Robert Wright's Nonzero

Why humans are becoming less violent ... The dark side of our moral sense ... Just how deluded are we? ... Bob tries to get Steve to say something nice about religion ... How science gives Steve's life meaning ... The problem with "evil" ...

Greg's work teaching Zen meditation to Brooklyn teens ... How Greg went from anger to Zen ... What young people learn from meditation ... Comparing Zen with other branches of Buddhism ... The experience of "emptiness" through meditation ... What's the purpose of Zen koans? ...

Finding meaning in faith and family ... How to be political yet non-tribal ... Friendship as a source of corruption ... What Donald Trump gets wrong about the value of money ... Our special connection with dogs ... On confronting the inevitability of death ...

Oliver's book on happiness and negativity, The Antidote ... What's the worst that could happen? Imagine it! ... Similarities between Stoicism and Buddhism ... What our fear of death is really about ... What's the connection between money and happiness? ... Why you should "hang out" in negative situations ...

The theory of mirror neurons… ... …and why Greg believes this theory is wrong ... How the mirror neuron theory became so popular ... Explaining "embodied cognition" ... Quantum physics and our perception of reality ... Is consciousness a fundamental property of the universe? ...

Jeff reviews Jerry Coyne's book, Faith vs. Fact ... How likely was the evolution of intelligent life? ... A contradiction in Coyne’s case against divine purpose ... Bob argues for a materialist teleology ... Are there true moral facts, or just rules that work? ... Is moral judgment an evolutionary "spandrel"? ...

Ten years of Bloggingheads.tv! ... Why Mickey has developed a certain interest in the immigration issue ... Bob vs. Mickey on Trump, Ann Coulter, and xenophobia ... The "conspiracy" to drive out Bush and elevate Rubio ... Bob: Ted Cruz is a smarter, non-drunk Joseph McCarthy ... Could Trump actually win? Schwarzenegger did! ... Mickey encourages Bob to become a spiritual leader ... Can Obama see things from Putin's perspective? ... A dog-laden interlude ... Bob names Mickey's key career misstep; Mickey disagrees ... Mickey's dystopia: Robot workers and a guaranteed income ... A plethora of thanks ...

What the media is missing about the violence in Israel ... Where the future of Palestine is being built ... Violence grabs attention—but at what cost? ... Giving up on the two-state solution ... Why West Bank Palestinians don't demand the right to vote in Israeli elections ... Fadi: Non-violence will bring the Israeli occupation down ...

Commonalities between Hindu and Buddhist meditation ... What a Buddhist calls "non-self," a Hindu might call "oneness" ... Dena decries the commercialization of meditation ... The work of the Global Peace Initiative of Women ... An alliance of contemplative practitioners ... Could meditation help solve the Israeli/Palestinian conflict? ...

Jay's new book on sadness, The Gate of Tears ... The most common mistake we make in dealing with sadness ... Examining the contours of your negative emotions ... Connections between Jewish and Buddhist teachings ... Jay: Pushing away the difficult is 90% of the difficult ... Spirituality and the power of negative thinking ...