This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:13 Some brief NonZero World housekeeping 5:37 Trump, China and AI 31:35 Connor's interview with national security law expert Elizabeth Beavers about Trump's use of terror designations Recorded January 31, 2025.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Two theories of Musk’s “salute” 6:18 DeepSeek-R1: Salvo or olive branch? 16:23 The misappropriation of Musk’s AI doomerism 23:43 Is the AI avatar era already upon us? 39:26 Paul fills Bob in on his “empty threat” theory 43:44 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 Emp...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright and Connor Echols discuss the panic over R1, a new, open-source AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Peter’s new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza 1:42 Is it anti-Semitic to say Israeli policies foster anti-Semitism? 7:24 Zionism’s many meanings 10:44 How are American Jews grappling with Israel-Gaza? 16:44 The Democrats’ Israel bind 24:11 Is all hope lost for a two-state solution? 30:54 Anti-Semitic tropes, the Israel lobby, and Elon’s “gesture” 43:05 The unusual nature of Jewish identity 47:54 How...
0:00 Intro 1:35 Natasha's new book, Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe Recorded January 14, 2025. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNewshttps://twitter.com/NonzeroPods This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Kanjun’s role as CEO of AI research lab Imbue 2:45 Worrying about a “Wall-E world” 13:32 Building human-centric AI agents 22:05 How far away is truly “agentic” AI? 32:00 The road to AI serfdom 40:42 Does the AI revolution call for a psychological revolution? 45:24 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Kanjun Qiu (Imbue). Recorded January 15, 2025. Twitter: http...
0:00 Tom’s Pulitzer-Prize hat trick 1:03 Why Beijing is relatively calm about Trump’s reelection 9:33 China hawkism in the AI community 15:24 What’s Trump’s logic re Greenland and Panama? 22:44 On Israel-Palestine, is a two-state solution still possible? 31:06 How a stable ceasefire in Gaza could transform Israeli politics 36:17 Why Trump may be better than Biden on Israel-Palestine 43:46 Bob and Tom debate a possible strike on Iran 52:42 Prospects for peace in Ukraine under Trump 55:24 How Amer...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 News bites 17:28 Gaza ceasefire deep dive 33:24 Bob joins to talk about Biden's legacy and Trump's imminent return to the White House Read this week's edition of the Earthling: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/the-looming-tech-takeover Recorded January 17, 2025.
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Bob and Paul battle for audience sympathy 4:29 Canada as 51st state: y’eh or n’eh? 15:09 How Trump-y is Canada’s likely next leader? 19:45 The humiliation theory of American politics 27:33 Trump, Elon, and the two paths to bullying 35:59 Facebook’s free speech about-face 39:24 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Tim’s got a new podcast, and NonZero is hiring 3:31 Is large language model progress reaching a plateau? 15:20 Some shortcomings of AI today 25:42 Human cognition compared to AI 33:27 The impressive progress of "multimodal" AI 41:33 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (Full Stack Economics, Understanding AI). Recorded January 14, 2025. Twitter:...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 News bites 17:18 The bipartisan push to bomb Iran 30:05 Bob joins to discuss changes at NonZero as well as new developments in AI Recorded January 10, 2025. Read this week's edition of the Earthling: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/bomb-iran-goes-bipartisan https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 The NonZero-American Prestige punk-rock crossover continues 2:12 Is it time to freak out about Trump? 9:30 Are international norms eroding? 21:40 Jimmy Carter’s legacy 29:02 Heading to Overtime 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 Washington). Recorded January 09, ...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Toward a non-woolly-minded one-worldism 8:08 Has the unipolar moment passed for good? 10:23 International law vs the “rules-based order” 21:06 Is major UN reform possible? 38:30 AI, US-China, and multipolarity 48:21 Rewriting the sanctions playbook 53:49 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Trita Parsi (Quincy Institute). Recorded December 17, 2024. Twitter: h...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Welcome to the first NonZero Newsletter of 2025! Most of the NZN team is still recovering from holiday overindulgence, so it fell upon me to generate some Friday content. And here it is: My annual (assuming I do this again next year) State of NonZero and of the World Address. (My SONZAOTW Address, as it will be called in mainstream media accounts upon second reference.) The video version is below, and below that is the...
