Gratification, work, and risks of idleness

0:28 Recap: how MAGA's domestic and foreign policy fit together as one project 8:31 MAGA reframed as a response to a felt lack of agency 11:50 AI is about to make that loss of agency universal 12:58 The first technology we're actually transferring agency to 17:05 What Claude Code is doing to Nikita's creative process 22:02 Will people use their free time well — or sit on a couch and inject heroin? 2436 Why Spanish festival culture might survive AI better than anyone 30:12 Bots on the street, humans in the parlor: the future of online spaces 37:24 Reading a comment and being depressed by both possibilities

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Nikita Petrov (https://psychopolitica.substack.com). Recorded February 12, 2026. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods