28 October 2025
The Trump Doctrine
Robert Wright and Nikita Petrov discuss what the ongoing assault on Venezuela says about the president's foreign-policy agenda—and his mind.
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In this video:
- Teaser
- Trump on drug cartels: “We’re gonna kill them. They’re gonna be like, dead.”
- Venezuela: Regime change disguised as drug war
- Marco Rubio holds all the foreign policy power
- Trump Doctrine candidate #1: “Jump at the chance to use force”
- Trump Doctrine candidate #2: Monroe 2.0
- Roy Cohn’s philosophy: “It is a nation of men, not laws”
- Bob: There’s value in hypocrisy
- Trump is paving the way for a more competent tyrant
- Could Trump actually be good for the world?
- Trump the comedian
- Heading to Overtime: Bob’s mysterious invitation-only conference
Whose Toady is Bari Weiss?
Robert Wright and psychologist Paul Bloom discuss what to expect from Bari Weiss’s CBS News, Trump’s Israel-Gaza deal, OpenAI’s new app platform, and more.
Bari Weiss, CBS, and Israel
Robert Wright and Nikita Petrov discuss Paramount’s $150M move to bring the Free Press founder in as editor-in-chief at CBS News. Plus: Trump’s Gaza peace plan, Netanyahu on TikTok, a Prigozhin conspiracy theory, and more.
How We Mishandled the Covid Pandemic
Robert Wright and political scientist Stephen Macedo—co-author of the book In Covid’s Wake—discuss the shortcomings of America’s response to Covid and the forces that shaped it.
Why the Israel-Palestine Conflict Persists
Robert Wright and Robert Malley, co-author of the new book Tomorrow is Yesterday: Life, Death, and the Pursuit of Peace in Israel/Palestine, discuss how failures of perspective-taking have doomed attempted solutions.
Israel, Gaza, and Free Speech in America
Robert Wright and Glenn Loury discuss the war in Gaza and the discourse around it—including the “genocide” question, the evolving Israel speech code, and the price Glenn paid for airing diverse views on the Glenn Show.
Tribalism and the Charlie Kirk Killing
Robert Wright and Glenn Loury discuss the assassination of the conservative activist—and the role of political polarization in leading to it and in shaping the aftermath.
Trump’s Epstein Problem and His Authoritarian Slide
Robert Wright and Nikita Petrov discuss Trump’s birthday greeting to Epstein and what the broader story says about the media and US democracy. Plus: Trumpism vs Putinism, South Park, and more.
Epstein, AI, and the Xi-Putin Path to Immortality
Robert Wright and psychologist Paul Bloom discuss what the Ghislaine interview really revealed—via Mickey Kaus’s analysis. Plus: AI vs indoor plumbing, the Xi-Putin summit, and more.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
The US-China Microchip-Minerals Showdown
Paul Triolo of the Albright Stonebridge Group and AIStackDecrypted on Substack joins Robert Wright to unpack the latest on the Trump-Xi trade war—plus: how we got here and where things could go next.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
Will AGI be our doom?
Robert Wright and AI safety activist Liron Shapira discuss and decode the vision of AI apocalypse presented in Eliezer Yudkowsky’s new book.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
Two Visions of AI Doom
Robert Wright and David Krueger—AI safety activist and machine learning professor at The University of Montréal—discuss Eliezer Yudkowsky’s new book on AI takeover and contrast it with David’s own theory of how a takeover could play out.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
Free Speech after Charlie Kirk
Robert Wright and psychologist Paul Bloom discuss the threats to and weaponization of free speech norms in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assasination.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
Profiles in Ambition
Robert Wright and Holly Elmore, executive director of PauseAI US, look at the motives of the AI moguls and some concerns those motives could raise.
Nonzero (The Wright Show)
American Death Squads
