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Artwork for Robert Wright's Nonzero

Robert Wright's Nonzero

Nonzero
Artificial Intelligence
China
Iran
Donald Trump
Israel
United States
Ukraine
Trump Administration
Trump
Elon Musk
U.S. Foreign Policy
Gaza
Russia
Middle East
Openai
Consciousness
Jeffrey Epstein
AI Safety
American Foreign Policy
Us-China Relations

Conversations with a series of people who have nothing in common except that program host Robert Wright is curious about what they’re thinking. www.nonzero.org

PublishesTwice weeklyEpisodes616Founded15 years ago
Number of ListenersCategories
PhilosophyNewsSociety & Culture

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Artwork for Robert Wright's Nonzero

Latest Episodes

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:28 Paul attains potato hegemony 4:17 Bob’s book: Gateway drug to AI doomerism? 7:39 Nathan Fielder’s view of Elizabeth Holmes (via Paul) 22:24 Bob TORCHES Fielder 33:59 ... more

Andrew Day and Curt Mills of The American Conservative join Robert Wright to talk about the Israeli elections, Benjamin Netanyahu’s escalating rhetorical belligerence, Iran’s strategic calculations and arguable missteps, President Lula’s surprise vic... more

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:28 Boris’s background and new book, Our Planetary Mirror 3:28 Three ways of seeing the planet—and us 12:32 Resurveying the Gaia “hypothesis” 20:16 Dawkins’s case against... more

YouTube

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.nonzero.org

0:28 Connor’s role with ControlAI 2:04 The AI vibe shift in Washington 11:37 How does ControlAI want to control AI? 16:10 Dario decoded 21:02 Are AI safety evals worth muc... more

YouTube

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Recent Guests

Andrew Day
Senior editor at The American Conservative
The American Conservative
Episode: Netanyahu Fails to Provoke Iranian Attack Pre-Election (Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Curt Mills)
Curt Mills
Executive director of The American Conservative
The American Conservative
Episode: Netanyahu Fails to Provoke Iranian Attack Pre-Election (Robert Wright, Andrew Day, and Curt Mills)
Boris Shoshitaishvili
Anthropologist and author of Our Planetary Mirror
University of California, Berkeley
Episode: Humanity: An Earth’s-Eye View (Robert Wright & Boris Shoshitaishvili)
Connor Leahy
U.S. Executive Director of ControlAI, a nonprofit seeking to prevent artificial superintelligence
ControlAI
Episode: Can Dario and Sam Be Governed? (Robert Wright & Connor Leahy)
Paul Bloom
Psychologist, writer, and proprietor of the Small Potatoes newsletter
University of Toronto
Episode: The AI Companion Question (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Jeremie Harris
CEO and co-founder of Gladstone AI and co-host of Last Week in AI
Gladstone AI
Episode: The Race to Control AI (Robert Wright & Jeremie Harris)
Alex Gibney
Academy Award-winning documentary filmmaker
Directed Musk documentary
Episode: Inside Elon’s Mind (Robert Wright & Alex Gibney)
Garrison Lovely
Author of Obsolete and organizer advocating to stop frontier AI development
Obsolete book; Irreplaceable; Organize Against the Machine podcast
Episode: Will AI Make Humans Obsolete? (Robert Wright & Garrison Lovely)
Paul Triolo
Long-time Chinese tech watcher; partner and technology policy lead for Asia and the Americas at Albright Stonebridge Group (DGAASG)
Albright Stonebridge Group
Episode: Dario’s China Syndrome (Robert Wright & Paul Triolo)

Host

Robert Wright
Host and investigator of broad, policy-relevant questions; publisher and public thinker with a focus on AI, geopolitics, and philosophy.

Reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars from 928 ratings
  • Fantastic

    It’s hard to argue with anything Robert Wright says. Just a well balanced point of view.

    Apple Podcasts
    5
    Digiddy Doooo
    Canada3 months ago
  • Wildly variable

    Bob misunderstands China’s intentions and indulges Iran. While I consider his motivations well-intentioned, if naive, the unfortunate downstream effects remain.

    Apple Podcasts
    3
    Nico de Piemonte
    United States4 months ago
  • Wildly variable

    Bob misunderstands both China and Iran (discrete issues) which has gotten tedious. He welcomed Dr Annelle Shelline who seems highly qualified to speak to today’s key issues, but then monologued interminably before giving her a chance to speak. Still a fan. Many episodes can be enjoyable, even a revelation. Bought his last book and I’m confident I will buy his next on AI. Self aware enough to note his own interviewing weaknesses but frustratingly, fails to rein them in.

    Apple Podcasts
    3
    Nico de Piemonte
    United States5 months ago
  • Wildly variable

    Bob misunderstands both China and Iran (discrete issues) which has gotten tedious. He welcomed Dr Annelle Shelline who seems highly qualified to speak to today’s key issues, but then monologued interminably before giving her a chance to speak. Still a fan. Many episodes can be enjoyable, even a revelation. Bought his last book and I’m confident I will buy his next on AI.

    Apple Podcasts
    2
    Nico de Piemonte
    United States6 months ago
  • Apologist for terrorists

    Bob: terrorists are bad. Quit the whataboutism. You sound like Alex Jones.

    Apple Podcasts
    1
    burqas4ninjas
    United States6 months ago

Listeners Say

Key themes from listener reviews, highlighting what works and what could be improved about the show.

Engaging host with a knack for drawing out complex ideas; informative for policy minds and AI researchers alike.
High-quality guests and rigorous, thoughtful questions from the host.
Insightful and nuanced discussions that connect AI, policy, and geopolitics.
Listeners value the diversity of perspectives and the depth of analysis, though some episodes can be densely technical.

Chart Rankings

How this podcast ranks in the Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube charts.

Talking Points

Recent interactions between the hosts and their guests.

Humanity: An Earth’s-Eye View (Robert Wright & Boris Shoshitaishvili)
Q: What is your hypothesis part? Is it just a description of a system or are you calling it a kind of system whose properties demand a special kind of explanation like natural selection?
Shoshitaishvili says Dawkins's critique asks whether Gaia is merely a description of planetary feedback or a claim of functional integration requiring an evolutionary explanation. He notes that natural selection on Earth cannot explain planetary unity in the same way it explains organisms, and mentions alternative ideas about self-organization and persistence.
Humanity: An Earth’s-Eye View (Robert Wright & Boris Shoshitaishvili)
Q: When you're just talking to people who have never heard about Gaia, what do you say to explain it to them?
Shoshitaishvili describes James Lovelock's work on whether life could be detected on other planets, which led him to examine Earth's atmosphere. Lovelock and Lynn Margulis proposed that interactions between life and the planet help maintain relatively stable conditions, prompting the metaphor of Earth as a living system.
The Race to Control AI (Robert Wright & Jeremie Harris)
Q: When you use the term loss of control in your report, do you have in mind the full-on Yudkowsky sci-fi-sounding scenarios?
Harris says Yudkowsky's broad warning about losing control of advanced AI has held up better than a narrow reading of his predictions might suggest, even though specific pathways and timelines remain uncertain.
The Race to Control AI (Robert Wright & Jeremie Harris)
Q: What is the discourse still not catching up to, and will it take more jolting incidents to change it?
Harris says people still underestimate how reliably AI capabilities improve with scaling. He expects further incidents as capabilities expand, potentially producing a severe event that changes government policy.
The AI Companion Question (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Q: Would you still say it is unhealthy to interact with a non-sentient being if the relationship had all the same effects on your son's behavior and psychology as a relationship with a real person?
Bloom says he would still see a difference between loving a conscious person and experiencing an apparently equivalent relationship with a machine. He accepts that an AI companion that behaves like a good friend could be instrumentally beneficial, and suggests AI might help young people practise social skills.

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Frequently Asked Questions About Robert Wright's Nonzero

What is Robert Wright's Nonzero about and what kind of topics does it cover?

The show features long-form conversations that explore big-picture topics at the intersection of policy, technology, and global affairs. Episodes frequently center on AI governance and ethics, international security, and shifts in geopolitical power, often grounded in current events and long-term strategic thinking. The host steers debates with guests from diverse think tanks, academia, and tech culture, yielding nuanced discussions that blend analytical rigor with accessible storytelling. Listeners can expect thoughtful, sometimes provocative takes on how technology and politics shape the future, with an emphasis on global coordination, risk assessment, and moral considerations. A standout trait is the host's ability to pull together exper... more

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1. Very Bad Wizards
2. Decoding the Gurus
3. The Good Fight
4. The Glenn Show
5. Making Sense with Sam Harris

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Robert Wright's Nonzero launched 15 years ago and published 616 episodes to date. You can find more information about this podcast including rankings, audience demographics and engagement in our podcast database.

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What guests have appeared on Robert Wright's Nonzero?

Recent guests on Robert Wright's Nonzero include:

1. Andrew Day
2. Curt Mills
3. Boris Shoshitaishvili
4. Connor Leahy
5. Paul Bloom
6. Jeremie Harris
7. Alex Gibney
8. Garrison Lovely

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