How should Republicans counter Biden’s blue-collar messaging?14:19 The disturbing thing balloon-gate reveals about the Dems23:58 The Fetterman health crisis30:42 Twitter’s Elon algorithm39:52 Are women more conciliatory than men?42:47 Is Biden pushing Zelensky toward the negotiating table?56:29 An underappreciated risk of arming Ukraine59:26 Parrot room preview: Bob drops some hip-hop knowledge; an AI-war reversal and the dangers of “stochastic parrots”; trans activists taking names; Mickey’s quantum-physics-related pitch for Bob’s next book; new Epstein docs
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded February 17, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65703Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:31 Norman’s new book, I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!: Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom10:26 How Norman exposed a bestselling book as a hoax18:54 The price Norman paid for taking on Alan Dershowitz28:08 What effects has “wokeness” had on academia?33:46 Pronouns and the perils of linguistic prescriptivism47:43 Who's pushing identity politics on the left? And why?57:54 A few unkind words about Bari Weiss1:02:51 Norman: Ibram X. Kendi is a fashion statement not a scholar
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Norman Finkelstein (I Accuse!, I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It!). Recorded February 7, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65684Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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00:00 Why Biden’s big speech has Bob worried 9:15 Did the US blow up the Nord Stream pipeline? 18:36 Trump accuses DeSantis of grooming 25:46 With friends like Joe Rogan, Ilhan Omar doesn’t need enemies 36:16 The latest from the Twitter Files: new dirt on the Blob 48:45 Biden takes on Xi, seems a little unhinged 56:12 Why more people are concerned about Ukraine’s chances 1:03:30 Parrot Room preview: Did the West block Russia-Ukraine negotiations?; social vs. income equality; reviewing The Long Goodbye; America’s AI arms race; quantum physics; grading Burt Bacharach songs.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded February 10, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65676Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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00:00 Why Biden’s big speech has Bob worried 9:15 Did the US blow up the Nord Stream pipeline? 18:36 Trump accuses DeSantis of grooming 25:46 With friends like Joe Rogan, Ilhan Omar doesn’t need enemies 36:16 The latest from the Twitter Files: new dirt on the Blob 48:45 Biden takes on Xi, seems a little unhinged 56:12 Why more people are concerned about Ukraine’s chances 1:03:30 Parrot Room preview: Did the West block Russia-Ukraine negotiations?; social vs. income equality; reviewing The Long Goodbye; America’s AI arms race; quantum physics; grading Burt Bacharach songs.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded February 10, 2023.
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1:02 Gabor’s new book The Myth of Normal, about trauma and mental and physical illness in modern Western society7:40 Are we all victims of a “toxic” culture?14:09 Gabor’s early years in Nazi- and then Soviet-occupied Hungary21:30 What Gabor thinks standard theories of addiction get wrong24:02 Can trauma ever be a good thing?26:34 Was Bob’s childhood traumatic? And if so, how?39:46 Trauma, attachment, and authenticity46:57 Is modern society hostile to community?53:43 The difference between healthy and unhealthy anger57:32 A primer on “compassionate inquiry”1:02:16 The time Gabor was leading an ayahuasca retreat and got deposed by shamans1:06:53 Gabor on why cognitive empathy is difficult but essential1:12:40 What Gabor sees as the essence of the book
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Gabor Maté (Scattered Minds, When the Body Says No, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts). Recorded January 26, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65651Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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1:02 Gabor’s new book The Myth of Normal, about trauma and mental and physical illness in modern Western society7:40 Are we all victims of a “toxic” culture?14:09 Gabor’s early years in Nazi- and then Soviet-occupied Hungary21:30 What Gabor thinks standard theories of addiction get wrong24:02 Can trauma ever be a good thing?26:34 Was Bob’s childhood traumatic? And if so, how?39:46 Trauma, attachment, and authenticity46:57 Is modern society hostile to community?53:43 The difference between healthy and unhealthy anger57:32 A primer on “compassionate inquiry”1:02:16 The time Gabor was leading an ayahuasca retreat and got deposed by shamans1:06:53 Gabor on why cognitive empathy is difficult but essential1:12:40 What Gabor sees as the essence of the book
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Gabor Maté (Scattered Minds, When the Body Says No, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts). Recorded January 26, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65651Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:00 Is the 2024 race shaping up to be a political Groundhog Day?16:05 Ilhan Omar and the Israel criticism tightrope29:46 Does the left or right look worse on recent Russiagate disclosures?37:39 A question about the DNC email hack41:46 Ukraine war update: Is time on Russia’s side?48:44 Is the Biden admin angling for a peace deal with Putin?1:00:34 Parrot Room preview: Evil—the show and the concept; the Tyre Nichols killing; Gaetz’s bad idea; AI inquiries; Mickey’s thrilling new Twitter power; untangling quantum entanglement; what happened to hope in politics?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded February 3, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65640Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
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0:00 Is the 2024 race shaping up to be a political Groundhog Day?16:05 Ilhan Omar and the Israel criticism tightrope29:46 Does the left or right look worse on recent Russiagate disclosures?37:39 A question about the DNC email hack41:46 Ukraine war update: Is time on Russia’s side?48:44 Is the Biden admin angling for a peace deal with Putin?1:00:34 Parrot Room preview: Evil—the show and the concept; the Tyre Nichols killing; Gaetz’s bad idea; AI inquiries; Mickey’s thrilling new Twitter power; untangling quantum entanglement; what happened to hope in politics?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded February 3, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65640Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
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2:12 Nikita’s life as a Russian expat in Armenia 7:55 How the Ukraine war is talked about in Russia 15:24 Could Putin fall from power? 25:40 Who left and who stayed in Russia post-mobilization? 37:43 Russia’s role in the Armenia-Azerbaijan crisis 45:21 How the Ukraine war could turn into World War III 50:46 Are “false flag” claims about the Maidan Massacre beyond the pale? 1:01:12 The trouble with the way we talk about war 1:12:28 The role of extremists in mass protests
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com/). Recorded January 25, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65622Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit nonzero.substack.com
2:12 Nikita’s life as a Russian expat in Armenia 7:55 How the Ukraine war is talked about in Russia 15:24 Could Putin fall from power? 25:40 Who left and who stayed in Russia post-mobilization? 37:43 Russia’s role in the Armenia-Azerbaijan crisis 45:21 How the Ukraine war could turn into World War III 50:46 Are “false flag” claims about the Maidan Massacre beyond the pale? 1:01:12 The trouble with the way we talk about war 1:12:28 The role of extremists in mass protests
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com/). Recorded January 25, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65622Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom
00:00 Can AI transcend conventional wisdom? 15:39 Is Trump back as 2024 GOP frontrunner? 24:52 The trouble with “the poor” 27:14 J.D. Vance has Ukraine on the brain 29:46 Ukraine update: How to make sending tanks make sense 46:16 Parrot room preview: Bob’s quasi-lucid dream; Evil corrections; The deep roots of Russian nationalist support for the war; Leon Wieseltier quote critique; DeSantis and black history; should judicial noms know their civics?; Kyrsten Sinema conspiracies; economic vs. social inequality; “exciting” child tax credit news; Israel’s multiple powder kegs
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 27, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65614Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom
00:00 Can AI transcend conventional wisdom? 15:39 Is Trump back as 2024 GOP frontrunner? 24:52 The trouble with “the poor” 27:14 J.D. Vance has Ukraine on the brain 29:46 Ukraine update: How to make sending tanks make sense 46:16 Parrot room preview: Bob’s quasi-lucid dream; Evil corrections; The deep roots of Russian nationalist support for the war; Leon Wieseltier quote critique; DeSantis and black history; should judicial noms know their civics?; Kyrsten Sinema conspiracies; economic vs. social inequality; “exciting” child tax credit news; Israel’s multiple powder kegs
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 27, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65614Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsFacebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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This is an unusual issue of the newsletter, and it’s about an unusual conversation I taped yesterday. Normally I don’t send out an issue of NZN for each podcast I post, but I think this is a particularly important conversation—and also a complicated conversation, one that can benefit from a preface.
The conversation will go public next week and is available to paid NZN subscribers, like you, now—via this issue of the newsletter (video below, audio above) but also via the Nonzero feed on your podcast app (assuming you’ve set up the special paid subscriber version of that feed in your podcast app; if you haven’t, just click “Listen on” in the upper right corner of this post and follow the instructions).
The conversation is with Ivan Katchanovski, a political scientist who grew up in Ukraine, came to the US to do graduate work, and now teaches in Canada, at the University of Ottawa. He is frustrated with the way western media is covering the war in Ukraine and with the way western media depicts Ukraine more broadly—including the decade of turmoil that preceded the war.
One thing that impresses me about Katchanovski is his capacity for cognitive empathy. He grew up in western Ukraine, speaking Ukrainian, but he is attentive to perspectives in the eastern part of the country, where many people grew up speaking Russian and no few of them are considered “ethnically Russian”.
In fact, he has done research on the attitudes of eastern Ukrainians—which leads to one of his frustrations with western coverage of Ukraine. The standard western narrative about the path toward conflict in Ukraine depicts the pivotal events of 2014 roughly like this:
Peaceful protests against the policies of a pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, morphed into revolution—the “Maidan Revolution” or “Revolution of Dignity”—and after the president stepped down Putin responded by seizing Crimea and supporting separatists in the Donbas.
This is more or less accurate in so far as it goes. But Katchanovski would like to add a couple of things, the second of which would constitute a radical amendment to the standard narrative:
-
The Maidan revolution made the ground in eastern and southern Ukraine much more fertile for Russian intervention. The overthrow of a democratically elected president who had strong support in the Donbas and Crimea made many people in those areas more supportive of some kind of separation from the rest of Ukraine—more supportive of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and more supportive of the separatist movement in the Donbas that Putin would within months be aggressively aiding. (Katchanovski suggests that if the various Obama administration officials who were happy about the overthrow of Yanukovych had done their homework, they would have anticipated this effect on public opinion and perhaps been more ambivalent about regime change.)
-
The “Maidan massacre”—which is depicted in the standard narrative as the murder of dozens of protesters by riot police, and which put massive international pressure on Yanukovych to step down — wasn’t what it seemed. Katchanovski, after extensive research on how the revolution unfolded, has concluded that the massacre wasn’t in fact perpetrated by police, but rather by far right militants who supported the protests (but whom most of the protesters didn’t support, as most of the protesters weren’t far right). He says the snipers who killed the protesters were in buildings controlled by far right groups, not by the government.
In other words, Katchanovski contends that the killing of the protesters was a “false flag” operation—conducted in the hope that the Yanukovych regime would be blamed and would then be removed from power. Which is what happened.
I’m not conversant enough in the evidence to say whether Katchanovski is right, but one thing I can say is that he’s assembled a lot of evidence. You can find some of his writings on the subject here and here, and relevant videos he’s assembled here. (He says his most recent paper on the subject was accepted by an academic journal but then rejected, a change of heart he suspects reflects political pressure.)
I can also say that Katchanovski struck me as sincere and credible. But see what you think.
I should add that he has a strong accent, speaks fairly fast, and is not averse to the occasional tangent. But I think if you stick with the conversation until the end, your perspective on the war in Ukraine, and your understanding of Ukraine itself, will be significantly broadened.
00:00 Ivan’s Ukrainian upbringing and academic background5:08 Where did pro-Russian sentiment in eastern Ukraine come from? 16:19 Why Ivan worried Ukraine’s 2014 revolution would lead to civil war 33:09 Did Europe impede resolution of Russia-Ukraine tensions? 49:25 What western media gets wrong about the Maidan revolution 59:49 Was the Maidan massacre a false flag operation? 1:15:29 The state of Ukrainian democracy after the Maidan revolution 1:33:07 The political forces that impeded Zelensky’s peace plan
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Ivan Katchanovski (The University of Ottawa, Historical Dictionary of Ukraine). Recorded January 18, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65579 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
This is an unusual issue of the newsletter, and it’s about an unusual conversation I taped yesterday. Normally I don’t send out an issue of NZN for each podcast I post, but I think this is a particularly important conversation—and also a complicated conversation, one that can benefit from a preface.
The conversation will go public next week and is available to paid NZN subscribers, like you, now—via this issue of the newsletter (video below, audio above) but also via the Nonzero feed on your podcast app (assuming you’ve set up the special paid subscriber version of that feed in your podcast app; if you haven’t, just click “Listen on” in the upper right corner of this post and follow the instructions).
The conversation is with Ivan Katchanovski, a political scientist who grew up in Ukraine, came to the US to do graduate work, and now teaches in Canada, at the University of Ottawa. He is frustrated with the way western media is covering the war in Ukraine and with the way western media depicts Ukraine more broadly—including the decade of turmoil that preceded the war.
One thing that impresses me about Katchanovski is his capacity for cognitive empathy. He grew up in western Ukraine, speaking Ukrainian, but he is attentive to perspectives in the eastern part of the country, where many people grew up speaking Russian and no few of them are considered “ethnically Russian”.
In fact, he has done research on the attitudes of eastern Ukrainians—which leads to one of his frustrations with western coverage of Ukraine. The standard western narrative about the path toward conflict in Ukraine depicts the pivotal events of 2014 roughly like this:
Peaceful protests against the policies of a pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, morphed into revolution—the “Maidan Revolution” or “Revolution of Dignity”—and after the president stepped down Putin responded by seizing Crimea and supporting separatists in the Donbas.
This is more or less accurate in so far as it goes. But Katchanovski would like to add a couple of things, the second of which would constitute a radical amendment to the standard narrative:
-
The Maidan revolution made the ground in eastern and southern Ukraine much more fertile for Russian intervention. The overthrow of a democratically elected president who had strong support in the Donbas and Crimea made many people in those areas more supportive of some kind of separation from the rest of Ukraine—more supportive of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and more supportive of the separatist movement in the Donbas that Putin would within months be aggressively aiding. (Katchanovski suggests that if the various Obama administration officials who were happy about the overthrow of Yanukovych had done their homework, they would have anticipated this effect on public opinion and perhaps been more ambivalent about regime change.)
-
The “Maidan massacre”—which is depicted in the standard narrative as the murder of dozens of protesters by riot police, and which put massive international pressure on Yanukovych to step down — wasn’t what it seemed. Katchanovski, after extensive research on how the revolution unfolded, has concluded that the massacre wasn’t in fact perpetrated by police, but rather by far right militants who supported the protests (but whom most of the protesters didn’t support, as most of the protesters weren’t far right). He says the snipers who killed the protesters were in buildings controlled by far right groups, not by the government.
In other words, Katchanovski contends that the killing of the protesters was a “false flag” operation—conducted in the hope that the Yanukovych regime would be blamed and would then be removed from power. Which is what happened.
I’m not conversant enough in the evidence to say whether Katchanovski is right, but one thing I can say is that he’s assembled a lot of evidence. You can find some of his writings on the subject here and here, and relevant videos he’s assembled here. (He says his most recent paper on the subject was accepted by an academic journal but then rejected, a change of heart he suspects reflects political pressure.)
I can also say that Katchanovski struck me as sincere and credible. But see what you think.
I should add that he has a strong accent, speaks fairly fast, and is not averse to the occasional tangent. But I think if you stick with the conversation until the end, your perspective on the war in Ukraine, and your understanding of Ukraine itself, will be significantly broadened.
00:00 Ivan’s Ukrainian upbringing and academic background5:08 Where did pro-Russian sentiment in eastern Ukraine come from? 16:19 Why Ivan worried Ukraine’s 2014 revolution would lead to civil war 33:09 Did Europe impede resolution of Russia-Ukraine tensions? 49:25 What western media gets wrong about the Maidan revolution 59:49 Was the Maidan massacre a false flag operation? 1:15:29 The state of Ukrainian democracy after the Maidan revolution 1:33:07 The political forces that impeded Zelensky’s peace plan
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Ivan Katchanovski (The University of Ottawa, Historical Dictionary of Ukraine). Recorded January 18, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65579 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom
1:22 The alphas of the world gather in Davos12:42 Mickey buys a blue check, dresses up to celebrate 15:47 Does Russia have Ukraine on the defensive? 28:14 How serious is the threat of US government debt default? 34:40 Biden’s chances in 2024 47:54 Parrot Room preview: David Crosby passes away; Alec Baldwin charged with manslaughter; the issue that could destroy woke-ism; college after affirmative action; a false flag in Ukraine?; More Elon news; loyalty oath at Sundance; Bob reviews Top Gun: Maverick
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 20, 2023.
Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65572 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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1:22 The alphas of the world gather in Davos12:42 Mickey buys a blue check, dresses up to celebrate 15:47 Does Russia have Ukraine on the defensive? 28:14 How serious is the threat of US government debt default? 34:40 Biden’s chances in 2024 47:54 Parrot Room preview: David Crosby passes away; Alec Baldwin charged with manslaughter; the issue that could destroy woke-ism; college after affirmative action; a false flag in Ukraine?; More Elon news; loyalty oath at Sundance; Bob reviews Top Gun: Maverick
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 20, 2023.
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0:00 Challenges in applying cognitive empathy in daily life11:32 Two types of self-awareness—and their links to cognitive empathy17:38 Josh’s recent (mis)adventures in cognitive empathy31:29 Can self-awareness make conflicts manageable?49:01 The relationship between concentration and insight meditation55:56 Literature and the cultivation of cognitive empathy58:49 Understanding one’s self vs. understanding others1:11:12 The ice cube theory of human nature1:16:00 Cognitive empathy’s role in building “mindfulness 3.0”
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Josh Summers (The Power of Mindfulness, joshsummers.net). Recorded January 12, 2023.
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0:00 Challenges in applying cognitive empathy in daily life11:32 Two types of self-awareness—and their links to cognitive empathy17:38 Josh’s recent (mis)adventures in cognitive empathy31:29 Can self-awareness make conflicts manageable?49:01 The relationship between concentration and insight meditation55:56 Literature and the cultivation of cognitive empathy58:49 Understanding one’s self vs. understanding others1:11:12 The ice cube theory of human nature1:16:00 Cognitive empathy’s role in building “mindfulness 3.0”
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Josh Summers (The Power of Mindfulness, joshsummers.net). Recorded January 12, 2023.
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2:16 Anti-gas-stove tyranny – or slow news week? 6:27 Biden’s classified docs scandal is a “granfalloon in search of a MacGuffin led by a wrang-wrang” 20:09 Did Bob Gates and Condoleezza Rice miss a chance to prevent the Ukraine war?28:21 Is the war turning in Russia’s favor? 37:05 The prospects for peace negotiations 45:56 Parrot Room preview: Biden’s pivot to help the working class; Does AI have a liberal bias?; Has woke peaked?; Matthew Yglesias' style section profile; Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, and Blake Hounshell pass away; White Lotus; Mickey’s new conspiracy theory about Kevin McCarthy.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 13, 2023.
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2:16 Anti-gas-stove tyranny – or slow news week? 6:27 Biden’s classified docs scandal is a “granfalloon in search of a MacGuffin led by a wrang-wrang” 20:09 Did Bob Gates and Condoleezza Rice miss a chance to prevent the Ukraine war?28:21 Is the war turning in Russia’s favor? 37:05 The prospects for peace negotiations 45:56 Parrot Room preview: Biden’s pivot to help the working class; Does AI have a liberal bias?; Has woke peaked?; Matthew Yglesias' style section profile; Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, and Blake Hounshell pass away; White Lotus; Mickey’s new conspiracy theory about Kevin McCarthy.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 13, 2023.
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2:17 Why are so many people (including Fred) down on John Mearsheimer? 15:21 Bob: Explaining bad behavior is not the same as justifying it 30:16 How the US eroded international law—and why it matters 44:16 Did US policy make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more likely? 58:06 NATO’s role in Ukraine before the invasion 1:21:31 How would the US respond to a China-Mexico military alliance? 1:34:08 Henry Kissinger’s peace proposal 1:42:38 Impediments to productive debate on US foreign policy
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Fred Kaplan (Slate, Dark Territory). Recorded January 5, 2023.
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2:17 Why are so many people (including Fred) down on John Mearsheimer? 15:21 Bob: Explaining bad behavior is not the same as justifying it 30:16 How the US eroded international law—and why it matters 44:16 Did US policy make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more likely? 58:06 NATO’s role in Ukraine before the invasion 1:21:31 How would the US respond to a China-Mexico military alliance? 1:34:08 Henry Kissinger’s peace proposal 1:42:38 Impediments to productive debate on US foreign policy
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Fred Kaplan (Slate, Dark Territory). Recorded January 5, 2023.
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0:00 Mickey’s guide to the House Speaker drama10:29 What vexes Bob about the House Speaker vote19:19 Why Damar Hamlin’s injury wouldn’t have happened in the old days26:40 Biden’s new good cop, bad cop immigration plan32:56 Why keep sanctioning Venezuela (or Cuba, or Syria, or Iran, etc.)?38:21 Elon and the trouble with “great man” theories of tech progress44:02 Is Twitter’s new views feature a boon or b**t?59:01 Ukraine war update1:08:38 Parrot room preview: The Matt Schlapp sex scandal; Jason DeParle on welfare; Mickey’s case against “unity”; More calls for a Semafor clawback; an SBF-AIPAC connection; a second Epstein-Harvard connection; The White Lotus
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 6, 2023.
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0:00 Mickey’s guide to the House Speaker drama10:29 What vexes Bob about the House Speaker vote19:19 Why Damar Hamlin’s injury wouldn’t have happened in the old days26:40 Biden’s new good cop, bad cop immigration plan32:56 Why keep sanctioning Venezuela (or Cuba, or Syria, or Iran, etc.)?38:21 Elon and the trouble with “great man” theories of tech progress44:02 Is Twitter’s new views feature a boon or b**t?59:01 Ukraine war update1:08:38 Parrot room preview: The Matt Schlapp sex scandal; Jason DeParle on welfare; Mickey’s case against “unity”; More calls for a Semafor clawback; an SBF-AIPAC connection; a second Epstein-Harvard connection; The White Lotus
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded January 6, 2023.
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In this classic interview, Robert Wright and Daniel Dennett discuss consciousness, free will, being good without belief in God, and whether natural selection could have a larger purpose.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Daniel Dennett (Consciousness Explained, Freedom Evolved, Tufts University). Recorded 2003.
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In this classic interview, Robert Wright and Daniel Dennett discuss consciousness, free will, being good without belief in God, and whether natural selection could have a larger purpose.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Daniel Dennett (Consciousness Explained, Freedom Evolved, Tufts University). Recorded 2003.
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0:00 Bob hoodwinks the fashion police 3:54 Predictions for the new year 11:53 The pros and cons of “nepotocracy” 14:05 Predictions for the new year (cont’d) 19:45 Impromptu Ukraine war update 21:51 The top 3(ish) stories of 2022 28:59 Is Twitter salvageable? 44:20 The true threat of Twitter (according to Mickey) 50:24 Mickey’s underreported and overreported stories of the year 59:56 What did the Jan. 6 committee miss? 1:03:18 Bob’s perverse theory on why the GOP would be wise to drop the Hunter Biden thing 1:06:19 Parrot room preview: The root cause of homelessness; legalize cocaine? Why stop there?; The SBF clawback; signs that the tide is turning on wokeness; Bob’s grand quasi-unified MKUltra-lab leak theory; three bonus predictions from Mickey; Bob checks into The White Lotus
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded December 23, 2022.
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0:00 Bob hoodwinks the fashion police 3:54 Predictions for the new year 11:53 The pros and cons of “nepotocracy” 14:05 Predictions for the new year (cont’d) 19:45 Impromptu Ukraine war update 21:51 The top 3(ish) stories of 2022 28:59 Is Twitter salvageable? 44:20 The true threat of Twitter (according to Mickey) 50:24 Mickey’s underreported and overreported stories of the year 59:56 What did the Jan. 6 committee miss? 1:03:18 Bob’s perverse theory on why the GOP would be wise to drop the Hunter Biden thing 1:06:19 Parrot room preview: The root cause of homelessness; legalize cocaine? Why stop there?; The SBF clawback; signs that the tide is turning on wokeness; Bob’s grand quasi-unified MKUltra-lab leak theory; three bonus predictions from Mickey; Bob checks into The White Lotus
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded December 23, 2022.
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2:27 The legacy of free trade in America 4:55 Adam’s new book Opening Up by Cracking Down, about the repression of union activism in developing countries 18:17 Car bombing and other ways Argentina subdued labor in the 80's 28:08 Why did the US open up trade so early? 33:03 The quasi-dystopian law India used to break strikes in the 90’s 38:12 Underacknowledged long-term effects of free trade 42:49 Is a pro-labor approach to free trade possible? 57:46 Making globalism great again
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Adam Dean (George Washington University, From Conflict to Coalition). Recorded December 15, 2022.
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2:27 The legacy of free trade in America 4:55 Adam’s new book Opening Up by Cracking Down, about the repression of union activism in developing countries 18:17 Car bombing and other ways Argentina subdued labor in the 80's 28:08 Why did the US open up trade so early? 33:03 The quasi-dystopian law India used to break strikes in the 90’s 38:12 Underacknowledged long-term effects of free trade 42:49 Is a pro-labor approach to free trade possible? 57:46 Making globalism great again
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Adam Dean (George Washington University, From Conflict to Coalition). Recorded December 15, 2022.
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00:00 Has the tide turned against Elon—and against Twitter? 12:55 Elon accuses Fauci of funding research that killed millions 26:42 Bob sees signs that the “Twitter files” journalism is biased 40:24 Why now might be a good time for Ukraine diplomacy 44:51 Parrot Room preview: SBF news; breaking down the nuclear fusion breakthrough; the AI alignment problem; China’s coming COVID explosion; TikTok backlash gains traction; Elon’s growing Tesla problems
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded December 16, 2022.
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0:51 What Anders didn’t like about Bob’s Washington Post op-ed on Russia-Ukraine11:19 Was Putin always bent on invading Russia’s neighbors? 19:13 Bob and Anders debate NATO expansion 29:37 Should the West encourage regime change in Russia? 36:55 Are the US and NATO “fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian”? 46:09 The causes and consequences of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution 56:04 Is Putin committing genocide? 1:01:21 Possible endgames of the Ukraine war – and of Putin’s Russia 1:12:21 Could better US policy have averted the Ukraine war?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Anders Åslund (The Center for Social and Economic Research, Russia's Crony Capitalism). Recorded December 09, 2022.
Bob's piece in the Washington Post Anders' Twitter thread criticizing Bob's Washington Post piece
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0:51 What Anders didn’t like about Bob’s Washington Post op-ed on Russia-Ukraine11:19 Was Putin always bent on invading Russia’s neighbors? 19:13 Bob and Anders debate NATO expansion 29:37 Should the West encourage regime change in Russia? 36:55 Are the US and NATO “fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian”? 46:09 The causes and consequences of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution 56:04 Is Putin committing genocide? 1:01:21 Possible endgames of the Ukraine war – and of Putin’s Russia 1:12:21 Could better US policy have averted the Ukraine war?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Anders Åslund (The Center for Social and Economic Research, Russia's Crony Capitalism). Recorded December 09, 2022.
Bob's piece in the Washington Post Anders' Twitter thread criticizing Bob's Washington Post piece
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0:00 A brief message from Bob0:55 Why Mickey thinks the first installment of the Twitter Files was a something-burger8:05 What Bob thinks Taibbi (and Musk) flubbed18:26 Do the files show a pro-Dem bias in pre-Musk Twitter?25:19 Ukraine war update42:24 Parrot Room preview: an (unwitting) win for Bob; a damning J.D. Vance quote for Mickey; the latest SBF allegation; the worst. Substack. Issue. Ever.; Bob submits a beef with Mickey for commenter consideration; commenter takes on Musk’s gun tweet; potential Parrot Room theme song(s); the Fed on why men are leaving the labor force; Janan Ganesh on why you should leave Twitter
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded December 8, 2022.
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0:00 Mónica’s book I Never Thought of It That Way, about how to have “bridge-building” conversations 1:41 Why Mónica’s immigrant parents support(ed) Trump 7:02 Barriers to getting bridge-building buy-in 15:37 Understanding vs. the need to be understood 21:58 Bridge-building 101 27:39 Is understanding a slippery slope to excusing? 33:35 The underrated bridge-building power of curiosity 43:44 Does the media fuel or just reflect our divisions? 43:40 The limits of bridge-building
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mónica Guzmán (Braver Angels). Recorded December 01, 2022.
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00:40 Would a Biden re-election bid spell doom for Dems? 06:54 Opening the Ron DeSantis black box 13:48 Bob’s Washington Post piece on Russia-Ukraine diplomacy 21:56 Is it too early to write off Herschel Walker? 27:50 Sam Bankman-Fried’s bipartisan approach to corrupting politics 31:52 Elon’s and Apple’s China challenges 40:55 Parrot Room preview: Mickey’s spat with Damon Linker; what we know about Peter Thiel; Ye and Fuentes; the center-less GOP; Elon’s Twitter regime; Errol Morris’s miniseries Wormwood.
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded December 2, 2022.
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2:35 Eric’s new book We Are Not One, about changing American Jewish attitudes toward Israel over the years 7:28 Jewish-American identity before its “Zionization” 10:01 Why fewer young American Jews are feeling the pro-Israel vibe 15:25 Israel in American politics 23:04 The “Israel as apartheid state” debate 35:28 How the 1960’s defined Jewish visions of Israel 49:02 Is a “two-state solution” now the conservative position? 52:50 Zionism vs. social justice activism 1:04:22 Why Israel is fine with the Palestinian status quo 1:15:54 Does Israel really need US support? 1:20:32 Could international pressure help solve the Israel-Palestine conflict?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Eric Alterman (The American Prospect, Brooklyn College, Lying in State: Why Presidents Lie and Why Trump is Worse). Recorded November 16, 2022.
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0:00 The (totally selfless) reasons Mickey wants an SBF clawback 5:11 Did Semafor fumble its big SBF-Elon scoop? 14:55 Mickey’s clawback campaign (cont’d) 18:31 Origins of Mickey’s (alleged) Ben Smith vendetta revealed! 27:36 Is Musk destroying his town square?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded November 25, 2022.
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2:22 Paul’s upcoming book, Psych: The Story of the Human Mind 18:42 Bob’s upcoming book, tk 24:27 Are psychopaths high in (cognitive) empathy? 33:29 How good are we at perspective taking—and how can we get better? 40:28 Elon Musk’s apparent cognitive empathy deficit 49:57 Is cognitive empathy a biological adaptation? 1:06:10 Is it even possible to understand the minds of others? 1:16:47 Paul’s budding interest in perversity
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded November 8, 2022.
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0:00 Why Mickey’s not unhappy about the midterm results 7:12 Can Trump go the distance against DeSantis? 11:48 The Pelosi era ends 18:54 Zelensky invites NATO to join the war 24:48 Is a peace deal on the horizon in Ukraine? 33:27 Elon update 39:47 SBF's fall takes wind out of the sails of effective altruism movement
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded November 18, 2022.
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00:00 The time Harry stood up for editorial integrity 4:34 Can Alex Jones get a Mastodon account? 11:30 Choosing the best Mastodon community for you 22:19 Why dunking on people is harder on Mastodon 38:45 Should Elon Musk be worried? 48:54 How social media platforms fail 52:49 The (anti-)ideological tenor of Mastodon so far 57:35 Is moving from Twitter to Mastodon hard? 1:05:56 Harry’s theory of Elon
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Harry McCracken (Fast Company). Recorded November 15, 2022.
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This is the second lecture of Robert Wright’s “Buddhism & Modern Psychology” course, originally offered on Coursera through Princeton University.
Lecture Two: The Buddhist Prescription
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The Eightfold Path
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Meditation
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Mindfulness Meditation and the Brain
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Can Our Feelings Be Trusted
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This is the first lecture of Robert Wright’s “Buddhism & Modern Psychology” course, originally offered on Coursera through Princeton University.
Lecture One: The Buddhist Diagnosis
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Introduction: Religious Buddhism and ‘Secular’ Buddhism
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Feelings and Illusions
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The First Two Noble Truths
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Evolutionary Psychology and the First Two Noble Truths
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0:00 Mickey mourns the fate of his midterm hopes and dreams 12:14 What the midterm results mean for 2024 19:30 Who wins in a Trump v. DeSantis civil war? 23:44 Bob’s plan to boot Biden from the 2024 ticket 29:41 Will Musk chicken out on his blue check shake-up? 35:46 The Twitter business model Musk may be banking on 46:12 Parrot room preview: Ukraine update; more Twitter business model talk; Metaverse vibe check; Errol Morris’s Leary love story; questioning “blame Trump” midterm post-mortems; is America getting nicer?; Mickey’s ongoing lessons on how to talk to a liberal; critiquing Chamath Palihapitiya’s critiques of journalism
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded November 11, 2022.
