21 October 2026
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Aug 31, 2021 —
Robert Wright & John Mearsheimer
- What is “realism” in international relations?
- How John predicted the disastrous outcome of the Iraq invasion
- How to convince neocons to respect international law
- John: Sometimes nations just have to break the law
- Bob: The US should establish a norm of strict compliance with international law
- John’s Hobbesian view of international relations
- Is China an existential threat to the US?
- International law’s evolutionary trajectory
Aug 26, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Bob and Mickey’s vaccination vacation
- American cluelessness persists in Afghanistan
- Can the Taliban be incorporated into the global community?
- Radicalized by Microsoft
- Bret Weinstein’s ivermectin crusade (cont’d)
- Has Pelosi outmaneuvered House moderates?
- Are Millennials and Zoomers the new beatniks?
- Bob: We could benefit from a slower rate of technological change
- Parrot Room preview: ESPN literally cancels Rachel Nichols, the Weinstein Rosetta Stone, a traumatic Wieseltier anecdote, Bob’s appearance on Ezra Klein’s podcast, the lawyer-lab rat joke, Ted Lasso, and a controversial Parrot Room fan mash-up
Aug 20, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Unmasked liberals in their natural environment
- The sharply rising Covid-related death rate in the US
- Should the US send vaccine doses abroad before giving boosters at home?
- Bob: The Afghanistan withdrawal could reduce the risk of domestic terrorism
- Is there political logic behind Biden’s position on Afghan refugees?
- Bob: We could have won the Cold War with much less military intervention
- Is “authoritarianism” the new “international communism”?
- Is there an anti-American terrorist threat lurking in Syria?
- The military’s institutional bias against bad news
- Will Biden reinstitute Trump’s “stay in Mexico” policy?
- Parrot Room preview: The Kamala problem, JD Vance, the case against Ghislaine, Twitter lets users flag misinformation, a new Larry Elder scandal, the Atlantic’s supposed prosperousness, Nanci Griffith, the backstory on Bob and Mickey’s teetotaling, the Weinsteins, Ted Lasso, and some inspiration for Mickey
Aug 13, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Meet the new virus, same as the old virus
- The confounding Covid numbers coming out of Florida
- Just a couple of cowards talking about JD Vance
- The Biden administration’s lackluster messaging on the Delta variant
- Hunter Biden faces some deep questions from a prostitute
- Mickey: “Democratic paranoia” about new voting laws is actually about the filibuster
- Bob: The current Taliban takeover of Afghanistan could be worse
- Dems are so close to, yet so far from, passing infrastructure
- Does Andrew Cuomo have a political future?
- Parrot Room preview: Bob floats a new Grand Unified Theory of the Weinsteins, some Jeffrey Epstein news involving a doll, the Muscle Shoals doc, Trump’s wall, Glenn Greenwald gets ready to Rumble, Bob’s half-thought about vaccines, the 1/6 commission, and The Best and the Brightest continued
Aug 10, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Adam Weinstein
- Adam’s military service in Afghanistan
- How much popular support does the Taliban have?
- Adam: If the US didn’t withdraw there would be no end in sight
- Why is the Afghan military struggling to hold off the Taliban?
- A primer on Afghanistan’s largest ethnic groups
- What are the chances of a political settlement?
- Will withdrawing from Afghanistan bring terrorism to America?
- Adam: Withdrawing helps the US focus on existential threats like climate change
- Can Afghanistan’s neighbors help bring stability?
Aug 6, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Mickey restrains himself
- What’s Cuomo’s sex scandal strategy?
- Bob’s encounters with Cuomo the elder
- Was Bob too optimistic about the Delta variant?
- Simon Biles sticks the landing
- The implications of China’s crackdown on tech companies
- The right’s natalist schism
- Mickey: For Tucker, talking Orbán is a way to avoid talking Trump
- Eric Weinstein promises (and threatens) a big reveal
- Parrot Room preview: More Eric Weinstein talk, a Jeffrey Epstein update, Biden’s eviction moratorium, emperor penguins, the California recall, the worst program Mickey’s ever heard on NPR, The Best and the Brightest, censored parrots, and why there’s no anti-Biden Tea Party
Jul 30, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Mickey protests the sexualization of Bloggingheads
- The tribal response to Simone Biles’ troubles
- Mickey: The left puts too much blame on unvaccinated Trumpers
- Bob campaigns for vaccine czar
- How should Biden talk about the Delta variant?
- Who can beat Trump in 2024?
- JD Vance really wants you to have kids
- Bob wants to get rid of the news
- Mickey: Sinema should sink the child tax credit
- Elon Musk’s fantasy world
- Bob is hiring!
- Parrot Room preview: Into the metaverse, Mickey’s theory on Gawker, Van Jones gets rich, Mickey’s take on Bruce Springsteen and Jon Landau, how woke are the Olympics, sexism in trees, the joke Mickey told Jackie Mason, and a new report on a 2013 chemical weapons attack in Syria
Jul 27, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Rania Khalek
- Last year’s Beirut port explosion
- The roots of Lebanon’s economic crisis
- Sectarianism and the dueling narratives of the Lebanese civil war
- Why did Hezbollah intervene in Syria?
- Rania: US policy in Syria helped lead to the rise of ISIS
- What if outside powers had stayed out of Syria?
- The effect of US sanctions on Syria
- How popular is Assad’s government?
- Why Qatar, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia intervened in the conflict
Jul 23, 2021 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- Bob and Mickey enter the Cone of Silence
- Mickey: The narrative about vaccination has collapsed
- Should Bob worry about Eric Weinstein’s latest weird tweet?
- Are we stuck with Covid forever?
- Mickey: If Americans start to see work as optional, migrants will replace them
- The Child Tax Credit’s surprisingly bad polling
- Appraising the Cleveland baseball team’s new name
- A new Gallup opinion poll has some bad news about race relations
- Mickey doesn’t buy Bob’s take on the Pegasus spyware expose
- The inquiries and (alleged) conspiracies of January 6
- Why blame Tom Barrack when you could blame Jared?
- Biden screws Ukraine over the Nord Stream 2 pipeline
- Parrot Room preview: What bad buses in Philly teach us about government overreach, the California recall, Jeffrey Goldberg in hot water, Nick Kristof eyes a run for office, Sean Hannity’s bowel problems—and ours, Eric Weinstein’s tweet, game theory among ethnic elites, and the January 6 prosecutions
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