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The Wright Show

Latest episodes

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Oct 1, 2020 • 60min

Social Media and Cognitive Empathy (Robert Wright & Josh Summers)

Applying cognitive empathy to the Supreme Court vacancy fight ... The danger of runaway retaliation ... Reviewing The Social Dilemma, a new documentary critical of social media ... Enhance your online stature by vilifying the other tribe! ... How will historians view the social media era? ... Can Democrats oppose Barrett mindfully? ... The links between yoga and mindfulness ...
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Sep 8, 2020 • 60min

Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World (Robert Wright & Sharon Salzberg)

How Sharon became one of the first Americans to study Buddhism in India ... Sharon's new book, Real Change: Mindfulness to Heal Ourselves and the World ... Does meditation seal you off from the world? ... Mindfully coping with anger on social media ... There's more political diversity among meditators than you might think ... Sharon explains lovingkindness meditation ... The difficult work of finding compassion for your enemies ... Planting seeds in a garden you never get to see ...
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Aug 25, 2020 • 60min

The Rights of Animals (Robert Wright & Ingrid Newkirk)

Ingrid's new book, Animalkind ... Animal rights vs. animal welfare ... Amazing facts about animals (and the many things we still don't know) ... Is it bad to call your dog a “pet” (or for that matter “yours”)? ... Contemplating animal consciousness ... How unethical is Bob's pescatarian diet? ... The rise of artificial meat ... Ingrid asks, "Do you think that animal was a volunteer?" ... Ingrid's extremely unusual last will and testament ...
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Aug 24, 2020 • 60min

Cognitive Empathy and Mindfulness (Robert Wright & Josh Summers)

A live conversation with Josh Summers on cognitive empathy and mindfulness. ...
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Aug 18, 2020 • 60min

Cognitive Empathy and Michael Brooks (Robert Wright, Josh Summers, Donna Brooks)

A conversation in memory of the late journalist and podcaster Michael Brooks. ...
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Jul 28, 2020 • 60min

Life Is in the Transitions (Robert Wright & Bruce Feiler)

Bruce's new book, Life Is in the Transitions: Mastering Change at Any Age ... Debunking the idea of the "predictable crises of adult life" ... Two kinds of life changes: "disruptors" and "lifequakes" ... Does Bob need a lifequake? ... Bruce: "The linear model of life transitions is just wrong" ... Millennials zigging and zagging ... The ABCs of meaning: agency, belonging, cause ... How to write your own life story ... Are the stories we tell about ourselves just BS? And is that okay? ... How to change the meaning of your life ...
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Jul 21, 2020 • 60min

On Inhumanity (Robert Wright & David Livingstone Smith)

David's new book, On Inhumanity: Dehumanization and How to Resist It ... The tension at the heart of dehumanization ... David: Genocides are moralistic ... The essential role of psychological essentialism ... Dehumanization in American politics ... When David received death threats after critiquing Jordan Peterson ... The "Great Chain of Being" and our complex conception of monsters ... Why David doesn't like the term "the banality of evil" ... How to resist dehumanization ...
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Jul 15, 2020 • 60min

Buddhism and War (Robert Wright & Bhikkhu Bodhi)

Buddhism and the military atrocities in Myanmar and Sri Lanka ... The early political history of Buddhism ... Varieties of Buddhist rationales for nonviolence ... The history of war between Southeast Asian nations ... Is warfare antithetical to attaining enlightenment? ... Justifications for non-pacifism ... Meditation and the antiwar mindset ... Foreign policy, anti-China sentiment, and BLM protests ...
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Jul 8, 2020 • 60min

Humankind: A Hopeful History (Robert Wright & Rutger Bregman)

Rutger's new book, Humankind: A Hopeful History ... Debunking the "veneer theory" of human nature ... Are violence and war intrinsic to human nature? ... The human self-domestication thesis ... Why Bob doesn't like the idea of people "deserving punishment" ... Is it bad to emphasize the dark side of human nature? ... What the debunking of the Stanford Prison Experiment can teach us ... Giving money to rich people: Why the U in UBI? ... Would UBI turn us all into couch potatoes (or worse)? ...
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Jun 3, 2020 • 60min

The Psychology of the Pandemic (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)

Paul describes the view from Toronto ... Zero- and non-zero-sum aspects of the pandemic ... Paul: Canada's multiparty system helps defuse polarization ... A disaster without solidarity ... How our emotions caused us to underreact to the pandemic ... Masks and mobs ... Trump's fragile feelings ... Why has the external threat of the disease not united humanity? ... A deep dive into the meaning of statistical significance ...

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