Robert Wright's Nonzero

Eli: Trump wants "regime disruption" in Iran ... Assessing Iranians’ reactions to Suleimani’s death ... Is Iran playing offense or defense in the Middle East? ... What do "death to America" and "death to Israel" really mean? ... Weighing whether Iraq will actually expel US forces ... Optimistic and pessimistic regime change scenarios ... How likely is war with Iran and what would it look like? ...

Eli: Trump wants "regime disruption" in Iran ... Assessing Iranians’ reactions to Suleimani’s death ... Is Iran playing offense or defense in the Middle East? ... What do "death to America" and "death to Israel" really mean? ... Weighing whether Iraq will actually expel US forces ... Optimistic and pessimistic regime change scenarios ... How likely is war with Iran and what would it look like? ...

Zachary’s new group of (mainly) optimistic thinkers, the Progress Network ... What many missed about the effects of globalization ... What good comes from highlighting the good stuff? ... A case study in the dangers of alarmism: Trump and the Resistance ... Bob on the perils of not nurturing global governance ... Lessons from past periods of rapid change in infotech ... Bob on the Quincy Institute, a new non-Blob foreign policy think tank ... Are there too many doomsayers? ...

Zachary’s new group of (mainly) optimistic thinkers, the Progress Network ... What many missed about the effects of globalization ... What good comes from highlighting the good stuff? ... A case study in the dangers of alarmism: Trump and the Resistance ... Bob on the perils of not nurturing global governance ... Lessons from past periods of rapid change in infotech ... Bob on the Quincy Institute, a new non-Blob foreign policy think tank ... Are there too many doomsayers? ...

Defining "moral realism" ... Cognitivists vs. noncognitivists ... Are moral beliefs just expressions of human desires? ... Human happiness is better than human suffering...right? ... Considering whether you can be both a Darwinian and a moral realist ... Moral progress, teleology, and mysticism ... Why you "have to take something for granted" in any philosophical system ... The bedrock sources of meaning in life ... If life has meaning, does moral realism logically follow? ...

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If Trump wins re-election, will Democrats "go berserk," as Mickey says? ... The top 1% vs. the next 29% ... What are Bernie's chances? ... Bob: Negative partisanship is the decade's most alarming psycho-political trend ... Mickey floats some UFO theories ... An under-the-radar scandal at the world’s chemical weapons watchdog agency ... Bob and Mickey mystified by influence of Twitter elites on presidential campaign ... Silicon Valley: What’s not to hate? ... The past decade’s glimmer of hope: growing awareness of cognitive biases ... Who's crazier, Bob or Mickey? ...

Rhonda's path to meditation and Buddhism ... Rhonda's new book, The Inner Work of Racial Justice ... Is equanimity the enemy of activism? ... Using mindfulness to overcome biases and stereotypes ... How Rhonda deploys contemplative practices in her law school classroom ... Can one feel compassion for a cop who shot an unarmed black man? ...

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

Dominic’s paper, “Bad World: The Negativity Bias in International Politics” ... Why politicians overestimate threats to national security ... The cognitive bias of “loss avoidance” as fuel for war ... Do international actors give too much weight to past failures? ... World War I as a case study in negativity bias ... Arguments against Dominic’s argument ... Can we use our growing knowledge of cognitive biases to avoid unwise conflicts? ...

Bob reminisces about the origins of Bloggingheads.tv ... Where The Glenn Show fits into the BhTV ecosystem ... Speech policing, the "n-word," and the uses of ridicule ... What's Trump's executive order on anti-Semitism really about? ... Does the IDW care about protecting speech critical of Israel? ... Bob critiques The Trayvon Hoax ... Bob: Be wary of throwing around the word "hoax" ... Quillette accuses Bob of palling around with tyranny apologists ...

Stationary bike company Peloton's holiday ad drives the Internet batty ... Does the ad have a secret message? ... Kat: The ad is about spiritual transformation through exercise ... When banal chitchat at holiday parties goes viral ... An era of performative hypersensitivity/outrage ... The gender politics of a $400 Star Wars Dutch oven ...