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0:00 Signs of the so-called “meaning crisis” 3:50 How John addresses the meaning crisis in his own life 10:04 Bob gets empathy-circled—live! 18:48 How much of the meaning crisis is a crisis of community? 25:29 Wisdom as the antidote to self-deception 40:54 Is technological change outpacing our ability to adapt? 45:48 How and where might new sources of meaning emerge? 53:08 The conundrum of collective intelligence (or how should we talk about demons?) 59:57 Can video games give us meaning? 1:04:05 John: “Enlightenment” that fails to confront cognitive bias is meaningless
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and John Vervaeke (University of Toronto). Recorded October 27, 2022. John Vervaeke's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqDUjTsof-kTNpnyWper_Q
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0:00 Signs of the so-called “meaning crisis” 3:50 How John addresses the meaning crisis in his own life 10:04 Bob gets empathy-circled—live! 18:48 How much of the meaning crisis is a crisis of community? 25:29 Wisdom as the antidote to self-deception 40:54 Is technological change outpacing our ability to adapt? 45:48 How and where might new sources of meaning emerge? 53:08 The conundrum of collective intelligence (or how should we talk about demons?) 59:57 Can video games give us meaning? 1:04:05 John: “Enlightenment” that fails to confront cognitive bias is meaningless
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and John Vervaeke (University of Toronto). Recorded October 27, 2022. John Vervaeke's YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpqDUjTsof-kTNpnyWper_Q
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0:00 Why immigration squishes have Mickey worried about the midterms 7:13 Elon Musk’s bull-in-a-china-shop strategy to owning Twitter 17:26 The conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi 22:33 If Putin didn’t have nukes, would Biden’s Ukraine policy still be dangerous? 31:03 Who is calling the shots in the Biden White House? 41:34 Why Cold War psychology might have less sway over Musk-owned Twitter 47:05 Bob has another baseball quiz for Mickey 53:44 Could Biden’s tech embargo against China backfire horribly? 1:03:20 Parrot Room preview: The odds of a centrist party succeeding in America; Elon’s secret master plan; Bob’s debate with Bret Weinstein; the impact of automation on workers; Bob and Mickey assess the metaverse (via Ready Player One)
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded November 04, 2022.
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0:00 Why immigration squishes have Mickey worried about the midterms 7:13 Elon Musk’s bull-in-a-china-shop strategy to owning Twitter 17:26 The conspiracy theory about the attack on Paul Pelosi 22:33 If Putin didn’t have nukes, would Biden’s Ukraine policy still be dangerous? 31:03 Who is calling the shots in the Biden White House? 41:34 Why Cold War psychology might have less sway over Musk-owned Twitter 47:05 Bob has another baseball quiz for Mickey 53:44 Could Biden’s tech embargo against China backfire horribly? 1:03:20 Parrot Room preview: The odds of a centrist party succeeding in America; Elon’s secret master plan; Bob’s debate with Bret Weinstein; the impact of automation on workers; Bob and Mickey assess the metaverse (via Ready Player One)
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded November 04, 2022.
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1:25 Sam’s Foreign Affairs piece on the importance of Ukraine diplomacy 10:14 What’s Biden’s endgame in Ukraine? 20:06 Sam: Russia has already suffered a strategic defeat 39:59 Did the West play a role in Ukraine’s 2014 revolution? 46:39 Putin says the West is Russia’s real enemy. Does he believe it? 50:26 America’s lack of diplomatic urgency before Putin invaded 57:22 How much pro-Russia sentiment is there in Ukraine?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Samuel Charap (RAND Corporation, Everyone Loses). Recorded November 01, 2022.
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1:25 Sam’s Foreign Affairs piece on the importance of Ukraine diplomacy 10:14 What’s Biden’s endgame in Ukraine? 20:06 Sam: Russia has already suffered a strategic defeat 39:59 Did the West play a role in Ukraine’s 2014 revolution? 46:39 Putin says the West is Russia’s real enemy. Does he believe it? 50:26 America’s lack of diplomatic urgency before Putin invaded 57:22 How much pro-Russia sentiment is there in Ukraine?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Samuel Charap (RAND Corporation, Everyone Loses). Recorded November 01, 2022.
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0:00 Mickey takes a bite out of midterm “overism” 15:58 How revolutionary will Musk’s Twitter reign be? 28:50 Who quashed the Progressive Caucus’s Ukraine letter? 31:14 What’s holding up diplomacy in Ukraine? 40:32 Is Blob opinion on the war starting to split? 45:02 The cost of US hypocrisy 48:33 The media’s weird coverage of the ‘dirty bomb’ story 54:56 Parrot room preview: implausible dirty bomb scenarios; UK PM’s dramatic early moves; a few words about the late Lucianne Goldberg; an (iffy) argument against lefty state legislature alarmism; Mickey’s labor-relations observations; Xi Jinping and the Hu Jintao removal; illustrating the dangers of war-time overreaction by way of Russian relocation coverage; Joe’s McCarthyism; Russians adopting Ukrainian children; what’s in it for Putin-humiliation-pushers? Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded October 28, 2022. Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65124 Twitter: https://twitter.com/bloggingheads Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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0:00 Mickey takes a bite out of midterm “overism” 15:58 How revolutionary will Musk’s Twitter reign be? 28:50 Who quashed the Progressive Caucus’s Ukraine letter? 31:14 What’s holding up diplomacy in Ukraine? 40:32 Is Blob opinion on the war starting to split? 45:02 The cost of US hypocrisy 48:33 The media’s weird coverage of the ‘dirty bomb’ story 54:56 Parrot room preview: implausible dirty bomb scenarios; UK PM’s dramatic early moves; a few words about the late Lucianne Goldberg; an (iffy) argument against lefty state legislature alarmism; Mickey’s labor-relations observations; Xi Jinping and the Hu Jintao removal; illustrating the dangers of war-time overreaction by way of Russian relocation coverage; Joe’s McCarthyism; Russians adopting Ukrainian children; what’s in it for Putin-humiliation-pushers? Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded October 28, 2022. Comments on BhTV: http://bloggingheads.tv/videos/65124 Twitter: https://twitter.com/bloggingheads Facebook: https://facebook.com/bloggingheads/ Podcasts: https://bloggingheads.tv/subscribe
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1:49 How worried should we be about the “Kessler Syndrome”? 7:46 The nightmare scenario for anti-satellite weapons anarchy13:34 How an attack in space could trigger WWIII25:13 International law is way behind the curve in outer space40:45 Why isn’t the grave threat of space anarchy getting attention?54:10 How the new Cold War makes conflict in space more likely
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Douglas Ligor (Rand Corporation). Recorded October 12, 2022.
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1:49 How worried should we be about the “Kessler Syndrome”? 7:46 The nightmare scenario for anti-satellite weapons anarchy13:34 How an attack in space could trigger WWIII25:13 International law is way behind the curve in outer space40:45 Why isn’t the grave threat of space anarchy getting attention?54:10 How the new Cold War makes conflict in space more likely
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Douglas Ligor (Rand Corporation). Recorded October 12, 2022.
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3:16 Elon Musk’s esoteric insult of former Russian president Medvedev7:22 Russia’s “General Armageddon” gears up for retreat15:43 Is the GOP becoming the anti-war party?22:18 Mickey’s many midterms nightmares 35:41 With Britain's Tories in shambles, will Boris rise again?44:26 Bob: US policy helped create the latest "axis of evil"54:11 Parrot Room preview: Did Bob mischaracterize Mearsheimer?; Kanye West and Elon Musk take over social media; Jon Meacham’s fears for US democracy; what lies beneath LA’s racism row
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded October 21, 2022.
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3:16 Elon Musk’s esoteric insult of former Russian president Medvedev7:22 Russia’s “General Armageddon” gears up for retreat15:43 Is the GOP becoming the anti-war party?22:18 Mickey’s many midterms nightmares 35:41 With Britain's Tories in shambles, will Boris rise again?44:26 Bob: US policy helped create the latest "axis of evil"54:11 Parrot Room preview: Did Bob mischaracterize Mearsheimer?; Kanye West and Elon Musk take over social media; Jon Meacham’s fears for US democracy; what lies beneath LA’s racism row
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded October 21, 2022.
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2:04 What Seth learned from being in Ukraine that you won’t learn from western media 12:32 Was the ouster of Ukraine’s president in 2014 a revolution or a coup?19:45 Could the White House have averted the invasion – and could it end the war now? 37:46 The degree of on-the-ground American involvement in Ukraine and Syria49:32 Why Seth warns of frozen conflict when others predict Ukrainian victory 59:14 The extent of pro-Russian sentiment in eastern Ukraine 1:02:33 Seth: War always means atrocity, so we should avoid wars 1:15:47 Is wartime reporting less objective now than usual?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Seth Harp (Rolling Stone). Recorded October 18, 2022.
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2:04 What Seth learned from being in Ukraine that you won’t learn from western media 12:32 Was the ouster of Ukraine’s president in 2014 a revolution or a coup?19:45 Could the White House have averted the invasion – and could it end the war now? 37:46 The degree of on-the-ground American involvement in Ukraine and Syria49:32 Why Seth warns of frozen conflict when others predict Ukrainian victory 59:14 The extent of pro-Russian sentiment in eastern Ukraine 1:02:33 Seth: War always means atrocity, so we should avoid wars 1:15:47 Is wartime reporting less objective now than usual?
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Seth Harp (Rolling Stone). Recorded October 18, 2022.
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1:31 What does America not understand about China – and vice versa? 6:14 Signs of Chinese discontent with Xi Jinping 9:41 How the focus on “beating China” distracts the US from other priorities 17:01 Is the US making conflict over Taiwan more likely? 29:01 Jessica: The threat to American democracy comes from within, not from China 41:48 The roots of China’s growing assertiveness on the world stage 53:00 What US and Chinese foreign policy (unfortunately) have in common
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Jessica Chen Weiss (Cornell University). Recorded September 28, 2022.
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1:31 What does America not understand about China – and vice versa? 6:14 Signs of Chinese discontent with Xi Jinping 9:41 How the focus on “beating China” distracts the US from other priorities 17:01 Is the US making conflict over Taiwan more likely? 29:01 Jessica: The threat to American democracy comes from within, not from China 41:48 The roots of China’s growing assertiveness on the world stage 53:00 What US and Chinese foreign policy (unfortunately) have in common
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Jessica Chen Weiss (Cornell University). Recorded September 28, 2022.
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0:00 Why Mickey thinks Evan McMullin could become king of America 8:59 Herschel Walker’s “three bulls” parable 13:24 Is Fetterman ready for the debate stage? 20:45 Biden’s Saudi ask vs. Trump’s Ukraine ask 26:47 The double-edged sword of Ukrainian military success 29:59 Bob amends last week’s "client state" comments 33:18 Bob: The next few weeks will be critical for Ukraine 40:34 Elon and international affairs (cont’d) 46:42 Inflation, China chip wars, and other harbingers of global instability 55:18 Putin’s psyche and realist views of Russia 1:01:52 Parrot room preview: Ukraine’s ironic nuclear war incentives; cancellable L.A. city council commentary?; Who’s the bigger liar: Gore or Biden?; Unflattering Nikki Finke obituaries; PayPal’s crazy new misinformation policy; more Musk talk; what’s new in the Metaverse?; Serial subject’s charges dropped; a damning Maggie Haberman clip?; FiveThirtyEight bias and a point about probability
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded October 14, 2022.
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0:00 Why Mickey thinks Evan McMullin could become king of America 8:59 Herschel Walker’s “three bulls” parable 13:24 Is Fetterman ready for the debate stage? 20:45 Biden’s Saudi ask vs. Trump’s Ukraine ask 26:47 The double-edged sword of Ukrainian military success 29:59 Bob amends last week’s "client state" comments 33:18 Bob: The next few weeks will be critical for Ukraine 40:34 Elon and international affairs (cont’d) 46:42 Inflation, China chip wars, and other harbingers of global instability 55:18 Putin’s psyche and realist views of Russia 1:01:52 Parrot room preview: Ukraine’s ironic nuclear war incentives; cancellable L.A. city council commentary?; Who’s the bigger liar: Gore or Biden?; Unflattering Nikki Finke obituaries; PayPal’s crazy new misinformation policy; more Musk talk; what’s new in the Metaverse?; Serial subject’s charges dropped; a damning Maggie Haberman clip?; FiveThirtyEight bias and a point about probability
Robert Wright (Bloggingheads.tv, The Evolution of God, Nonzero, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded October 14, 2022.
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A few words about cognitive empathy ... Update: Nikita re-exits Russia ... Gauging Russian opinion on the Ukraine war post-mobilization ... How informed are the Russian people about the war? ... Does the West overestimate the absoluteness of Putin’s power? ... Watching "Putin’s chef" recruit prisoners for military service ... The difficulties in grasping “the” Russian perspective ... Trying to comprehend Putin’s psychology ... Was the Ukraine invasion inevitable? ... Is everything just one big cynical power game? ... The Biden State Department’s momentously zero-sum view of US-Russia relations ... The economic factors that helped shape modern Russia ... Is AI capable of cognitive empathy? ...
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
A few words about cognitive empathy ... Update: Nikita re-exits Russia ... Gauging Russian opinion on the Ukraine war post-mobilization ... How informed are the Russian people about the war? ... Does the West overestimate the absoluteness of Putin’s power? ... Watching "Putin’s chef" recruit prisoners for military service ... The difficulties in grasping “the” Russian perspective ... Trying to comprehend Putin’s psychology ... Was the Ukraine invasion inevitable? ... Is everything just one big cynical power game? ... The Biden State Department’s momentously zero-sum view of US-Russia relations ... The economic factors that helped shape modern Russia ... Is AI capable of cognitive empathy? ...
This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe
What’s Biden’s plan to avert nuclear Armageddon? ... The reaction to Elon Musk’s Ukraine peace proposal ... The future of free speech on Twitter ... Are we seeing cracks in Putin’s regime? ... Mickey’s midterms update ... A reason for hope about Iran’s future ... Parrot room preview: Jeffrey Toobin; Was Fukuyama right after all?; electric vehicles as a secret Chinese plot; David Sacks on woke-neocon synergy; being a character voter versus an issue voter; Michael McFaul doesn’t deserve your attention ...
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What’s Biden’s plan to avert nuclear Armageddon? ... The reaction to Elon Musk’s Ukraine peace proposal ... The future of free speech on Twitter ... Are we seeing cracks in Putin’s regime? ... Mickey’s midterms update ... A reason for hope about Iran’s future ... Parrot room preview: Jeffrey Toobin; Was Fukuyama right after all?; electric vehicles as a secret Chinese plot; David Sacks on woke-neocon synergy; being a character voter versus an issue voter; Michael McFaul doesn’t deserve your attention ...
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Hal and Michael’s book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China ... Would more weapons to Taiwan provoke Beijing to strike now? ... Michael: China feels threatened, which makes China threatening ... Hal: The US has a China problem, not just a Xi Jinping problem ... Is autocracy per se a threat to the rules-based order? ... Is the “democracy vs. autocracy” framework a self-fulfilling prophecy? ... Bob: If a threatened China is a dangerous China, is amping up the threat really a great idea? ...
Hal and Michael’s book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China ... Would more weapons to Taiwan provoke Beijing to strike now? ... Michael: China feels threatened, which makes China threatening ... Hal: The US has a China problem, not just a Xi Jinping problem ... Is autocracy per se a threat to the rules-based order? ... Is the “democracy vs. autocracy” framework a self-fulfilling prophecy? ... Bob: If a threatened China is a dangerous China, is amping up the threat really a great idea? ...
Mickey on the latest midterm polling prophecies ... Will the new CNN put the Dems’ cash cow out to pasture? ... Could Putin’s annexation have nuclear fallout? ... Who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines? ... Bob: We’re not grappling with how bad things could get in Ukraine ... Mickey finds a new front in Biden’s “battle against autocracy” ... Is fascism really on the march in Italy? ... Parrot room preview: Mickey tenders his “Contract with America”; guessing Bob’s seventh heaven persona non grata candidate; can AI have sex?; The Rumble (not Bumble) success story; “Serial” podcast subject released; the people Mickey doesn’t want to meet in heaven ...
Mickey on the latest midterm polling prophecies ... Will the new CNN put the Dems’ cash cow out to pasture? ... Could Putin’s annexation have nuclear fallout? ... Who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines? ... Bob: We’re not grappling with how bad things could get in Ukraine ... Mickey finds a new front in Biden’s “battle against autocracy” ... Is fascism really on the march in Italy? ... Parrot room preview: Mickey tenders his “Contract with America”; guessing Bob’s seventh heaven persona non grata candidate; can AI have sex?; The Rumble (not Bumble) success story; “Serial” podcast subject released; the people Mickey doesn’t want to meet in heaven ...
