Effective altruism (EA) and Rob’s 80,000 Hours podcast ... BF’s fall = EA’s public relations problem ... What went wrong for (and with) SBF? ... Virtue as a utilitarian shortcut ... What drove EA’s longtermist (r)evolution? ... EA, AI, and the miscalculation of existential risk ... Did EA play a role in the OpenAI board drama? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Another high-synergy collaborative episode ... Do mainstream Israelis support ethnic cleansing? ... Biden’s electoral (mis?)calculations on Israel-Palestine ... What does a left-wing foreign policy vision look like today? ...

Why do conservatives think the NFL is working with the Deep State? ... Can the border-Ukraine deal pass Congress? ... Who will Trump pick as VP? ...

How Israelis think about civilian casualties in Gaza ... Is the war spawning a new generation of terrorists? ... Explaining versus justifying bad behavior ... Can Hamas and other extremist groups be moderated? ... Is the world biased against Israel? ... Cognitive biases that inflame tribal tensions ... The “river to the sea” Rorschach test ... On the precipice of World War III? ...

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Why there was so much wishcasting analysis about Nikki Haley ... Was Trump always going to be the nominee? ... Why the electability argument failed ... Why the ageist argument failed ...

Preorder Glenn’s forthcoming memoir, Late Admissions: Confessions of a Black Conservative ... Why Glenn wrote a memoir (and why you should order it now) ... A ringing endorsement from John ... What does Martin Luther King Jr. Day mean in 2024? ... Preserving King’s belief in “the content of our character” ... What would King say to Claudine Gay? ... King's radicalism ... John: Being against DEI does not make you a racist ... The Tabia Lee affair at De Anza College ... How Claudine Gay should have reacted to the plagiarism scandal ... Glenn: “The DEI movement is hoist on its own petard” ... How DEI’s dominance has improved John’s home media set-up ... John’s upcoming cabaret show ...

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail 2024 ... Haley’s shortcomings, Trump’s cognitive decline ... Who’s the perfect Democrat to run against Biden? ... How Biden could stop the Gaza war ... Why the Houthis are hard to neutralize ... Could Trump sabotage the border security deal? ... Doctor bots, robo-receipt checkers, and AI optimism ... The real problem with America’s elites ... Is catastrophe the only thing that can save America? ... Bob tries to drag Mickey (back) into the JFK assassination rabbit hole ... Has DeSantis destroyed his brand? ...

Bob saves Paul from some very bad influences ... What makes Hitler more evil than Stalin and Mao? ... New lab leak evidence—what will come of it? ... Correcting the record on effective altruism ... Is “self-plagiarism” really plagiarism? ... The dishonesty researcher accused of academic dishonesty ... Heading to Overtime ...

Did the media rig Iowa for Trump? ... Is Trump's lead insurmountable? ... Should Haley want a two-person race? ...

Reid’s deep roots in the tech world ... The kind of AI pessimism that irks Reid the most ... Can (and should) we slow down AI progress? ... Could AI help resolve international disputes? ... The promise and perils of perspective-taking AIs ... Why Reid co-wrote Impromptu with GPT-4 ... Where are the AI optimists? ... Sam Altman and the OpenAI drama: a (semi-) behind-the-scenes view ... How dangerous is open-source AI, really? ... Is AI acceleration decelerating? ... Engagement with China and “organic transparency” ...

Matt feels good about Haley in NH ... Would a Haley win in NH give her momentum? ... How bad was the DeSantis-Haley debate? ... Can Trump have it both ways on abortion? ... Can Trump have it both ways on abortion? ... Does Biden need a second-term agenda? ...

Mickey’s in Iowa—and on the Nonzero Podcast! ... Do Ron DeSantis and Nikki Haley have a chance? ... Why Biden will probably lose ... Wait, are there Democratic primaries? ... Would Trump 2.0 be a more capable authoritarian? ... AI bots that cater to your every need ... Why doesn't Biden get tougher on the border? ... Exciting new Child Tax Credit updates ... Is Twitter going down the tubes? ... Bob fails to escape from JFK assassination rabbit hole ... Subways and other things that have gotten worse ... Mickey’s Iowa caucus prediction ...

How the Gaza war harms US interests ... How the Gaza war harms Israel’s interests ... Could Biden get Israel to wind down the war? ... Biden’s complex political calculus on Israel ... The Israel lobby: what it is and what it does ... How elements of the lobby intimidate critics of Israel ... Heading to Overtime ...

Tim seeks Substack synergy beyond Bob ... Recent contributors to Bob’s AI anxiety ... Why “Mamba” matters ... Is AI moving too fast? ... Are fears of an AI “jobocalypse” overblown? ... AI’s (potential) next transformation ... Heading to Overtime ...

Jeff’s journalistic bona fides ... The origins of the official assassination narrative ... Oswald: Lone gunman? Patsy? Both? ... The CIA’s interest in Oswald before the assassination ... The Pentagon’s scheme to provoke war with Cuba via false flag ... How Bob started down the JFK rabbit hole ... Oswald’s critical time in New Orleans ... Why did Jack Ruby kill Oswald, really? ... Why JFK’s assassination still matters ...

Did Nikki Haley blow it? ... Will Lauren Boebert's move help Republicans? ... Matt and Bill's winners and losers of 2023 ...

Philip’s early work on post-nuclear war recovery ... What’s wrong with the EPA, OSHA, and the EEOC? ... Philip: We’ve degenerated into a culture of distrust ... The problems of national security and public health ... Are public employee unions constitutional? ... Philip: “Public service is repellant to good candidates” ... Philip: Police unions prevent accountability, too ... Would the current Supreme Court be receptive to Philip’s case? ...

