This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 A recap of January’s Trump turbulence 5:16 Is Trump a cause or symptom of world disorder? 13:33 Is Trump increasingly unstable?16:05 Will we invade Cuba? 20:08 American politics after Trump 26:18 The crumbling bedrock of International Law 35:54 Where are the Democrats? 38:43 Heading into Overtime: Renee Good, Syria, Worthwhile Canadian Prime Minister Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is Tr...
Jan 23, 2026•40 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Defining AI succession 3:13 How positive psychology led Dan to AI research 10:42 Is Dan a “successionist”? 17:02 Does it matter whether AI is sentient? 24:35 Two traits of a worthy successor 31:25 The varieties of succession scenarios 36:02 Values and interests 41:14 Will AI have any use for us? 43:55 Succession scenarios to avoid 49:04 Heading into Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhi...
Jan 20, 2026•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Are Bob and Mike the godfathers of podcasting? 6:10 Slate and the origins of podcasting 9:36 NotebookLM’s humanless podcasts 14:07 From blogs to Substack 18:12 Looking back at BloggingHeads 23:38 The tribalizing influence of algorithms 31:13 New news models 40:01 What happened to the rules in professional sports? 48:49 The consequences of paying college athletes 1:00:08 Mike’s comprehensive take on sports gambling...
Jan 15, 2026•1 hr 9 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Different readings of the Renee Good videos 14:27 JD Vance vs Stephen Miller: compare and contrast 18:18 Trump vs Hitler: compare and contrast 23:18 ICE agents and stormtroopers: compare and contrast 34:57 Has Elon totally lost it? 42:45 Paul: Politicians are people too! 47:03 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net...
Jan 13, 2026•47 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Cameron’s work at AE studio 5:37 Why consciousness is such a hard problem 10:15 Why AI consciousness matters 16:42 Does consciousness need carbon? 23:20 The ethics of AI subjectivity 30:09 Can we trust LLM self-reports? 42:57 Cameron’s innovative AI consciousness experiments 48:24 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Cameron Berg (AE Studio, Truity). Recorded ...
Jan 08, 2026•53 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Joel’s legendary Bloggingheads line 6:55 NASA’s new chief: More than a Musk toady? 12:53 Why we’re still not living in Star Trek 21:05 The space alien question 31:27 Can we make the moon program great again? 46:16 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joel Achenbach (The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens, A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea). Recorded December 22, 202...
Jan 06, 2026•51 min
0:28 David Lynch, Jane Goodall and other notable 2025 losses 8:59 When Bob called James Watson a “mad scientist” 14:02 Predicting 2050: Star Trek abundance vs. “Total Chaos Planet”? 21:46 The age of algorithmically guided attention 26:18 Global poverty reduction (and its flip side) 30:54 Will anyone care if your newsletter is AI-written? 34:48 Trump’s USAID cuts killed a lot of people 37:48 Elon Musk, Alex Karp, and the age of the “manifestly crazy” 41:08 Can the Supreme Court stop Trump? 44:18 ...
Dec 30, 2025•1 hr 51 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 2:30 What era are we living in? 3:27 David Bowie: “The Internet is an alien life form.” 4:45 Bob: “It’s like aliens are approaching, and we don’t know their intentions” 5:57 Nikita: “COVID was weird, and nothing has been normal since” 8:32 The lab leak theory 13:28 How COVID killed consensus reality 17:06 Bob’s case for international biotech monitoring 18:55 Vaccine geopolitics 23:38 Biothreat from existing AI models 2...
Dec 23, 2025•47 min
0:28 What’s the long game in Venezuela? 19:53 MAGA’s Monroe Doctrine 17:27 Trump as deep state puppet 22:33 Will Trump oust Maduro? 26:08 Connor: Trump’s foreign policy is a “profoundly mixed bag” 38:55 Has Israel lost the American electorate? 45:19 Andrew: Trump’s Ukraine peace plan isn’t pro-Russia 50:54 Silicon Valley’s inept arms makers 58:32 The administration’s view(s) on China and Taiwan 1:11:51 Europe learns to speak Trump Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is Tru...
Dec 19, 2025•1 hr 19 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Elon’s reckless response to the Brown shooting 11:43 Susie Wiles gone wild 14:55 The weirdest thing about Trump’s weird Rob Reiner post 25:33 The Piers Morgan/Nick Fuentes encounter 38:22 Judging Oliver Sacks 43:50 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Reco...