Who sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines—and what happens next? ... The uncertain consequences of Russia's referendums in Ukraine ... How Russia’s military failures could lead to Putin’s downfall ... How much pro-Russian sentiment is there in eastern and southeastern Ukraine? ... The odds Putin goes nuclear and the likely western response ... What’s Biden’s endgame in Ukraine? ... Is it too late for a peace deal? ... The chances that China comes to Putin’s rescue ...
Who sabotaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines—and what happens next? ... The uncertain consequences of Russia's referendums in Ukraine ... How Russia’s military failures could lead to Putin’s downfall ... How much pro-Russian sentiment is there in eastern and southeastern Ukraine? ... The odds Putin goes nuclear and the likely western response ... What’s Biden’s endgame in Ukraine? ... Is it too late for a peace deal? ... The chances that China comes to Putin’s rescue ...
Putin’s big speech: nothingburger, nuclear nightmare, or something in between? ... Why an escalating Ukraine war is so easy to envision ... All the ways DeSantis is Trump 2.0 ... Biden cools it on the anti-MAGA rhetoric ... Italy’s MAGA-like party heats up ... Crunching the midterm election numbers ... What’s wrong with Biden committing to defend Taiwan against China? ... Parrot Room preview: GOP’s new Contract for America; What is national conservatism?; reviewing Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless; Trump’s spoon-bending powers; does AI have cognitive empathy? ...
Putin’s big speech: nothingburger, nuclear nightmare, or something in between? ... Why an escalating Ukraine war is so easy to envision ... All the ways DeSantis is Trump 2.0 ... Biden cools it on the anti-MAGA rhetoric ... Italy’s MAGA-like party heats up ... Crunching the midterm election numbers ... What’s wrong with Biden committing to defend Taiwan against China? ... Parrot Room preview: GOP’s new Contract for America; What is national conservatism?; reviewing Jean-Luc Godard’s Breathless; Trump’s spoon-bending powers; does AI have cognitive empathy? ...
Sebastian’s book, In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century ... The causes and consequences of the Cambodian genocide ... How American preaching pushes Asian governments towards China ... China, the anti-colonial imperial power ... Is Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative a bid for world domination? ... Beijing isn’t trying to export its political system, says Sebastian ... The state of liberal democracy in Southeast Asia ... Why the Chinese have been called “the Jews of the East” ... How the US can woo Southeast Asian nations ...
Sebastian’s book, In the Dragon’s Shadow: Southeast Asia in the Chinese Century ... The causes and consequences of the Cambodian genocide ... How American preaching pushes Asian governments towards China ... China, the anti-colonial imperial power ... Is Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative a bid for world domination? ... Beijing isn’t trying to export its political system, says Sebastian ... The state of liberal democracy in Southeast Asia ... Why the Chinese have been called “the Jews of the East” ... How the US can woo Southeast Asian nations ...
Mickey tries to take the bromance to the next level ... An impromptu primer on longtermism ... Is Lindsey Graham's abortion proposal poison for Republicans? ... Mickey’s read on the Pennsylvania and Georgia midterm races ... Is MAGA-ism going global? ... How is Biden’s pro-democracy messaging holding up? ... Ukraine war update ... Assessing DeSantis’s Martha’s Vineyard migrant scheme ... Mickey v. lefty takeaways on welfare reform ... Parrot room preview: first impressions of Godard’s Breathless; Federer’s retirement; the woke campaign against food hierarchy; a pundit-y point on the Epstein case; Charlie Munger’s envy-driven-economy theory; longtermism; free speech and the Queen; ex-Google-CEO’s anti-China sentiment; Is polio making a comeback?; Comprehending the crypto “merge” ...
Mickey tries to take the bromance to the next level ... An impromptu primer on longtermism ... Is Lindsey Graham's abortion proposal poison for Republicans? ... Mickey’s read on the Pennsylvania and Georgia midterm races ... Is MAGA-ism going global? ... How is Biden’s pro-democracy messaging holding up? ... Ukraine war update ... Assessing DeSantis’s Martha’s Vineyard migrant scheme ... Mickey v. lefty takeaways on welfare reform ... Parrot room preview: first impressions of Godard’s Breathless; Federer’s retirement; the woke campaign against food hierarchy; a pundit-y point on the Epstein case; Charlie Munger’s envy-driven-economy theory; longtermism; free speech and the Queen; ex-Google-CEO’s anti-China sentiment; Is polio making a comeback?; Comprehending the crypto “merge” ...
The US role in Ukraine’s recent offensive – and how Moscow might respond ... Could Putin fall from power if Ukraine’s success continues? ... Will more arms to Taiwan deter or provoke China? ... Bob: On foreign policy, the US has egregiously violated its professed values ... Bret: The US should go to war against China if it invades Taiwan ... Should the US use force to defend democracy around the world? ... Can international law constrain brutal leaders like Putin? ... How Trump is kind of like a foot massage ... Explaining versus justifying bad behavior in international politics ...
The US role in Ukraine’s recent offensive – and how Moscow might respond ... Could Putin fall from power if Ukraine’s success continues? ... Will more arms to Taiwan deter or provoke China? ... Bob: On foreign policy, the US has egregiously violated its professed values ... Bret: The US should go to war against China if it invades Taiwan ... Should the US use force to defend democracy around the world? ... Can international law constrain brutal leaders like Putin? ... How Trump is kind of like a foot massage ... Explaining versus justifying bad behavior in international politics ...
RIP Queen Elizabeth II—Mickey breaks the news to Bob ... (Belated) reactions to Biden's big speech ... Bob critiques another Mickey tweet ... Will the “special master” ruling derail the Trump investigation? ... Steve Bannon faces the music ... Vegas politician fails to outsource murder ... One Liz in, one Liz out: what’s in store for the UK under Truss? ... Ukraine war update ... Trump’s nuclear document ... Parrot Room preview: Biden’s MAGA speech and his foreign policy; regulating outer space; on Ukraine coverage, Bob asks: where is today’s Bernard Trainor?; Israel's u-turn on controversial West Bank romance rules; WaPo going broke? Mickey has a solution; another Epstein-linked suicide?; Do plants have consciousness?; more AI takeover talk; lab leak; Wilde-Styles drama ...
RIP Queen Elizabeth II—Mickey breaks the news to Bob ... (Belated) reactions to Biden's big speech ... Bob critiques another Mickey tweet ... Will the “special master” ruling derail the Trump investigation? ... Steve Bannon faces the music ... Vegas politician fails to outsource murder ... One Liz in, one Liz out: what’s in store for the UK under Truss? ... Ukraine war update ... Trump’s nuclear document ... Parrot Room preview: Biden’s MAGA speech and his foreign policy; regulating outer space; on Ukraine coverage, Bob asks: where is today’s Bernard Trainor?; Israel's u-turn on controversial West Bank romance rules; WaPo going broke? Mickey has a solution; another Epstein-linked suicide?; Do plants have consciousness?; more AI takeover talk; lab leak; Wilde-Styles drama ...
David’s brand new book, The Varieties of Spiritual Experience ... The personal spiritual experience that sparked David’s research ... This book’s relationship to William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience ... How common are dramatic spiritual experiences? ... How different are different types of spiritual experience, really? ... Type 1 in the book’s taxonomy of spiritual experiences: The Numinous ... Type 2: The Revelatory ... Type 3: Synchronicity ... Type 4: The Mystical ... Type 5: The Aesthetic ... Type 6: The Paranormal ... Varieties of psychedelic experience ... SPOILERS: James’s surprising conclusions about religious experience ...
David’s brand new book, The Varieties of Spiritual Experience ... The personal spiritual experience that sparked David’s research ... This book’s relationship to William James’s The Varieties of Religious Experience ... How common are dramatic spiritual experiences? ... How different are different types of spiritual experience, really? ... Type 1 in the book’s taxonomy of spiritual experiences: The Numinous ... Type 2: The Revelatory ... Type 3: Synchronicity ... Type 4: The Mystical ... Type 5: The Aesthetic ... Type 6: The Paranormal ... Varieties of psychedelic experience ... SPOILERS: James’s surprising conclusions about religious experience ...
Are Dems’ electoral chances as good as the media says? ... Biden demonizes MAGA Republicans, feeds the MAGA narrative ... Bob: To prepare for DeSantis, the Dems should dump Biden ... Two ways Trump isn’t helping Republican candidates ... Ukraine war update ... Mickey: The new Covid booster will be a bust ... Did the FBI give Facebook advance warning about the Hunter Biden laptop story? ... Parrot Room preview: Gorbachev appraised; new Epstein intrigue; reviewing The Best Man; why is culture so boring?; why Mickey’s tweet annoyed Bob; new Putin biography; Were Monkees persecuted? ...
Mickey doubles down on performance enhancing drugs ... Is the NY19 result a red flag for a midterm “red wave”? ... Has the Mar-a-Lago bombshell already fizzled? ... Bob gets tribal about Mickey’s anti-tribalism tweet ... Ukraine war update ... The electric vehicle takeover in California ... Brian Stelter’s ouster and CNN’s future direction ... Parrot Room preview: Dugin’s daughter whodunnit, is it actually time to start worrying about AI?, Biden admin cynicism on Ukraine, another tally in the Epstein case body count, China’s quantum computing prowess, could economic troubles spur Chinese aggression?, Twitter-Facebook censorship, more Beatles doc talk ...
What is the restrainer coalition and how cohesive is it really? ... Justin: Realism opposes forever wars -- but holds that war is forever ... The challenge Russia-Ukraine poses to the restrainer community ... How the US should respond to the China-Taiwan crisis ... Does the rise of China threaten American security? ... Bob: Taking adversaries’ perspectives doesn’t equal justifying their behavior ... Can the US deter a Chinese invasion of Taiwan forever? ... Should the US make Taiwan a pricklier porcupine or China a more satisfied panda? ... Quincy represents restraint, but CATO was restraint-minded before it was cool ...
Mickey and Dr. Oz enjoy crudités—Bob and Fetterman, not so much ... The state of the Oz versus Fetterman race ... Will Liz Cheney run for president – and for which party? ... Was the FBI raid on Trump really worth it? ... Mickey sees Jay Leno at supermarket, plays it cool ... Inflation slowing and Democrats’ fortunes rising? ... The sense in which the Salman Rushdie stabbing isn’t about religion ... Ukraine war update ... Parrot Room preview: Mickey’s friend’s empathy epiphany, ridiculous piece on Peter Thiel, America’s government-media complex, Huffington Post versus Buzzfeed, Bob on the Beatles documentary, Dexter Filkins on Ron DeSantis, Bob’s beef with new Washington Post piece, Muhammad and the Satanic verses, Mickey’s dark horse presidential candidate, anti-Soros news, Larry Summers talks to Bari Weiss ...
Does the “restrainer community” actually exist? ... Has the Ukraine war fractured the restrainer community? ... How should a restrainer respond to Putin’s invasion? ... How war-time psychology impairs objective analysis ... Unpacking the differences between left-wing and right-wing restrainers ... Is realism essential to the pro-restraint worldview—or just its conservative variant? ... Some dubious characters Biden takes advice from ...
Forecasting Trump raid fallout ... Could the Dems bring back “Build Back Better”? ... Bob and Mickey compare blue-collar bona fides ... Scoring Biden's recent PR wins and losses ... What's scarier: social media, the FBI, or your Roomba? ... Ukraine war update ... Bob: How ‘defending’ Taiwan could get it invaded ... Parrot Room Preview: The Blobsters advising the White House, yet more Jonah Goldberg trash-talk, Mickey’s car-buying blues, Bob’s rave CRV road-trip review, where in the world is Ghislaine Maxwell?, Mickey’s meritocracy conundrum, AI takeover, Saudi golf tour talk, Bob shorts "longtermism" ...
Remembering the halcyon days of early Bloggingheads ... Jonah: Our institutions have become platforms for parasites ... Censorship and polarization in the social media age ... What Mickey cribbed from Jonah to jumpstart his blogging career ... How Twitter killed the blogging star ... Is Substack blogging reborn? ... What’s the matter with the modern left? Jonah diagnoses ... A Trump-Biden rematch and other depressing symptoms of polarization ... Is devotion to an institution a sucker bet? ...
Rip Van Kaus awakens to a frightening new reality ... Bob and Mickey scan the dial for better Christian music ... Did the Taliban sell out Ayman al-Zawahiri? ... Bob: Weapons sent to Ukraine will end up in US extremists’ hands ... Why did Nancy Pelosi go to Taiwan? ... If Trump had been reelected, would Putin have invaded Ukraine? ... Ukraine War update ... Are pro-choice Kansas voters also pro-Democrat? ... Mickey: My fears about Democratic midterm gains look more and more realistic ... Joe Manchin zags his way into supporting BBB ... Biden manages to avoid stagflation (for now) ... Parrot Room preview: Joe Rogan, Alex Jones, Brittney Griner, Monkeypox, Jonah Goldberg, the (possible) fascism of JD Vance and Blake Masters, Mickey’s beef with Chris Murphy, Mikey’s defense of mansplaining, the end of social media, a small wrinkle in the midterms, Obnoxious Use of the Word “Agency” of the Week, the third party question, John Fetterman, and the LIV Tour antitrust suit ...
Tom: Pelosi’s trip to Taiwan imperils the defense of Ukraine ... Unpacking the Russia-Ukraine/China-Taiwan analogy ... Tom’s critique of Bob’s argument on Russia-Ukraine ... The dangers of humiliating and alienating China ... Does Biden have a plan for winding down the war in Ukraine – and does Putin? ... China could push Russia to end the war – so why is Pelosi poking the panda? ... Why cooperation with China is in America’s national interest ... Tom’s scoop on Zelensky’s worsening reputation in the White House ... Why Tom thinks a diplomatic resolution should come sooner rather than later ...
Rajan walks through three ways the war could end ... Assessing Ukraine’s and Russia’s military aims ... The causes and consequences of Ukraine’s optimism ... What might weaken Ukrainian and western resolve? ... How America’s toxic political discourse prolongs the war ... Does Biden have a plan? ... Do we understand Putin’s motivation ... Will Putin accept anything short of taking the entire Donbas? ...
Mickey lives in darkness ... Dems rise in the polls as Trump falls ... The case that Trump was trying to obstruct Congress on January 6 gets stronger ... Steve Bannon’s role as January 6 ringleader ... How susceptible is the left to election fraud fantasies? ... Are we ready for the current Covid wave? ... Why do we need Saudi Arabia’s oil? ... Will higher wages for unskilled labor stick around? ... NYT columnists admit their errors ... The SPLC attacks Andrew Yang ... A new study challenges the link between low serotonin and depression ... Will Joe Manchin sink the global minimum corporate tax? ... Ukraine update ... Parrot Room preview: Bob and Mickey react to Jonah Goldberg’s trash talk, Bill Gates throws his money around, Washington corruption, Oz vs. Fetterman, What another Trump presidency would be like, the holograms are coming for us, Mickey’s childlike reactions to Biden and Fetterman, an interesting Supreme Court case, Ethan Hawke’s Ukraine peace plan, the Bonesaw Golf Circuit, and Bob’s epic Decoding the Gurus episode ...
Ross to Bob: In a parallel universe, you are a media god. ... The non-zero-sum nature of disagreement in the blog days ... Ross’s time as an Atlantic blogging big-shot ... Will Twitter-style discourse last forever? ... Technology, politics, and polarization ... Ross’s niche in the conservative ecosystem ... Globalization vs. the (new) “new nationalism” ... Can the world afford a Cold War II? ...
Mickey admits he was wrong about the 10-year-old abortion story ... The Atlantic’s conveniently timed story about MBS’s widow ... Is Biden doing MBS a favor by investigating the PGA? ... Mickey: Democrats are still overperforming in midterm polls ... January 6 hearings update ... Working with, or around, Joe Manchin ... Has Elon Musk actually thought through free speech on Twitter? ... Ukraine war update ... Mickey: The Peter Thiel candidates will decide the fate of the Senate ... Parrot Room preview: Bob’s Atlantic conspiracy theory revealed, the British Open and LIV, Starbucks store closings, Biden and military force in Iran, NAIRU news, the Hunter Biden cloud leak, the value of the Iraq war, sucking up to Saudi Arabia, Bob complains about a terrible WaPo headline, the annoyances of “agency,” Jill Biden’s breakfast taco faux pas, and fertilizer in Sri Lanka ...
Why David thinks better US policy could have prevented the Russia-Ukraine war ... Bob: Explaining Putin’s criminal invasion is not the same as justifying it ... How understanding other minds sheds light on international politics ... The importance of speaking out ... What Silicon Valley doesn’t get about international politics ... In what sense does Silicon Valley care about the future? ... When cancel culture meets foreign policy ... David on his political ideology ... Possible endgames in Ukraine ... Could the war tank Biden’s presidency? ... A few words on cryptocurrency ...
Mickey: Inflation could abate by the midterms, saving the Dems ... Bob: Congress’s inability to act meaningfully on guns is outrageous ... How the 14th Amendment could support federal pro-abortion legislation ... Does Boris Johnson’s fall reflect disenchantment with Brexit? ... Build Back Better is back ... Liz Cheney, Democratic presidential candidate? ... Bob’s somewhat intrusive gun control workaround ... Harvard’s pandemic stimulus check study ... Parrot Room preview: A Ukraine update, Blake Masters, good career news for two TNR alums, Mickey attacks Mark Leibovich, January 6, corporatism, naming names in the Epstein case, Bari Weiss gossip, Minions and TikTok, Bob saw Memorial and you didn’t, and the abortion-seeking ten-year-old story ...
Thinking back fondly on the time Dick Cheney shot a guy ... David: Online journalism leveled the media playing field ... Is Russiagate an example of Democratic demagoguery? ... Mickey’s little-known past as a squire to DC’s elite ... The rewards of outrageousness ... What does it take to get drummed out of public life in 2022? ... David: It’s sad that so many Americans accept Trump’s prolific lying ... Does backlash against perceived media bias explain Trump’s support? ... The undiminished shock value of January 6 ... Is there any Democratic alternative to Biden and Harris in 2024? ...
Cassidy Hutchinson’s credible-seeming January 6 testimony ... Are the January 6 hearings hurting Trump’s 2024 chances? ... Mickey: I’m surprised the press is giving Hutchinson such a hard time ... Bob: The hearings are going to be a very important historical document ... Are the Republicans putting all of their non-Trump eggs in the DeSantis basket? ... Will the Democrats retain the Senate? ... Is the Supreme Court’s EPA ruling a judicial power grab? ... Is this Supreme Court philosophically conservative or politically conservative? ... Ukraine update ... Parrot Room preview: Ghislaine Maxwell, Woke Boris Johnson, wokeism in general, Ukraine, the Cafe Milano leak, Sonny Barger and the Hell’s Angels quiz, media bias, and Mickey’s four points about Bob’s conversation with Matt Yglesias ...
Bob and Matt reflect on the early days of Bloggingheads ... The decline of print and the rise of blogging ... How Matt made blogging work for him ... The shifting incentives of digital publishing ... Matt: Filter bubbles are more real than the research seems to suggest ... Bob: To succeed in modern journalism, it helps to like being hated ... The positive side of social media ... Slippage between news and opinion at the NYT ... The worrisome incentives of Twitter for academics ...
An important announcement for Bloggingheads fans ... Was Roe v. Wade doomed from its inception? ... Will the Supreme Court’s gun ruling get people killed? ... Bob: Democrats should weaponize the gun ruling ... Mickey: The January 6 hearings have been effective if unbalanced ... The pragmatic case for not indicting Trump ... Bob’s Biden replacement proposal of the week: Van Jones ... Two Trump-related hurdles for Ron DeSantis ... Ukraine update: the momentum shift is official ... A bittersweet farewell to Bloggingheads ... Mickey clarifies: He does not think sex should be illegal ... Parrot Room preview: Media bias on Ukraine, Juneteenth, Mark Shields, Bob’s killer argument against Nick Bostrom's simulation argument, Undone, we’re all the Beatles now, a crucial test for Brexit, Mickey’s prediction about the lab leak hypothesis, Lightyear bombs, Ben Smith’s Semafor, immigration news, a “Bonesaw Golf Circuit” update, and should the government regulate AI? ...
Why Matt thinks progressives should support giving military aid to Ukraine ... Bob defends much of the left-wing critique of America’s Russia-Ukraine policies ... How the "Putin's talking points" smear shuts down criticism of US foreign policy ... Is the “democracy vs autocracy” framework leading the world to Cold War II? ... Assessing possible endgames in Ukraine – and what comes after ... Did Biden make a serious diplomatic effort to prevent Putin’s invasion? ... Making free trade agreements a tool for advancing left-of-center policy ...
Mickey implores Bob: “Leave Biden alone!” Bob proves incapable. ... Democrats’ surprisingly good Senate race poll numbers ... Mickey: Immigration numbers are climbing, but the media isn’t covering it ... The downsides of framing US foreign policy as a “struggle against autocracy” ... How courageous was Pence on January 6? ... Did Trump both plan and fan the violence on January 6? ... Mickey: Trump and DeSantis are neck and neck as 2024 prospects ... Will Biden lift Trump-era tariffs on China? ... Bob: Ukraine may soon run out of ammo for its Soviet-era artillery ... Parrot Room preview: Exciting child tax credit news, Jeffrey Epstein news, a new angle on the Dave Weigel affair, Stanford eliminates fun, a deep dive into Bob’s views on consciousness, the dating habits of Richard Spencer, the US Open, Bob pummels an NYT headline, the Proud Boys, and Kurt Gödel ...
Nikita’s exciting—but daunting—new creative venture ... What responsibility do the Russian people bear for their government’s actions? ... Seeing clearly the many perspectives in the “Russian perspective” ... When does blaming propaganda go from explanation to excuse? ... Was this war with Russia the least bad option for Ukraine? ... Is fighting the power a fool’s errand? ... Assigning credit (and blame) for post-Soviet Russia ... Did US interests want Russia to invade Ukraine? ...
What did we learn from the primetime January 6 hearing? ... Bob: “Our foreign policy is virtue signaling, and it’s very, very costly” ... The alarming threats against Supreme Court justices ... WaPo’s dismissal of Felicia Sonmez ... Does Chesa Boudin’s recall mark the end of criminal justice reform? ... The Iran Deal teeters on the edge of collapse ... Bob tears Biden and Blinken’s sanctioning policy a new one ... Mickey: Biden should prepare for midterm losses by pivoting now ... Why haven’t Ukraine’s new weapons slowed Russia down? ... Parrot Room preview: Felicia Sonmez, Saudi Arabia’s LIV golf tour, why Microsoft may own the metaverse, The Glitch in the Matrix, an under-reported Jeffrey Epstein-Elon Musk connection, a lab leak hypothesis update, Mickey’s un-PC thoughts about Ken Bode, and Mickey wrestles with his own ideological affiliations ...
Josh: World War I shattered empires, ethnic cleansing created nation-states ... How the US and Russia wound up cooperating to fight ISIS and Sunni militias ... Why Turkey is holding up NATO membership for Sweden and Finland ... By helping to keep Syria divided, is the US giving ISIS free rein? ... What Turkey wants in exchange for letting Sweden and Finland into NATO ... In retrospect, should the US not have intervened in Syria? ... Why Russia-Ukraine might become another devastating frozen conflict ... Josh: Putin misapplied the lessons of Syria to Ukraine ... How US sanctions impede conflict resolution in the Middle East ...
Mickey’s ingenious—and not at all far-fetched—solution to the Kamala problem ... Failures to unravel the Gordian knot of gun control ... Has Biden’s approval hit rock-bottom? Mickey hopes not ... The most plausible path to a ceasefire in Ukraine ... The Hillary Clinton-Cold War II connection ... Hillary lawyer Michael Sussmann acquitted ... Trump aide Peter Navarro indicted ... Inflation and Omicron: good news, bad news for Biden? ... Parrot Room preview: Depp-Heard verdict, the Ben Wittes defense of Michael Sussmann, what’s up with Tucker Carlson’s son?, Sheryl Sandberg’s political ambitions, prospective chief of staff replacement’s Harvey Weinstein problem, Ann Coulter starts a Substack, Freddie deBoer gets Ben Smith’d, making heads or tails of rising non-binary rates, Ukraine War spin, Dead End, Undone, Severance ...
Why Jon’s dire Atlantic piece demanded a Bob-response ... Are today’s problems typical technological growing pains or alarming signs of demise? ... How much blame should social media get for the mess we’re in? ... Do today’s progressives recognize social progress? ... Jon: Productive “managed conflict” has become nearly impossible ... Will self-help save the planet? ... Can America survive without cultural common ground? ... Will the flip side of intranational tension be international cohesion? ... The three changes Jon thinks could save American society ...
California voting information materials fail the cognitive empathy test ... Will the latest mass shooting spur effective federal gun legislation? ... Mickey: Schumer will learn from Obama’s post-Sandy Hook political mistakes ... Are elites and geniuses more juvenile than the rest of us? ... Bob asks: Why is Western media so slow to report bad news from Ukraine? ... Do we really know “what the Ukrainian people want”? ... The status of the US’s “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan becomes more ambiguous ... Mickey: Americans’ enthusiasm for funding Ukraine is cooling ... Trump’s Republican bêtes noires win in Georgia ... Parrot Room preview: Franklin Foer’s role in the Sussman case, Severance, Kellyanne Conway’s book, Elon Musk’s tweets, Peter Thiel the kingmaker, the Bush dynasty vs. the Clinton dynasty, Luke Russert reopens the national service debate, monkeypox, the Institute for the Study of War’s role in the Ukraine bad news lag, the Iran nuclear deal, the Dead End podcast, and Station Eleven ...
Suzanne’s new book, The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism ... The ongoing War on Terror in the age of the new Cold War ... Jihadism as a modern phenomenon ... The recent evolution of the doctrine of jihad ... What about modernity are jihadists – and US right-wingers – reacting against? ... Suzanne: To thwart authoritarians, build robust democratic communities ... Who is fighting the liberal status quo? ... Are Democrats too idealistic? ... Dispelling the myth of primordial ethnic tribalism ...
Bob: Tucker Carlson’s replacement rhetoric is intentionally inflammatory ... Is the rhetoric of “transformation” analogous to that of “replacement”? ... Two NYT headlines that trigger Bob ... Is Russia making more progress than it seems in eastern Ukraine? ... Mickey: If Trumpists depose Mitch McConnell, it could forestall a Trump 2024 run ... George W. Bush’s magnificent Ukraine-Iraq gaffe ... Can John Fetterman win in the PA general election? ... Parrot Room preview: Severance, Covid, Elon Musk’s sex scandal, the Depp-Heard trial, Jonathan Chait on charter schools, unemployment fraud, the Dead End podcast, the origins of Ukrainian nationalism, Benjamin Wittes’s infuriatingly Blobby Twitter thread, and what Ramesh Ponnuru misses about replacement rhetoric ...
Ian's brand new book, The Power of Crisis ... Did NATO expansion lead to the invasion of Ukraine? ... Ian: We shouldn’t have left Russia behind after the Cold War ... How much trouble is caused by America’s lack of perspective-taking? ... The critical problems Ian wants the world to focus on ... Does the “democracy vs. autocracy” framing do more harm than good? ... The rival technological visions of the US and China (and Elon Musk) ... Could our current crises be the seeds of future flourishing? ...
The baby formula conundrum ... Mickey: Chuck Schumer has put Dems in a bad position for the midterms ... Is the Ukraine military aid bill excessive? ... How neoconish think tanks influence Western coverage of Ukraine ... Mickey asks: Would a new cold war be so bad? Bob answers. ... Kathy Barnette’s surprising surge in the Pennsylvania GOP senate primary ... If a Trumpist Trump hasn’t endorsed wins a race, is it a win for Trump? ... Is Tesla’s stock price threatening Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase? ... Musk backpedals on his free speech position ... Video of Israeli soldiers beating mourners at the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh goes viral ... Mickey: It’s much more plausible that the Roe v. Wade opinion leaker was a left-winger ... Parrot Room preview: Steve Schmidt’s meltdown, Dinesh D’Souza is at it again, the creepy views of a Disinformation Governance Board member, IQ differences in a pair of South Korean twins, J.D. Vance, the child tax credit, Station Eleven, the etymology of “black hole” and its connection to Bob, drinking spinal fluid for brain rejuvenation, Tucker Carlson, and the shifting Latino vote ...
Sizing up the new Cold War ... Is China complicit in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? ... Dissecting the Russia-Ukraine, China-Taiwan analogy ... Understanding Taiwan’s status – and vulnerability – in the international system ... Did US foreign policy make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more likely? ... What role did the US play in Ukraine’s 2014 revolution? ... Was Bush 41 the golden age of American post-Cold-War diplomacy? ... Susan: Trump shook things up but was a blight on America’s reputation ... Bob has an idea: How about a world without war? ...
What does J.D. Vance’s primary win teach us about the Trump Effect? ... Will the overturning of Roe give Democrats a boost in the midterms? ... The Hillary Clinton campaign’s role in amping up Russiagate ... Bob: A cornered Putin is a scarier Putin ... Doing the nuclear war math ... Can Putin take Odessa and Kharkiv? ... Taylor Lorenz tangles with Matt Drudge ... A new study shows that Omicron is not intrinsically milder than the original Covid virus ... Some quick corrections ... The Biden administration’s ill-advised Ukraine leaks ... Parrot Room preview: Elon Musk talk, Station Eleven, Severance, the latest January 6 leak, Bob gets a classic Michael McFaul brush-off, the White House Correspondents Dinner, Gavin Newsom, unjustified deplatforming, WNYC’s Dead End podcast, and Roe v. Wade ...
The basics of “analytic idealism”—Bernardo’s consciousness-only theory of reality ... How intuitive is the materialist worldview, really? ... Does evolution select for “true” perceptions of reality? ... Is idealism compatible with evolutionary theory? ... Bernardo: The "physical" world is a convenient fiction ... Putting idealism to the (empirical) test ... The idealist view of various quantum physics quandaries ... Telepathy, premonition, and other “weirdness” under idealism ... Can analytic idealism change your life? ...
Does Elon Musk know what he’s gotten himself into? ... Bob: Leaving Twitter is harder than it sounds ... Bob offers Musk a free idea for monetizing Twitter ... Is the US backing Putin into a corner? ... Mickey: Kevin McCarthy’s dumbness is an asset ... A cynical theory about the origins of Russiagate ... Does anyone have anything to look forward to? ... Parrot Room preview: Covid, Jeffrey Goldberg, Mickey is worried about immigration again, false flag accusations against Russia, Bob complains about William Burns’s memoir, Glen Campbell trivia, Tucker Carlson talk, the transition of power at the NYT, another Madison Cawthorn sex scandal, Station Eleven, and Nico ...
At long last, Bob enters the DMZ ... The big changes afoot at the DMZ and Bloggingheads ... Staying alive in a hyper-competitive media environment ... Are we going to see a Biden-Trump rematch in 2024? ... Can DeSantis mount a successful challenge to Trump? ... Is Biden sharp enough to make it through another campaign? ... Is Kamala the Democrats’ best alternative to Biden? ...
What Putin means by “de-Nazifying” Ukraine ... Do most Russians support the war? ... The nature of Putin’s nationalism ... What is fascism? Is Russia fascist? ... Are Russia and China creating an alliance of autocracies? ... Sizing up the far right in Ukraine ... Assessing Putin’s turn against liberalism ... Marlene: The West could have averted the Russia-Ukraine war ...
Bob turfs out in a round of “Name That Tune” ... Mickey: Why do trans and immigrant artists seem mostly to make art about trans and immigrant issues? ... Marine Le Pen’s surprising popularity among young French voters ... A possible upside of Putin getting what he wants in Ukraine ... Is the war outlasting Americans’ attention spans? ... What’s really behind Putin’s aggression in Ukraine? ... The search for a Democratic presidential candidate who isn’t Joe Biden ... Biden is not not saying he’ll send troops to Ukraine ... Can anyone stop Elon Musk from buying Twitter? ... The siloing effects of blue checks ... Bob: Wimbledon’s exclusion of Russian tennis players is disgusting ... The massive number of US weapons on their way to Ukraine ... Parrot Room preview: The dismal fate of CNN+, Disney and DeSantis, Mickey’s latest paranoid refundable child tax credit fantasy, the craziness of natalists, Marc Andreessen and Elon Musk on censorship, “the shit hits the fan” for high-achieving white high school students, the Ritter-Lira-Nuland rabbit hole, the weirdness of Elon Musk, Everything Everywhere at the Same Time, the weirdness of Jimmy Webb, and why are so many golfers evangelicals? ...
A Wright Show/Culturally Determined crossover! ... Pros and cons of the term "cognitive empathy" ... Aryeh sees a flaw in trying to put yourself in Putin's shoes ... The real threats to Putin ... Is Bob overlooking the Ukrainians' point of view? ... Is Mickey Kaus infecting Bob's brain? ... Does Bloggingheads.tv still have a reason for being? ...