2:12 The uncertain future of AI 6:58 What would it mean to “lose the AI race” to China? 10:27 The promise and peril of artificial general intelligence 14:13 The international policy challenges of AI16:44 Can Trump deliver peace between Russia and Ukraine?20:58 Are there any good arguments for Pete Hegseth as Secretary of Defense? 26:07 Bob: With Iran weakened, Israel faces a decision: bombs or diplomacy 30:41 The continuing assault on Gaza 34:45 Antiwar speech codes 40:09 Apartheid, genocide, et...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Worthwhile Canadian conquest 5:19 Late takes on Luigi Mangione 10:27 Elon’s AI motivation 14:23 Is the successor species sentient? (It matters!) 18:39 Paul’s AI freakout has arrived 23:39 AI buzzword of the year revealed 29:24 Bluesky brutality 35:44 Google’s experimental AI groks humanity 43:44 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpot...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 News Round-up 15:20 How progressives should approach Trump's foreign policy 30:23 Anatol Lieven joins to discuss Russia-Ukraine peace talks Recorded December 20, 2024. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Conn and the ancestry of this podcast 2:29 Conn’s new book, Sex and the Citizen: How the Assault on Marriage Is Destroying Democracy 9:34 Modern matrimony by the numbers 18:44 Are monogamous societies more egalitarian? 24:10 Why the West went monogamous 35:15 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Conn Carroll (Washington Examiner, Sex and the Citizen). Recorded...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Scott’s anti-war libertarianism and his new book, Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine 8:22 How the US made the Russia-Ukraine war more likely 13:10 Was Ukraine’s Maidan Revolution a US-backed coup? 30:26 America’s promise to the Soviet Union not to expand NATO 38:04 Do US officials misunderstand Russia’s perspective? 51:17 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Andrew Day and Connor Echols discuss the foreign policy news of the week. In this episode, Day and Echols also discuss Trump’s foreign policy team with James Carden of the American Conservative. Recorded December 13, 2024. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Syria’s uncertain political future 11:10 Has the Islamist rebel group HTS actually moderated? 19:25 The extent of retributive violence since Assad fell 29:58 Syria's complicated factional divides 36:44 America's control of Syrian oil fields 40:41 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joshua Landis (University of Oklahoma, SyriaComment.com). Recorded December 11...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Yuri’s high-stakes debate on Covid’s origins 3:42 Pros and cons of Covid vaccines 10:04 Do Covid “coincidences” point to a lab leak? 21:55 Does the pattern of Covid’s initial spread suggest zoonotic origin? 27:51 Why the Wuhan market may have amplified Covid’s spread 38:59 Covid’s lineages A and B 53:29 US-China collaboration in the Wuhan lab’s virology research Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Bu...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Andrew Day and Connor Echols discuss the foreign policy news of the week. In this episode, Day and Echols also discuss the rapid rebel offensive in Syria with Bassam Barabandi, a former Syrian diplomat who defected in 2013. Recorded December 06, 2024. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 A masterclass in audience alienation 3:50 Paul defends Biden’s paternal pardon 9:43 Should family come before societal good? 18:51 The costs of the Hunter pardon 32:18 Was Hunter the victim of a witch hunt? 37:52 Elon sues OpenAI (again) 45:12 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...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Anthropic’s CEO comes out as a China hawk 6:38 Why so many China hawks in the AI community? 22:49 Gaming out the AGI takeoff timeline 30:31 Last year’s OpenAI coup: What did Ilya see? 36:43 Underappreciated dangers of the China chip war 53:41 Are US tech leaders seeing China’s perspective clearly? 1:05:32 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nathan Labenz (Cog...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Connor Echols discuss items from this week’s Earthling. Recorded November 22, 2024. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 Bob’s trip down the JFK rabbit hole gets real 3:07 Will Trump release the JFK files? 7:35 What the CIA actually knew about Oswald, pre-assassination 12:13 The damning Oswald-CIA connection Jeff uncovered 24:59 Was there a second shooter? Bob’s on-the-ground research 35:31 Bob’s research cont’d: grassy knoll geometry 45:44 Was the alleged CIA cover-up just CYA? 49:29 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The ...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Are Bluesky pastures really greener? 10:12 Dissecting SciAm editor’s Bluesky blowup 21:32 Elon’s free speech stolen valor 31:05 The “highlights” of the Paul-Tyson “fight” 39:48 Has the military-industrial complex conquered the AI industry? 48:39 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 Swe...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Another high-synergy, brilliant collaboration 1:39 Is Elon our first true oligarch? 10:21 Trump assembles his Justice League of hawks 16:53 Biden’s awful foreign policy team 21:49 Trump’s plan to purge the military 33:30 Will Trump go full-on authoritarian? 40:45 Left-wing capitalists—and a discount offer Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Derek Davison (Foreign Exchanges, America...
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Sam’s place on the AI accelerationist-pauser spectrum 4:55 Predicting AI’s near-term impact 12:17 Is regulating AI a fool’s errand? 18:32 Does strong AI governance court authoritarianism? 30:26 Can Trump and Elon be trusted on AI? 37:08 How Sam thinks AI should be regulated 51:13 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Inno...
