Robert Wright's Nonzero

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0:30 Seth’s new NYT bestseller, The Fort Bragg Cartel 2:47 What is Delta Force? 8:02 The growth of Delta Force's covert ops and unaccountability 14:35 American "death squads" 18:51 Why cops and prosecutors cover up crimes by elite soldiers 26:33 The mysterious murder of Billy Lavigne 34:28 How invading Afghanistan fueled America's drug crisis 45:48 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Seth Harp (Rolling Stone, New America, The Fort Bragg Cartel). Recorded August 26, 2025

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:28 Bob welcomes Nikita back to the Nonzero team 6:41 WSJ's report on Trump's authoritarian drift 9:10 Three levers: streets, media, education system 13:22 Trump the businessman and Trump the politician 15:14 Why Putin was compelling in 1999, when Russia was a young democracy 23:01 Laws vs norms 29:29 Trump and lawfare: how independent is the US judiciary? 36:16 Partisanship among judges 38:52 Trump's view of the world as a game 43:08 Cynicism as a political brand 46:34 Nikita: Putin and Trump share a geopolitical worldview 50:10 The damage the US and Russia did to the international law 54:59 The evolution of Putin's understanding of geopolitics 59:46 Today's Overtime segment is open for everybody! 1:00:53 The crisis of the nation-state & NonZero's community building project 1:18:31 "Kremlin is not Russia": distinguishing between the nation and the state 1:19:59 Bob: We all need a tribe 1:24:56 What does it mean to be an American? 1:30:07 Nikita's Armenian propaganda: A legitimate reason to be proud of your nation

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded August 28, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:28 Joe’s notable background 3:39 Is most of the MAGA coalition accelerationist? 7:52 Transhumanism, big tech, Klaus Schwab, and the noosphere 20:58 How the pandemic sparked a MAGA tech backlash 34:26 Palantir as bipartisan bête noire 40:41 The conservative case for AI regulation 52:01 Should fear of China trump fear of AI? 58:04 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joe Allen (Singularity Weekly, War Room, Dark Aeon). Recorded August 13, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:30 Connor’s farewell 3:28 What’s next at NonZero 8:20 The looming invasion of Gaza City 11:28 Israel's one-state solution 16:25 Why did Trump give up on Gaza? 21:04 The "blame-it-on-Bibi" farce 31:32 A disappointing week for Ukraine 33:31 How to make security guarantees work 40:21 Ukraine's ticking time bomb

Recorded August 22, 2025.

Read this week’s edition of the Earthling:

https://www.nonzero.org/p/israel-lays-bare-its-one-state-solution

https://twitter.com/NonzeroNews https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:28 Bob defends the Unabomber (kind of) 3:05 Paul nurses his Mickey-inflicted wounds 15:55 Bob deflates the GPT-5 deflation 25:19 How big a deal are LLM hallucinations? 28:10 AI's coming social and economic disruptions 35:17 How Bob and Paul use AI 39:16 The ideas of Hanno Sauer 48:15 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). Recorded August 19, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:30 What’s at stake in Alaska 1:25 George: Don’t try to do too much 4:34 EU yes, NATO no 6:10 How to get the Ukrainians on board 10:59 Could Putin dupe Trump into a bad deal? 20:26 Sanctions: painful, but not decisive 25:19 What Russian media is saying about the talks 30:12 Are Europe & Ukraine warming to a deal?

Recorded August 15, 2025.

https://twitter.com/NonzeroNewshttps://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:28 Nathan’s work at AI2—and his p(doom) 5:00 What does “open source AI” mean? 11:01 How Nathan taught a Llama new tricks 18:05 Pros and cons of open sourcing AI 29:21 Nathan's ATOM Project to boost American open models 37:58 What's behind OpenAI's open source play? 40:20 Geoffrey Hinton's case against open models 44:27 Is the US-China open model rivalry really zero-sum? 51:32 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nathan Lambert (The Allen Institute for AI, https://www.interconnects.ai/). Recorded August 12, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:28 Epstein's Israel connections 9:35 Epstein's history of blackmail 22:43 Was it suicide? 27:09 Epstein's creepy relationship with Trump 32:16 Why won’t Trump release the files? 38:59 The Israel connection(s) 51:21 Some Epstein-Wexner weirdness 57:23 What’s the deal with Ghislaine? 1:03:51 Was it suicide? (cont’d) 1:16:11 Influence operation or personal fetish operation? Or both? 1:27:18 Epstein's strangely light 2008 sentence 1:33:09 The political cost for Trump 1:37:27 How dangerous is Trump?

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Mickey Kaus (kausfiles, The End of Equality). Recorded August 11, 2025.

Mickey's Substack: https://kaus.substack.com/

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 www.nonzero.org/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:28 Jordan’s ChinaTalk podcast 3:01 Making sense of America’s “China consensus” 11:03 Are fears of Chinese global ambitions overblown? 29:51 The logic (or is it illogic?) of the AI arms race 33:14 China and the Ukraine War 41:30 Influence operations: Chinese vs American 46:24 China’s endgame re the US—and vice-versa 1:00:20 Is US China talk an echo chamber? 1:08:30 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Jordan Schneider (ChinaTalk). Recorded August 05, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:28 Substack glory and livestream anxiety 02:58 Reading eugenics into a dopey jeans ad 11:37 Does Sydney Sweeney spell the end of “inclusive marketing”? 15:25 Bob vs. Paul on IQ and “general intelligence” 22:10 Paul reviews the new Billy Joel documentary 28:07 The Epstein prison video snafu: a Bayesian take 37:19 Ghislaine gets a free upgrade

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). Recorded August 04, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods