6 April 2026
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current programs
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Dec 20, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Dominic Johnson
- Dominic’s paper, “Bad World: The Negativity Bias in International Politics”
- Why politicians overestimate threats to national security
- The cognitive bias of “loss avoidance” as fuel for war
- Do international actors give too much weight to past failures?
- World War I as a case study in negativity bias
- Arguments against Dominic’s argument
- Can we use our growing knowledge of cognitive biases to avoid unwise conflicts?
Dec 19, 2019 —
Glenn Loury & Robert Wright
- Bob reminisces about the origins of Bloggingheads.tv
- Where The Glenn Show fits into the BhTV ecosystem
- Speech policing, the “n-word,” and the uses of ridicule
- What’s Trump’s executive order on anti-Semitism really about?
- Does the IDW care about protecting speech critical of Israel?
- Bob critiques The Trayvon Hoax
- Bob: Be wary of throwing around the word “hoax”
- Quillette accuses Bob of palling around with tyranny apologists
Dec 13, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Alan Rusbridger
- Alan’s new book, Breaking News: The Remaking of Journalism and Why It Matters Now
- Alan on taking over the Guardian in 1995, at the dawn of the web
- Was giving news away for free the “original sin” of online journalism?
- Pros and cons of different media funding models
- The downsides of having lots of subscribers and traffic
- Alan: The British press has failed on Brexit
- A few kinds words about social media
- How the Guardian uses “open journalism”
- Will we soon enter a post-newspaper future?
Nov 20, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus
- The many ways that Twitter is mismanaged
- Bob vs. Mickey on impeachment
- Is there any evidence of Biden’s guilt?
- Bob accuses Mickey of defending Trump’s Iran policy
- Mickey: “I’m not sure I want four more years of this”
- A thought experiment about bribery and sex
- Debating whether to identify the whistleblower
- What are the odds of conviction?
- Which Democrat should Trump most fear?
- Mickey floats the prison gang theory of Epstein’s death
Nov 18, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Michael Powell
- Michael’s new book, Canyon Dreams: A Basketball Season on the Navajo Nation
- Michael: “Rez ball” is defined by speed and fluid movement
- What life is like on the Navajo reservation
- The syncretism of traditional and Christian religion among the Navajo
- The waning of traditional Navajo culture and belief
- Why leaving the reservation can be so difficult
- What the basketball team means to the players and their families
- Has commercialization made sports better?
- The preposterous state of bigtime college sports
Nov 12, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Jack Goldsmith
- Jack’s discovery that his stepfather Chuckie was illegally surveilled by the feds
- J. Edgar Hoover and the origins of FBI surveillance
- Robert F. Kennedy’s war on Jimmy Hoffa
- Jack: Prosecutorial discretion is one of the government’s most dangerous powers
- Jack’s challenge to Bush’s post-9/11 surveillance program
- How Chuckie’s experience weighed on Jack’s conscience
- Did the Bush administration fan the flames of fear to accomplish its goals?
- Jack offers some praise and criticism for Edward Snowden
Nov 4, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Jack Goldsmith
- Jack’s new book, In Hoffa’s Shadow
- Jimmy Hoffa’s real accomplishments as a labor leader
- Chuckie O’Brien, Jack’s stepfather and Hoffa’s right-hand man
- The conventional story: Chuckie delivered Hoffa to his killers
- Jack’s early belief in Chuckie’s innocence and later estrangement from him
- Why Hoffa was killed
- Reasons to think Chuckie was falsely accused
- Why Chuckie has kept the code of omertà
- The mafia and moral relativism
Oct 28, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Sarah Leah Whitson
- Sarah explains Human Rights Watch’s mission
- Is Turkey’s Erdogan engaging in ethnic cleansing?
- Sarah: A “safe zone” along Syria’s Turkish border won’t work
- Why armed proxy groups are always unaccountable
- The imminent humanitarian crisis in Idlib, Syria
- Other human rights concerns in the Middle East
- Sarah: The building of Israeli settlements is a war crime
- The failure of the “responsibility to protect” in Libya
Oct 9, 2019 —
Robert Wright & Chris Lehmann
- Chris steers The New Republic (back) to the left
- How Chris’s Iowa childhood shaped his politics
- “This might be your great-grandfather’s New Republic”
- Evaluating the Resistance
- Why Chris wishes Sherrod Brown was running for president
- The Iraq War and TNR’s history of hawkish foreign policy
- Running a magazine of ideas in an online world
- Finding the right tone for the new TNR
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