NonZero Newsletter
Robert Wright's Nonzero
Will the Iran War Spiral Out of Control? (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)
Preview
0:00
-43:16

Will the Iran War Spiral Out of Control? (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov)

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
1:04 Spain: the one country that got it right
2:31 When US rhetoric starts sounding like the Kremlin
3:42 Nukes, regime change, military threat—pick one
4:40 Rubio’s “ridiculous” explanation for attacking Iran
5:55 Iran’s restraint: from Soleimani to Khamenei
10:30 Trump had leverage over Bibi. He didn’t use it.
12:57 Is this Israel’s war or America’s?
15:15 Tommy Vietor goes after the ADL—a political first
20:05 How fear sells papers and starts wars
25:08 The nuclear deal: the last thing America got right
25:39 Nikita: Trump’s dopamine addiction to “starting shit”
29:54 How the Iran strike buried the Anthropic story
38:34 Does Israel want a stable Middle East?
40:10 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded March 03, 2026.

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Introducing the NonZero Network:

Nikita’s newsletter:

Overtime titles:

When "antisemitism" stops working as a shield — the speech code around Israel is breaking.
Nikita wants a unified theory of war.
How the Iran war breaks the Ukraine supply chain — Shahed drones, American munitions.
Danny Citrinowicz on why Khamenei was the rational one you could do business with.
Iran's strategy: make hosting U.S. bases too expensive.
Iran hit Amazon data centers. We're building more there.
Does this war have an endgame?
Could Trump pull a Venezuela in Iran?
The Turkey wildcard — Erdogan, the Kurds, and the risk of true regional conflagration.
Bob vs. Sam Harris on nation-building in Iran.
The Basij problem: not everyone in Iran wants secular democracy.
Spain, Sánchez, and Spanish cannabis clubs.

Overtime title:

This post is for paid subscribers