Listen now | 0:00 Bob welcomes Nikita back to the Nonzero team 6:19 WSJ's report on Trump's authoritarian drift 8:46 Three levers: streets, media, education system 12:58 Trump the businessman and Trump the politician 14:50 Why Putin was compelling in 1999, when Russia was a young democracy 22:37 Laws vs norms 29:05 Trump and lawfare: how independent is the US judiciary? 35:52 Partisanship among judges 38:28 Trump's view of the world as a game 42:44 Cynicism as a political brand 46:10 Nikita: Putin and Trump share a geopolitical worldview 49:46 The damage the US and Russia did to the international law 54:25 The evolution of Putin's understanding of geopolitics 59:22 Today's Overtime segment is open for everybody! 1:00:29 The crisis of the nation-state & NonZero's community building project 1:18:07 "Kremlin is not Russia": distinguishing between the nation and the state 1:19:35 Bob: We all need a tribe 1:24:32 What does it mean to be an American? 1:29:43 Nikita's Armenian propaganda: A legitimate reason to be proud of your nation Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded August 28, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods