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The Iran War: A Debate (Robert Wright & Eli Lake)
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The Iran War: A Debate (Robert Wright & Eli Lake)

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.

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0:00 Bob and Eli’s history of (civil) disagreement on Iran
1:38 Is Trump’s war on Iran legal? Does it matter?
7:47 Who’s the real rogue state?
19:02 Israel’s nukes and Iran’s nuclear program
29:41 Is Israel more moral than Iran?
38:21 How Hamas became Hamas
45:40 “Proxy,” “theocracy,” and other fighting words
54:20 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True), Eli Lake (The Free Press, Breaking History, The Re-Education). Recorded April 6, 2026.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Eli for The Free Press: https://www.thefp.com/w/eli-lake

Overtime titles:

0:00 Is Iran a rational actor?
11:06 Differing views on the 1953 CIA coup
33:41 Cognitive bias and the Middle East conflict
42:00 The West Bank question(s)
44:50 Does Iran really want to destroy Israel?
53:24 What does Israel want for the region?

Overtime video:

This post is for paid subscribers