Robert Wright's Nonzero

Jamie’s book, Hacking Darwin: Genetic Engineering and the Future of Humanity ... Why Jamie thinks young adults should freeze their sperm or eggs now ... The state of genetic engineering today ... The specter of eugenics ... Will gene-splicing create a new kind of inequality? ... How to avoid a eugenics arms race among nations ... Jamie predicts what kinds of gene editing will be possible in 10 years ...

The swankier side of Bob ... Could Pence derail Biden on January 6? ... Bob and Mickey try to capture 2020 in one sentence. Then try again. And again. ... Forecasting the pandemic’s end ... Should auld grievance be forgot ... Can Biden avert a new cold war? ... What Bob and Mickey got right and wrong about 2020 ... Mickey’s best and worst of 2020 ...

Looking back at Eric’s 25-year reign as The Nation’s media columnist ... The virtues and vices of democratized media ... Bob: Why does mainstream media do the bidding of the Blob? ... Eric accuses Bob of shirking his gatekeeping responsibilities ... Eric’s free speech case against BDS ... Bob’s problem with #Resistance journalism ... The strange case of Elliot Abrams ... Eric tries to dissuade young people from going into journalism ...

Aaron: The new BBC podcast on the White Helmets is journalistic malpractice ... Aaron critiques the standard Western narrative on Syria ... Was the Syria intervention just a proxy war against Iran? ... How Aaron changed his views on Syria (featuring Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters) ... The controversy over the 2018 chemical attack in Douma ... How epithets like ‘Assad apologist’ short-circuit good journalism ... Aaron’s beef with Bellingcat ... How more transparency at OPCW would help the fight against chemical weapons ... Bob's Christmas wish ...

Bob receives the Maroon 5 endorsement ... The New York Times piece on the Toobin Affair ... The endless attempt to overturn the election ... Could we double the rate of covid vaccination? ... Does Joe Biden have an ideology? ... Bob fails in his bid to troll the Blob ... Mickey’s embarrassing tweet takes off ... Twitter’s anti-egalitarian bent ...

How political scientists think about civil war ... Richard: claims that we’re on the brink of civil war have a “pro-wrestling quality” ... Two theories of civil war: grievance vs. opportunity ... Should we worry about escalating civil conflict that falls short of civil war? ... Information ecosystems and civil conflict ... Richard’s critique of the “great powers” paradigm in international relations ...

A grand unified theory of Biden’s cabinet: cognitive decline ... Judging the Texas lawsuit on its merits ... Is Trump’s post-election campaign poisoning America? ... The state of Congress after Trump ... Bob and Mickey reach consensus: Hunter Biden seems pretty shady ... Who gets the vaccine first and which one will they get? ... Some problematic Biden cabinet picks ...

Could evolution have a higher purpose? ... The value of (some) untestable hypotheses ... What zombies can (and can’t) teach us about consciousness ... Evolutionary teleology vs. evolutionary teleonomy ... Why does evolution produce increasingly complex forms of life? ... Distinguishing between physical laws and natural processes ... Could the hypothesis that evolution is serving a larger purpose be tested? ...

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The latest election conspiracy theory: suitcases full of ballots in Atlanta ... Georgia sparks a Trumpworld civil war ... Mickey's Jared-centric conspiracy theory about Trump's post-presidency ... What if election fraud is actually discovered? ... Mickey's Bibi-centric conspiracy theory for why Trump sucks up to Putin ... What's the deal with Neera Tanden? ... Bob critiques Biden's underwhelming cabinet picks ... Mickey's Israel-centric conspiracy theory for Bill Kristol's leftward shift ... Do you want to be at the front of the Covid vaccination line? ...

Continuing the exploration of "the Dharma of Bob" ... Bob: There is no good alternative to global community ... Defining non-zero-sumness ... How genetic "selfishness" led to altruism ... The psychology of tribalism ... Can we bridge the polarization divide? ... Sadly, self-transcendence isn't genetically inheritable ... Does Bob see cause for optimism? ...

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