Uploaded December 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Robert Wright and Paul Bloom look back on the past year, and the past quarter century, and ahead to 2026—and 2050.
Subscribe to The NonZero Newsletter at: nonzero.org/subscribe
Join NonZero's newly established Discord server: discord.gg/Zy4jAhTQMF
0:00 David Lynch, Jane Goodall, and other notable 2025 losses
8:35 When Bob called James Watson a "mad scientist"
13:38 Predicting 2050: Star Trek abundance vs. "Total Chaos Planet"?
21:22 The age of algorithmically guided attention
25:54 Global poverty reduction (and its flip side)
30:30 Will anyone care if your newsletter is AI-written?
34:24 Trump's USAID cuts killed a lot of people
37:24 Elon Musk, Alex Karp, and the age of the "manifestly crazy"
40:40 Can the Supreme Court stop Trump?
44:54 JD Vance's identity crisis: Tech bro or populist?
48:51 The "Black Swan": When AI starts killing people
52:46 AI scientific breakthroughs to come
59:58 Bob and Paul's 2025 Entertainment Awards
1:04:28 Which jobs are truly AI-proof?
1:18:15 Bob's Epstein document deep-dive
1:27:15 Bill Ackman's conspiracy-theory-brained year
1:30:44 Are US arms sales pushing China to invade Taiwan?
1:36:49 Barry Weiss’s journalistic scruples
Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded December 29, 2025.
Twitter: twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Robert Wright and Paul Bloom look back on the past year, and the past quarter century, and ahead to 2026—and 2050.
Subscribe to The NonZero Newsletter at: nonzero.org/subscribe
Join NonZero's newly established Discord server: discord.gg/Zy4jAhTQMF
0:00 David Lynch, Jane Goodall, and other notable 2025 losses
8:35 When Bob called James Watson a "mad scientist"
13:38 Predicting 2050: Star Trek abundance vs. "Total Chaos Planet"?
21:22 The age of algorithmically guided attention
25:54 Global poverty reduction (and its flip side)
30:30 Will anyone care if your newsletter is AI-written?
34:24 Trump's USAID cuts killed a lot of people
37:24 Elon Musk, Alex Karp, and the age of the "manifestly crazy"
40:40 Can the Supreme Court stop Trump?
44:54 JD Vance's identity crisis: Tech bro or populist?
48:51 The "Black Swan": When AI starts killing people
52:46 AI scientific breakthroughs to come
59:58 Bob and Paul's 2025 Entertainment Awards
1:04:28 Which jobs are truly AI-proof?
1:18:15 Bob's Epstein document deep-dive
1:27:15 Bill Ackman's conspiracy-theory-brained year
1:30:44 Are US arms sales pushing China to invade Taiwan?
1:36:49 Barry Weiss’s journalistic scruples
Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded December 29, 2025.
Twitter: twitter.com/NonzeroPods
