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...
Jul 23, 2022•1 hr 6 min
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? ... This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...
Jul 19, 2022•1 hr 8 min
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 pr...
Jul 16, 2022•1 hr 7 min
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 Ukra...
Jul 13, 2022•1 hr 17 min
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...
Jul 09, 2022•1 hr
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...
Jul 05, 2022•1 hr 20 min
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 con...
Jul 02, 2022•1 hr 3 min
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 ... This is a publ...
Jun 29, 2022•58 min
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 fa...
Jun 25, 2022•1 hr 14 min
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...
Jun 21, 2022•57 min
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? .....
Jun 18, 2022•1 hr 1 min
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? ... This is a pub...
Jun 15, 2022•1 hr 24 min
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 Uk...
Jun 11, 2022•1 hr 4 min
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 conf...
Jun 06, 2022•1 hr 16 min
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 defen...
Jun 04, 2022•1 hr 7 min
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? ...
May 31, 2022•1 hr 5 min
A brief word about civility. Why is Elon Musk feuding with AOC? Mickey vs. Andy McCarthy on the Sussman case. Is the FBI really the bad guy? Is it crazy to think video games can cause violence? Run, Michelle, run! Is Pakistan coming apart? Shouldn’t Frank Foer defend his Alfa Bank story again? The case for Peter Beinart. Kerry’s failure to undermine Trump on Iran. Biden’s failure to reverse Trump on Iran. Kelly Anne Conway pushes Trump’s hot button. Why Trump can’t quit Jared. Bob’s Dead End upd...
May 28, 2022•2 hr 23 min
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 ambi...
May 28, 2022•1 hr 7 min
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 th...
May 24, 2022•1 hr 11 min
The inevitable Musk sex scandal. Musk is better at Twitter than Trump. Who picked Johnny Depp as the anti-Me-Too poster boy? Bob got addicted to the Depp-Heard trial and he doesn’t know why. The hard case Tucker Carlson critics are ducking. Bob lets Mickey go on. Up to a point. What does Ron Brownstein mean by ‘transformation’ exactly? The craziest anti-deplorable. Twitter eats Ben Wittes’s brain. Zelensky lowers expectations. Biden’s charter school sellout? The three levels of Severance. Did Tu...
May 21, 2022•2 hr 6 min
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 Mus...
May 21, 2022•1 hr 5 min
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?...
May 18, 2022•59 min
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?...
May 14, 2022•1 hr 16 min
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 .....
May 10, 2022•1 hr 11 min
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 admi...
May 07, 2022•1 hr 13 min
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 id...
May 03, 2022•2 hr 10 min
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 ab...
Apr 30, 2022•1 hr 10 min
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? ... This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit w...
Apr 27, 2022•1 hr 20 min
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 ... This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonz...
Apr 26, 2022•1 hr 12 min
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...
Apr 23, 2022•1 hr 14 min
