The Wright Show (audio)

Hey hey, my my, Neil Young left Spotify ... Carrots and sticks in the Russia-Ukraine crisis ... What are Russia’s actual objectives in Ukraine? ... Bob: “I haven’t heard a single good argument for expanding NATO” ... Why nominating Kamala to the Supreme Court might actually be a good idea ... Are pundits overthinking Biden’s low approval rating? ... Is universal pre-K on the chopping block? ... Mickey adopts an unsettling new persona ... Parrot Room preview: A Doug Emhoff scandal?, the war in the Pacific, guess the Lou Reed verdict, let’s talk about headlines that start with “Let’s talk about,” Raymond Carver and Gordon Lish, affirmative action goes before the Supreme Court, William F. Buckley, Ilya Shapiro gets canceled, the metaverse and the Matrix, bizarre Black Lives Matter news, money liberalism, and why does Apple delay releasing this podcast? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Does the Russia-Ukraine crisis justify the current sense of alarm? ... How concern for ethnic Russians in Ukraine shapes Moscow’s policy ... What the US and NATO can do to resolve the crisis diplomatically ... Can Europe help Biden by staging a diplomatic intervention? ... Russia’s next military steps if diplomacy fails ... Anatol estimates the odds of a Russian invasion of Ukraine ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Looking for signs of decline in Biden’s press conference ... Is the child tax credit what swing voters want? ... Two possible inflation fixes ... What’s on the table in U.S.-Russia negotiations over Ukraine? ... How well is Biden handling the Ukraine situation? ... Mickey: There’s a chance we'll avoid a Trump 2024 run ... Bob’s plan to convince Biden not to run ... Meat Loaf would do anything for love (but would he get vaxxed?) ... Bob: I get why white males are under fire ... Parrot Room preview: The secret to Matt Yglesias’s success, the FBI searches Henry Cuellar’s home, Mickey’s beef with the Salvation Army, how the Parrot Room is like the TV show Yellowstone, Bob’s panel appearance with Jerry Brown, Robert Malone, active shooter drills, war in the Pacific, the Los Gatos Party Mom, exploring Bob and Mickey’s positions on China, Bob issues some corrections, Mickey critiques the Atlantic and David Remnick, and the time Katie Couric interviewed Bob ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to d

Richard discusses his new book, Public Choice Theory and the Illusion of Grand Strategy ... Richard’s critique of the field of International Relations ... Why "concentrated interests" capture US foreign policy ... The arms industry executive who has "single handedly ruined the world" ... How the US helped create the Russia-Ukraine conflict ... The pro-militarism bias in the news media and foreign policy think tanks ... Why does the US misperceive Iran as being a threat to US interests? ... Richard: The US should learn to live with a superpower China ... The failures of the human rights lobby and the brutality of sanctions on Afghanistan ... Do autocracies have more coherent foreign policies than democracies? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Mickey’s plan to install Nancy Pelosi in the Oval Office ... Who can convince Biden not to run for reelection? ... Mickey’s comeback strategy for Biden ... Bob takes the Parrot Room into untested waters ... Is Boris Johnson in trouble over Covid protocols or policy failures? ... Are seditious conspiracy charges warranted for the Oath Keepers? What about Trump? ... Mickey: The Supreme Court got the vaccine mandate ruling wrong ... Bob: It will be bad if Russia invades Ukraine, but it won’t threaten U.S. interests ... Bob: China doesn’t have a monopoly on repressive software exports ... Parrot Room preview: Bob takes a Covid test, Mickey catches Bob in an almost-devastating contradiction, Bob tries to catch Robert Malone in a contradiction, Sidney Poitier, Bob Saget, Terry Teachout, Bob v. Andrew Sullivan, Don’t Look Up, Ruth Barrett sues the Atlantic, Bari Weiss on Hollywood, David Remnick claims we’re suspended between democracy and authoritarianism, Mickey has second thoughts about donating to the

Bob’s early encounters with LGBTQ visibility and invisibility ... How the pros talk about gender ... The uses of “queer” ... A writerly defense of the singular “they” ... Agustín: We need a national conversation about the trans bathroom issue ... What was the intent behind J.K. Rowling’s controversial tweets? ... What counts as an “advantage” when trans women play women’s sports? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Mickey: Biden is too scared of his base ... Bob: Biden privileged loyalty over competence in his staffing ... Are January 6 rioters getting off too easy? ... How can an election get overturned? Bob and Mickey count the ways ... Bob’s January 6 epiphany ... Where’s the love for Sherrod Brown and Cory Booker? ... Can Omicron save us from Delta? ... Is it time to “pivot to normalcy” yet? ... Parrot Room preview: Robert Malone on Joe Rogan, the Ghislaine Maxwell verdict in jeopardy, does everyone want to date AOC, Ben Smith’s new publication, Leonard Bernstein on the Beatles, Nick Kristof may not even reach the Kaus threshold in Oregon, Beverly Hills criminals, what’s wrong with “gaslighting,” Betty White, Peter Bogdanovich, Novak Djokovic runs afoul of Aussie vaccination policy, Greg Gutfeld gets reprimanded, and is the great David Remnick takedown upon us? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/s

