Robert Wright's Nonzero

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0:28 Trump and Elon’s bad week = good news for Bob… 6:01 …but bad news for Canada's prime minister? 18:23 Trump’s crackdown on speech expands 29:28 Debating embryo-screening ethics 42:24 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 April 24, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:28 Pratap’s bona fides 3:40 How Pratap ran afoul of Modi (and the price he paid) 13:17 Trump vs Modi: compare and contrast 24:14 India’s birth as a multi-ethnic state 38:09 Pratap on how we got Trump (and Modi) 48:45 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Pratap Bhanu Mehta (Indian Express, Princeton University, The Burden of Democracy). Recorded April 22, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Audio of the livestream titled “KOSMOPOLITIKA#2: Where Do We Belong?”—the latest installment in an ongoing (and evolving) collaboration between Nonzero and Psychopolitica.

INTRODUCTIONS :4:14 Nikita: Leaving Russia. The psychedelic lineage. Humanity is a trip, not a species21:59 16 years ago, Boris took such a good nap after visiting a sacred Ancient Greek site that he still thinks about it 25:25 In The Dark Places of Wisdom: mystical practices at the root of Western civilization 26:57 What makes us feel we belong: identity & community 31:00 Humanity as a planetary force MEMBER PARTICIPATION PART: 39:15 What makes us feel we belong: values & norms 49:14 What makes us feel we belong: direct experience 52:26 Psychedelics & meditation in service of planetary identity 54:19 “To be” comes from the word "to grow", "am" & "is" from "to breath" 56:32 Rationalists 58:15 How Socrates got himself killed 1:04:30 What makes us feel we belong: awareness of inter-dependence 1:11:30 Gaia, humanity, and AI are 3 generations of planetary forces 1:15:32 Zizians. There's something to be said about dogma 1:17:47 “DMT, death, and nanobots are the same thing, somehow” 1:21:24 Humanity is still being born 1:23:21 Ideas are alive 1:25:59 JFK's "my fellow Americans" address, in which he casts the country as a peer to the citizen 1:30:13 VR brings us back into the body 1:34:33 The human experience is an image that arises from the play of ideas and matter 1:38:30 Agency found in choosing one's metaphors 1:42:15 Ta-Nehisi Coates's The Message 1:47:52 Homeric rhapsodes 1:52:34 Conversation as distributed thinking

Nikita Petrov, and Boris Shoshitaishvili. Recorded April 14, 2025.

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0:28 Ron violates retirement dress code 2:25 Trump’s “antisemitism crackdown" 14:28 Is the Israel lobby bad for American Jews? 21:53 The disturbing Tufts detention case 28:59 Why don’t more progressive Jews call out the Israel lobby? 34:24 How bad journalism makes antisemitism worse 45:53 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Ron Kampeas (https://ronkampeas.substack.com, Jewish Telegraphic Agency). Recorded April 17, 2025.

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0:28 Sam's theory of (some of) Trump's tariffs 18:09 The bad scenario and the less bad scenario 22:58 Scott Bessent's radicalism 25:58 Will Trump display the art of the deal? 28:57 China's trade-war strengths 31:48 An intentional end to American hegemony? 36:10 Sam’s defense of chip restrictions 40:28 Heading into Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Samuel Hammond (Foundation for American Innovation, https://www.secondbest.ca/). Recorded April 14, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:30 Sina's hopes for this weekend's US-Iran talks 4:25 Trump's two-month clock starts ticking 7:09 Iran's growing nuclear leverage 11:20 Trump the dealmaker vs Trump the warmonger 19:14 The myth of a "surgical" military campaign against Iran 28:44 The resurgence of Iran's reformist camp

Recorded April 11, 2025.

Read this week's edition of the Earthling: https://www.nonzero.org/p/tariffs-tech-and-the-view-from-china

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0:28 Paul is Bob's worthwhile Canadian initiative 4:34 The psycho-logic of Trump’s tariff strategy 15:35 Has Trump exposed structural flaws in America? 21:09 Is Musk saying Navarro is dumber than Ivanka? 28:09 On incest 38:35 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 April 09, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:28 Milton’s epic new comic, “Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds” 4:04 Comics culture, then and now 14:02 The real story behind the faux War of the Worlds broadcast 22:07 Why Milton was drawn to Orson Welles 33:33 What (or who) really derailed Welles’s career? 40:07 Will Milton's comic go multimedia? 44:23 Heading to Overtime—with Bob in the hot seat

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Milton Lawson (https://milton.substack.com/, Orson Welles: Warrior of the Worlds). Recorded March 24, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Audio of the livestream titled “The Psychopolitics of the Noosphere,” the first installment in an ongoing—and evolving—collaboration between Nonzero and Psychopolitica.

Robert Wright, Nikita Petrov, and Boris Shoshitaishvili. Recorded April 4, 2025.

https://psychopolitica.substack.com/

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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

0:30 The pro-tariff argument: national security, jobs, and leverage 6:58 The four factions shaping US trade policy 11:43 Karthik’s core critique of Trump’s tariff policy 16:18 How tariffs could block development pathways for poor countries 22:52 Is Trump blaming foreign countries for America's own policy mistakes? 30:19 A brutal week for Vietnam

Recorded April 04, 2025.

Read this week's edition of the Earthling:

https://www.nonzero.org/p/elon-musks-nasa-takeover

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