Robert Wright's Nonzero

Mickey implores Bob: “Leave Biden alone!” Bob proves incapable. ... Democrats’ surprisingly good Senate race poll numbers ... Mickey: Immigration numbers are climbing, but the media isn’t covering it ... The downsides of framing US foreign policy as a “struggle against autocracy” ... How courageous was Pence on January 6? ... Did Trump both plan and fan the violence on January 6? ... Mickey: Trump and DeSantis are neck and neck as 2024 prospects ... Will Biden lift Trump-era tariffs on China? ... Bob: Ukraine may soon run out of ammo for its Soviet-era artillery ... Parrot Room preview: Exciting child tax credit news, Jeffrey Epstein news, a new angle on the Dave Weigel affair, Stanford eliminates fun, a deep dive into Bob’s views on consciousness, the dating habits of Richard Spencer, the US Open, Bob pummels an NYT headline, the Proud Boys, and Kurt Gödel ... 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

Nikita’s exciting—but daunting—new creative venture ... What responsibility do the Russian people bear for their government’s actions? ... Seeing clearly the many perspectives in the “Russian perspective” ... When does blaming propaganda go from explanation to excuse? ... Was this war with Russia the least bad option for Ukraine? ... Is fighting the power a fool’s errand? ... Assigning credit (and blame) for post-Soviet Russia ... Did US interests want Russia to invade Ukraine? ... 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

What did we learn from the primetime January 6 hearing? ... Bob: “Our foreign policy is virtue signaling, and it’s very, very costly” ... The alarming threats against Supreme Court justices ... WaPo’s dismissal of Felicia Sonmez ... Does Chesa Boudin’s recall mark the end of criminal justice reform? ... The Iran Deal teeters on the edge of collapse ... Bob tears Biden and Blinken’s sanctioning policy a new one ... Mickey: Biden should prepare for midterm losses by pivoting now ... Why haven’t Ukraine’s new weapons slowed Russia down? ... Parrot Room preview: Felicia Sonmez, Saudi Arabia’s LIV golf tour, why Microsoft may own the metaverse, The Glitch in the Matrix, an under-reported Jeffrey Epstein-Elon Musk connection, a lab leak hypothesis update, Mickey’s un-PC thoughts about Ken Bode, and Mickey wrestles with his own ideological affiliations ... 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

Josh: World War I shattered empires, ethnic cleansing created nation-states ... How the US and Russia wound up cooperating to fight ISIS and Sunni militias ... Why Turkey is holding up NATO membership for Sweden and Finland ... By helping to keep Syria divided, is the US giving ISIS free rein? ... What Turkey wants in exchange for letting Sweden and Finland into NATO ... In retrospect, should the US not have intervened in Syria? ... Why Russia-Ukraine might become another devastating frozen conflict ... Josh: Putin misapplied the lessons of Syria to Ukraine ... How US sanctions impede conflict resolution in the Middle East ... 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

Mickey’s ingenious—and not at all far-fetched—solution to the Kamala problem ... Failures to unravel the Gordian knot of gun control ... Has Biden’s approval hit rock-bottom? Mickey hopes not ... The most plausible path to a ceasefire in Ukraine ... The Hillary Clinton-Cold War II connection ... Hillary lawyer Michael Sussmann acquitted ... Trump aide Peter Navarro indicted ... Inflation and Omicron: good news, bad news for Biden? ... Parrot Room preview: Depp-Heard verdict, the Ben Wittes defense of Michael Sussmann, what’s up with Tucker Carlson’s son?, Sheryl Sandberg’s political ambitions, prospective chief of staff replacement’s Harvey Weinstein problem, Ann Coulter starts a Substack, Freddie deBoer gets Ben Smith’d, making heads or tails of rising non-binary rates, Ukraine War spin, Dead End, Undone, Severance ... 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

Why Jon’s dire Atlantic piece demanded a Bob-response ... Are today’s problems typical technological growing pains or alarming signs of demise? ... How much blame should social media get for the mess we’re in? ... Do today’s progressives recognize social progress? ... Jon: Productive “managed conflict” has become nearly impossible ... Will self-help save the planet? ... Can America survive without cultural common ground? ... Will the flip side of intranational tension be international cohesion? ... The three changes Jon thinks could save American society ... 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

