Robert Wright's Nonzero

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0:28 Bob’s pub-day pitch for his new book on AI, The God Test 1:28 Is AI killing the nonfiction star? 5:56 Geoffrey Hinton’s path from AI evangelist to doomer 9:51 The future of books 19:12 Trump vs Anthropic 23:27 Are Ukrainian drone strikes rattling Putin? 32:31 The multiple Putins theory 35:28 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded June 23, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Join NonZero's Discord server: https://discord.gg/Zy4jAhTQMF

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0:28 Was “losing” this war good for America? 6:26 Israel’s post-war situation 9:59 A more stable Middle East? Or less? 18:07 The impact on Iran’s strength 21:43 Has the war empowered Russia and China? 24:39 How modern warfare devalues American military power 27:41 Josh: The Gulf-state power struggle is just beginning 40:48 Are the Palestinians back in the spotlight? 45:35 Where do Israel-US relations go from here? 48:29 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joshua Landis (University of Oklahoma, SyriaComment.com). Recorded June 17, 2026.

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0:28 A brief message from Bob 1:39 Ryan’s tech policy bona fides 4:17 Is true “recursive self-improvement” near? 9:04 AI agents as strategic empathy machines 15:15 Is a global AI pause possible? 23:29 Mutually assured destruction vs mutually assured AI malfunction 35:14 The case against global AI governance 38:53 Mythos as seen from China 50:39 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Ryan Fedasiuk (The American Enterprise Institute). Recorded June 08, 2026.

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2:21 The Midas Project and the OpenAI files 11:57 What’s “Build American AI” up to? 20:38 Nathan Leamer, astroturfer and sock puppeteer 28:42 Greg Brockman, AI lobby bankroller 34:51 Astroturfing the China panic 39:29 Is OpenAI an innocent bystander? 48:09 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Tyler Johnston (The Midas Project). Recorded June 09, 2026.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:28 Whose baby is cuter? 3:13 Bob’s new book on AI, The God Test 10:16 Varieties of AI awe 13:47 Geoffrey Hinton’s vision 18:14 How LLMs do more than predict and parrot 21:44 How powerful will AI get? 26:20 Can AI’s impact be predicted? 31:12 Taking doomerism seriously 3817 The AI governance dilemma 49:06 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 June 3, 2026.

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0:28 How Tianyu became a “China explainer” 2:59 American vs Chinese exceptionalism 7:53 What you can and can’t say in China 18:16 Is the government more accountable in the US or China? 26:47 How China sees America 36:16 The one-child policy and its consequences 42:37 Tianyu: The biggest misconception about China is… 46:04 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Tianyu Fang (New America). Recorded June 02, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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(Description via Increments Podcast:) Did you ever see the video of two regular people trying to fight Eddie Hall, the strongest man on earth? Ben and Vaden bring that same energy to this conversation, where they gang up on Robert Wright on the subject of his forthcoming book The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning. Bob is a sport about it (well, there was no choice really: we have an advanced copy of his book that we’re holding hostage) and there are only one or two black eyes by the end.

Subscribe to Robert Wright’s podcasting empire NonZero on youtube and substack. And go buy one of his many books.

We discuss

* Whether Bob was the OG podcaster

* Is there a directionality to evolution?

* Where Bob is on the AI fear and awe spectrum

* Whether LLMs have decoded the meaning in language

* Is AI best viewed as a tool or as superintelligence?

* AI-as-slingshot analogy

References

* The God Test by Robert Wright

* Nonzero by Robert Wright

* William Paley and his pocket watch

* The Blind Watchmaker by Richard Dawkins

* Our conversation with Scott Aaronson

Recorded April 28th, 2026.

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 Is NonZero or American Prestige the better podcast? AI weighs in 4:38 The state of the US-Iran war. Or is it peace? 18:16 Has Trump already lost the midterms? Does he care? 24:40 The Russia-Ukraine war (and Eric Schmidt) 29:47 What the latest Iran war strikes signal 31:28 Overtime preview: Nuland’s “monsters,” zombie blobsters, Barak Ravid, Bari Weiss, “killzones,” and the Pope vs AI

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Derek Davison (Foreign Exchanges, American Prestige, Discontents), and Daniel Bessner (American Prestige, University of Washington). Recorded May 28, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:28 A Greek pilgrimage, a mystery guest, and a Discord revival 5:57 The first Papal encyclical devoted to AI 11:12 Pope Leo: just war theory is outdated, and AI lets humans dodge accountability 21:28 Anthropic tells the Pope about “mysterious, even unsettling” things inside AI 27:41 Inside the “Kill Zone”: How drones changed the Russia-Ukraine front 34:10 Who gets replaced first: the soldier or the commander? 38:47 Russia’s hypersonic missiles and nuclear signaling 48:25 Do drones favor the underdog? Plus a warning on Taiwan 50:44 The Iran ceasefire wobbles as Israel pushes back 52:23 Heading to Overtime: Greek mystery cults, Teilhard de Chardin, and Blade Runner 57:59 Enter the Mystery Guest: Jeremy Eliosoff, Pause AI Canada

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded May 26, 2026.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:52 Bruce’s new book on ritual, A Time to Gather 2:48 The “Lifequake” that led Bruce to study ritual 7:46 The current “shadow ritual” renaissance 11:54 What is a ritual? 15:02 The origins of the shadow ritual renaissance 18:01 Forest bathing and the essence of ritual 25:47 Ritual as the original human algorithm 31:15 Honor walks: a quintessentially modern ritual 35:59 Rituals across Christianity 41:43 What rituals do 46:23 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Bruce Feiler (Council of Dads, Walking the Bible, A Time to Gather). Recorded April 21, 2026.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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