Robert Wright's Nonzero (private feed for eveningglass@gmail.com)

Using AI to Fight Cancer (Robert Wright & Nathan Labenz)

0:00 Teaser 1:04 How AI helped shape cancer treatment for Nathan’s son 15:52 Should you tell your doctor about your AI medical adviser? 20:37 Big leaps for Gemini 3 and Claude Opus 4.5 27:59 How to get the best medical advice from your AI 34:37 The astonishing breadth of AI expertise 42:26 AI can help on the margins 55:55 Bob’s AI cancer journey 1:11:41 AI and “Right to try” 1:21:08 “Turning every stone” vs falling into anxiety rabbit holes 1:25:50 Gemini 3 vs Opus 4.5 1:31:58 Are scaling laws leveling off? 1:43:02 AI deception 1:47:36 Experiments in AI Consciousness Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nathan Labenz (Cognitive Revolution, Waymark AI). Recorded December 03, 2025.Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPodsThe Cognitive Revolution podcast: https://www.cognitiverevolution.ai/Waymark AI: https://waymark.com/ Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

The Hard Truth about Peace in Ukraine (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)

0:00 Teaser 1:03 Trump’s 28-point plan: first real negotiations? 3:09 Why Zelensky sounded so grim 8:23 Listing Russia’s advantages 10:08 The unknowable casualties numbers 12:32 Ukraine’s forced mobilization vs. Russia’s volunteer army 16:24 Why Russia won’t run out of money 19:39 Bob: “I want Putin to get the worst deal possible” 21:02 What is the Blob’s plan? 25:37 Bob answers a question from Discord 28:43 Trump’s failed bargaining strategy 31:00 Bob: Ukraine is “so much more complicated” than Gaza 32:41 The corruption scandal threatening Zelensky 35:25 Ukraine’s corruption scandal and Zelensky’s uncertain political future 38:10 Zaluzhnyi’s manifesto: The rival commander’s challenge 41:23 Why all decision-makers are ok with the war continuingRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded December 04, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

The Life and Legacy of William F. Buckley (Robert Wright & Sam Tanenhaus)

0:30 Sam’s epic new biography of William F. Buckley 5:53 Was Buckley the original Tucker Carlson? 12:35 Buckley’s paradoxical upbringing 22:36 How Yale turned Buckley into a “counter-intellectual” 36:08 Was Buckley racist or tribalist or what? 54:45 Buckley v. the Civil Rights Act 1:03:43 Heading to OvertimeRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Sam Tanenhaus (Louis Armstrong: Musician, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography, Buckley: The Life and Revolution That Changed America). Recorded November 25, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

20 Years Ago, Bloggingheads Was a Trailblazer (Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Robert Wright)

Original post via Culturally Determined: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/20-years-ago-bloggingheads-was-a-trailblazer-with/id981282353?i=1000735793526Bob and former Bloggingheads.tv staffer and contributor Aryeh Cohen-Wade reflect on the legacy of Bloggingheads.tv, the pioneering website Bob co-founded in 2005. Bob and Aryeh discuss how the site and the technology that powered it anticipated modern trends in online media. They also consider whether Twitter still has any use for journalists, the pros and cons of Substack, and whether Culturally Determined should pivot back to video.Recorded October 28, 2025Links Included:Max Read on his Substack statsAndrew Thompson on the economics of Substack and money vs. attentionhttps://components.news/the-desire-distribution/MeaningOfLife.tvhttps://meaningoflife.tv/Follow Bob on Twitter: https://x.com/robertwrighterFollow Aryeh on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/aryehcw.bsky.social Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.

China Hawks in Retreat? (Robert Wright & Kaiser Kuo)

0:30 A brief history of American China hawkery 15:40 The 2008 financial crisis changed things 19:22 Xi Jinping and the great man theory of history 25:23 Can we get along with autocrats? 32:06 How China hawkery became bipartisan 38:21 Total eclipse of the hawks? 48:06 Kaiser’s “Great Reckoning” thesisRobert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Kaiser Kuo (https://www.sinicapodcast.com/). Recorded November 19, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods Thank you for subscribing. Leave a comment or share this episode.