Why there’s no Mickey gag… and no Mickey ... The charmingly subversive Elon Musk ... The scarily destabilizing Elon Musk ... The New York subway shooter’s disturbingly familiar psychology ... The Ukraine War: armaments update ... Why Russians continue to back the war ... American missteps that may have led to war ... A few kind words about ‘Putin apologists’ ... The week in comets and meteors ...
Where did Marianne get the confidence to run for president? ... What childhood travels taught Marianne about people ... How “A Course in Miracles” transformed Marianne’s life ... Can unconditional love save our species? ... Changing individual consciousness vs. changing policy ... Liberation through surrender ... Marianne: Think of yourself as one of civilization’s immune cells ... If you want change, get better at forgiveness ... What exactly would a “Department of Peace” do? ... Is Marianne eyeing a 2024 presidential re-run? ...
Mickey’s French election update ... What Macron and Biden (should) have learned re: Ukraine ... Bob’s brilliant idea for a Biden ceasefire proposal ... Bob vs. Anne Applebaum on negotiating with Russia ... How prolonging the war could make Putin more dangerous ... Will Elon Musk end Twitter’s reign of blue-check terror? ... Is AOC the 2024 candidate we’ve been waiting for? ... Bob comes to collect on his New Year’s covid prediction ... Disney’s “niche sexuality” promotion and other signs of Dem midterm doom ... Sarah Palin—and her totally human hands—run for congress ... Parrot Room preview: Bob and Mickey agree in disagreeing with a recent Richard Hanania essay, David McCormick campaign update, Jan. 6 seven hour gap discussion part two, are electric cars really the future?, the Tiger Woods comeback, mystery Ukrainian soldier rabbit hole, William Burns memoir, exercising cognitive empathy for Trump, Bob’s underappreciated Will Smith take, and does Ray Dalio pass Mickey’s BS test? ...
Bob asks Joe: What are the chances this war goes nuclear? ... Joe lays out Russia’s and America’s nuclear arsenals ... What would make Putin roll the nuclear dice? ... Why atrocities in Bucha could make for a longer, bloodier war ... Joe: The US withdrawal from Cold War-era treaties led to the current nuclear arms race ... How US foreign policy laid the ground for Putin’s invasion ... Bob searches for silver linings. Joe sees a darkening cloud. ... Assessing the Biden administration’s foreign policy record ...
Mickey admits he was wrong about everything ... Four takes on the Chris Rock-Will Smith Oscars incident ... Bob: Biden shouldn’t be riffing about regime change ... The Russian redeployment in Ukraine ... Attack of the (alleged) ATV-riding Ukrainian techies ... Will Biden try to draw out the war or push for a deal? ... The roadblocks standing in the way of a peace deal in Ukraine ... Mickey: The press is going easy on Biden because the alternative is Kamala ... Will Mitt Romney make Joe Manchin irrelevant? ... The growing movement to restore standardized testing in California schools ... Parrot Room preview: Should Mickey get the fourth Covid vaccine shot, the Bob Saget saga, Eric Schmidt takes over huge chunks of the government, ringing the dinner bell for the extraterrestrials, Eric Garcetti’s aborted ambassadorship to India, a survey of international elections, the Vladimir Putin bio, Bob’s two theories about what was going on in Will Smith’s head, and the gaps in Trump’s January 6 phone records ...
Update: Nikita exits Russia ... How big and costly is the Russian exodus? ... The state of peace talks ... “Russian QAnon” and the landscape of lay opinion in Russia ... Lamenting the logic of great power competition in light of Ukraine ... Is Russian state media as tightly controlled as Westerners think? ... Is Putin's hold on power slipping? ... What remains of independent media in Russia? ... Nikita’s hopes (and fears) for the future of Russia ...
The righteous indignation of the blue checkmarkless ... Is Russia preparing the ground for a peace deal? ... Why didn’t the US try to broker a deal earlier? ... How much restraint is Putin exercising? ... What shapes US public opinion on foreign policy? ... Reasons to think peace may not be near ... Mickey’s sympathy for Ginni Thomas ... Bob and Mickey do their best to get each other arrested ... The alleged tensions between Team Biden and Team Kamala ... Trump’s dimming presidential prospects ... Parrot Room preview: Bloggingheads rebranding news, more questions about Bob Saget’s death, midterm trouble for Republicans, more theories about why preschool sucks, the origins of symmetry, Dave Rubin’s children, Zemmour falters in France, Oliver Stone’s Ukraine doc, the dangers of loose talk about chemical weapons, both Glenn Greenwald and Chris Hayes retweet Bob, how the Ukraine war is winning converts for the Blob, more OJ Simpson, and the documentary My Architect ...
Kishore’s diplomatic career and recent book, Has China Won? ... Kishore: America is walking towards a cliff when it comes to handling China ... Is the US making a Chinese invasion of Taiwan more likely? ... China’s perception of the Uyghur situation ... How anti-China sentiment in America increases Chinese nationalism ... Diagnosing the degeneration of US-China relations since 2012 ... Bob: Has technology empowered the Chinese to petition their government? ... Good news! China has no plans to export its political system ... Assessing the threat Beijing poses to freedom in America ... China’s view of the Ukraine invasion ...
Mickey engineers an unholy Bob Wright-Michael McFaul chimera ... Is Putin losing or winning slowly? ... What China stands to gain and lose from war in Ukraine ... Bob: Biden’s approach to China seems to be driven by politics, not diplomacy ... Is Xi’s leadership on shaky ground? ... Bob: China is not seeking to impose its political system on the world ... Climate change as the tip of the apocalypse iceberg ... Is Zelenskyy the hero US media makes him out to be? ... How Biden’s Ukraine policy may affect Democrats at the polls ... Iran nuclear talks enter the on-again part of the cycle ... Ten things we got wrong in the pandemic ... Parrot Room preview: Hunter Biden, anti-Asian hate crimes, civil service reform, the Michael McFaul Apology of the Week, OJ Simpson and Natalie Wood theories continued, Oliver Stone’s Ukraine doc, some mild venting about Timothy Snyder, Mickey reveals the results of his Jeffrey Toobin-Jeffrey Goldberg-Vladimir Putin poll, Steve Earle, Mickey’s favorite piece of writing of the week, some studies say preschool sucks, Ketanji Brown Jackson and pedophilia, and Bob talks about a dream ...
Eli’s assessment of the Russo-Ukrainian War to date ... Is a negotiated end to the war in sight? ... Bob and Eli debate the implications of the leaked 2014 Victoria Nuland call ... Is the war in Russia’s interest? Or Putin’s? ... What options remain for more forceful intervention (that won’t lead to nuclear war)? ... Eli’s idea for a UN alternative sans Russia and (maybe) China ... Debating America's track record as keeper of the “rules-based order” ... Bob and Eli unite against the new McCarthyism ...
Would Ukraine actually agree to cede the Donbas to Russia? ... Bob: Xi Jinping could end the war ... Is Putin using madman theory to his advantage, or is he actually going nuts? ... The pros and cons of regime change in Russia ... Is Ukraine becoming Syria? ... How George W. Bush helped alienate Putin from the West ... Russia’s new incentive to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal ... America’s curious policy on Ukraine and NATO ... Mickey: There’s no necessary link between populism and autocracy ... Parrot Room preview: Oren Cass’s revisionist account of Adam Smith, a relatively wholesome sex scandal at the Southern border, Mickey takes issue with “sneering, overconfident” legal scholar Akhil Amar, new evidence concerning Bob Saget’s death, old rumors concerning Natalie Wood’s death, the American trucker convoy flops, Bob plays damning audio from Jake Tapper, the hospital bombing in Mariupol, complaints about Michael McFaul, Putin, a reader’s question about Bob’s OJ Simpson theory, and Facebook and Twitter’s pro-Ukraine/anti-Russia stances ...
Understanding the thought process that led Putin to invade Ukraine ... Could diplomacy have prevented the invasion? ... Imagining possible endings of the war – and what comes after ... Reviewing the events that drove the West and Putin’s Russia apart ... How Moscow viewed the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine ... Could a palace coup in Moscow reset US-Russia relations? ... Bob and Katrina worry that the planet can’t afford a second cold war ...
Always be prepared (for nuclear fallout) ... Is Putin headed for the Baltics? ... Why is the Western media reporting so little about the Azov Battalion? ... Mickey: Zelenskyy should give up parts of the Donbas and Crimea ... Bob: I don’t think Putin will move on to the Baltics ... Trying to see Ukraine clearly from within the Western media bubble ... The political difficulties of ceding territory ... How Russia’s military measures up against the US ... The US’s decades-long mismanagement of its relationship with Russia ... Michael McFaul’s really, really bad tweet to the people of Russia ... Parrot Room preview: the State of the Union, the January 6 Commission alleges they have Trump, the NYT’s “fraudulent” Trayvon Martin video, the latest economic report, big news for Zemmour in France, some Epstein news, the Freedom Convoy keeps on truckin’, trouble for Rick Scott, Bob reports on a biography of Putin, a contrarian take on the OJ Simpson trial, what Bob meant by “natural organic borders,” and an (unrehearsed) harmonica performance of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” ...
Steven’s book, Status and the Challenge of Rising Powers ... How concerns about status motivate Russia’s aggressive behavior ... Bob wonders if Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was based on emotion ... Why Steven thinks Russia’s hostile reaction to NATO expansion was partly about status ... When does a nation's wounded pride translate into dangerous behavior? ... Seeing the rise of China as a bid for prestige and recognition ... Bob: Is the US driven by status considerations? ... Applying Steven’s argument to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan ...
Mickey converts to Bob-ism ... Reassessing the ‘Is Putin Crazy?’ question post-invasion ... Were we too understanding of Putin? ... Zelensky—to arm or not to arm? ... How will Americans grade Biden’s handling of Russia-Ukraine? ... Did Russiagate make it harder for Biden to negotiate with Putin? ... The parallels between Russia-Ukraine and the ‘99 Kosovo intervention ... Biden’s Supreme Court nominee ... Mickey denounces Trudeau’s “couch potato fascism” ... Why Bob is queasy about this week’s George Floyd verdicts ... Parrot Room preview: An Epstein associate bites the dust, Jim Pinkerton’s “Mars, Meta, or Meatspace” trichotomy re: humanity’s future, The New Yorker’s Dean Baquet puff piece, Douthat on the “virtuals” vs “reals” divide, are the convoys coming to America?, Un-cancelling Louis CK, Putin and the psychology of status, Douglas McArthur as role model, The Expanse's jump-the-shark moment, and was Bob too mean on Twitter? ...
The grim state of Ukraine and Russia today ... Nikita’s initial reactions to Putin’s Ukraine speech ... Is Putin getting weirder? Or is reality? Or both? ... How did Russians react to the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution? ... Russian views on NATO expansion and the color revolutions ... Nikita: Political life in Russia is (mostly) dead ... Are Putin’s actions savvy politicking or signs of madness? ... Has the West mismanaged the post-Cold War era? ...
Mickey sparks up ... Mickey critiques the "Coalition of the Ascendant" ... Have Democratic positions on cultural issues turned toxic? ... Mike Pence’s defense of the RNC’s January 6 resolution ... Will the trucker protests go transnational? ... Bob: I don’t see Putin doing regime change in Ukraine ... Were defense contractors the prime mover of NATO expansion? ... Mickey: The great regreasing of the Biden Administration has begun ... Is Big Pharma funneling money to the CDC? ... Who is funding Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the NYT? ... The proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act ... Remembering P.J. O’Rourke ... Parrot Room preview: A settlement in the Epstein suit, Matt Yglesias and the demise of the Slate Pitch, the rise of Zemmour in France, are people in big cities scared of crime?, Bill Kristof sucks up to Ezra Klein, the previously untold story of how Slate started, how Jeff Zucker’s departure could lead to a better CNN, Bob’s plunge into the war in the Pacific continues, and Mickey discovers gender-inclusive bathrooms ...
Ben, author of a new book on Christopher Hitchens, gives us a brief history of Hitch ... Bob: Hitchens's argument in God is not Great was...not great ... Where was Hitchens’s Marxist materialism when it came to religion? ... Assessing Hitchens’s intellectual contributions ... Was Hitchens an “honest” arguer? ... Why did Hitchens become a hawk? ... Hitchens in light of the Intellectual Dark Web ... Ben gives his closing argument for why Hitchens is still worth thinking about ...
Inflation takes a toll on Mickey’s supply closet ... Reviewing Jeff Zucker’s “contributions” to American democracy ... Do any Trumpist elites actually want Trump to run for president again? ... Who constitutes Kamala’s base? ... What Biden needs to say about Ukraine and NATO ... How Google is helping people break the law ... Mickey: Trump taking documents to Mar-A-Lago isn’t a big deal ... Why aren’t more people getting their Covid booster? ... Why are Republicans so good at controlling state legislatures? ... Was the Marjorie Taylor Greene “gazpacho police” comment intentional? ... Sarah Palin’s lawsuit against the NYT ... Mickey: How can Andrew Yang lament unemployment among men while supporting UBI? ... If waning Latino support for immigration doesn’t tighten border security, maybe robot dogs will ... Parrot Room preview: Wokeness, Mickey clarifies what he means by “corporatism,” why Mickey is waging war on meritocracy, affirmative action for different cultures instead of different races, birds aren’t real, Putin’s repulsive joke, Robert Trivers’s groundbreaking paper on sexual selection and a related joke, Joe Rogan and Spotify, war in the Pacific, news on the lab leak theory, decoupling from China, Bob becomes the Tom Friedman whisperer, and Bob learns a harsh lesson about Substack ...
How Bob and Tom wound up talking about the Russia-Ukraine crisis ... Tom says NATO should be willing to close its door to Ukrain ... The never ending “age of midgets” in US foreign policy making ... Tilting international relations in a positive direction ... Is Biden’s “democracy versus autocracy” framework counterproductive? ... Analyzing the nature of journalistic objectivity – and how to achieve it ... Bob and Tom agree we need non-zero thinking to solve global problems ...
Did Jeff Zucker resign over business or pleasure? ... Bob: “The new Cold War almost became official today” ... A grand solution to the Ukraine crisis ... George Soros predicts the downfall of Xi Jinping ... Is the killing of ISIS’s leader really a big deal? ... Are we headed toward one metaverse or many? ... Joe Rogan for president? ... Mickey: It’s wrongheaded for the left to focus their animosity on the unvaccinated ... Is Democrats’ commitment to free speech softening? ... The power plays surrounding Stephen Breyer’s retirement ... Parrot Room preview: More Spotify, Bob and Mickey risk cancelation over Whoopi Goldberg, more Jeff Zucker, Howard Cosell, QAnon, corporatism and undemocratic institutions, Democrats lose their majority in the Senate, so what if Mark Zuckerberg gets another $200 billion, waiting for Biden’s Sister Souljah moment, the Biden crime plan, the electoral count plan, Mickey gets transgressive about Joe Burrow, the Washington football team gets a new name, the NFL’s resurgence, why can’t carbon cleaners end the climate crisis, and mail-in voter fraud ...
How anti-tribal thinking formed the core of Arnold’s “Fantasy Intellectual Teams" (FITs) draft ... Was the pre-internet intellectual era really so great? ... Arnold lays out the details of the Fantasy Intellectual Teams draft ... Grassroots vs. institutional anti-tribal strategies ... Is a social media rebuild possible? ... The challenges in taking FITs to the next level ... Bob and Arnold contrast their approaches to anti-tribalism ... How bad could things get if we can't beat tribalism? ...
Hey hey, my my, Neil Young left Spotify ... Carrots and sticks in the Russia-Ukraine crisis ... What are Russia’s actual objectives in Ukraine? ... Bob: “I haven’t heard a single good argument for expanding NATO” ... Why nominating Kamala to the Supreme Court might actually be a good idea ... Are pundits overthinking Biden’s low approval rating? ... Is universal pre-K on the chopping block? ... Mickey adopts an unsettling new persona ... Parrot Room preview: A Doug Emhoff scandal?, the war in the Pacific, guess the Lou Reed verdict, let’s talk about headlines that start with “Let’s talk about,” Raymond Carver and Gordon Lish, affirmative action goes before the Supreme Court, William F. Buckley, Ilya Shapiro gets canceled, the metaverse and the Matrix, bizarre Black Lives Matter news, money liberalism, and why does Apple delay releasing this podcast? ...
Does the Russia-Ukraine crisis justify the current sense of alarm? ... How concern for ethnic Russians in Ukraine shapes Moscow’s policy ... What the US and NATO can do to resolve the crisis diplomatically ... Can Europe help Biden by staging a diplomatic intervention? ... Russia’s next military steps if diplomacy fails ... Anatol estimates the odds of a Russian invasion of Ukraine ...