Kati’s very unusual Venn diagram ... Your brain on meditation ... The time Bob’s meditation got weird ... What are the “jhanas”? ... What science tells us about the jhana states ... Are psychedelics gateway drugs to meditation? ... Kati: Here’s how we get “not-self” wrong… ... Psychedelics vs meditation—neuroscientifically ... Heading to Overtime ...

How Tom tried to bring down Netanyahu’s government ... The coming Biden-Netanyahu showdown ... What’s driving Israeli public support for such massive retaliation? ... The alarming growth of global disorder ... Is Israel fated to be hated? ... Why Tom is still hopeful about Israel-Palestine ...

FaSoGPCVqZw?si=oWpnqIGmMRRBod1J ... FaSoGPCVqZw?si=oWpnqIGmMRRBod1J ... Can the Constitution survive a second Trump term? ... Is Trump getting worse? ...

A short history of “longtermism” ... The evolution of effective altruism (EA) ... Unpacking the TESCREAL bundle ... Why AGI dominates longtermist thinking ... Are AI doomers and accelerationists more aligned than it seems? ... Why did Émile ditch EA? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Tabia’s early career as a teacher ... Tabia’s “rough ride” as a DEI director ... The antisemitism problem at De Anza ... The inescapable BIPOC binary ... From disagreement to deplatforming ... Why Tabia found support among students but not faculty ... How attempts to silence Tabia backfired ... Tabia’s broad vision of diversity ... Learning from the medical professionals of Galilee ...

Matt's and Bill's best Christmas movies ... Can Chris Sununu save Nikki Haley? ... How bad for DC is the loss of the Capitals & Wizards? ... Can impeachment save Joe Biden? ... Can a Ukraine-border deal actually happen? ...

Max’s book Rules for Rebels—and the rule that Hamas broke ... Is social media a reality distortion machine? ... “From the river to the sea…” compared to “globalize the intifada” ... Does social media exaggerate the level of civil strife—and thereby raise it? ... Is Israel’s assault on Gaza intensifying antisemitism? ... How Israel’s actions impact the Jewish diaspora ... The terrorism threat facing Israel ... US foreign policy and the Israel lobby ...

The biggest surprise of Paul’s intellectual life ... What the three college presidents should have said about free speech ... Ramaswamy’s hot mic moment: mistake or power move? ... Elon’s scorched-earth moment: power move or mental break? ... Paul gets fact-checked—and likes it ... In aligning AI, should we aim higher than human values? ... Bob DESTROYS Paul’s AI article ...

A bold experiment in podcast synergy continues ... The dire humanitarian situation in Gaza ... Is full-on ethnic cleansing more likely than a political solution? ... If Biden loses in 2024, will elites rethink Israel-Palestine? ... The changing perception of Israel ... Heading to Overtime ...

A new documentary about George Floyd’s death raises new questions ... John: “We’ve been lied to” about George Floyd’s death ... The price of a “poetic truth” ... Was the Derek Chauvin jury intimidated into delivering a guilty verdict? ... Glenn: George Floyd was no hero ... The burning of Minneapolis’s 3rd Precinct ... Is there any hope of changing the George Floyd narrative? ... Who will take responsibility for changing things in black America? ...

Is Christie running interference for Haley? ... Can Trump lose Iowa or New Hampshire? ... Why are some conservatives against Section 702? ... Will it help Biden to get impeached? ...

Daron’s book Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle Over Technology and Prosperity ... What tech optimists get wrong about economic history ... Will AI inevitably sideline workers? ... The surprising weakness of our digital economy ... Which jobs are most vulnerable to automation? ... How to empower workers in the age of AI ... Heading to Overtime ...

Is “black heterodoxy” a euphemism for “black conservatism”? ... Classical liberalism’s role in Free Black Thought ... Erec: I saw things while working as a diversity officer that I can’t unsee ... Why the Democratic Party doesn’t like Erec ... How Free Black Thought is fostering agency in the black community ... Erec: The onus is on us, not affirmative action, to prepare black students for college ... What is rhetoric, anyway? ...

Bob and Tim seek Substack synergy ... What was the OpenAI drama really about? ... Viewing the drama through a (cynical) psychological lens ... Were reports of a safety vs speed schism greatly exaggerated? ... Larry Summers joins OpenAI’s board… time to panic? ... Superintelligence, Sam Altman, and the singularity ... Altman’s not so veiled ignorance ... Overtime preview: superintelligence skepticism, the truth about effective altruism, self-driving car speed bumps, and more ...

Matt sees a path for Nikki Haley, Bill does not ... Can big endorsements help DeSantis in Iowa? ... Matt's Iowa/New Hampshire prediction ... Should Democrats stop freaking out? ...

The state of campus speech after 10/7 ... Daniel: Why are critics of cancel culture silent when it comes to Israel? ... “Explaining” Hamas vs. “excusing” Hamas ... Tyler: American Jewish students worried about their safety have been primed by modern identity politics ... The tension between DEI and antisemitism response teams ... The linguistic ambiguity of “From the river to the sea” ... The irreconcilable conflict between campus social justice and donor funding ... If not liberalism, then what? ... Tyler: Postwar political conservatism is coming apart ...

Biden’s vexing political calculus on Israel-Palestine ... Israel-Palestine compared to Russia-Ukraine ... If Israel eliminates Hamas, what happens next? ... Can anything good come out of the present crisis? ... The meaning of “From the river to the sea…” ... Why the 2000 Camp David Summit failed ... Where is Palestine's Nelson Mandela? ... Assessing US media coverage of the Gaza war ...