Dec 17, 2025•47 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 The incoherence of Trump’s foreign policy 7:40 The paucity of debate around Chinese chip restrictions 19:37 Danny: Is this the stupidest foreign policy establishment ever? 25:56 Should AGI worry us? 35:07 Bob’s Overtime bait Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Derek Davison (Foreign Exchanges, American Prestige, Discontents), and Daniel Bessner (American Prestige, University of Was...
Dec 12, 2025•39 min
0:00 Teaser 1:04 How AI helped shape cancer treatment for Nathan’s son 15:52 Should you tell your doctor about your AI medical adviser? 20:37 Big leaps for Gemini 3 and Claude Opus 4.5 27:59 How to get the best medical advice from your AI 34:37 The astonishing breadth of AI expertise 42:26 AI can help on the margins 55:55 Bob’s AI cancer journey 1:11:41 AI and “Right to try” 1:21:08 “Turning every stone” vs falling into anxiety rabbit holes 1:25:50 Gemini 3 vs Opus 4.5 1:31:58 Are scaling laws l...
Dec 09, 2025•2 hr
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Teaser 1:03 Trump’s 28-point plan: first real negotiations? 3:09 Why Zelensky sounded so grim 8:23 Listing Russia’s advantages 10:08 The unknowable casualties numbers 12:32 Ukraine’s forced mobilization vs. Russia’s volunteer army 16:24 Why Russia won’t run out of money 19:39 Bob: “I want Putin to get the worst deal possible” 21:02 What is the Blob’s plan? 25:37 Bob answers a question from Discord 28:43 Trump’s fa...
Dec 05, 2025•48 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 Sam’s epic new biography of William F. Buckley 5:53 Was Buckley the original Tucker Carlson? 12:35 Buckley’s paradoxical upbringing 22:36 How Yale turned Buckley into a “counter-intellectual” 36:08 Was Buckley racist or tribalist or what? 54:45 Buckley v. the Civil Rights Act 1:03:43 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Sam Tanenhaus (Louis Armstrong: Musician...
Dec 02, 2025•1 hr 7 min
Original post via Culturally Determined: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20-years-ago-bloggingheads-was-a-trailblazer-with/id981282353?i=1000735793526 Bob and former Bloggingheads.tv staffer and contributor Aryeh Cohen-Wade reflect on the legacy of Bloggingheads.tv, the pioneering website Bob co-founded in 2005. Bob and Aryeh discuss how the site and the technology that powered it anticipated modern trends in online media. They also consider whether Twitter still has any use for journalist...
Nov 27, 2025•1 hr 8 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 A brief history of American China hawkery 15:40 The 2008 financial crisis changed things 19:22 Xi Jinping and the great man theory of history 25:23 Can we get along with autocrats? 32:06 How China hawkery became bipartisan 38:21 Total eclipse of the hawks? 48:06 Kaiser’s “Great Reckoning” thesis Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Kaiser Kuo ( https://www.sinicapodcast.com/ ). R...
Nov 25, 2025•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Bob’s Doha trip takeaways 4:06 The Epstein-Bannon-Trump connection 9:34 Can MAGA survive the Epstein saga? 12:45 Email hygiene 101 18:02 Paul defends Larry Summers 29:17 Olivia Nuzzi hikes the Appalachian trail 41:43 Overtime preview: Top podcasting secrets revealed! The punishment problem; Pluribus; the “great feminization” debate; AI “bubble” update; and more! Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Bu...
Nov 21, 2025•46 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Alex’s influential “Google PM Bible” 5:34 What is a tech aggregator? 13:09 AI is much more than chatbots 17:35 The dangers of centralized AI 24:17 What you want vs what you want to want 31:25 How an LLM’s memory locks you in 38:12 AGI vs ASI 44:20 Alex’s solution to the lock-in problem 51:49 Alex’s ode to “resonance” Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Alex Komoroske (Common Too...
Nov 19, 2025•56 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:29 What is Bob doing in Qatar? 3:34 “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Why Yeats felt this way 7:07 Peter Thiel’s Antichrist theory 9:16 Nikita: COVID was a weird time, and nothing has been the same since 14:27 Why Bob feels things are falling apart 17:58 Were things ever in order? 19:23 “Inner emigration”: tuning out the world as self-care 22:08 A reaction to a drone strike: “Loud noises don’t wake me up” ...
Nov 14, 2025•54 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 Shadi’s path to his new book, The Case for American Power 9:50 George W. Bush’s “Freedom Agenda” 13:19 Does America’s role in Gaza undermine Shadi’s case? 16:47 Shadi’s case for US moral supremacy 23:36 What does China want? 34:19 What justifies military intervention? 40:32 Bob: International law is the answer 51:25 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Shadi H...
Nov 11, 2025•54 min
0:28 This week in underappreciated world history 7:19 Were the elections all—or just mostly—bad news for Trump? 28:55 Will Trump invade Venezuela? 36:30 What’s the shutdown fight really about? 43:04 Mickey vs Ezra Klein (in absentia) on healthcare 51:22 Back down the Epstein rabbit hole 1:17:28 Was Tucker playing 4D chess with the Fuentes interview? 1:28:03 What happened to the blogosphere? 1:36:42 The case for (and against) Bari Weiss 1:40:17 AI doom in fiction vs reality 1:44:49 The AI bubble:...
Nov 07, 2025•1 hr 57 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 The Carlson-Fuentes interview controversy 4:32 Paul: Candidate Carlson is coming 7:04 Is gatekeeping dead? 13:40 Is Carlson’s show respectable? 20:17 Carlson and Fuentes on the Israel lobby 25:28 William F. Buckley as MAGA precursor 38:20 Is antisemitism more organic on the right or left? 46:13 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpota...
Nov 05, 2025•51 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Bob tries to lower American Prestige’s self-esteem 3:31 The Trump-Xi trade talks 7:08 Making sense of Trump’s nuclear saber-rattling 10:58 Signs of a US-China vibe shift 17:00 Is AI accelerating science? 23:49 Bill Gates’s climate change of heart 29:54 This week’s Gaza ceasefire death toll 34:43 Overtime preview: Bob vs Danny on international law Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True),...
Oct 30, 2025•39 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org This episode includes an Overtime segment that’s available to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we of course encourage you to become one. If you are a paid subscriber, you can access the complete conversation either via the audio and video on this post or by setting up the paid-subscriber podcast feed, which includes all exclusive audio content. To set that up, simply grab the RSS feed from this page (...
Oct 28, 2025•51 min
Via the post on the Buddhist Geeks Substack: In this Buddhist Geeks episode, Vince Fakhoury Horn and Robert Wright explore the intersection of Buddhism, ethics, and geopolitics as they reflect on Palestine, Jewish-Buddhist responses, moral responsibility, and the role of mindfulness amid global violence. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe...
Oct 23, 2025•1 hr
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 What triggered Trump’s 100-percent tariff threat? 9:39 How China is mirroring the US playbook 17:14 The real escalation: America's "50% rule" 25:57 Why has US media coverage been so bad? 28:37 Biden's role in fueling the trade war 40:08 US China policy as cognitive empathy failure 48:06 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Triolo (Albright Stonebridge Gro...
Oct 20, 2025•49 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Why Liron became a Yudkowskian 4:47 Eliezer Yudkowsky’s vision of AI apocalypse 12:15 Does intelligence want power? 18:54 Decoding Yudkowsky’s key Darwinian metaphor 30:42 Is doomerism crowding out other AI worries? 40:08 Liron: The silent majority is very AI anxious 45:11 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Liron Shapira (Pause AI, Relationship Hero). Record...
Oct 16, 2025•47 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Amazing Bob-Paul discount deal! 2:36 The Bari Weiss trivia test 19:18 Lasting peace in Gaza? 21:55 Why did Trump finally get tough on Bibi? 27:18 MAGA free speech debates 31:22 Is the AI bubble about to burst? 34:11 If anyone builds it, will everyone die? 41:48 Heading into Overtime: Ian McEwan, George Harrison, OpenAI, One Battle After Another Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) an...
Oct 10, 2025•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Join NonZero’s newly established Discord server: https://discord.gg/FByzCzWf 0:28 Was the Free Press bought “to control US media”? 9:14 Why pay $150M for a Substack? 11:23 Netanyahu on the TikTok deal and “giving direction” to the Jewish people 13:46 Pro-Israel donors giving a $2M ultimatum to Charlie Kirk about his ties to Tucker Carlson 17:54 How much influence does Israel have over US media? 24:56 Why Tucker Carlson...
Oct 08, 2025•1 hr 3 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Steve’s book In Covid’s Wake: How Our Politics Failed Us 10:26 Were school closures smart policy? 17:48 The mask mandate question 23:57 Did medical experts get too much say? 30:24 The role of social class and political tribe 37:17 How dissent was suppressed 45:23 Bob takes a jab at Jay Bhattacharya 48:16 Heading to OT: Why Steve wrote the book Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and...
Oct 02, 2025•55 min