A brief word about civility. Why is Elon Musk feuding with AOC? Mickey vs. Andy McCarthy on the Sussman case. Is the FBI really the bad guy? Is it crazy to think video games can cause violence? Run, Michelle, run! Is Pakistan coming apart? Shouldn’t Frank Foer defend his Alfa Bank story again? The case for Peter Beinart. Kerry’s failure to undermine Trump on Iran. Biden’s failure to reverse Trump on Iran. Kelly Anne Conway pushes Trump’s hot button. Why Trump can’t quit Jared. Bob’s Dead End update. Mickey thinks it’s time for an Yglesias self-reckoning. Everybody likes Goodfellas, but the Copacabana is not the longest tracking shot. And everybody likes After Hours. Will Peter Thiel control two senators? Three generations of Bushes are enough. Do the Clintons really need all that money? Is writing about national service inherently boring? Does Ukraine show that all big military platforms are dead ducks? Will Bob ever stop talking about Ukraine media bias? Mickey’s Inferno: sports talk radio. Severance and Station Eleven: There’s just no pleasing Mickey. Gratuitous musical reference of the week.This dialogue is (in part, at least) a continuation of a publicly available dialogue taped earlier in the day. 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

California voting information materials fail the cognitive empathy test ... Will the latest mass shooting spur effective federal gun legislation? ... Mickey: Schumer will learn from Obama’s post-Sandy Hook political mistakes ... Are elites and geniuses more juvenile than the rest of us? ... Bob asks: Why is Western media so slow to report bad news from Ukraine? ... Do we really know “what the Ukrainian people want”? ... The status of the US’s “strategic ambiguity” toward Taiwan becomes more ambiguous ... Mickey: Americans’ enthusiasm for funding Ukraine is cooling ... Trump’s Republican bêtes noires win in Georgia ... Parrot Room preview: Franklin Foer’s role in the Sussman case, Severance, Kellyanne Conway’s book, Elon Musk’s tweets, Peter Thiel the kingmaker, the Bush dynasty vs. the Clinton dynasty, Luke Russert reopens the national service debate, monkeypox, the Institute for the Study of War’s role in the Ukraine bad news lag, the Iran nuclear deal, the Dead End podcast, and Station Eleven ... 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

Suzanne’s new book, The Apocalypse and the End of History: Modern Jihad and the Crisis of Liberalism ... The ongoing War on Terror in the age of the new Cold War ... Jihadism as a modern phenomenon ... The recent evolution of the doctrine of jihad ... What about modernity are jihadists – and US right-wingers – reacting against? ... Suzanne: To thwart authoritarians, build robust democratic communities ... Who is fighting the liberal status quo? ... Are Democrats too idealistic? ... Dispelling the myth of primordial ethnic tribalism ... 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

The inevitable Musk sex scandal. Musk is better at Twitter than Trump. Who picked Johnny Depp as the anti-Me-Too poster boy? Bob got addicted to the Depp-Heard trial and he doesn’t know why. The hard case Tucker Carlson critics are ducking. Bob lets Mickey go on. Up to a point. What does Ron Brownstein mean by ‘transformation’ exactly? The craziest anti-deplorable. Twitter eats Ben Wittes’s brain. Zelensky lowers expectations. Biden’s charter school sellout? The three levels of Severance. Did Tucker’s mom get to him? The race to identify Biden’s core problem: Megalomania gaining down the stretch. New Jersey corruption: Just when Bob thought he was out, they pulled him back in. Why would BBB cause inflation?—Can Larry Summers be wrong? The origins of Ukrainian nationalism. Mickey’s crazy explanation of Spanish anarchism. Good news and bad news about Covid vaccination. Parrot impersonates Elon Musk singing ‘Get Rhythm’.  This dialogue is (in part, at least) a continuation of a publicly available dialogue taped earlier in the day. 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