What part of secular-guru space (if any) does Bob occupy? ... On the origin of Bob’s theses (by means of natural selection) ... The mind-boggling mystery of consciousness ... Could evolution have a larger purpose? ... The “global brain” as the flowering of natural selection’s seed ... Saving our species by transcending some species-typical tendencies ... The algorithm of evolution as “the Logos” ... How cognitive biases get in the way of global cooperation ... The positive feeling of negative emotions (but can mindfulness feel even better?) ... Bob explains his recent writings on tribalism ... Bob: You are an expression of "the [evolutionary] Logos" ... Bob’s latent-functionality theory of epiphenomenal consciousness ... Does evolution steer us toward greater alignment with moral truth? ... On the “panoramic specificity” of Bob’s dharma ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Remembering Michael Brooks ... The existential stakes of enlightenment ... Overcoming the affective dimension of cognitive bias ... Bringing broader awareness to the concept of cognitive bias ... Cognitive bias and the roots of war ... The folly of feedback loops ... Quelling our primitive retributive impulses ... Taking a mulligan in your meditation practice ... Focusing on the hindrances ... Can you fail at meditation? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Oliver's new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals ... Oliver outlines “compatibilism,” the idea that free will and determinism can coexist ... Bob: Everyone should be a free will agnostic ... The occasionally dramatic consequences of arguments against free will ... Would determinism require us to reform our approach to criminal justice? ... A (possible) quantum hack for free will vs. determinism ... Bob thinks compatibilism is b******t ... ... ... but Oliver tries to persuade him there's something to it ... Oliver: No position on free will and determinism is free of contradiction ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

John's recent bout of fever-induced hallucinations ... Does math actually help you understand QM? ... What experiments in QM have and have not verified ... John: All interpretations of QM are bad ... What do we want from science? ... "An operating system for reality" ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Disavowing the naturalistic fallacy ... Why “sex” may not mean what you think it means ... Did evolution make women “choosier” about sex partners than men? ... Haggling over the price of sperm and eggs ... Agustín: Empirical studies complicate evolutionary psychology’s theoretical models ... The evolutionary significance of non-reproductive sex ... Why are males bigger than females in our species? ... Looking at pornography (for insights into human evolution) ... Are male and female sexual jealousy systematically different? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Oliver’s new book, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals ... Why is it so hard to accept the limits of our productivity? ... Prioritizing mindfully ... Heideggerian time management ... Finding value in even "meaningless" work ... Reducing the lure of distractions ... Ten tools for embracing your finitude ... Five (pretty intense) questions for reflection ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Josh's aversion to the term "guru" ... Explaining the explain/excuse conflation ... The (possible) evolutionary origins of (biased) arguing ... Are humans mismatched to their modern environment? ... Building strengths vs. addressing deficiencies ... Defusing attribution error ... Making cognitive empathy cool ... Using meditation to strengthen cognitive empathy ... The mythical side of Bob ... Rationalists, effective altruists, and other possible fellow travelers ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Agustín on what he was and wasn’t saying in his controversial Science piece on Darwin ... What is biological anthropology? ... What social media critiques of Agustín’s editorial missed ... Untangling Darwin’s attitudes toward race and genocide ... Darwin’s worries about his theory’s acceptance ... What do female gibbons want? ... Agustín: Commonly used racial categories are unscientific ... The changing rules for competition among males ... Okay, so should we cancel Darwin or not? ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Defining effective altruism ... Rob explains the meaning of ‘80,000 Hours’ ... Should young people dedicate their careers to fighting climate change? ... The Apocalypse Aversion Project ... How cognitive biases fuel tribalism ... Bob: We need a psychological revolution ... Are external threats the best way to bring people together? ... The balance between surveillance and public safety ... Bob: Let's retire the word 'apologist' ... Making rationality cool ... Rob challenges Bob to find flaws in "The Moral Animal" ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Josh tries to help Bob retool his meditation practice ... Identifying the purpose of your practice ... What to do when your mind wanders ... Tuning your mind ... The Four Rs ... Can mindfulness help us bolster our courage? ... Learning to tolerate blowback from your tribe ... Suffering and the psychology of tribalism ... Developing a non-zero-sum relationship with your own mind ... So you say you've been called a neofascist... ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

The value of defying your tribe ... Egocentric bias and attribution error ... The thin line between between courage and acting like an a*****e ... Why do we punish people for unintentional transgressions? ... To understand all is to forgive all … ... … but forgiveness won’t get you retweets ... Are people’s politics as irrational as they seem? ... William James’ preternatural insight into human psychology ... Should the Philip Roth biography have been pulled? ... Reliving the worst day of your life ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

John’s new book, Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity ... John’s early religious sensibility ... The Advaita Vedanta tradition in Hinduism ... Grappling with the human predicament ... Approaches to ultimate reality ... John’s brush with non-dualistic experience ... Why John doesn’t consider himself a perennialist ... Touching the infinite elephant ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe

Who you callin' bodhisattva? ... Outlining the Apocalypse Aversion Project ... How meditation can make us better global citizens ... Why we need “cognitive crampons” ... Transcend and include ... The varieties of meditative experience ... Achieving micro-enlightenment ... The benefits of confronting your dark side ... Building a cognitively empathetic grassroots movement ... This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nonzero.substack.com/subscribe