Robert Wright's Nonzero

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 How powerful is Anthropic’s Mythos? 7:16 How Mythos looks to China 9:40 Does Mythos mark a new phase in the US-China arms race? 20:45 Can Anthropic contain Mythos? 26:16 Could superhacker AIs bring cooperation? 37:41 How scary is China, really? 45:45 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Lennart Heim (Stealth). Recorded April 29, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Rebecca’s past work on mind and matter(ing) 3:48 Rebecca’s new book, The Mattering Instinct 8:24 Varieties of mattering experience 15:08 Mattering type 1: Heroic Strivers 18:29 Mattering type 2: Socializers 26:20 Mattering type 3: Transcenders 30:37 Mattering type 4: Competitors 40:08 “The” meaning of life problem 43:19 Does what drives us divide us? 49:24 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Rebecca Newberger Goldstein (The Mind-Body Problem, Plato at the Googleplex, Betraying Spinoza, The Mattering Instinct). Recorded April 27, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Paul’s new baby is reportedly cute 6:34 The Tucker-Trump fracture 11:56 Parenting later in life 19:16 Paul’s TED talk on AI and loneliness 25:05 When does embryo screening become eugenics? 33:53 Is intelligence a positional good? 42:40 Heading to OvertimeRobert 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 April 22, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Rob’s role in the Obama nuclear deal 2:07 A deal that could work for both Trump and Iran 12:34 Iran’s security “guarantee” problem 20:02 Bob: If I were Iran, I would say… 25:00 What Obama’s negotiators had that Trump’s don’t 29:50 How unified is the Iranian side? 38:08 Is Iran’s Hormuz leverage running dry? 41:28 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Robert Malley (Yale - Jackson School of Global Affairs, Tomorrow is Yesterday). Recorded April 21, 2026.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:24 Trump’s Middle East chaos continues 5:34 Is Iran more about America’s hegemony or Israel’s? 12:52 Who will win the Hormuz blockade duel? 22:41 Ukraine, China, and the drone wars 27:28 America’s “emergency” emergency 31:41 Is an Iran peace deal possible? 43:04 Overtime preview: The Anthropic Mythos scareRobert 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 April 16, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org2:35 Trump’s Iran blockade breaks the ceasefire 6:04 A Chinese tanker calls Trump’s bluff 10:50 Bob’s case for an Iranian “tollgate” 16:07 Anthropic’s Mythos model is too dangerous to release 23:27 Nikita’s big idea: AI as world peace mediator 39:39 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded April 14, 2026.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:24 A brief message from Bob 3:50 Shakeel’s newsletter, Transformer, and its mission 7:41 The case(s) against Sam Altman 13:23 OpenAI President Greg Brockman’s political spending 17:40 The founding doctrines of the leading AI labs 23:36 The singleton and the singularity 28:24 How market forces overwhelm good intentions 33:00 Is the singularity near? 41:55 Sam vs. Dario vs. Demis 46:39 Heading into OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Shakeel Hashim (Transformer). Recorded April 7, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Bob and Eli’s history of (civil) disagreement on Iran 2:02 Is Trump’s war on Iran legal? Does it matter? 8:11 Who’s the real rogue state? 19:26 Israel’s nukes and Iran’s nuclear program 30:05 Is Israel more moral than Iran? 38:45 How Hamas became Hamas 46:04 “Proxy,” “theocracy,” and other fighting words 54:44 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Eli Lake (The Free Press, Breaking History, The Re-Education). Recorded April 6, 2026.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Would America benefit from Iran “winning”? 3:34 Trump’s last exit ramp? 13:20 What’s China’s angle on the war? 17:35 Trump: psychoanalyzed 20:46 Israel: psychoanalyzed 25:15 Iran’s plans for the Strait of Hormuz 30:51 Is this Trump’s biggest blunder? 40:49 The intra-MAGA war over Iran (and Israel) 53:48 Where are the Democrats? 59:49 Antisemitism, alleged and real 1:06:14 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Curt Mills (The American Conservative), Andrew Day (The American Conservative). Recorded March 31, 2026.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org0:28 Defining (and preventing) superintelligence 6:00 Where the nuclear analogy holds (and where it breaks) 10:38 Imagining an AI inspections regime 14:56 The superintelligence precursors to watch for 18:41 Our dangerous lack of government oversight 25:59 ControlAI’s “bottom-up” approach to AI policy 30:14 The mounting geopolitical challenges to AI governance 47:18 Heading into OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Andrea Miotti (Control AI). Recorded March 17, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods