Robert Wright's Nonzero

Mickey engineers an unholy Bob Wright-Michael McFaul chimera ... Is Putin losing or winning slowly? ... What China stands to gain and lose from war in Ukraine ... Bob: Biden’s approach to China seems to be driven by politics, not diplomacy ... Is Xi’s leadership on shaky ground? ... Bob: China is not seeking to impose its political system on the world ... Climate change as the tip of the apocalypse iceberg ... Is Zelenskyy the hero US media makes him out to be? ... How Biden’s Ukraine policy may affect Democrats at the polls ... Iran nuclear talks enter the on-again part of the cycle ... Ten things we got wrong in the pandemic ... Parrot Room preview: Hunter Biden, anti-Asian hate crimes, civil service reform, the Michael McFaul Apology of the Week, OJ Simpson and Natalie Wood theories continued, Oliver Stone’s Ukraine doc, some mild venting about Timothy Snyder, Mickey reveals the results of his Jeffrey Toobin-Jeffrey Goldberg-Vladimir Putin poll, Steve Earle, Mickey’s favorite piece of writing of the week, some studies say preschool sucks, Ketanji Brown Jackson and pedophilia, and Bob talks about a dream ... 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

Eli’s assessment of the Russo-Ukrainian War to date ... Is a negotiated end to the war in sight? ... Bob and Eli debate the implications of the leaked 2014 Victoria Nuland call ... Is the war in Russia’s interest? Or Putin’s? ... What options remain for more forceful intervention (that won’t lead to nuclear war)? ... Eli’s idea for a UN alternative sans Russia and (maybe) China ... Debating America's track record as keeper of the “rules-based order” ... Bob and Eli unite against the new McCarthyism ... 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

Would Ukraine actually agree to cede the Donbas to Russia? ... Bob: Xi Jinping could end the war ... Is Putin using madman theory to his advantage, or is he actually going nuts? ... The pros and cons of regime change in Russia ... Is Ukraine becoming Syria? ... How George W. Bush helped alienate Putin from the West ... Russia’s new incentive to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal ... America’s curious policy on Ukraine and NATO ... Mickey: There’s no necessary link between populism and autocracy ... Parrot Room preview: Oren Cass’s revisionist account of Adam Smith, a relatively wholesome sex scandal at the Southern border, Mickey takes issue with “sneering, overconfident” legal scholar Akhil Amar, new evidence concerning Bob Saget’s death, old rumors concerning Natalie Wood’s death, the American trucker convoy flops, Bob plays damning audio from Jake Tapper, the hospital bombing in Mariupol, complaints about Michael McFaul, Putin, a reader’s question about Bob’s OJ Simpson theory, and Facebook and Twitter’s pro-Ukraine/anti-Russia stances ... 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

Understanding the thought process that led Putin to invade Ukraine ... Could diplomacy have prevented the invasion? ... Imagining possible endings of the war – and what comes after ... Reviewing the events that drove the West and Putin’s Russia apart ... How Moscow viewed the 2014 Maidan Revolution in Ukraine ... Could a palace coup in Moscow reset US-Russia relations? ... Bob and Katrina worry that the planet can’t afford a second cold war ... 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

Always be prepared (for nuclear fallout) ... Is Putin headed for the Baltics? ... Why is the Western media reporting so little about the Azov Battalion? ... Mickey: Zelenskyy should give up parts of the Donbas and Crimea ... Bob: I don’t think Putin will move on to the Baltics ... Trying to see Ukraine clearly from within the Western media bubble ... The political difficulties of ceding territory ... How Russia’s military measures up against the US ... The US’s decades-long mismanagement of its relationship with Russia ... Michael McFaul’s really, really bad tweet to the people of Russia ... Parrot Room preview: the State of the Union, the January 6 Commission alleges they have Trump, the NYT’s “fraudulent” Trayvon Martin video, the latest economic report, big news for Zemmour in France, some Epstein news, the Freedom Convoy keeps on truckin’, trouble for Rick Scott, Bob reports on a biography of Putin, a contrarian take on the OJ Simpson trial, what Bob meant by “natural organic borders,” and an (unrehearsed) harmonica performance of “A Whiter Shade of Pale” ... 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

Steven’s book, Status and the Challenge of Rising Powers ... How concerns about status motivate Russia’s aggressive behavior ... Bob wonders if Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine was based on emotion ... Why Steven thinks Russia’s hostile reaction to NATO expansion was partly about status ... When does a nation's wounded pride translate into dangerous behavior? ... Seeing the rise of China as a bid for prestige and recognition ... Bob: Is the US driven by status considerations? ... Applying Steven’s argument to Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan ... 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 converts to Bob-ism ... Reassessing the ‘Is Putin Crazy?’ question post-invasion ... Were we *too* understanding of Putin? ... Zelensky—to arm or not to arm? ... How will Americans grade Biden’s handling of Russia-Ukraine? ... Did Russiagate make it harder for Biden to negotiate with Putin? ... The parallels between Russia-Ukraine and the ‘99 Kosovo intervention ... Biden’s Supreme Court nominee ... Mickey denounces Trudeau’s “couch potato fascism” ... Why Bob is queasy about this week’s George Floyd verdicts ... Parrot Room preview: An Epstein associate bites the dust, Jim Pinkerton’s “Mars, Meta, or Meatspace” trichotomy re: humanity’s future, The New Yorker’s Dean Baquet puff piece, Douthat on the “virtuals” vs “reals” divide, are the convoys coming to America?, Un-cancelling Louis CK, Putin and the psychology of status, Douglas McArthur as role model, The Expanse's jump-the-shark moment, and was Bob too mean on Twitter? ... 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 grim state of Ukraine and Russia today ... Nikita’s initial reactions to Putin’s Ukraine speech ... Is Putin getting weirder? Or is reality? Or both? ... How did Russians react to the 2014 Ukrainian Revolution? ... Russian views on NATO expansion and the color revolutions ... Nikita: Political life in Russia is (mostly) dead ... Are Putin’s actions savvy politicking or signs of madness? ... Has the West mismanaged the post-Cold War era? ... 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 sparks up ... Mickey critiques the "Coalition of the Ascendant" ... Have Democratic positions on cultural issues turned toxic? ... Mike Pence’s defense of the RNC’s January 6 resolution ... Will the trucker protests go transnational? ... Bob: I don’t see Putin doing regime change in Ukraine ... Were defense contractors the prime mover of NATO expansion? ... Mickey: The great regreasing of the Biden Administration has begun ... Is Big Pharma funneling money to the CDC? ... Who is funding Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the NYT? ... The proposed changes to the Electoral Count Act ... Remembering P.J. O’Rourke ... Parrot Room preview: A settlement in the Epstein suit, Matt Yglesias and the demise of the Slate Pitch, the rise of Zemmour in France, are people in big cities scared of crime?, Bill Kristof sucks up to Ezra Klein, the previously untold story of how Slate started, how Jeff Zucker’s departure could lead to a better CNN, Bob’s plunge into the war in the Pacific continues, and Mickey discovers gender-inclusive bathrooms ... 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

Ben, author of a new book on Christopher Hitchens, gives us a brief history of Hitch ... Bob: Hitchens's argument in God is not Great was...not great ... Where was Hitchens’s Marxist materialism when it came to religion? ... Assessing Hitchens’s intellectual contributions ... Was Hitchens an “honest” arguer? ... Why did Hitchens become a hawk? ... Hitchens in light of the Intellectual Dark Web ... Ben gives his closing argument for why Hitchens is still worth thinking about ... 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