Listen now | 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: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods
Late here due to holiday travels, but the critical reception enjoyed by the Beach Boys is probably due to their brief venture into psychedelia with the Pet Sounds album. This is when Brian Wilson took total artistic control in the studio, perfected the "Wall of Sound" approach, incorporated exotic instruments, and generally made pop music interesting to a more high-brow serious audience. It was unfortunately the beginning of his psychological downfall, which really accelerated when their followup album Smile fell apart and was never finished.
I'd give "God Only Knows" a listen from Pet Sounds to get the idea.
I was so relieved that Bob was willing to play along and say something hopeful at the end. did he do it just as a tiny gift to Paul? Paul worked so hard to try to get the episode to end on a nice note.
Bob, I think your greatest achievement has been living rent-free in "Dr." Murray's head for 30 years. I saw his crash-out on twitter where he remarked that your 1995 piece in the New Republic "stands out in my mind as the most spiteful thing written about me after TBC."
One of the finer points on the ethics of a human therapist vs. an AI therapist is that a human therapist is under an ethical obligation to help their clients and can be held to account if they hurt or cause their patients to hurt others vs. an AI therapist which is under no such obligation.
Great episode, brought a smile to my face while I was eating my breakfast, you guys are truly unmasking the truth.
Happy new year.
Let Paul talk
They say celebrity is a face eating mask. Happy new year!
Late here due to holiday travels, but the critical reception enjoyed by the Beach Boys is probably due to their brief venture into psychedelia with the Pet Sounds album. This is when Brian Wilson took total artistic control in the studio, perfected the "Wall of Sound" approach, incorporated exotic instruments, and generally made pop music interesting to a more high-brow serious audience. It was unfortunately the beginning of his psychological downfall, which really accelerated when their followup album Smile fell apart and was never finished.
I'd give "God Only Knows" a listen from Pet Sounds to get the idea.
Also, I couldn’t think seriously about the John Updike quote without thinking about the Leopards Eating People's Faces Party
I was so relieved that Bob was willing to play along and say something hopeful at the end. did he do it just as a tiny gift to Paul? Paul worked so hard to try to get the episode to end on a nice note.
AI is already killing people. e.g., “Where’s daddy?”
Bob, I think your greatest achievement has been living rent-free in "Dr." Murray's head for 30 years. I saw his crash-out on twitter where he remarked that your 1995 piece in the New Republic "stands out in my mind as the most spiteful thing written about me after TBC."
https://x.com/charlesmurray/status/2005984816072909252
https://chatgpt.com/s/m_6957e24be590819192ad7c9febca63a5 Great quote and great show I agree with the hope for a positive effect on humanity even though ChatGPT has problems visualizing the quote! Happy New Year!
I assume this is Paul's new tv: https://www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-oled77t4pua-oled-4k-tv
Though for $59,999.99 you'd think they could include free shipping.
One of the finer points on the ethics of a human therapist vs. an AI therapist is that a human therapist is under an ethical obligation to help their clients and can be held to account if they hurt or cause their patients to hurt others vs. an AI therapist which is under no such obligation.
Slight oversight to not mention Charlie Kirk as one having died this year, one might think, though I understand not wanting to open that can of worms.