

Bloggingheads.tv
Bloggingheads.tv
Smart people talking about politics, policy, culture and other stuff
Episodes
Mentioned books

Dec 30, 2025 • 60min
2025: A Year-End (And Quarter-Century-End) Reckoning (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
David Lynch, Jane Goodall, and other notable 2025 losses ... When Bob called James Watson a "mad scientist" ... Predicting 2050: Star Trek abundance vs. "Total Chaos Planet"? ... The age of algorithmically guided attention ... Global poverty reduction (and its flip side) ... Will anyone care if your newsletter is AI-written? ... Trump's USAID cuts killed a lot of people ... Elon Musk, Alex Karp, and the age of the "manifestly crazy" ... Can the Supreme Court stop Trump? ... JD Vance's identity crisis: Tech bro or populist? ... The "Black Swan": When AI starts killing people ... AI scientific breakthroughs to come ... Bob and Paul's 2025 Entertainment Awards ... Which jobs are truly AI-proof? ... Bob's Epstein document deep-dive ... Bill Ackman's conspiracy-theory-brained year ... Are US arms sales pushing China to invade Taiwan? ... Barry Weiss’s journalistic scruples ...

Dec 23, 2025 • 60min
What Era Are We Living In? (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)
Teaser ... What era are we living in? ... David Bowie: "The Internet is an alien life form." ... Bob: "It's like aliens are approaching, and we don't know their intentions" ... Nikita: "COVID was weird, and nothing has been normal since" ... The lab leak theory ... How COVID killed consensus reality ... Bob's case for international biotech monitoring ... Vaccine geopolitics ... Bob's candidate: We let machines guide our attention ... Trump's failed bargaining strategy ... Technological progress is like a cocaine high ... How common is the idea that AI will be a big deal? ... When music is high stakes. Russian street musicians get arrested ... Heading to Overtime ...

Dec 19, 2025 • 60min
The Year in Trump Foreign Policy (Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Connor Echols)
What's the long game in Venezuela? ... MAGA's Monroe Doctrine ... Trump as deep state puppet ... Will Trump oust Maduro? ... Connor: Trump's foreign policy is a "profoundly mixed bag" ... Has Israel lost the American electorate? ... Andrew: Trump's Ukraine peace plan isn’t pro-Russia ... Silicon Valley’s inept arms makers ... The administration's view(s) on China and Taiwan ... Europe learns to speak Trump ...

Dec 17, 2025 • 60min
Elon, Trump, Fuentes: Bad Men or Trolls or Both? (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Elon’s reckless response to the Brown shooting ... Susie Wiles gone wild ... The weirdest thing about Trump’s weird Rob Reiner post ... The Piers Morgan/Nick Fuentes encounter ... Judging Oliver Sacks ... Heading to Overtime ...

Dec 12, 2025 • 60min
Venezuela, China, and Trump’s Incoherence (Robert Wright, Derek Davison, and Daniel Bessner)
The incoherence of Trump's foreign policy ... The paucity of debate around Chinese chip restrictions ... Danny: Is this the stupidest foreign policy establishment ever? ... Should AGI worry us? ... Bob’s Overtime bait ...

Dec 10, 2025 • 60min
Using AI to Fight Cancer (Robert Wright & Nathan Labenz)
Teaser ... How AI helped shape cancer treatment for Nathan's son ... Should you tell your doctor about your AI medical adviser? ... Big leaps for Gemini 3 and Claude Opus 4.5 ... How to get the best medical advice from your AI ... The astonishing breadth of AI expertise ... AI can help on the margins ... Bob's AI cancer journey ... AI and “Right to try” ... "Turning every stone" vs falling into anxiety rabbit holes ... Gemini 3 vs Opus 4.5 ... Are scaling laws leveling off? ... AI deception ... Experiments in AI Consciousness ...

Dec 5, 2025 • 60min
The Hard Truth about Peace in Ukraine (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)
Nikita Petrov, a political expert focusing on Russian politics and the Ukraine war, joins Robert Wright to tackle the complexities of the ongoing conflict. They explore the implications of Zelensky's grim remarks and the challenges of forced mobilization in Ukraine compared to Russia's volunteer army. The duo examines Russia's economic sustainability amid sanctions, critiques media portrayals of peace efforts, and dissects internal rivalries within Ukraine's leadership. Their insights reveal the tangled dynamics shaping the path toward peace.

Dec 2, 2025 • 60min
The Life and Legacy of William F. Buckley (Robert Wright & Sam Tanenhaus)
Teaser ... Sam’s epic new biography of William F. Buckley ... Was Buckley the original Tucker Carlson? ... Buckley's paradoxical upbringing ... How Yale turned Buckley into a “counter-intellectual” ... Was Buckley racist or tribalist or what? ... Buckley v. the Civil Rights Act ... Heading to Overtime ...

Nov 27, 2025 • 60min
20 Years Ago, Bloggingheads Was a Trailblazer, with Robert Wright (Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Robert Wright)
Join Robert Wright, co-founder of BloggingHeads.tv and host of the Non-Zero Podcast, as he revisits the 20-year legacy of his groundbreaking platform. He discusses the innovative technology and user experience features that set the stage for modern online media. Wright and Aryeh Cohen-Wade debate the relevance of Twitter for journalists, the pros and cons of Substack, and the impact of highly produced video content versus audio. They also reflect on the dynamics of civil discourse and the challenges creators face in maintaining editorial independence.

Nov 25, 2025 • 60min
China Hawks in Retreat? (Robert Wright & Kaiser Kuo)
Teaser ... A brief history of American China hawkery ... The 2008 financial crisis changed things ... Xi Jinping and the great man theory of history ... Can we get along with autocrats? ... How China hawkery became bipartisan ... Total eclipse of the hawks? ... Kaiser’s "Great Reckoning" thesis ...


