Robert Wright's Nonzero

0:28 What’s the long game in Venezuela? 19:53 MAGA’s Monroe Doctrine 17:27 Trump as deep state puppet 22:33 Will Trump oust Maduro? 26:08 Connor: Trump’s foreign policy is a “profoundly mixed bag” 38:55 Has Israel lost the American electorate? 45:19 Andrew: Trump’s Ukraine peace plan isn’t pro-Russia 50:54 Silicon Valley’s inept arms makers 58:32 The administration’s view(s) on China and Taiwan 1:11:51 Europe learns to speak Trump

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Andrew Day (The American Conservative), and Connor Echols (Responsible Statecraft). Recorded December 18, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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0:28 Elon’s reckless response to the Brown shooting 11:43 Susie Wiles gone wild 14:55 The weirdest thing about Trump’s weird Rob Reiner post 25:33 The Piers Morgan/Nick Fuentes encounter 38:22 Judging Oliver Sacks 43:50 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 December 16, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:28 The incoherence of Trump’s foreign policy 7:40 The paucity of debate around Chinese chip restrictions 19:37 Danny: Is this the stupidest foreign policy establishment ever? 25:56 Should AGI worry us? 35:07 Bob’s Overtime bait

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 December 11, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:00 Teaser 1:04 How AI helped shape cancer treatment for Nathan’s son 15:52 Should you tell your doctor about your AI medical adviser? 20:37 Big leaps for Gemini 3 and Claude Opus 4.5 27:59 How to get the best medical advice from your AI 34:37 The astonishing breadth of AI expertise 42:26 AI can help on the margins 55:55 Bob’s AI cancer journey 1:11:41 AI and “Right to try” 1:21:08 “Turning every stone” vs falling into anxiety rabbit holes 1:25:50 Gemini 3 vs Opus 4.5 1:31:58 Are scaling laws leveling off? 1:43:02 AI deception 1:47:36 Experiments in AI Consciousness

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nathan Labenz (Cognitive Revolution, Waymark AI). Recorded December 03, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

The Cognitive Revolution podcast: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/Waymark AI: https://waymark.com/

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

0:00 Teaser 1:03 Trump’s 28-point plan: first real negotiations? 3:09 Why Zelensky sounded so grim 8:23 Listing Russia’s advantages 10:08 The unknowable casualties numbers 12:32 Ukraine’s forced mobilization vs. Russia’s volunteer army 16:24 Why Russia won’t run out of money 19:39 Bob: “I want Putin to get the worst deal possible” 21:02 What is the Blob’s plan? 25:37 Bob answers a question from Discord 28:43 Trump’s failed bargaining strategy 31:00 Bob: Ukraine is “so much more complicated” than Gaza 32:41 The corruption scandal threatening Zelensky 35:25 Ukraine’s corruption scandal and Zelensky’s uncertain political future 38:10 Zaluzhnyi’s manifesto: The rival commander’s challenge 41:23 Why all decision-makers are ok with the war continuing

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded December 04, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:30 Sam’s epic new biography of William F. Buckley 5:53 Was Buckley the original Tucker Carlson? 12:35 Buckley’s paradoxical upbringing 22:36 How Yale turned Buckley into a “counter-intellectual” 36:08 Was Buckley racist or tribalist or what? 54:45 Buckley v. the Civil Rights Act 1:03:43 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Sam Tanenhaus (Louis Armstrong: Musician, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography, Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America). Recorded November 25, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Original post via Culturally Determined: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20-years-ago-bloggingheads-was-a-trailblazer-with/id981282353?i=1000735793526

Bob and former Bloggingheads.tv staffer and contributor Aryeh Cohen-Wade reflect on the legacy of Bloggingheads.tv, the pioneering website Bob co-founded in 2005. Bob and Aryeh discuss how the site and the technology that powered it anticipated modern trends in online media. They also consider whether Twitter still has any use for journalists, the pros and cons of Substack, and whether Culturally Determined should pivot back to video.

Recorded October 28, 2025

Links Included:

Max Read on his Substack stats

Andrew Thompson on the economics of Substack and money vs. attention

https://components.news/the-desire-distribution/

MeaningOfLife.tv

https://meaningoflife.tv/

Follow Bob on Twitter: https://x.com/robertwrighter

Follow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social

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 A brief history of American China hawkery 15:40 The 2008 financial crisis changed things 19:22 Xi Jinping and the great man theory of history 25:23 Can we get along with autocrats? 32:06 How China hawkery became bipartisan 38:21 Total eclipse of the hawks? 48:06 Kaiser’s “Great Reckoning” thesis

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Kaiser Kuo (https://www.sinicapodcast.com/). Recorded November 19, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:28 Bob’s Doha trip takeaways 4:06 The Epstein-Bannon-Trump connection 9:34 Can MAGA survive the Epstein saga? 12:45 Email hygiene 101 18:02 Paul defends Larry Summers 29:17 Olivia Nuzzi hikes the Appalachian trail 41:43 Overtime preview: Top podcasting secrets revealed! The punishment problem; Pluribus; the “great feminization” debate; AI “bubble” update; and more!

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 November 20, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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

0:28 Alex’s influential “Google PM Bible” 5:34 What is a tech aggregator? 13:09 AI is much more than chatbots 17:35 The dangers of centralized AI 24:17 What you want vs what you want to want 31:25 How an LLM’s memory locks you in 38:12 AGI vs ASI 44:20 Alex’s solution to the lock-in problem 51:49 Alex’s ode to “resonance”

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Alex Komoroske (Common Tools, https://www.thinkinginpublic.net/). Recorded November 18, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods