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0:00 Teaser
0:59 What is Bob doing in Qatar?
4:04 “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold.” Why Yeats felt this way
7:37 Peter Thiel’s Antichrist theory
9:46 Nikita: COVID was a weird time, and nothing has been the same since
14:57 Why Bob feels things are falling apart
18:28 Were things ever in order?
19:53 “Inner emigration”: tuning out the world as self-care
22:38 A reaction to a drone strike: “Loud noises don’t wake me up”
25:57 Young people are turning away from social media
27:05 When Spain lost all power and cellular coverage
30:36 War as a “major inconvenience”
34:22 Bob’s prediction about Ukraine’s future retaliation for Pokrovsk
38:56 Nikita’s impressions from Europe
42:07 Nonzero Reading Club THIS SATURDAY: Norbert Wiener’s God & Golem, Inc.
47:08 Deepfakes and the future of news
52:04 Russia’s first humanoid robot falls down
Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded November 12, 2025.
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Save the date for the first-ever NonZero Reading Club discussion on Zoom this Saturday (Nov. 15th) at 1pm ET: https://www.addevent.com/event/1yxb9cr5nk0z
Discussed in Overtime:
Bob explains government shutdowns to Nikita.
Evolution of profanity in media and politics.
Misinformation and “shallow fakes.”
