Robert Wright's Nonzero

Nonzero

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Conversations with a series of people who have nothing in common except that program host Robert Wright is curious about what they’re thinking. www.nonzero.org

−1 D

Agency, AI, and the MAGA Impulse (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Recap: how MAGA's domestic and foreign policy fit together as one project 8:31 MAGA reframed as a response to a felt lack of agency 11:50 AI is about to make that loss of agency universal 12:58 The first technology we're actually transferring agency to 17:05 What Claude Code is doing to Nikita's creative process 22:02 Will people use their free time well — or sit on a couch and inject heroin? 2436 Why Spanish festival culture might survive AI better than anyone 30:12 Bots on the street, humans in the parlor: the future of online spaces 37:24 Reading a comment and being depressed by both possibilities Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded February 12, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

44 min
−3 D

Is the Singularity Near? (Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:24 Is Tim feeling the AI acceleration? 6:47 Claude Code: decrypted 12:54 Has AGI already arrived? 20:38 Moltbook: Skynet rising? Or hot air? 24:48 The various “singularities” 31:34 Where Tim looks for signs of the singularity 41:10 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Timothy B. Lee (Full Stack Economics, Understanding AI, AI Summer). Recorded February 9, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

41 min
5 FEB.

Trump's Big Gambles: Iran, China, and AI (Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Curt Mills)

1:22 Army brats and media empires 2:40 Is war with Iran imminent? 5:34 Trump’s “red line” trap 11:22 Are we underestimating Iran? 19:50 Israel and the “clean break” memo 26:25 Rubio as deep state puppet master 32:47 Trump’s AI report card 36:38 The race for superintelligence 42:33 Is AI an existential threat? 54:14 Will AI trigger mass unemployment? 1:01:28 Chip restrictions as war starters 1:04:43 Does Xi think his Taiwan window is closing? Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Andrew Day (The American Conservative), and Curt Mills (The American Conservative). Recorded February 04, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods 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

1 tim 16 min
3 FEB.

The Meaning of Moltbook (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 How Bob’s and Paul’s names wound up in the Epstein Files 7:37 Epstein’s double option play 13:36 Power brokers after Epstein 18:13 Understanding Moltbook 25:50 Bob on the “big question” Moltbook raises 35:24 Paul: What planet are Emily Bender and Alex Hanna on? 38:36 Heading into Overtime: Friends in the Epstein Files, the strangest thing Bob’s ever done for money and more. Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded February 02, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

45 min
31 JAN.

The Grand Unified Theory of MAGA (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 MAGA as a coherent global phenomenon 9:10 Narrative vs. material forces behind MAGA 18:24 Mark Carney and the hypocrisy of the “rule-based order” 24:08 Burkeans vs. Silicon Valley libertarians 29:12 Make Russia Great Again 30:56 Heading to Overtime: Bob’s experience in Moscow’s Gorky Park Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded January 30, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

32 min
27 JAN.

The Case Against AI (Robert Wright, Alex Hanna, and Emily Bender)

0:29 Alex and Emily’s book, The AI Con 4:35 Beyond the AI booster-doomer spectrum 9:28 What—and who—is AI actually useful for? 18:26 The AI productivity question(s) 30:35 Emily: AI won’t take your job, it’ll just make it shi**ier 38:50 Stochastic parrots, Chinese rooms, and semantics 45:03 Are LLMs really black boxes? 55:35 Do AIs “understand” things? 58:50 Debating using AIs as experts 1:07:15 How “neural” are neural nets, really? Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Alex Hanna (The AI Con, Distributed AI Research Institute) and Emily Bender (The AI Con, director of the Computational Linguistics Laboratory). Recorded January 20, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods 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

1 tim 11 min
23 JAN.

The Trump Foreign Policy Roller Coaster (Robert Wright, Derek Davison, and Daniel Bessner)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 A recap of January’s Trump turbulence 5:16 Is Trump a cause or symptom of world disorder? 13:33 Is Trump increasingly unstable?16:05 Will we invade Cuba? 20:08 American politics after Trump 26:18 The crumbling bedrock of International Law 35:54 Where are the Democrats? 38:43 Heading into Overtime: Renee Good, Syria, Worthwhile Canadian Prime Minister Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Derek Davison (Foreign Exchanges, American Prestige, Discontents), and Daniel Bessner (American Prestige, University of Washington). Recorded January 22, 2026.

40 min
20 JAN.

AI After Us: The "Succession" Scenario (Robert Wright & Dan Faggella)

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Defining AI succession 3:13 How positive psychology led Dan to AI research 10:42 Is Dan a “successionist”? 17:02 Does it matter whether AI is sentient? 24:35 Two traits of a worthy successor 31:25 The varieties of succession scenarios 36:02 Values and interests 41:14 Will AI have any use for us? 43:55 Succession scenarios to avoid 49:04 Heading into Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Dan Faggella (Emerj AI Research, The Trajectory). Recorded January 7, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

52 min

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Conversations with a series of people who have nothing in common except that program host Robert Wright is curious about what they’re thinking. www.nonzero.org