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Is American Might Right? (Robert Wright & Shadi Hamid)
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Is American Might Right? (Robert Wright & Shadi Hamid)

This episode includes an Overtime segment that’s available to paid subscribers. If you’re not a paid subscriber, we of course encourage you to become one. If you are a paid subscriber, you can access the complete conversation either via the audio and video on this post or by setting up the paid-subscriber podcast feed, which includes all exclusive audio content. To set that up, simply grab the RSS feed from this page (by first clicking the “...” icon on the audio player) and paste it into your favorite podcast app. If you have trouble completing the process, check out this super-simple how-to guide.

0:00 Teaser
1:01 Shadi’s path to his new book, The Case for American Power
9:51 George W. Bush’s “Freedom Agenda”
13:19 Does America’s role in Gaza undermine Shadi’s case?
16:47 Shadi’s case for US moral supremacy
23:36 What does China want?
34:19 What justifies military intervention?
40:32 Bob: International law is the answer
51:25 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Shadi Hamid (The Washington Post, https://wisdomofcrowds.live/podcast, The Case for American Power). Recorded October 29, 2025.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Shadi’s podcast: https://wisdomofcrowds.live/podcast

Overtime titles:

0:00 More on Chinese aspirations
4:52 America, f—k yea?
9:15 How the Iraq war propelled Donald Trump’s rise
14:46 Moscow’s view of American behavior
24:42 Could the US have shaped a better Putin path?

Overtime video:

This post is for paid subscribers