Preamble: The OpenAI drama and this conversation ... Preamble: The OpenAI drama and this conversation ... Is safe AI possible without international cooperation? ... Are we selecting AI for truth or engagement? ... Using “psychology” to understand—and control—AI ... The worrisome Darwinian dynamics of AI development ... Life after an AI takeover ... How structural incentives make AI safety harder ...

Tom’s new book, Getting Russia Right ... Does Putin want to take more territory before talking peace? ... Putin’s "messianic" transformation ... America’s failed effort to Americanize Russia ... Does the US focus too much on other nations’ internal affairs? ... The 2004 event that sunk US-Russia relations ... Why Tom supports a diplomatic reset ...

How to watch WKRP's "Turkeys Away" ... How the Mideast crisis is roiling the left and the right ... How serious is the rise of anti-Semitism ... The history of Democratic bedwetting ... How Israel impacted the 1948 election ...

A quick announcement ... What led Yascha to write about identity ... An intellectual history of “identity synthesis” ... What’s so bad about “strategic essentialism”? ... From postmodernism to post-civil rights ... The three key claims of identity synthesis ... What led up to the summer of 2020? ... The hermetically sealed ideology of Kendi and DiAngelo ... Yascha’s defense of universalism ...

Susan’s new book, Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise ... China’s turn to more assertive policies in 2007 ... The well-intentioned reform that produced big authoritarian consequences ... How public opinion influences autocratic leaders ... Xi Jinping’s purge of suspect officials ... Does Beijing feel threatened by America? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Will Israel-Palestine cost Biden the election? ... What Hamas hoped to accomplish on October 7 ... The surprising origins of cancel culture ... Matt defends his ratioed tweet ... The persistent psychological impact of the Holocaust ... Is a one-state solution realistic? ... What Ukrainians and Palestinians have in common ... Anti-Palestine sentiment and Christian Zionism in America ... How the current crisis could lead to war with Iran ... Bob gives Matt podcasting advice ...

Persia at the turn of the twentieth century ... Woodrow Wilson’s contradictions ... Did Howard Baskerville escape the prejudices of his time? ... How Baskerville got involved in Persia’s democratic revolution ... How Tsar Nicholas II aided the counter-revolution ... The erasure of Baskerville in post-1979 Iran ... The theological origin of the Islamic Republic of Iran ... Reza: Ordinary Iranians actually love American culture ... The internal and external pressures on Iran ... The amorality of foreign policy ...

Why can't Republicans sell a 15-week abortion ban? ... What did the GOP presidential debate tell us about GOP foreign policy? ... Where did Joe Manchin go wrong? ...

Is Paul Bloom the next Tony Robbins? ... Things to know about the noosphere ... How Bob and Paul work ... What Michael Lewis’s SBF bio reveals about SBF (and Michael Lewis) ... SBF and Elon Musk: compare and contrast ... Are SBF’s parents to blame? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Ron’s initial reaction to the October 7 atrocities ... How Israel’s far right undermined Israel’s national security ... Support for the Gaza war in Israel ... The trouble with “eradicating” Hamas ... How American Jews are responding to recent events ... Post-October-7 prospects for solving Israel-Palestine ... The rhetorical abuse of the Holocaust ... The origins and meaning of “From the river to the sea…” ... Could the Gaza war cost Biden the election? ... Competing visions of Zionism ... How terrorism impacts the Palestinian cause ...

Why John thinks pro-Hamas sentiment on the American left is racist ... Distinguishing between anti-colonialism and antisemitism ... There are great crimes in America’s past. But we shouldn’t let them define us. ... Glenn: We’re standing on the precipice of something catastrophic ... John’s proposal for the US’s role in Israel’s domestic conflict ... Is it right for people to lose their jobs over opposing Israel? ... Why are pro-Hamas leftists supporting an anti-liberal regime? ... Glenn and John’s responsibilities as teachers ... What’s next on TGS ...

What Iran hopes to gain from the Israel-Hamas war ... Did Hamas expect such a massive retaliation from Israel? ... Why Israel’s campaign in Gaza could backfire ... What Hezbollah is and how it got started ... Does Israel have an exit strategy in Gaza? ... Why the Arab world might unite in the years ahead ... How China could benefit from the current crisis ... Why the US hasn’t pushed harder to resolve Israel-Palestine ... Is a one-state solution the best path forward? ... Can the Israeli government rein in West Bank settlers? ... How Israel-Palestine damages America’s, and Biden’s, credibility ...

Matt and Bill talk Halloween ... Reflections on Richard Moll and Matthew Perry ... How's Speaker Mike Johnson doin'? ... Will Biden's approach to the Israel-Hamas war hurt him in 2024? ... Is Nikki Haley for real? ...

The significance of Jerusalem in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict ... Will the current crisis explode into a wider war? ... Israel’s ultra-nationalist minister of national security ... Settler attacks intensify in the West Bank ... The two-state solution is dead—can it be revived? ... Has Israel lost the support of western young people? ... What Hamas hoped to accomplish on October 7 ... How hopelessness drives support for Hamas ... Can one-state aspirations produce a two-state solution? ...