Looking for signs of decline in Biden’s press conference ... Is the child tax credit what swing voters want? ... Two possible inflation fixes ... What’s on the table in U.S.-Russia negotiations over Ukraine? ... How well is Biden handling the Ukraine situation? ... Mickey: There’s a chance we'll avoid a Trump 2024 run ... Bob’s plan to convince Biden not to run ... Meat Loaf would do anything for love (but would he get vaxxed?) ... Bob: I get why white males are under fire ... Parrot Room preview: The secret to Matt Yglesias’s success, the FBI searches Henry Cuellar’s home, Mickey’s beef with the Salvation Army, how the Parrot Room is like the TV show Yellowstone, Bob’s panel appearance with Jerry Brown, Robert Malone, active shooter drills, war in the Pacific, the Los Gatos Party Mom, exploring Bob and Mickey’s positions on China, Bob issues some corrections, Mickey critiques the Atlantic and David Remnick, and the time Katie Couric interviewed Bob ...
Richard discusses his new book, Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy ... Richard’s critique of the field of International Relations ... Why "concentrated interests" capture US foreign policy ... The arms industry executive who has "single handedly ruined the world" ... How the US helped create the Russia-Ukraine conflict ... The pro-militarism bias in the news media and foreign policy think tanks ... Why does the US misperceive Iran as being a threat to US interests? ... Richard: The US should learn to live with a superpower China ... The failures of the human rights lobby and the brutality of sanctions on Afghanistan ... Do autocracies have more coherent foreign policies than democracies? ...
Mickey’s plan to install Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office ... Who can convince Biden not to run for reelection? ... Mickey’s comeback strategy for Biden ... Bob takes the Parrot Room into untested waters ... Is Boris Johnson in trouble over Covid protocols or policy failures? ... Are seditious conspiracy charges warranted for the Oath Keepers? What about Trump? ... Mickey: The Supreme Court got the vaccine mandate ruling wrong ... Bob: It will be bad if Russia invades Ukraine, but it won’t threaten U.S. interests ... Bob: China doesn’t have a monopoly on repressive software exports ... Parrot Room preview: Bob takes a Covid test, Mickey catches Bob in an almost-devastating contradiction, Bob tries to catch Robert Malone in a contradiction, Sidney Poitier, Bob Saget, Terry Teachout, Bob v. Andrew Sullivan, Don’t Look Up, Ruth Barrett sues the Atlantic, Bari Weiss on Hollywood, David Remnick claims we’re suspended between democracy and authoritarianism, Mickey has second thoughts about donating to the Salvation Army, Matt Ridley on the origin of Covid, a Jeffrey Epstein update, Maya Angelou gets a quarter, and what’s up with Leon Wieseltier’s journal? ...
Bob’s early encounters with LGBTQ visibility and invisibility ... How the pros talk about gender ... The uses of “queer” ... A writerly defense of the singular “they” ... Agustín: We need a national conversation about the trans bathroom issue ... What was the intent behind J.K. Rowling’s controversial tweets? ... What counts as an “advantage” when trans women play women’s sports? ...
Mickey: Biden is too scared of his base ... Bob: Biden privileged loyalty over competence in his staffing ... Are January 6 rioters getting off too easy? ... How can an election get overturned? Bob and Mickey count the ways ... Bob’s January 6 epiphany ... Where’s the love for Sherrod Brown and Cory Booker? ... Can Omicron save us from Delta? ... Is it time to “pivot to normalcy” yet? ... Parrot Room preview: Robert Malone on Joe Rogan, the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict in jeopardy, does everyone want to date AOC, Ben Smith’s new publication, Leonard Bernstein on the Beatles, Nick Kristof may not even reach the Kaus threshold in Oregon, Beverly Hills criminals, what’s wrong with “gaslighting,” Betty White, Peter Bogdanovich, Novak Djokovic runs afoul of Aussie vaccination policy, Greg Gutfeld gets reprimanded, and is the great David Remnick takedown upon us? ...
Has sociobiology been vindicated? ... Why the term ‘evolutionary psychology’ survived ... Is there room for free will in a modern scientific world view? ... Science, religion, and “provisional deism” ... Is the “theory of intelligent design” even a theory? ... How religion informed Ed's approach to science ... Facing death without hope of an afterlife ... How Ed reconciled work and family ...
Could a bad actor engineer a Delta-Omicron hybrid? ... Bob: Mainstream coverage of Omicron’s dangers has been misleading ... Bob’s three 2022 Covid predictions ... How do decisions get made inside Biden’s White House? ... Bob and Mickey’s Heroes of the Year ... Bob and Mickey’s Villain of the Year ... The Best and Worst Ideas of the Year ... The Year’s Biggest Surprise ... Ditching the metaverse, Pelosi persisting, and other 2022 predictions ... Parrot Room preview: words and concepts that need to go in 2022, Bob and Mickey reveal what “undernews” is, Biden’s cognitive status, 2021’s least deserving media attention-getter, the shortage of good hit pieces, who’s cruising for a bruising in 2022, Bob and Mickey’s worst opinions of 2021, Ghislaine Maxwell convicted, remembering E.O. Wilson, The Expanse, Bob defends his hair, Mickey defends his LSD abstinence, Pacific Crucible, the documentary Ascension, and more reasons why Ron Brownstein’s “coalition of the ascendent” is the worst idea of the decade ...
Why Bob loves Daniel’s Substack Eunomia and Kelley’s work at Responsible Statecraft ... Daniel and Kelley on how their conservative roots led them to anti-Blobism ... Daniel makes a conservative case for supporting international law ... Trump 2.0? Daniel and Kelley discuss Biden’s foreign policy failures ... Bob wonders why Biden didn’t try harder to revive the Iran nuclear deal ... The US is starving Afghans in the name of humanity ... Credit where due: Biden got us out of Afghanistan ... How the military-industrial complex helped create the Russia-Ukraine crisis ... Assessing China’s internal abuses and external ambitions – and how to respond ...
Have you heard the Good News? ... The role of Christ’s suffering in the Catholic tradition ... Walking the path(s) to salvation ... Peace on Earth, the virgin birth, and other Christmas miracles ... Father Bill: “To answer the question ‘Who is my neighbor’ is to answer the question ‘How big is my heart?’” ... Deriving the Trinity from the Gospel of John ... Father Bill: The meaning of Christmas is “self-emptying love” … ... … but what exactly is “self-emptying love”? ... The appeal of Teilhard de Chardin ... Christmas’s greatest hits ... How Bloggingheads.tv changed Father Bill’s life ...
Will 2024 be a Trump-Hillary rematch? ... The Omicron wave: how bad will it be? ... David Frum’s proposal to triage covid care ... Some non-Hillary prez candidates who are almost as unappealing as Hillary ... Covid lab leak theory update ... Mickey lays out a plan to resuscitate the Build Back Better bill ... Fox News audience capture and Chris Wallace’s release ... Are the Fox News Jan 6 texts scandalous? Or even interesting? ... Barton Gellman gets Mickey to take 2024 GOP election theft semi-seriously ... Parrot Room preview: Ron Brownstein on Democrats losing the culture wars, Harvard abandons the SATS, Scotus on Roe v. Wade, more trash talk about Sam Harris and the Weinsteins, Mickey’s new case against child tax credits and Bob’s new car, and comments from Parrot Heads. ...
John and Nikita (and Bob) present their psychedelic pedigrees ... Distinguishing between “unitive” and “non-unitive” psychedelic/mystical experiences ... John’s encounter with “[mischievous] animated shards of colored glass” on ayahuasca ... Nikita on DMT ep. I: Presence in everything—essence in nothing ... Can psychedelics get us closer to objective “Truth”? ... Nikita on DMT ep. II: After dis-enlightenment, chop wood ... A world charged with meaning ... John on the necessary contingency of our attempts to understand reality ... Nikita on DMT ep. III: Swapping self for gnosis—deal or no deal? ... “Everything is right here, happening. Pay attention to how it works.” ... Nikita on DMT ep. IV: oscillations between the sensuous and the cerebral ... DMT in a nutshell ...
Mickey auditions for Scope mouthwash spokesmodel (demonstration included) ... Covid news roundup; OMNIcron controversy addressed! ... Are things getting worse for Build Back Better? ... Is the prosecution in the Ghislaine case taking a dive? ... Bob: Don’t go easy on Jussie Smollett ... Good news on Iran talks? ... How to split the Ukrainian baby? ... Parrot Room Preview: Trans Penn swimmer , crime and mountain lions in LA, France's Mr. Zemmour, Jeffrey Goldberg's Trump-centered plan for the Atlantic, Boris Johnson’s decline, David Brooks divorces conservatism, perverse Substack incentives, disciplining hostile Beatles commenters, trashing the “Summit for Democracy", Bob’s mysterious car dealership experience. ...
Bob and Trita set the stage for the current crisis ... The geopolitics of the Iran nuclear deal ... The nuclear deal was great - so why did Trump pull out? ... Trita: President Biden made significant mistakes early on ... Why the nuclear negotiations might become a charade ... Are US perceptions of Iran becoming more positive? ...
How reassuring is a Biden re-run, really? ... Mickey finds hope in Omicron ... Mickey rejoices in Biden swerving right on immigration ... Marjorie Taylor Green's latest stunt ... Mickey: Inflation could kill soft infrastructure ... Bob: It’s time for challenge trials to fight Omicron ... How popular is BBB? ... Bob pulls a jiu jitsu on Mickey’s dental care/car lube metaphor ... How doomed is Roe v. Wade? ... Mickey’s mini-rant on Chris Cuomo (and Chris Matthews) ... Parrot Room Preview: The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell, a speech from the (second) French Donald Trump, John Mearsheimer on China, Bret Weinstein on Omicron, Farhad Manjoo on cars, trash-talking Sam Harris, Andrew Sullivan sings B&M’s praises, The Beatles: Get Back review, Stephen Sondheim retrospective, Mickey discusses decadence, JD Vance news, weird murder in Beverley Hills, and Iran talk ...
What, if anything, is the basis for an atheist's morals? ... When Christopher says, 'Religion poisons everything,' he means... ... Religion is irrational? Compared to what? ... Christopher: Jesus doesn't love the little children ... Did religion cause the Israel-Palestine conflict? ... Why Christopher won't stop ridiculing God ...
What part of secular-guru space (if any) does Bob occupy? ... On the origin of Bob’s theses (by means of natural selection) ... The mind-boggling mystery of consciousness ... Could evolution have a larger purpose? ... The “global brain” as the flowering of natural selection’s seed ... Saving our species by transcending some species-typical tendencies ... The algorithm of evolution as “the Logos” ... How cognitive biases get in the way of global cooperation ... The positive feeling of negative emotions (but can mindfulness feel even better?) ... Bob explains his recent writings on tribalism ... Bob: You are an expression of "the [evolutionary] Logos" ... Bob’s latent-functionality theory of epiphenomenal consciousness ... Does evolution steer us toward greater alignment with moral truth? ... On the “panoramic specificity” of Bob’s dharma ...
Bernard-Henri Lévy, c’est Mickey ... Rittenhouse acquitted, Malcolm X’s “assassins” exonerated ... How much of BBB will make it through the Senate? ... Some of Mickey’s policy nightmares still lurk within BBB ... Is Elon Musk consciously courting an ideological customer base? ... Bob: Paul Gosar and Lauren Boebert crossed a line ... Why are Biden’s poll numbers so bad? ... Mickey: Elite Trump voters don’t want him to run again ... Mickey Kaus, n’est pas Bari Weiss ... Parrot Room preview: Nellie Bowles decamps to Bari Weiss’s Substack, Andrew Sullivan on 60 Minutes, Anne Applebaum, more trash talking Sam Harris, more on the Dulles brothers, bad news for the University of Austin, Belarus, news on ivermectin and the lab leak hypothesis, why David Frum hates Blake Masters, and Bob chastises Mickey ...
Remembering Michael Brooks ... The existential stakes of enlightenment ... Overcoming the affective dimension of cognitive bias ... Bringing broader awareness to the concept of cognitive bias ... Cognitive bias and the roots of war ... The folly of feedback loops ... Quelling our primitive retributive impulses ... Taking a mulligan in your meditation practice ... Focusing on the hindrances ... Can you fail at meditation? ...
Oliver's new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals ... Oliver outlines “compatibilism,” the idea that free will and determinism can coexist ... Bob: Everyone should be a free will agnostic ... The occasionally dramatic consequences of arguments against free will ... Would determinism require us to reform our approach to criminal justice? ... A (possible) quantum hack for free will vs. determinism ... Bob thinks compatibilism is bullshit ... ... ... but Oliver tries to persuade him there's something to it ... Oliver: No position on free will and determinism is free of contradiction ...
John's recent bout of fever-induced hallucinations ... Does math actually help you understand QM? ... What experiments in QM have and have not verified ... John: All interpretations of QM are bad ... What do we want from science? ... "An operating system for reality" ...
Disavowing the naturalistic fallacy ... Why “sex” may not mean what you think it means ... Did evolution make women “choosier” about sex partners than men? ... Haggling over the price of sperm and eggs ... Agustín: Empirical studies complicate evolutionary psychology’s theoretical models ... The evolutionary significance of non-reproductive sex ... Why are males bigger than females in our species? ... Looking at pornography (for insights into human evolution) ... Are male and female sexual jealousy systematically different? ...
Oliver’s new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals ... Why is it so hard to accept the limits of our productivity? ... Prioritizing mindfully ... Heideggerian time management ... Finding value in even "meaningless" work ... Reducing the lure of distractions ... Ten tools for embracing your finitude ... Five (pretty intense) questions for reflection ...
Josh's aversion to the term "guru" ... Explaining the explain/excuse conflation ... The (possible) evolutionary origins of (biased) arguing ... Are humans mismatched to their modern environment? ... Building strengths vs. addressing deficiencies ... Defusing attribution error ... Making cognitive empathy cool ... Using meditation to strengthen cognitive empathy ... The mythical side of Bob ... Rationalists, effective altruists, and other possible fellow travelers ...
Agustín on what he was and wasn’t saying in his controversial Science piece on Darwin ... What is biological anthropology? ... What social media critiques of Agustín’s editorial missed ... Untangling Darwin’s attitudes toward race and genocide ... Darwin’s worries about his theory’s acceptance ... What do female gibbons want? ... Agustín: Commonly used racial categories are unscientific ... The changing rules for competition among males ... Okay, so should we cancel Darwin or not? ...
Defining effective altruism ... Rob explains the meaning of ‘80,000 Hours’ ... Should young people dedicate their careers to fighting climate change? ... The Apocalypse Aversion Project ... How cognitive biases fuel tribalism ... Bob: We need a psychological revolution ... Are external threats the best way to bring people together? ... The balance between surveillance and public safety ... Bob: Let's retire the word 'apologist' ... Making rationality cool ... Rob challenges Bob to find flaws in "The Moral Animal" ...
Josh tries to help Bob retool his meditation practice ... Identifying the purpose of your practice ... What to do when your mind wanders ... Tuning your mind ... The Four Rs ... Can mindfulness help us bolster our courage? ... Learning to tolerate blowback from your tribe ... Suffering and the psychology of tribalism ... Developing a non-zero-sum relationship with your own mind ... So you say you've been called a neofascist... ...
The value of defying your tribe ... Egocentric bias and attribution error ... The thin line between between courage and acting like an asshole ... Why do we punish people for unintentional transgressions? ... To understand all is to forgive all … ... … but forgiveness won’t get you retweets ... Are people’s politics as irrational as they seem? ... William James’ preternatural insight into human psychology ... Should the Philip Roth biography have been pulled? ... Reliving the worst day of your life ...
John’s new book, Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity ... John’s early religious sensibility ... The Advaita Vedanta tradition in Hinduism ... Grappling with the human predicament ... Approaches to ultimate reality ... John’s brush with non-dualistic experience ... Why John doesn’t consider himself a perennialist ... Touching the infinite elephant ...
Who you callin' bodhisattva? ... Outlining the Apocalypse Aversion Project ... How meditation can make us better global citizens ... Why we need “cognitive crampons” ... Transcend and include ... The varieties of meditative experience ... Achieving micro-enlightenment ... The benefits of confronting your dark side ... Building a cognitively empathetic grassroots movement ...
