This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 Introduction 2:21 How the Pentagon budget got so big 6:55 How to cut $60 billion in military spending this year 15:11 The privatization of weapons acquisitions 19:12 Prospects for military budget reform under Trump Recorded February 28, 2025. Read this week's edition…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Paul’s cold take on US-Canada relations 4:38 How representative is representative government, really? 11:36 Bob’s plan to end hockey fights 17:24 A worthwhile Canadian initiative to dump Musk 21:55 What makes James Bond James Bond? 32:05 Bob’s reign as TV analysis ki…

0:28 Jack’s experience with presidential power 1:56 Unpacking Trump’s Pentagon and DOJ purges 10:57 Which legal battles could Trump win? 19:39 The Trump-Musk chaos: bug or feature? 27:07 How Trump is putting “unitary executive theory” into practice 36:34 Is a unitary executive unconstitutional? 50:33 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 Intro and housekeeping 2:02 Trump's very good, very bad week on Ukraine 13:18 Trump vs his foreign policy team? 19:42 Great-power competition and its discontents 24:32 Musk runs roughshod over DC Recorded February 21, 2025. Read this week's edition of the Earthling: …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Nora’s work on AI alignment and interpretability 2:21 Is *a* singularity near? 9:52 Nora: AI may take my job within two years 14:56 The reason(ing) behind AI’s latest acceleration 24:14 Thinking through the “chain-of-thought” process 41:44 AI “thinking” vs human thin…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:29 Van's new book, The Rivalry Peril 2:28 What policymakers forget about the first Cold War 12:54 The roots of the US-China cold war 19:33 The end of globalization and the rise of economic nationalism 26:54 How rivalry deepens inequality in both the US and China Recorde…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 The newly united state of Canada 9:21 What’s Elon’s endgame? 17:32 Ross Douthat gives doubting Paul pause 22:56 Which AI ad won the Super Bowl? 31:57 The real stakes of Elon’s OpenAI bid 38:27 Trump 2.0's free speech hypocrisy 44:14 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Musa’s track record as Trump-reader and his new book, We Have Never Been Woke 2:19 The reason Trump won—twice 14:49 Messaging that works for the working class 20:58 Has the left lost the faith(ful)? 27:39 Who is wokeness even for? 33:44 Biden’s bad messaging 36:04 Wh…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:00 Housekeeping 3:20 Making sense of the USAID cuts 15:52 Trump's push for ethnic cleansing in Gaza 24:27 How Trump's tariffs undermine US power 32:54 Deep Research and the AI arms race Recorded February 07, 2025. https://twitter.com/Nonzero Newshttps://twitter.com/Nonz…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Paul’s new newsletter, AIStackDecrypted 2:33 Sketchy DeepSeek narratives: debunked 15:15 How connected are DeepSeek and the Chinese government? 27:22 China, Meta, and the open source AI debate(s) 38:58 Paul’s problem with AGI “takeoff” 47:23 The real lesson to take f…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Mark’s newsletter, podcast, and Bloggingheads roots 3:45 Is Trump really anti-internationalist? 8:30 Who was the most pro-UN post-Cold-War president? 13:25 Is global governance doomed? 17:16 Scoring the UN’s post-Cold War track record 24:08 ICC and ICJ 101 33:17 Why …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:13 Some brief NonZero World housekeeping 5:37 Trump, China and AI 31:35 Connor's interview with national security law expert Elizabeth Beavers about Trump's use of terror designations Recorded January 31, 2025.Von Robert Wright

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Two theories of Musk’s “salute” 6:18 DeepSeek-R1: Salvo or olive branch? 16:23 The misappropriation of Musk’s AI doomerism 23:43 Is the AI avatar era already upon us? 39:26 Paul fills Bob in on his “empty threat” theory 43:44 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzer…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Robert Wright and Connor Echols discuss the panic over R1, a new, open-source AI model from Chinese startup DeepSeek.Von Robert Wright

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Peter’s new book, Being Jewish After the Destruction of Gaza 1:42 Is it anti-Semitic to say Israeli policies foster anti-Semitism? 7:24 Zionism’s many meanings 10:44 How are American Jews grappling with Israel-Gaza? 16:44 The Democrats’ Israel bind 24:11 Is all hope …

0:00 Intro 1:35 Natasha's new book, Another World Is Possible: Lessons for America from Around the Globe Recorded January 14, 2025. https://twitter.com/NonzeroNewshttps://twitter.com/NonzeroPods This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.nonzero.org/subscribe…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Kanjun’s role as CEO of AI research lab Imbue 2:45 Worrying about a “Wall-E world” 13:32 Building human-centric AI agents 22:05 How far away is truly “agentic” AI? 32:00 The road to AI serfdom 40:42 Does the AI revolution call for a psychological revolution? 45:24 He…

0:00 Tom’s Pulitzer-Prize hat trick 1:03 Why Beijing is relatively calm about Trump’s reelection 9:33 China hawkism in the AI community 15:24 What’s Trump’s logic re Greenland and Panama? 22:44 On Israel-Palestine, is a two-state solution still possible? 31:06 How a stable ceasefire in Gaza could transform Israeli politics 36:17 Why Trump may be be…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 News bites 17:28 Gaza ceasefire deep dive 33:24 Bob joins to talk about Biden's legacy and Trump's imminent return to the White House Read this week's edition of the Earthling: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/the-looming-tech-takeover Recorded January 17, 2025.…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Bob and Paul battle for audience sympathy 4:29 Canada as 51st state: y’eh or n’eh? 15:09 How Trump-y is Canada’s likely next leader? 19:45 The humiliation theory of American politics 27:33 Trump, Elon, and the two paths to bullying 35:59 Facebook’s free speech about-…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Tim’s got a new podcast, and NonZero is hiring 3:31 Is large language model progress reaching a plateau? 15:20 Some shortcomings of AI today 25:42 Human cognition compared to AI 33:27 The impressive progress of "multimodal" AI 41:33 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright …

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:30 News bites 17:18 The bipartisan push to bomb Iran 30:05 Bob joins to discuss changes at NonZero as well as new developments in AI Recorded January 10, 2025. Read this week's edition of the Earthling: https://nonzero.substack.com/p/bomb-iran-goes-bipartisan https://tw…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 The NonZero-American Prestige punk-rock crossover continues 2:12 Is it time to freak out about Trump? 9:30 Are international norms eroding? 21:40 Jimmy Carter’s legacy 29:02 Heading to Overtime Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Dere…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org 0:28 Toward a non-woolly-minded one-worldism 8:08 Has the unipolar moment passed for good? 10:23 International law vs the “rules-based order” 21:06 Is major UN reform possible? 38:30 AI, US-China, and multipolarity 48:21 Rewriting the sanctions playbook 53:49 Heading to O…

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org Welcome to the first NonZero Newsletter of 2025! Most of the NZN team is still recovering from holiday overindulgence, so it fell upon me to generate some Friday content. And here it is: My annual (assuming I do this again next year) State of NonZero and of the World Addr…