Why John thinks Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was rational ... How small states deal with world powers ... If Russia’s action were rational, were the US’s? ... John: The Ukraine invasion violates international law, but Russia has reason to see it as just ... The risk of escalation ... Zelensky’s expert manipulation of the West ... Is it a coincidence that so many recent presidential scandals involve Ukraine? ... Can tolerant liberals tolerate illiberal societies? ... American Russophobia didn’t cause the war, but it’s not helping ... John: If Putin is overthrown, his replacement will probably be even more brutal ... The foreign policy establishment’s grip on both Democrats and Republicans ...

Why Leonid considers his nationality “journalist” ... How the West alienated Russia ... Are Russia’s pro-Ukraine “liberals” actually far right? ... How Putin is responding to Israel's war on Hamas ... Are western experts more clear-minded about Israel-Hamas than Russia-Ukraine? ... Is Ukraine at risk of losing significant amounts of territory? ... Heading to Overtime ...

How much of an election denier is Mike Johnson? ... Why did the GOP moderates accept Johnson? ... Did Democrats do themselves good by trading McCarthy for Johnson? ... Matt learns to love John Fetterman ... The absence of a Republican primary, and its impact ... Who will drop out before Iowa? ... Will Dean Phillips matter? ...

Why hasn’t the ground invasion happened yet? ... Do conditions in Gaza make terrorism more likely? ... Palestinian violence compared to Israeli violence ... Did Israel really offer the Palestinians a state two decades ago? ... Does Hamas have much support in the West? ... What should be done about Hamas? ... Israel’s blockade of Gaza and strategy of massive retaliation ... Indignities suffered by Palestinians in the West Bank ... Should West Bank Palestinians focus on demanding the vote? ... Eli’s growing interest in the deep state ...

Why did Republican moderates resist Jim Jordan? ... Why Democrats should empower Patrick McHenry ... Why did Trump attack Netanyahu? ...

The Unspeakeasy, the newest arm of the Meghan-industrial complex ... Meghan’s prestigious place in Parrot Room history ... Has wokeness won? ... How common is anti-semitism on the left? ... Israel-Palestine’s destructive non-zero-sum dynamics ... Meghan’s highly therapeutic Unspeakeasy retreats ...

Israel’s military plans for northern Gaza ... How does international law apply to Israel and Hamas? ... The first casualty of war is truth ... Do Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute ethnic cleansing? ... The evolving definition of genocide ... How the US and Israel helped Hamas seize power ... America’s ill-fated push for Arab-Israeli normalization ... The hazards of overreacting to Hamas’s attack ... How western media has covered the conflict so far ...

Paul’s humble new ventures with Substack and Nonzero ... Israel-Palestine, exploitative media, and the pitfalls of empathy ... Paul’s plaudits for Mickey and the Parrot Room ... Elon Musk and Derek Parfit: compare and contrast ... Is there a method to Musk’s mad genius? ... The radical rationalism that forged SBF ... How real is implicit bias? ... How real is SBF? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Introduction by Greg Burnep ... What does affirmative action mean in 2023? ... Randy’s distinction between “disadvantage” and “discrimination” ... Diversity’s double-talk ... Did the Supreme Court say discrimination is allowed at military academies? ... Glenn: Affirmative action distracts us from bigger problems ... Affirmative action is an elite problem ... Affirmative action as an insurance policy ... The stigmatization of affirmative action beneficiaries ... Glenn: Affirmative action has been a net positive, but it’s time to stop ... Q&A: Does historical injustice alone justify affirmative action? ... Q&A: Can and should colleges use loopholes to get around Students for Fair Admissions? ... Q&A: Does the “need” for affirmative action say something race or education? ... Q&A: What is the impact of SFFA beyond the university? ... Q&A: What about class-based affirmative action? ...

Is Biden handling the Middle East crisis well? ... What is up with Nancy Mace? ...

Nonzero/American Prestige cocktail with a hybrid episode twist ... Was Hamas’s attack a predictable response to conditions in Gaza? ... Did Biden’s foreign policy make the attack more likely? ... America’s unstrategic Middle East strategy ... Can anything good come out of the current crisis? ... The Nonzero/American Prestige crossover arc ... How to stay sane as a critic of US foreign policy ... Biden vs Trump: Who’s the lesser evil on foreign policy? ... Strains within the restrainer coalition ... Is there any hope left for international law? ... Bob’s pitch for (sober) AI alarmism ... Heading to Overtime—and a special offer for listeners! ...

What’s wrong with critical race theory, anyway? ... Why “black Columbia” pretends that John doesn’t exist ... CRT’s racial power-grab ... Does the Jewish American example apply to African Americans? ... Disguising failure as victimology ... Why Dan thinks the CRT tide is ebbing ... The schadenfreude of the Ibram X. Kendi scandal ... John: “I’m embarrassed for Boston University” ... Glenn: Kendi is just a cog in the fraudulent antiracist machine ... The shame of the Kendi scandal ...

Important reminder about the Friday podcast ... Sam Bankman-Fried’s plan to stop Trump ... Biden’s new policy: Build the wall! ... Why is life expectancy dropping for some demographics in America? ... Should Democrats have helped Kevin McCarthy remain speaker? ... The Blob starts to think like Bob on Russia-Ukraine ... Should the US impose conditions on aid to Ukraine? ... What war with China over Taiwan would look like ... Parrot Room preview: McCarthyism at the news outlet Semafor. Michael Lewis’s new book on Sam Bankman-Fried. Parrot reminiscing. Evolution and homosexuality. Christopher Rufo defends Nixon. ...

Should Democrats support what's good for institutions or what's good for Democrats? ... Did Pelosi want Democrats to vote "present"? ... Why were Democrats so unified? ... Are all House Republicans equally bad? ... Who's going to be the next Speaker? ...

