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

0:29 Alex and Emily’s book, The AI Con4:17 Beyond the AI booster-doomer spectrum9:58 What—and who—is AI actually useful for?18:56 The AI productivity question(s)31:05 Emily: AI won’t take your job, it’ll just make it shi**ier39:20 Stochastic parrots, Chinese rooms, and semantics45:33 Are LLMs really black boxes?56:05 Do AIs “understand” things?59:20 Debating using AIs as experts1:07:45 How “neural” are neural nets, really?

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Alex Hanna and Emily Bender (co-authors, The AI Con). Recorded January 20, 2026.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

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.