0:33 What is this new Overton Windows series about? 10:05 Tamler’s connections to Israel and Bob’s experiences there 19:22 What does Zionism mean in practice? 27:35 The shifting Overton window around Israel/Palestine 45:35 The heavy-handed response to the BDS movement 57:13 What the Israel/Palestine discourse says about Overton windows 1:02:09 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 ...
Jul 18, 2023•1 hr 9 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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; Canadi...
Jul 14, 2023•59 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 ...
Jul 11, 2023•1 hr 22 min
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 intelli...
Jul 07, 2023•59 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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, Th...
Jul 04, 2023•1 hr 13 min
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 sub...
Jul 01, 2023•59 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 U...
Jun 27, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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 capit...
Jun 24, 2023•1 hr 9 min
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-C...
Jun 20, 2023•1 hr 8 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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 Epste...
Jun 17, 2023•1 hr 8 min
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 B...
Jun 13, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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 ...
Jun 10, 2023•55 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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). Rec...
Jun 07, 2023•1 hr
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 T...
Jun 02, 2023•58 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org (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) p...
May 31, 2023•1 hr 2 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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 Robe...
May 27, 2023•45 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 cryin...
May 23, 2023•1 hr 8 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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 Botst...
May 20, 2023•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 wil...
May 16, 2023•1 hr 1 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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). Re...
May 13, 2023•43 min
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)....
May 09, 2023•36 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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-dr...
May 06, 2023•44 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 (Bloggingh...
May 02, 2023•1 hr 5 min
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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/v...
Apr 29, 2023•43 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 th...
Apr 25, 2023•1 hr
Subscribe to The Parrot Room at https://patreon.com/parrotroom 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 ...
Apr 22, 2023•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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 (Bl...
Apr 18, 2023•1 hr 17 min
Subscribe to The Nonzero Newsletter at https://nonzero.substack.com 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...
Apr 17, 2023•1 hr 36 min
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 ...
Apr 15, 2023•52 min
This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 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, ...
Apr 11, 2023•1 hr