Distinguishing between the numinous and the noumenal ... Kant’s religious vision ... The Copernican revolution in philosophy ... What, if anything, does the Buddhist idea of emptiness have to do with Kant? ... The transcendental status of space and time ... Can the Matrix help us understand Kant? ... Distinguishing between the noumenal and the phenomenal ... Can we transcend our phenomenal experience of the world? ...
What got Frank his Nobel Prize ... Frank's new book, Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality ... Solving the mystery of dark matter ... Can quantum physics make sense? ... Frank: Mind emerges from matter, not the other way around ... Can you love an automaton? ... Complementarity as scientific concept and everyday attitude ... How Frank's Catholic upbringing influenced his scientific thinking ... Is reality an algorithm? ... The limits of human intelligence ...
Continuing “the Dharma of Bob” ... The evolutionary logic of cognitive biases ... Attribution error, or why your enemies seem so damn evil ... Zero-sum biases in a non-zero-sum world ... Bob fixes social media ... How cognitive biases have shaped perceptions of the Capitol riot ... The psychology of tribalism and the BLM protests ...
Could evolution have a higher purpose? ... The value of (some) untestable hypotheses ... What zombies can (and can’t) teach us about consciousness ... Evolutionary teleology vs. evolutionary teleonomy ... Why does evolution produce increasingly complex forms of life? ... Distinguishing between physical laws and natural processes ... Could the hypothesis that evolution is serving a larger purpose be tested? ...
Continuing the exploration of "the Dharma of Bob" ... Bob: There is no good alternative to global community ... Defining non-zero-sumness ... How genetic "selfishness" led to altruism ... The psychology of tribalism ... Can we bridge the polarization divide? ... Sadly, self-transcendence isn't genetically inheritable ... Does Bob see cause for optimism? ...
Philo of Alexandria, seminal Logos theorist ... Bob: Teleology is perfectly compatible with a scientific worldview ... A logic shaping the unfolding of life ... How Jordan Peterson understands the Logos ... Does order flow from consciousness? ... Moral progress and human interdependence ... Teleology without theology ... The Logos and the "simulation hypothesis" ...
Guthrie's new book, Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity ... Guthrie's personal faith journey ... The tradition of liberal Protestantism ... Human sexuality and evangelicalism ... Guthrie sees a liberatory counternarrative in Scripture ... What drives militant atheism? ... What happened to Christian antiwar activism? ... Do young progressives privilege identity over class? ... Why Guthrie prays for President Trump ...
Applying cognitive empathy to the Supreme Court vacancy fight ... The danger of runaway retaliation ... Reviewing The Social Dilemma, a new documentary critical of social media ... Enhance your online stature by vilifying the other tribe! ... How will historians view the social media era? ... Can Democrats oppose Barrett mindfully? ... The links between yoga and mindfulness ...
How Sharon became one of the first Americans to study Buddhism in India ... Sharon's new book, Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World ... Does meditation seal you off from the world? ... Mindfully coping with anger on social media ... There's more political diversity among meditators than you might think ... Sharon explains lovingkindness meditation ... The difficult work of finding compassion for your enemies ... Planting seeds in a garden you never get to see ...
Ingrid's new book, Animalkind ... Animal rights vs. animal welfare ... Amazing facts about animals (and the many things we still don't know) ... Is it bad to call your dog a “pet” (or for that matter “yours”)? ... Contemplating animal consciousness ... How unethical is Bob's pescatarian diet? ... The rise of artificial meat ... Ingrid asks, "Do you think that animal was a volunteer?" ... Ingrid's extremely unusual last will and testament ...
Bruce's new book, Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age ... Debunking the idea of the "predictable crises of adult life" ... Two kinds of life changes: "disruptors" and "lifequakes" ... Does Bob need a lifequake? ... Bruce: "The linear model of life transitions is just wrong" ... Millennials zigging and zagging ... The ABCs of meaning: agency, belonging, cause ... How to write your own life story ... Are the stories we tell about ourselves just BS? And is that okay? ... How to change the meaning of your life ...
David's new book, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It ... The tension at the heart of dehumanization ... David: Genocides are moralistic ... The essential role of psychological essentialism ... Dehumanization in American politics ... When David received death threats after critiquing Jordan Peterson ... The "Great Chain of Being" and our complex conception of monsters ... Why David doesn't like the term "the banality of evil" ... How to resist dehumanization ...
Buddhism and the military atrocities in Myanmar and Sri Lanka ... The early political history of Buddhism ... Varieties of Buddhist rationales for nonviolence ... The history of war between Southeast Asian nations ... Is warfare antithetical to attaining enlightenment? ... Justifications for non-pacifism ... Meditation and the antiwar mindset ... Foreign policy, anti-China sentiment, and BLM protests ...
Rutger's new book, Humankind: A Hopeful History ... Debunking the "veneer theory" of human nature ... Are violence and war intrinsic to human nature? ... The human self-domestication thesis ... Why Bob doesn't like the idea of people "deserving punishment" ... Is it bad to emphasize the dark side of human nature? ... What the debunking of the Stanford Prison Experiment can teach us ... Giving money to rich people: Why the U in UBI? ... Would UBI turn us all into couch potatoes (or worse)? ...
Paul describes the view from Toronto ... Zero- and non-zero-sum aspects of the pandemic ... Paul: Canada's multiparty system helps defuse polarization ... A disaster without solidarity ... How our emotions caused us to underreact to the pandemic ... Masks and mobs ... Trump's fragile feelings ... Why has the external threat of the disease not united humanity? ... A deep dive into the meaning of statistical significance ...
Remembering Andrew’s recently deceased dog Eddy ... Can we explain the bond between dogs and people? ... The many disgusting things that dogs love ... Andrew angers the cat lovers in the audience ... Are there actually "cat people" and "dog people"? ... Dogs' use of affection as a tool ... What can we learn from dogs about how to be present? ... Andrew: "I do think that after death I will be with my dogs" ... Andrew wants the economy to open up—a little ...
Jacqueline's new book, Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World ... Female saints as childhood role models ... How Jacqueline helped start Rwanda's first microfinance bank ... Jacqueline's "patient capital" investment nonprofit, Acumen ... The four steps toward building moral imagination ... Toilet entrepreneurship in Nairobi ... Changing the market for coffee and chocolate farmers ... Can identity connect as well as it divides? ... Jacqueline: A moral revolution must come from inside us ...
John fails the coronavirus antibody test; Bob consoles him ... Science fiction, free will, and robot sex ... The Devs interpretation of quantum mechanics ... The Wright-Horgan interpretation of Devs, part 1 (spoilers) ... The Wright-Horgan interpretation of Devs, part 2 (lots of spoilers) ... John: we need the concept of free will more than we need God ... Is the many worlds interpretation consoling or terrifying? ...
Evan's new book, Why I Am Not a Buddhist ... Evan's critique of "Buddhist modernism" and "Buddhist exceptionalism" ... Which of Buddhism’s major claims are naturalistic? ... Is Buddhism fundamentally different than other religions? ... Bob defends Buddhist insights into human psychology ... Evan's case against "neural Buddhism" ... Does a clearer view of reality make you more equanimous? ... All about nirvana ... Debating evolutionary psychology ... Evan: This book is friendly criticism ...
Scott's new book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization ... Debunking myths about Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs ... The origins of humanistic psychology ... Optimism for the thinking person ... Psychological security in an era of new threats and superficial social connections ... Psychological growth: exploration, love, and purpose ... Defining "peak experiences" ... Scott says Bob is a "transcender." Bob is skeptical. ... Is this a kind of secular spirituality? ... Evaluating peak experiences achieved through psychedelics ...
Ruth's book, America the Anxious ... Ruth is skeptical that meditation leads to happiness ... Is being in the moment overrated? ... Is there a mindful view of the coronavirus pandemic? ... Radical self-help at the Landmark Forum ... The CEO of Zappos created a happiness city in Las Vegas. It did not go well. ... A plea for tolerance in the battle over attachment parenting ... Why are Mormons so gosh darn happy? ... Happiness in the UK vs. the US ...
Is Bob a bad yogi? ... Narayan's book, The Magnanimous Heart ... Narayan's journey from Janet to Narayan ... How Narayan entered contemplative practice ... Learning from snakes and lizards in Thailand ... Defining the Buddhist term dukka as "a constant squeeze" ... Dealing with feelings of grief and loss after a divorce ... Narayan: Not taking sides is not the same as passivity ... Mindfulness and the death of a loved one ...
Unpacking the Dao De Jing's famous opening line, "The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao" ... "The way" as a descriptive and prescriptive moniker ... Rising above the perspective of the moment ... The relationship among Daoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism ... Spirituality and transcendence in Daoism ... Robin's work as a consultant on The Karate Kid remake ... Why Robin's book uses "yinyang" instead of "yin and yang" ...
David's new book, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation ... What does the New Testament actually say about Hell? ... Original sin and the crucifixion of Jesus ... David's case against eternal damnation ... Free will, sin, and freedom ... What did "the Kingdom of Heaven" mean to Jesus? ... David: Envisioning the afterlife "always results in a kind of cartoon" ... David's quick thoughts on the mind-body problem ... Mysticism in the Eastern Orthodox Church ...
In a new TEDx talk, Alex calls for a science of UFOs ... Why Bob finds two naval sightings credible ... Alex: "There's some decent chance that these things are alien" ... Alex's proposal for a UFO monitoring system ... Might it be suicidal to let ETs know that we know about them? ... Alex: Maybe the aliens are waiting for us to figure it out ... What explains the taboo against academic study of UFOs? ... Alex's willingness to be misperceived as a crank ...
Skye and Massimo's new co-edited book, with Daniel Kaufman, How to Live a Good Life ... Existentialism's intersections with Stoicism ... How Skye encountered Existentialism while in business school ... Sartre and de Beauvoir's famous attempt to live a life of freedom ... Are philosophers a bunch of hypocrites? ... Personal authenticity vs. social convention ... Why Stoicism doesn’t mean passive acceptance ... Skye and Massimo on the philosophies they found most interesting ... How Wittgenstein would view this book ...
Defining "moral realism" ... Cognitivists vs. noncognitivists ... Are moral beliefs just expressions of human desires? ... Human happiness is better than human suffering...right? ... Considering whether you can be both a Darwinian and a moral realist ... Moral progress, teleology, and mysticism ... Why you "have to take something for granted" in any philosophical system ... The bedrock sources of meaning in life ... If life has meaning, does moral realism logically follow? ...
Rhonda's path to meditation and Buddhism ... Rhonda's new book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice ... Is equanimity the enemy of activism? ... Using mindfulness to overcome biases and stereotypes ... How Rhonda deploys contemplative practices in her law school classroom ... Can one feel compassion for a cop who shot an unarmed black man? ...
Catherine's new book, How to Be an Epicurean ... How Epicureanism is like and unlike utilitarianism ... How the ancient Epicureans viewed nature and reality ... Comparing Epicureanism with its big rival, Stoicism ... On suffering and death ... Epicurean influence on post-Enlightenment science and philosophy ...
Jay's new book, Enlightenment by Trial and Error ... Why Jay embarked on a path of mysticism ... Ayahuasca, unitive experiences, and bad trips ... Jews who are "religious but not spiritual" ... Finding “real happiness” through meditation ... Varieties of enlightening experience ... What’s distinctive about Jewish mysticism? ... The things Jay still takes from Judaism ...
A new study says empathy can increase political polarization ... How empathy operates in today’s political environment ... Is cognitive empathy a form of intelligence? ... The Machiavellian uses of cognitive empathy ... A counterproductive #Resistance view of Trump supporters ... Paul doesn't understand how anyone can still support Trump ... Why "dehumanization" isn't the real problem ... Paul's core message: "Don't listen to your heart" ...
Why Pope John Paul II did not like Roger's book Jesus Symbol of God ... Roger's new book, Faith and Evolution: Grace-Filled Naturalism ... The intractability of the problem of evil ... Ways to understand God not as a big person in the sky ... Is natural selection an instrument of divine creation? ... Roger's heterodox view of Jesus of Nazareth ... Roger's problem with original sin ... What is a "grace-filled naturalism"? ...
Why many intelligent people think we're living in a simulation ... The philosophical argument that you're probably not real ... How cosmic rays might (and might not) reveal that reality is fake ... Preston's dire warning against trying to determine if we're in a simulation ... Is the simulation hypothesis non-falsifiable? ... Is "the simulation" just religion for atheists? ...
Nick's new book, Automating the News ... Why Nick is not an alarmist about the automation of journalism ... The types of journalism jobs that algorithms can't replace ... Successful collaborations between human journalists and machines ... The perils of algorithmic fact-checking ... Nick's current research ... Bob hopes for a bot that can assign blame for international law violations ... Can the power of Twitter bots be used for good? ...
What is scientism, and who is doing it? ... Postmodernism and whether science just tells "stories" ... John criticizes the "ideological fervor" of evolutionary psychology ... The hubris of scientists in the '80s and '90s ... Has science reached its fundamental limits in trying to explain consciousness? ... John wins his Nobel Prize "long bet" on string theory ... The various corrupting influences on scientists ... A brief debate on higher purpose ...
What is the foundation of Buddhist ethics? ... Experiencing not-self ... Buddhism is a synthesis of consequentialism and virtue ethics ... The origins of Buddhism's concern for animal welfare ... Does the Buddha want you to be vegetarian? ... Why isn’t there more anti-militarist activism among Buddhists? ... Trying to comply with the Buddhist ideal of "right speech" ... Mental defilements and their eradication ... Does Buddhism’s emphasis on equanimity discourage activism? ...
Why Agnes once lay down on the yellow line in the middle of the road ... What explains "akrasia," or weakness of will? ... Agnes's book, Aspiration: The Agency of Becoming ... How Agnes views free will and self-creation ... How do you become the "you" that you want to be? ... Aspiration and the divine ... Agnes's forthcoming book on how Socrates changed the rules ...
Nina's research on how we understand the self ... The traits that make your self yourself ... Buddhism and the continuity of self through time ... The link between egocentrism and an equanimous attitude toward death ... Bob: Not-self is hard to experience and very hard to understand ... Asian Buddhists vs. "white boy Buddhists" ... Does a happy life require virtuous behavior? ...
Why Alex shifted from international relations to quantum physics ... Alex: "We are walking wave functions" ... Do the origins of consciousness and free will lie in the wave collapse? ... Quantum decision theory and human irrationality ... The advantage of viewing humanity as quantum rather than classical ... How a nation-state is like a quantum state ... Alex: Language is best understood quantumly ... The possibility of collective consciousness ...
Ron's new book, McMindfulness: How Mindfulness Became the New Capitalist Spirituality ... A brief history of mindfulness in America ... Ron's critique of the corporate teaching of mindfulness ... A tool vs. a path ... Ron: The mindfulness industry individualizes social problems ... A call for civic mindfulness ... Can capitalism and spirituality be reconciled? ...
Common misconceptions about meditation retreats ... Hitting the bliss button ... Scheduled vs. unscheduled retreats ... How austere does it have to be to be effective? ... Process vs. outcomes ... Bob's mini-epiphany about his dripping sink ... Is meditation "for" something? ... Pitfalls after leaving a retreat ... Tips for first-timers ...
Serene’s new book, Call It Grace: Finding Meaning in a Fractured World ... Serene’s theological upbringing and early encounters with Calvin’s writings ... What a romantic tragedy early in life taught Serene about God’s grace ... A revelatory brush with death in rural India ... Timothy McVeigh and the challenge of forgiveness ... How Serene’s father met an epic challenge to his faith and his charity ...
Lee’s new book The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience ... Why scientific theories are never “proved” ... Karl Popper’s principle of falsification explained ... Why the philosophy of science hasn’t been useful to scientists ... Why philosophers of science need a new way to talk about evidence ... Can philosophy of science help refute science deniers? ... Flat Earthers, science denial, and the scientific attitude ... Cognitive bias, ideology, and the social sciences ... Lee: There is no consensus about the epistemological status of science ... The hubris of “naive realism” ...
A brief primer on the free will vs. determinism debate ... Are moral responsibility and determinism compatible? ... Is punishment a tragic necessity or a moral good? ... Gideon tries to convince Bob that compatibilism is coherent ... Gideon's distinctive take on compatibilism ... A thought experiment about the moral culpability of an ancient slaveholder ... Free will and the mind-body problem ... Buddhist ideas about punishment ...
David's new book, This View of Life ... In what sense, if any, could evolution be conscious? ... The need to complete the Darwinian revolution ... An evolutionary psychology discussion makes Bob tape his mouth shut ... How successful groups avert the tragedy of the commons ... Convergent cultural evolution ... David: Evolution shows that neither laissez faire nor centralized planning works ... A preview of the coming Bob vs. David showdown over group selection ...