Robert Wright's Nonzero

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

Bob: Tucker Carlson’s replacement rhetoric is intentionally inflammatory ... Is the rhetoric of “transformation” analogous to that of “replacement”? ... Two NYT headlines that trigger Bob ... Is Russia making more progress than it seems in eastern Ukraine? ... Mickey: If Trumpists depose Mitch McConnell, it could forestall a Trump 2024 run ... George W. Bush’s magnificent Ukraine-Iraq gaffe ... Can John Fetterman win in the PA general election? ... Parrot Room preview: Severance, Covid, Elon Musk’s sex scandal, the Depp-Heard trial, Jonathan Chait on charter schools, unemployment fraud, the Dead End podcast, the origins of Ukrainian nationalism, Benjamin Wittes’s infuriatingly Blobby Twitter thread, and what Ramesh Ponnuru misses about replacement rhetoric ... 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

Ian's brand new book, The Power of Crisis ... Did NATO expansion lead to the invasion of Ukraine? ... Ian: We shouldn’t have left Russia behind after the Cold War ... How much trouble is caused by America’s lack of perspective-taking? ... The critical problems Ian wants the world to focus on ... Does the “democracy vs. autocracy” framing do more harm than good? ... The rival technological visions of the US and China (and Elon Musk) ... Could our current crises be the seeds of future flourishing? ... 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 baby formula conundrum ... Mickey: Chuck Schumer has put Dems in a bad position for the midterms ... Is the Ukraine military aid bill excessive? ... How neoconish think tanks influence Western coverage of Ukraine ... Mickey asks: Would a new cold war be so bad? Bob answers. ... Kathy Barnette’s surprising surge in the Pennsylvania GOP senate primary ... If a Trumpist Trump hasn’t endorsed wins a race, is it a win for Trump? ... Is Tesla’s stock price threatening Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase? ... Musk backpedals on his free speech position ... Video of Israeli soldiers beating mourners at the funeral of journalist Shireen Abu Akleh goes viral ... Mickey: It’s much more plausible that the Roe v. Wade opinion leaker was a left-winger ... Parrot Room preview: Steve Schmidt’s meltdown, Dinesh D’Souza is at it again, the creepy views of a Disinformation Governance Board member, IQ differences in a pair of South Korean twins, J.D. Vance, the child tax credit, Station Eleven, the etymology of “black hole” and its connection to Bob, drinking spinal fluid for brain rejuvenation, Tucker Carlson, and the shifting Latino vote ... 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

Sizing up the new Cold War ... Is China complicit in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? ... Dissecting the Russia-Ukraine, China-Taiwan analogy ... Understanding Taiwan’s status – and vulnerability – in the international system ... Did US foreign policy make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more likely? ... What role did the US play in Ukraine’s 2014 revolution? ... Was Bush 41 the golden age of American post-Cold-War diplomacy? ... Susan: Trump shook things up but was a blight on America’s reputation ... Bob has an idea: How about a world without 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

What does J.D. Vance’s primary win teach us about the Trump Effect? ... Will the overturning of Roe give Democrats a boost in the midterms? ... The Hillary Clinton campaign’s role in amping up Russiagate ... Bob: A cornered Putin is a scarier Putin ... Doing the nuclear war math ... Can Putin take Odessa and Kharkiv? ... Taylor Lorenz tangles with Matt Drudge ... A new study shows that Omicron is not intrinsically milder than the original Covid virus ... Some quick corrections ... The Biden administration’s ill-advised Ukraine leaks ... Parrot Room preview: Elon Musk talk, Station Eleven, Severance, the latest January 6 leak, Bob gets a classic Michael McFaul brush-off, the White House Correspondents Dinner, Gavin Newsom, unjustified deplatforming, WNYC’s Dead End podcast, and Roe v. Wade ... 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 basics of “analytic idealism”—Bernardo’s consciousness-only theory of reality ... How intuitive is the materialist worldview, really? ... Does evolution select for “true” perceptions of reality? ... Is idealism compatible with evolutionary theory? ... Bernardo: The "physical" world is a convenient fiction ... Putting idealism to the (empirical) test ... The idealist view of various quantum physics quandaries ... Telepathy, premonition, and other “weirdness” under idealism ... Can analytic idealism change your life? ... 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

Does Elon Musk know what he’s gotten himself into? ... Bob: Leaving Twitter is harder than it sounds ... Bob offers Musk a free idea for monetizing Twitter ... Is the US backing Putin into a corner? ... Mickey: Kevin McCarthy’s dumbness is an asset ... A cynical theory about the origins of Russiagate ... Does anyone have anything to look forward to? ... Parrot Room preview: Covid, Jeffrey Goldberg, Mickey is worried about immigration again, false flag accusations against Russia, Bob complains about William Burns’s memoir, Glen Campbell trivia, Tucker Carlson talk, the transition of power at the NYT, another Madison Cawthorn sex scandal, Station Eleven, and Nico ... 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