21 October 2026
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Nov 19, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Bernard-Henri Lévy, c’est Mickey
- Rittenhouse acquitted, Malcolm X’s “assassins” exonerated
- How much of BBB will make it through the Senate?
- Some of Mickey’s policy nightmares still lurk within BBB
- Is Elon Musk consciously courting an ideological customer base?
- Bob: Paul Gosar and Lauren Boebert crossed a line
- Why are Biden’s poll numbers so bad?
- Mickey: Elite Trump voters don’t want him to run again
- Mickey Kaus, n’est pas Bari Weiss
- Parrot Room preview: Nellie Bowles decamps to Bari Weiss’s Substack, Andrew Sullivan on 60 Minutes, Anne Applebaum, more trash talking Sam Harris, more on the Dulles brothers, bad news for the University of Austin, Belarus, news on ivermectin and the lab leak hypothesis, why David Frum hates Blake Masters, and Bob chastises Mickey
Nov 16, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Stephen Kinzer
- John Foster Dulles and Allen Dulles—the stars of Stephen’s book The Brothers—as architects of covert imperialism
- Stephen explains how disgruntled bankers and lawyers started the CIA
- How corporate interests drove the 1954 US-led coup in Guatemala
- The enduring relevance of US meddling in Iran in 1953
- Self-fulfilling, Manichean prophecies of the Cold War
- Imagining history without the Dulles brothers
- Have we learned from our past mistakes?
Nov 12, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Bob and Mickey hatch a plan to profit from the University of Austin
- Bob: The question of inflation is tied to the status of the pandemic
- Mickey’s soft infrastructure proposal
- Whither high-speed rail?
- Who will claim ideological leadership of the Republican Party?
- If Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted, will civil unrest follow?
- Parrot Room preview: Substack, under-news about a member of Congress and a would-be member of Congress, Mickey’s beef with Jonathan Chait, Fiona Hill, Bob chastises the Washington Post for inaccurate Brian Williams coverage, evidence that Mickey is suffering from CTCDS (child tax credit derangement syndrome), some damning Tony Blinken audio, Mickey’s so-crazy-it-just-might-work solution to the Trump dilemma, Bob attempts to stump Mickey with a Beatles trivia question, Sam Harris, car talk, and more on the University of Austin
Nov 9, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Eli Clifton
- Who pays Eli to “follow the money”?
- Dispelling illusions about US foreign policy
- Which think tanks serve foreign interests?
- Bob tells an anecdote about a naive prominent journalist
- The hidden influence of the weapons industry
- Did money from Saudi Arabia and UAE help get America involved in Yemen?
- How foreign actors buy influence in Washington
- Eli’s Twitter thread thriller
Nov 5, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Bob enters the pantheon of world historical philosophers
- Was the Virginia election a referendum on wokeness or social spending?
- The Democrats’ strategy for passing (or at least voting on) infrastructure
- Have the Virginia results emboldened challengers to Trump?
- Investigating the Russia investigation
- Will Kyle Rittenhouse be acquitted?
- Is Pfizer’s Covid pill a game changer?
- China’s efforts to address inequality and climate change
- Have we reached peak newsletter?
- Clubhouse: So exclusive no one wants to use it anymore
- Parrot Room preview: Jeffrey Epstein news, the lab leak hypothesis, can Joe Manchin get away with driving a Maserati, the future of custom cars, Bob reads a book about Allen Dulles, the unkind things Sam Harris recently said about Bob, the Foundation trilogy TV adaptation, and Walter Kirn’s Blood Will Out
- A very special Walter Kirn mash-up
Nov 2, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Paul Bloom
- Paul’s new book, The Sweet Spot: The Pleasures of Suffering and the Search for Meaning
- Why do we get pleasure from some kinds of suffering?
- The many forms of self-flagellation
- Paul: I don’t think we pursue the good only because it gives us pleasure
- How do we derive meaning from suffering?
- Paul: You cannot have a meaningful life without suffering
- Does Buddhist meditation risk severing us from important relationships with others?
- Is parenting pleasurable?
- Making progress on the hedonic treadmill
Oct 29, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Could a McAuliffe loss bring about a Dem meltdown?
- Mickey: Most Americans don’t care about Build Back Better social spending
- Bob: There’s a breakdown of trust within the Democratic Party
- More possible evidence in favor of the lab leak hypothesis
- Should Biden withdraw from Syria and Iraq?
- Bob: Most people in the Blob are sincere in their beliefs
- Could Tucker run for president to the right of Trump?
- Mark Zuckerberg, mayor of the metaverse
- Bob: God bless Louis Dekmar
- Parrot Room preview: The special guest’s identity revealed, Huma Abedin’s claim that a senator made a pass at her, RIP Mort Sahl, Mickey’s friend gives up their electric car, and how Bob got mauled by Frazier
Oct 27, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Thomas Wright
- How Tom and Bob wound up talking about the Blob
- Why Tom wants to retire the term “the Blob”
- Is the “Restrainers vs. the Blob” framing useful?
- Chomsky’s misunderstood view on how money corrupts discourse
- Tom questions the value of understanding Vladimir Putin’s perspective
- Does the Blob undermine America’s national interest?
- Engaging a diverse, evolving Blob
Oct 22, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Mickey: Sinema’s tax plan is screwing up the infrastructure bill
- Bob: It’s a political mistake to cut free community college
- Did Biden accidentally commit to defending Taiwan against attack?
- Why you shouldn’t worry about China’s new missile
- JD Vance’s weird tweet about Alec Baldwin
- Can Trump be convinced not to run in 2024?
- Bob: Steve Bannon is still an extremely dangerous person
- US Covid numbers remain inscrutable
- Parrot Room preview: What Dave Chappelle said about Mike Pence, Merrick Garland’s conflict of interest, how to bribe Trump into staying out of the race, death threats in politics, more car advice, Bob takes another crack at besting Mickey’s joke, meditation retreats, Bob defends “the pounce move,” Alec Baldwin, King Juan Carlos’s sex drive, and the French election
Oct 19, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Steven Pinker
- Steve’s new book, Rationality: What It Is, Why It Seems Scarce, Why It Matters
- Are humans inherently logical?
- What is “motivated reasoning”?
- How attribution error distorts our public discourse
- How Steve deals with criticism of his work
- Bob’s defense of whataboutism
- Did evolution make us moral—or at least moralistic?
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