Robert Wright's Nonzero

Bob and Mickey’s most erotic cold open yet ... Mickey mildly critiques Bob’s latest Afghanistan piece ... Eight ways Biden messed up the Afghanistan withdrawal (according to Mickey) ... Will Pelosi get the infrastructure bill she wants? ... Will the Texas abortion law backfire on pro-lifers? ... Mickey: If Newsom loses his recall vote, it could tank the infrastructure bill ... The jury’s still out on the lab leak hypothesis ... Bob: The jury’s still out on Ivermectin but not on Bret Weinstein ... Parrot Room preview: A hit piece on JD Vance, crime rates among Afghan refugees, the NYT’s editorial practice, the (possible) millennial conspiracy to oust boomers, wokeness at Princeton, an Ivermectin tweet storm, Pierre Kory, the possible postmodernism of the Weinsteins, how Mickey turned Bob into Led Tasso, Bob gets the Ezra Klein bump, and Ed Asner ...

What is "realism" in international relations? ... How John predicted the disastrous outcome of the Iraq invasion ... How to convince neocons to respect international law ... John: Sometimes nations just have to break the law ... Bob: The US should establish a norm of strict compliance with international law ... John's Hobbesian view of international relations ... Is China an existential threat to the US? ... International law's evolutionary trajectory ...

Bob and Mickey’s vaccination vacation ... American cluelessness persists in Afghanistan ... Can the Taliban be incorporated into the global community? ... Radicalized by Microsoft ... Bret Weinstein’s ivermectin crusade (cont’d) ... Has Pelosi outmaneuvered House moderates? ... Are Millennials and Zoomers the new beatniks? ... Bob: We could benefit from a slower rate of technological change ... Parrot Room preview: ESPN literally cancels Rachel Nichols, the Weinstein Rosetta Stone, a traumatic Wieseltier anecdote, Bob’s appearance on Ezra Klein’s podcast, the lawyer-lab rat joke, Ted Lasso, and a controversial Parrot Room fan mash-up ...

Disavowing the naturalistic fallacy ... Why “sex” may not mean what you think it means ... Did evolution make women “choosier” about sex partners than men? ... Haggling over the price of sperm and eggs ... Agustín: Empirical studies complicate evolutionary psychology’s theoretical models ... The evolutionary significance of non-reproductive sex ... Why are males bigger than females in our species? ... Looking at pornography (for insights into human evolution) ... Are male and female sexual jealousy systematically different? ...

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Unmasked liberals in their natural environment ... The sharply rising Covid-related death rate in the US ... Should the US send vaccine doses abroad before giving boosters at home? ... Bob: The Afghanistan withdrawal could reduce the risk of domestic terrorism ... Is there political logic behind Biden’s position on Afghan refugees? ... Bob: We could have won the Cold War with much less military intervention ... Is “authoritarianism” the new “international communism”? ... Is there an anti-American terrorist threat lurking in Syria? ... The military’s institutional bias against bad news ... Will Biden reinstitute Trump’s “stay in Mexico” policy? ... Parrot Room preview: The Kamala problem, JD Vance, the case against Ghislaine, Twitter lets users flag misinformation, a new Larry Elder scandal, the Atlantic’s supposed prosperousness, Nanci Griffith, the backstory on Bob and Mickey’s teetotaling, the Weinsteins, Ted Lasso, and some inspiration for Mickey ...

A prehistory of critical race theory ... What CRT isn't ... Why CRT gets so much pushback ... When (possibly) well-meaning jokes go wrong ... CRT and the language of the elite ... The shifting definitions of "racist" and "white supremacist" ... Are subtle changes in race-related vocabulary worth the trouble? ...

Meet the new virus, same as the old virus ... The confounding Covid numbers coming out of Florida ... Just a couple of cowards talking about JD Vance ... The Biden administration’s lackluster messaging on the Delta variant ... Hunter Biden faces some deep questions from a prostitute ... Mickey: “Democratic paranoia” about new voting laws is actually about the filibuster ... Bob: The current Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could be worse ... Dems are so close to, yet so far from, passing infrastructure ... Does Andrew Cuomo have a political future? ... Parrot Room preview: Bob floats a new Grand Unified Theory of the Weinsteins, some Jeffrey Epstein news involving a doll, the Muscle Shoals doc, Trump’s wall, Glenn Greenwald gets ready to Rumble, Bob’s half-thought about vaccines, the 1/6 commission, and The Best and the Brightest continued ...

Adam's military service in Afghanistan ... How much popular support does the Taliban have? ... Adam: If the US didn’t withdraw there would be no end in sight ... Why is the Afghan military struggling to hold off the Taliban? ... A primer on Afghanistan's largest ethnic groups ... What are the chances of a political settlement? ... Will withdrawing from Afghanistan bring terrorism to America? ... Adam: Withdrawing helps the US focus on existential threats like climate change ... Can Afghanistan’s neighbors help bring stability? ...

Mickey restrains himself ... What’s Cuomo’s sex scandal strategy? ... Bob’s encounters with Cuomo the elder ... Was Bob too optimistic about the Delta variant? ... Simon Biles sticks the landing ... The implications of China’s crackdown on tech companies ... The right’s natalist schism ... Mickey: For Tucker, talking Orbán is a way to avoid talking Trump ... Eric Weinstein promises (and threatens) a big reveal ... Parrot Room preview: More Eric Weinstein talk, a Jeffrey Epstein update, Biden’s eviction moratorium, emperor penguins, the California recall, the worst program Mickey’s ever heard on NPR, The Best and the Brightest, censored parrots, and why there’s no anti-Biden Tea Party ...

Oliver’s new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals ... Why is it so hard to accept the limits of our productivity? ... Prioritizing mindfully ... Heideggerian time management ... Finding value in even "meaningless" work ... Reducing the lure of distractions ... Ten tools for embracing your finitude ... Five (pretty intense) questions for reflection ...

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