Robert Wright's Nonzero

Michelle's new book, The Goddess Pose ... Is yoga more than just exercise? ... Indra Devi, the woman who helped bring yoga to the West ... The amazing story of the spiritual teacher Krishnamurti ... How yoga was cannily pitched to mid-century America ... Yoga's weird sort of non-attachment ...

The science behind meditation ... When meditation brings on the "dark night of the soul" ... Why meditation produces varying results ... When meditation was exported to the West ... The trouble with the "assembly line" approach to meditation ... Does meditation dull the activist spirit? ...

David: Iran outplayed the US on the nuclear deal ... Bob: You can always wish for a better deal ... If we had walked away, would sanctions have unraveled? ... Debating the stringency of the inspections regime ... David: Iran is a unique rogue state ... Bob: Are Iran’s violations of internal law worse than America’s? ...

How understanding evolution can improve the real world ... Is human nature mismatched to the modern environment? ... Why we believe kooky things ... "Meaning systems”—religious or secular, everyone’s got one ... Can science and religion form a unified meaning system? ... David’s latest book, Does Altruism Exist? ...

Can you have religion without belief? ... Bob tries to convince Judith that she's not an atheist ... Judith: The Torah is true in the way that fairy tales are true ... Why "purpose" isn't talked about much in Judaism ... A Jew can't run away from being a Jew ... How atheists can create community traditions ...

An Iran deal within sight ... The phony "arms embargo" issue ... Will Iran permit inspection of its military bases? ... The delicate timing of sanctions relief ... America's trump card: the almighty dollar ... International law and nuclear weapons ...

Was Spinoza spiritual but not religious? ... Why Rebecca left Orthodox Judaism for atheism ... Transcendent experiences within a materialist universe ... Is science displacing philosophy? ... Finding Plato's mysticism ... Rebecca: In moments of despair, I turn to Spinoza ...

Joel wrassles with mortality ... Bob reflects on his two-week silent meditation retreat ... The existential angst of a broken iPhone ... Meditation and a toothache ... What gives Joel's life meaning ... All about MeaningofLife.tv! ...

Comparing the Rachel Dolezal and Caitlyn Jenner stories ... Is "interrogating whiteness" a good way to fight racism? ... Flipping white privilege towards moral imagination ... Persuasion vs. shaming as tools of social change ... Should the government be able to scan your brain? ... Does Google make Americans more accepting of the NSA? ...

A flurry of Title IX complaints in l'affaire Laura Kipnis ... Shifting mores around student-professor romances ... How much rape is there on campus? ... Should colleges discipline students for "ungentlemanly conduct"? ... Hookup culture and its discontents ... The quandary of drunk-on-drunk hookups ...