Has Biden abandoned longstanding US policy on Taiwan? ... The sobering results of recent US-China war games ... Would China ever accept defeat in Taiwan? ... Why the US might bomb Taiwan’s microchip factories ... How war over Taiwan could unfold ... Lyle: DC think tanks are underestimating China's military ... Heading to Overtime ...

The debate was bad ... The debate moderators were bad ... The debate that actually mattered was in Michigan ... Shutdowns are also bad ...

How Sabby got her start on YouTube ... What happened to the Justice Democrats’ “hostile takeover”? ... Is the US sliding into fascism? ... The tension between race and class on the left ... Donald Trump’s rising popularity among black men ... The military-industrial complex and climate change ... Sabby’s argument for worker co-ops ... Finding (somewhat) common ground on immigration ... Demilitarizing the police is one thing, defunding the police is another ... Sabby: “We should not be giving money to Ukraine” ... How Sabby deals with disrespectful guests ...

Mickey, the man from the future, times out on this week’s quiz ... Winners, losers, and bigger losers of the GOP debate ... Semafor’s Iran influence exposé: (semi-)exposed! ... How is Menendez still standing? Mickey has a theory ... Bad socio-economic omens for Biden’s 2024 bid ... Ukraine war update ... Is elite opinion on immigration shifting? ... Next week: The final Parrot Room ...

Sarah’s vexing exile from X/Twitter ... Sarah’s next book project ... Would dumping Biden help or harm the Dems’ 2024 chances? ... Who could bump Trump from the GOP ticket? ... Sarah: The Dems’ key to victory is… ... Will the “war on woke” be relevant in 2024? ... The thing that most worries Sarah about the election ... Heading to Overtime ...

Senator Bob Menendez accused of brazen corruption ... The issue that could sink Trump's campaign ... Unpacking the mystery of America’s open border ... Is Biden worried about a coup by Democratic Party elites? ... Ukraine’s international support shows signs of waning ... Democrats downgrade Senate dress code ... Parrot Room preview: Marty Peretz’s new book; UAW strike; insidious AI sexbots ...

Tyler’s concept of “racial gamification” ... Affirmative action in spirit and practice ... Why can’t we just determine admissions based on academic merit alone? ... The fading popularity of “traditional” affirmative action ... Re-weighting and funding the admissions process ... How can we get white “allies” to act normal around black people? ... Can we have interpersonal colorblindness without political colorblindness? ... Tyler’s scholarly work about the end of humanity ... Glenn prepares for his conversation with Sabrina Salvati ...

Is America suffering moral decay... ... ...or is America evolving? ... Can Trump get away with a leftward pivot on abortion? ...

Azerbaijan attacks Nagorno-Karabakh ... Preview of this week’s Biden-Zelensky meeting in DC ... Does the new technology of war favor defense? ... Is Zelensky thinking clearly about Ukraine’s military chances? ... What Anatol learned from his discussions with wounded Ukrainian soldiers ... If the US pushed for peace, would Putin be ready to make a deal? ... Heading to Overtime ...

Republicans in Disarray ... Will Hunter Biden's indictment drag down Joe Biden? ... Is Mitt Romney doing the right thing by leaving the Senate? ...

Walter Isaacson’s Elon-Ukraine walk-back ... Debating Biden replacement theories ... Bob’s hurricane-induced bandwidth problems ... Biden’s age-induced bandwidth problems ... Ukraine war update ... Mitt Romney bows out ... The smoke-filled room shortage ... 56:00 ...

Biden’s new DEI initiatives ... The disparate uses of disparate impact ... Shep’s new book, The Crucible of Desegregation: The Uncertain Search for Educational Equality ... The problem with claims that education is resegregating ... Are we heading back to the bussing debates of the 1970s? ... Shep’s book, The Transformation of Title IX: Regulating Gender Equality in Education ... Glenn’s “uncle” objects to analogies between trans people and African Americans ... Shep: Banning Critical Race Theory is the wrong strategy ...

Almut’s work as a feminist activist in the former Soviet Union ... How economic anxiety helped tear Ukraine apart ... The very complex coalition behind the Maidan Revolution ... Could wiser European Union policy have averted the Russia-Ukraine conflict? ... Queer feminists and the ultra-right in Ukraine ... The nature of Ukrainian nationalism ... Heading into Overtime ...

Nikki Haley beats Biden in new poll ... How big is Ukraine’s military "breakthrough"? ... Signs that Russia is ready for peace talks ... Why are Americans feeling down on the economy? ... DeSantis takes care of business in hurricane-wrecked Florida ... Are the punishments for January 6 rioters too severe? ... How much time is there for a formidable Democrat to challenge Biden for the nomination? ... Bob and Mickey make big announcement ...

Can a white man tell Harriet Tubman’s story? ... What the fall semester has in store for Glenn and John ... How John makes the sausage at the New York Times ... John: We now memorize rap lyrics instead of poetry ... Is wokeness on the wane? ... What John just doesn’t get about Carol Swain ... A Democrat by any other name ... John makes a wild prediction about Trump ...

What's there to write about these days? ... Do Democrats want to dump Biden? ... How did ageist attacks fare in the past? ... Remembering Reagan's '84 debates ... Can Pence reframe the race around Conservatism vs. Populism? ... Is Nikki Haley having a moment? ...

Tim’s article explaining large language models ... Do LLMs reverse engineer the human mind? ... GPT’s mesmerizing emergent properties ... The ‘T’ in Chat-GPT ... How AI models evolve during training ... Human intelligence compared to artificial intelligence ... Heading to Overtime ...

