5 April 2026
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current programs
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Jan 13, 2023 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Anti-gas-stove tyranny – or slow news week?
- Biden’s classified docs scandal is a “granfalloon in search of a MacGuffin led by a wrang-wrang”
- Did Bob Gates and Condoleezza Rice miss a chance to prevent the Ukraine war?
- Is the war turning in Russia’s favor?
- The prospects for peace negotiations
- Parrot Room preview: Biden’s pivot to help the working class; Does AI have a liberal bias?; Has woke peaked?; Matthew Yglesias’ style section profile; Jeff Beck, Lisa Marie Presley, and Blake Hounshell pass away; White Lotus; Mickey’s new conspiracy theory about Kevin McCarthy
Jan 10, 2023 —
Robert Wright & Fred Kaplan
- Why are so many people (including Fred) down on John Mearsheimer?
- Bob: Explaining bad behavior is not the same as justifying it
- How the US eroded international law – and why it matters
- Did US policy make Russia’s invasion of Ukraine more likely?
- NATO’s role in Ukraine before the invasion
- How would the US respond to a China-Mexico military alliance?
- Henry Kissinger’s peace proposal
- Impediments to productive debate on US foreign policy
Jan 6, 2023 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Mickey’s guide to the House Speaker drama
- What vexes Bob about the House Speaker vote
- Why Damar Hamlin’s injury wouldn’t have happened in the old days
- Biden’s new good cop, bad cop immigration plan
- Why keep sanctioning Venezuela (or Cuba, or Syria, or Iran, etc.)?
- Elon and the trouble with “great man” theories of tech progress
- Is Twitter’s new views feature a boon or bullshit?
- Ukraine war update
- Parrot room preview: The Matt Schlapp sex scandal; Jason DeParle on welfare; Mickey’s case against “unity”; More calls for a Semafor clawback; an SBF-AIPAC connection; a second Epstein-Harvard connection; The White Lotus
Jan 3, 2023 —
Robert Wright & Daniel Dennett
In this classic interview, Robert Wright and Daniel Dennett discuss consciousness, free will, being good without belief in God, and whether natural selection could have a larger purpose.
Dec 27, 2022 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Bob hoodwinks the fashion police
- Predictions for the new year
- The pros and cons of “nepotocracy”
- Predictions for the new year (cont’d)
- Impromptu Ukraine war update
- The top 3(ish) stories of 2022
- Is Twitter salvageable?
- The true threat of Twitter (according to Mickey)
- Mickey’s underreported and overreported stories of the year
- What did the Jan. 6 committee miss?
- Bob’s perverse theory on why the GOP would be wise to drop the Hunter Biden thing
- Parrot room preview: The root cause of homelessness; legalize cocaine? Why stop there?; The SBF clawback; signs that the tide is turning on wokeness; Bob’s grand quasi-unified MKUltra-lab leak theory; three bonus predictions from Mickey; Bob checks into The White Lotus
Dec 20, 2022 —
Robert Wright & Adam Dean
- The legacy of free trade in America
- Adam’s new book Opening Up by Cracking Down, about the repression of union activism in developing countries
- Car bombing and other ways Argentina subdued labor in the 80’s
- Why did the US open up trade so early?
- The quasi-dystopian law India used to break strikes in the 90’s
- Underacknowledged long-term effects of free trade
- Is a pro-labor approach to free trade possible?
- Making globalism great again
Dec 16, 2022 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Has the tide turned against Elon—and against Twitter?
- Elon accuses Fauci of funding research that killed millions
- Bob sees signs that the “Twitter files” journalism is biased
- Why now might be a good time for Ukraine diplomacy
- Parrot Room preview: SBF news; breaking down the nuclear fusion breakthrough; the AI alignment problem; China’s coming COVID explosion; TikTok backlash gains traction; Elon’s growing Tesla problems
Dec 13, 2022 —
Robert Wright & Anders Åslund
- What Anders didn’t like about Bob’s Washington Post op-ed on Russia-Ukraine
- Was Putin always bent on invading Russia’s neighbors?
- Bob and Anders debate NATO expansion
- Should the West encourage regime change in Russia?
- Are the US and NATO “fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian”?
- The causes and consequences of Ukraine’s 2014 revolution
- Is Putin committing genocide?
- Possible endgames of the Ukraine war—and of Putin’s Russia
- Could better US policy have averted the Ukraine war?
Dec 9, 2022 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- A brief message from Bob
- Why Mickey thinks the first installment of the Twitter Files was a something-burger
- What Bob thinks Taibbi (and Musk) flubbed
- Do the files show a pro-Dem bias in pre-Musk Twitter?
- Ukraine war update
- Parrot Room preview: an (unwitting) win for Bob; a damning J.D. Vance quote for Mickey; the latest SBF allegation; the worst. Substack. Issue. Ever.; Bob submits a beef with Mickey for commenter consideration; commenter takes on Musk’s gun tweet; potential Parrot Room theme song(s); the Fed on why men are leaving the labor force; Janan Ganesh on why you should leave Twitter
Dec 6, 2022 —
Robert Wright & Mónica Guzmán
- Mónica’s book I Never Thought of It That Way, about how to have “bridge-building” conversations
- Why Mónica’s immigrant parents support(ed) Trump
- Barriers to getting bridge-building buy-in
- Understanding vs. the need to be understood
- Bridge-building 101
- Is understanding a slippery slope to excusing?
- The underrated bridge-building power of curiosity
- Does the media fuel or just reflect our divisions?
- The limits of bridge-building
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