Claudine Gay, MLK, and GLENN'S NEW BOOK (Glenn Loury & John McWhorter)
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...
View ArticleIt's Trump's Party (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
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 ...
View ArticleAn Israeli Looks at Gaza (Robert Wright & Russ Roberts)
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...
View ArticleRightwing Paranoia and Taylor Swift (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
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? ...
View ArticleWhat’s Next for Gaza and Israel? (Robert Wright, Derek Davison, and Daniel...
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...
View ArticleThe Truth About Effective Altruism (Robert Wright & Robert Wiblin)
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...
View ArticleGOP Chaos (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
The import of Chapman-Combs ... "An embarrassing day for Republicans" ... How immigration wrecked the GOP ... What's Nikki Haley doing? ... The 3rd party X factor ...
View ArticleConspiracy Theories and True Fictions (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Bob’s bad newsletter news for Paul ... Fast Car's moving Grammy moment ... Music, female orgasms, and other evolutionary enigmas ... The Moral Animal turns 30—how has it aged? ... How AI (barely) helps...
View ArticleInside the Mind of AI (Robert Wright & Nora Belrose)
Nora’s low score on the AI doomer test ... The messy math of AI alignment ... Teaching and (unteaching) concepts to LLMS ... Do we really want human-like AI? ... How the AI “mind” works ... How to...
View ArticleIs the 'Age' Issue Old News? (Matt K. Lewis & Matt K. Lewis)
Does the NY-03 special election have national import? ... Will the special counsel report sink Joe Biden? ... Was Jon Stewart's monologue on the mark? ...
View ArticleUkraine’s War, Putin’s Worldview (Robert Wright & Leonid Ragozin)
What MSM missed about Carlsons' Putin interview ... Putin’s litany of grievances against the West ... Russia gets the upper hand in Ukraine ... Why Zelensky hasn’t paved the way for peace talks ......
View ArticleWhat Navalny Meant (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)
Nikita’s memories of Navalny’s emergence as a political force ... The time Nikita was detained for protesting election fraud ... Navalny’s success as a political organizer ... What did Navalny...
View ArticleDoes AI Understand Things? (Robert Wright & Gary Marcus)
Gary’s background and place in the AI world ... Are Gary’s views on AI paradoxical? ... Bob: Searle’s Chinese Room argument is dead ... Have LLMs demonstrated "theory of mind"? ... Arguing the...
View ArticleGoogle’s AI, Biden’s Brain, and Other Enigmas (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Big trouble with Small Potatoes ... What makes a good podcast? ... Google’s AI goes wild(ly woke) ... Is Biden a “super-ager” or just super old? ... On the psychology of self-immolation ... Are we...
View ArticleNikki Haley Voters Could Sink Trump (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
Can Trump win back Haley voters? ... Does it matter how many Democrats vote "Uncommitted" in Michigan? ... Is there any logic to Trump's messaging to African-American voters? ... Do people vote for...
View ArticleElon v. OpenAI, Google vs Itself (Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee)
The other Tim B. Lee ... Unpacking the Elon v. OpenAI case ... How did Google’s Gemini go wrong? ... The unsung ingenious side of Gemini ... Is AI a bubble? ... Are some LLM issues insoluble? ... How...
View ArticleKyrsten Sinema Says Goodbye (Bill Scher & Matt K. Lewis)
Did Super Tuesday tell us anything? ... What should Biden do in the SOTU? ... Is Trump losing it? ... Did Sinema's retirement mean bipartisanship is dead? ...
View ArticleBiden’s Gaza Failures (Robert Wright & Daniel Levy)
Should Biden pursue regime change in Israel? ... How the White House mishandled Netanyahu's far-right government ... Daniel: “Israel has lost this war” ... What a ceasefire deal would look like ......
View ArticleCan TikTok Survive? (Bill Scher & Matt K. Lewis)
Should TikTok be banned? ... Why did Ken Buck quit? ... Will the Hur report hurt Biden? ... Is Biden's new ad any good? ...
View ArticleThe Open Source AI Question (Robert Wright & Nathan Labenz)
Nathan’s role as “AI scout” ... What "open source" in AI really means ... Why the secrecy around AI training data? ... What’s actually “open” about OpenAI? ... The case for and against open source AI...
View ArticleElon and Altman: Dueling Messiahs (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Paul’s Substack: small potatoes or some pumpkins? ... Elon sours on Lemon—is ketamine to blame? ... The enduring enigma that is Elon Musk ... Is Altman overdramatizing the AI #Resistance? ... Paul...
View ArticleAmerica’s Blood Bath (and Beyond) (Bill Scher & Matt K. Lewis)
What did Trump mean by "bloodbath"? ... Trump doesn't want you to remember 2020 ... Does Bernie Moreno have the edge over Sherrod Brown? ...
View ArticleWhat Does Putin Want? (Robert Wright & Nikolay and Kirill)
Are Nikolay and Kirill satisfied with the "special military operation"? ... Why have Russians become more supportive of the war effort? ... Kirill defends the RWA tweet that unsettled Bob ... US...
View ArticleMeditation Tips for Beginners (and Non-Beginners) (Robert Wright & Kathryn...
Kati’s unusual niche ... How Covid changed meditation ... Kati: The optimal amount of meditation is… ... Is focusing on the breath overblown? ... AI as a spiritual challenge ... Meditation and...
View ArticleRFK Jr.'s Bad VEEP Pick (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
Matt's X spat with Ric Grenell ... The importance of narrative framing ... Should NBC have hired/fired Ronna McDaniel? ... How awful is RFK Jr.'s VP pick? ...
View ArticleThe Cosmic Thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (Robert Wright & Ilia Delio)
Ilia’s background ... Things to know about the noosphere ... Teilhard’s transgressive theological and scientific thought ... Does AI suggest a “transcendent nature to nature”? ... The Teilhardian...
View ArticleAI, Rationalism, and the “Great Filter” (Robert Wright & Robin Hanson)
Robin’s history of thinking about the future ... Seeing AI as offspring, not adversary ... Robin’s famous answer to a great cosmic mystery ... Would evidence of aliens be good news or bad? ... Is...
View ArticleBiden’s Israel Problem (Robert Wright, Derek Davison, and Daniel Bessner)
A brief message from Bob ... Derek and Danny stumble into Bob’s Zoom room ... Israel’s doubly out-of-control week ... How Biden's Gaza failures will shape the Democratic Party ... Biden’s political...
View ArticleCan Abortion Sink Trump? (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
Are Republican Trump critics returning to the GOP fold? ... Has Trump threaded the needle on abortion? ... Can Biden shift the nation's attention to abortion? ...
View ArticleDaniel Kahneman and the Rationalists (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)
Why Paul’s eclipse experience eclipsed Bob’s ... Remembering pioneering psychologist Daniel Kahneman ... Bob fails gender affirmation test ... Has the “replication crisis” tainted Kahneman’s legacy?...
View ArticleHow Iran’s Attack Benefits Israel (Robert Wright & Joshua Landis)
Why Iran’s attack on Israel was an “own goal” ... Did Iran minimize casualties on purpose? ... The rising odds of Israel attacking Iran directly ... America’s contradictory relationship with Israel ......
View ArticleJust ONE MAGA Juror is All TRUMP Needs (Matt K. Lewis & Bill Scher)
Did Trump blow it on abortion? ... Does the hush money trial jury have a secret Trump partisan? ... Is Mike Johnson Choosing Reagan over Trump? ... Should Sotomayor retire? ...
View ArticlePutin, AI, Ukraine, Crypto, the Noosphere, Futurism & Other Stuff (Robert...
Anatoly’s strange CV ... How the 20th century set the stage for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine ... Why did Putin turn against the West? ... Anatoly: I underestimated Russia’s incompetence ... Has the...
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