Why Carol joined Black Voices for Trump ... Why should black people support Trump? ... Carol: Democrats stole the 2020 election ... Does Trump face a credible assassination threat? ... The redefinition of white supremacy ... Deracializing the crime debate ... Carol’s new book, The Adversity of Diversity: How Real Training Can Promote Healing in a Post-Affirmative Action World ... Glenn: Affirmative action is one thing, DEI is another ... Clarence Thomas v. Ketanji Brown Jackson ... What affirmative action did right ...

Did Nikki Haley's debate performance change the race? ... Should Mitch McConnell step down as Minority Leader or resign his seat? ... Should we have age limits or term limits? ... Is AOC becoming an insider? ...

Nikita’s life as an expatriate ... Theories among Russians about Prigozhin’s death ... Putin’s handling of the Wagner mutiny, reassessed ... Did Prigozhin lose his mind? ... How worried should Putin be about Prigozhin’s supporters? ... Russians’ evolving views of the invasion ... Is Putin feeling heat from the nationalist right? ...

Mickey gets a C on the news quiz ... Prigozhin postmortem: Is Putin’s regime more secure now? ... The Ukraine war as “politics by other means” ... The good, the bad, and the ugly of the GOP debate ... Will the indictments help Trump in the general election? ... Parrot room preview: Why Bob finds Vivek scary and “Rich Men North of Richmond” icky; Extraordinary Attorney Woo; Hurricane Hilary hype; retail “shrink” hits the big time; Bidenomics and E.J. Dionne; Do presidential candidates need to be optimistic? ...

A sixteen-year-long conversation ... Race and socioeconomics on the cusp of the Obama Era ... The myth of black poverty and deindustrialization ... Glenn pulls rank ... Why Glenn changed his mind about the Manhattan Institute ... Is the think tank world any more “objective” than academia? ...

Most of the GOP field is conflicted over Trump ... Is the Republican Party an America First party or a Reaganite party? ... Why DeSantis became an afterthought ... Is Vivek angling for VP? ...

Has David’s grim outlook on the climate changed? ... How “global warming” became “climate change” ... What wilder wildfires signal about the environment ... Which climate measures are the surest bet? ... Climate science’s time-scale problem ... The pros and cons of carbon capture ... Heading to Overtime ...

Haim’s history with The Glenn Show ... How Haim ended up fighting in Ukraine ... The legionnaire’s lingua franca ... Haim’s riposte to Cornel West on Ukraine ... A pen in one hand and a gun in the other ... Haim: Ukraine’s sovereignty and national identity must be respected ... Is the two-state solution dead? ...

Yet another Trump indictment—How strong is the case? ... Is America becoming a banana republic? ... DeSantis debate strategy goes public ... Bob floats secret elite plot to get Biden off the Democratic ticket ... Why Ukraine’s stalled offensive is politically hazardous for Biden ... Parrot Room preview: US-China war games; Sam Bankman-Fried back in jail; Hunter Biden scandal updates; populist anthem sweeps America; colorful LA character passes away; San Diego’s successful homeless policy; Twitter versus Threads; and signs of AI enlightenment. ...

Will Trump debate? ... Will Republicans ever get indictment fatigue? ... Why Dean Phillips's case for primarying Biden doesn't add up ...

Sohrab’s idiosyncratic ideological journey ... What makes Sohrab a conservative? ... Sohrab’s new book Tyranny, Inc.—a critique of neoliberal capitalism’s effects on American life ... What happened to the labor movement in America? ... Private equity’s role in Sears’s demise ... “Ghost papers”: Wall Street's effect on local news ... Overtime preview: Sohrab’s foreign policy; supporting Donald Trump; re-industrializing without Cold War II; and what is to be done? ...

New challenges for Ukraine ... What do lead pipes have to do with climate migrants? Ask Biden ... Are the Bidens corruption “disruptors”? ... Mickey’s craziest theory of the week ... Another wrinkle in the Hunter Biden scandal ... What mainstream media won’t tell you about Iran ... Mickey’s searing critique of Obama ... Parrot room preview: Mickey on the Trump cases; RIP Robbie Robertson; Tim Scott’s campaign expense weirdness; Biden's strange Saudi-Israel plan; Code Pink; assessing the UFO whistleblower; San Francisco's autonomous cabs; Michael Lind vs Richard Hanania; losing Sugar Man; Oppenheimer (the documentary); Sohrab Ahmari; a cornucopia of comments ...

The protestant ethic and the spirit of wokeness ... Is comparing wokeness to religion a slander on religion? ... Ian: Wokeness is a distraction from real political problems ... How Ian experienced his own cancelation ... America’s exportation of wokeness ... Has wokeness aided and abetted Trump and Brexit? ... John: Enslaved people did find ways to improve their own lives ...

How US-China rivalry is shaking up the region ... Why Washington wants to control the Middle East oil spigot ... The odds of an imminent confrontation with Iran ... Is America breaking international law in Syria? ... What would a Middle East without US intervention look like? ... Why Israel lacks a written constitution ... Heading to Overtime ...

Jeffrey Goldberg becomes King of Washington ... Does Trump prosecutor Jack Smith have the goods? ... Hunter Biden’s corruption defense: It was all an illusion ... President Biden’s Ukraine quagmire ... What Trump gets right about Russia-Ukraine ... Is West Africa heading toward a major war? ... Parrot Room preview: A PBS lament; Mickey’s border worries; Bob’s reflection on jury duty; the economics of electric vehicles; the UFO files; Italy pivots away from guaranteed income; over-the-counter Alzheimer’s test; US-China decoupling; room-temperature superconductors; and the limits of AI ...

How Jay’s position on affirmative action changed ... Jay: I can’t see the virtue in affirmative action as it’s practiced ... Why did so many Asian students defend policies that discriminated against Asians? ... The hidden cultural argument in the California Mathematics Framework ... Is the “people of color coalition” coming apart? ... Why so little outrage over the SCOTUS affirmative action decision? ... When students internalize artificial trauma narratives ... America can’t economically decouple itself from China. Will anti-China rhetoric wane? ... What will and won’t change in the wake of Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard ... Isn’t there some value to diversity in education? ...

Bob and Dan reminisce about blogging and Bloggingheads ... Was the first year of Russia’s invasion a success for US foreign policy? ... When will Putin be ready to cut a deal? ... The odds of a wider war—or a nuclear one ... What good can come from continuing the war? ... Has the US mismanaged its relationship with Putin’s Russia? ... Putin’s fear of western-backed color revolutions ...

Bob extols the virtues of jury duty ... Ukraine’s counter offensive surge ... What does Hunter’s failed plea deal mean for Joe? ... In search of a DeSantis strategy ... The Niger coup and Cold War II ... Parrot room preview: Israel’s issues; musings on late musicians; Is Ramaswamy surging?; New lab leak controversy; Mickey’s border question for Biden; Is DEI d-e-a-d?; A crazy (ex-)Twitter theory; AI self-regulation ...

Peter’s role in the Supreme Court affirmative action case ... Are legacy admissions affirmative action by another name? ... Why Peter got interested in affirmative action ... Glenn was for affirmative action before he was against it ... Peter: Universities are not honest about admissions ... The brilliance of Roland Fryer ... Campus diversity after affirmative action ...

Matt returns to the DMZ from the "Filthy Rich Politicians" book tour ... Is the DeSantis campaign over? ... X or Threads? ... Does Barbie mean "woke" sells? ... Is No Labels going to elect Trump? ...

Where AI fits in Connor’s tech threat taxonomy ... What does the “general” in artificial general intelligence actually mean? ... What should worry us about AI right now? ... Connor: Don’t put your trust in AI companies ... The promise and perils of open-sourcing AI ... Why "interpretability" matters ... What would an aligned AI actually look like? ... Bridging the technology wisdom gap ...

How Matt first encountered Christopher Hitchens ... Matt’s new book, How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment ... Why Matt thinks Cornel West’s Vietnam-Afghanistan analogy is flawed ... What’s worth preserving in the left-liberal tradition? ... Matt: Identity politics is a “toxin” ... Was affirmative action ever necessary? ... Matt: I wish the left would rediscover Hitchens’s universalism ... Hitchens’s “fearless liberalism” ...

Senator Chris Murphy declares war on loneliness ... Why is the Ukraine offensive going badly? ... Why Biden should push for peace talks now ... Threads unravels ... Was RFK’s Covid conjecture anti-Semitic? ... Mickey reviews the MSM version of DeSantis ... American diplomacy update: murky scandals and trash talk ... Parrot Room preview: Biden corruption scandal; electric car paranoia; what Trump will do if he wins; Mickey on Xi Jinping; Trump’s trials; Tony Bennett passes away; Meta’s dubious AI policy; Is the internet annoying, or is Bob just old? ...

What is this new Overton Windows series about? ... Tamler’s connections to Israel and Bob’s experiences there ... What does Zionism mean in practice? ... The shifting Overton window around Israel/Palestine ... The heavy-handed response to the BDS movement ... What the Israel/Palestine discourse says about Overton windows ... So where should the boundaries be set? ...

John: Let’s be honest about what “taking race into account” means in affirmative action ... Glenn: How can anyone argue that race-based affirmative action doesn’t violate the 14th Amendment? ... Why are we so focused on elite institutions? ... John: The University of California works just fine without “racial preferences” ... “You’re pulling the ladder up behind you” is an invalid critique ... John: The fact that racism exists does not justify changing standards ... Why Roland Fryer thinks we should put our money where our mouth is on race and education ... Will the post-Students for Fair Admissions future turn into a Hardship Olympics? ...

Mickey bats .500 on this week’s news quiz ... Gen. “Spartacus” and other Russians with attitude ... What (or who) is impeding peace in Ukraine? ... What Biden has that other possible Dem candidates don’t ... What Trump’s messaging has that DeSantis’s doesn’t ... Untangling Threads’s early days ... Parrot Room preview: AI update; the mysterious Gal Luft; the irony of Klaatu’s speech; Mickey’s diversity epiphany; Canadian euthanasia initiative; Silo spoilers; AMC Pacer maker passes; Bob’s China vindication; Alan Arkin speech debate round three ...

Why Bob invited Russians with Attitude onto the Nonzero Podcast ... Why do Kirill and Nikolay support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine? ... Shortcomings of US mainstream media in covering Russia ... The roots of the Donbass rebellion ... Parallels between the Maidan Revolution and the Donbass rebellion ... What was Putin’s main reason for invading? ... Is Russia systematically committing war crimes? ... Final thoughts from Nikolay and Kirill before heading into Overtime ...

Should Trump’s GOP rivals attack him, praise him, or both? ... Prigozhin mutiny aftermath gets messy ... Signs of a coming ceasefire in Ukraine ... How many Russia hawks really care about Ukrainians? ... MSM deep-sixes affirmative action ruling ... Is Zuckerberg’s Twitter clone ageist? ... Parrot Room preview: New anti-censorship ruling; private companies and the First Amendment; The Day the Earth Stood Still; riots in France; Macron’s good policy idea; artificial intelligence and war; complaints about Timothy Snyder and the New York Times; Elon-Zuckerberg cage match. ...

The problem with scientific consensus ... Why Jay and his colleagues were branded “fringe epidemiologists” ... Jay: We need to engage with everyone—even those with mistaken beliefs ... Persuading science skeptics ... How do we stop COVID overreach from happening again? ... Jay: Gain-of-function research is impossible to do safely ... Are some ideas too dangerous to test? ... Jay: Fauci’s blunder was so catastrophic that only history can judge him ...

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Why Cornel is running for president ... How Cornel links American militarism abroad and inequality at home ... Cornel’s pitch to skeptical right-of-center voters ... Is there tension between Cornel’s commitment to stopping climate change and his commitment to helping the working class? ... The moral potential and pitfalls of capitalism ... Might Cornel inadvertently hand the election to the Republicans? ... Cornel: Tim Scott and Clarence Thomas are wrong, but they’re sincere ... Why Cornel thinks the US is partially culpable for the Ukraine War ... Should Palestinians recognize the legitimacy of the State of Israel? ... Cornel’s ideas about the US border ...

Why Michael McFaul is wrong about Vladimir Putin ... Is Putin ready for a ceasefire? ... Has SCOTUS succeeded in killing affirmative action? ... Americans do have to pay student loans, don’t have to make LGBT websites ... Is RFK Jr. entering Trump’s orbit? ... Parrot Room preview: GOP election strategy; Bidenomics and national conservatism; band name of the year; Yglesias says liberals have higher IQs; final episode of Silo; Bob reviews Invasion of the Body Snatchers; Titanic submarine tragedy; and reasons to worry about a false flag attack in Ukraine. ...

Is Obama Boomer or Gen X? ... What are the odds the next president is Biden or Trump? ... Why are DeSantis or Haley misrepresenting Gen X childhoods? ... Will we see a Trump-Kennedy ticket? ... What's the impact of the SCOTUS ban on higher ed affirmative action? ...

Sean’s new book, We May Dominate the World: Ambition, Anxiety, and the Rise of the American Colossus ... China’s and Russia’s behavior today compared to America’s a century ago ... If geopolitical realities don’t change, are great powers doomed to blow up the world? ... Why did the US decide to dominate the western hemisphere? ... American interventions from the Civil War to World War I ... Why forceful US interventions in Latin America have become less common ... Were the fears motivating the annexation of Hawaii based in reality? ... Did the Spanish-American War have broad public support? ...

Should Hunter Biden and Trump get the Tim Geithner treatment? ... Bob’s latest evidence that Biden shouldn’t run again ... Have we reached peak RFK Jr.? ... Does the counteroffensive hurt Ukraine’s cause? ... Leaky new dam collapse theory ... The rapidly metastasizing GOP primary field ... Israel-Palestine gets Black Mirror-y ... Alito’s ill-considered trip ... Parrot room preview: The right’s schism over capitalism; Prigozhin's insurrection; the Titanic sub tragedy; Why Mickey is growing to hate EVs; Janan Ganesh’s elite take on populism; Bob’s (possibly) new UFO thoughts; Cutting the tax cuts from supply-side economics?; Silo; Biden’s billion-dollar battery bonuses; Biden’s reverse-Epstein problem ...

Why Jonathan’s course “Culture in America” got canceled ... The fragility of liberal arts education ... Managing “CRT zealots” in the classroom ... Is there a future for free inquiry? ... John: Black middle-class students don’t need affirmative action ... Is diversity the problem, or is it elitism? ... The virtues (and virtue signaling) of Randall Kennedy ...

Why would Trump debate? ... How have Republican longshots exploited debates in the past? ... Does the Hunter Biden plea bargain change the race? ...

The (fuzzy) distinction between cognitive and emotional empathy ... Simon’s work on autism and empathy ... Should we really view autism as a spectrum? ... Are powerful people bad at cognitive empathy? ... Hitler, tribalism, and the societal dynamics of empathy ... Can cognitive empathy save the world? ... The “double-empathy” problem ... How autistic kids play differently ...

Mickey gets a B+ on this week’s news quiz ... Is RFK Jr. the Dem’s key to booting Biden? ... Chris Christie’s chances vs. Trump ... Has Tucker gone off the deep end? ... No, Russia didn’t blow up Ukraine’s dam ... Is the Ukrainian counteroffensive failing? ... Parrot room preview: Remembering Daniel Ellsberg; Elizabeth Gilbert’s self-cancellation; the fake deepfake of John Lennon; Mickey’s AI question; a bit of Epstein news; LIV golf update; Mickey contra popular vote compact; the Blob’s pro-immigration argument; Who’s going to pardon Trump? And why?; Did Harvard or the CIA drive the Unabomber crazy?; RIP Ed Fredkin; Silo; Harvard and the Inuit ...

After the indictment, Trump is still ahead—by a lot ... What does it take for a longshot candidate to break out? ... What incentive does Trump have to debate? ... Inflation, crime, immigration metrics are actually improving ...

Frank’s book The End of History and the Last Man ... Bob’s book Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny ... Do people have to be rational in order to cooperate? ... Are AI and other technologies advancing too rapidly for society to adapt? ... Frank’s take on Hegel ... Why Frank’s a Russia hawk and Bob's a Russia dove ... Will authoritarian regimes do a better job of dealing with advanced information technologies? ...