Robert Wright's Nonzero

Nikita Petrov, writer and newsletter author covering Russian affairs and tech. They dissect the Iran conflict, targeted killings, and how regional fights shift the Ukraine-Russia balance. Conversations turn to AI: why tribalism and geopolitics threaten global coordination and how sovereign AI and internet controls reshape power.

Ron Kampeas, retired Washington bureau chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and longtime reporter on U.S.-Israel affairs, discusses the aims and ambiguities of the Iran war. He explores Israeli strategy and domestic politics, comparisons with past conflicts, the MAGA split over Israel, and how criticism can blur into antisemitic tropes. He also reflects on speech policing, backlash, and his Substack coverage.

Liron Shapira, host of Doom Debates and former software engineer focused on AI safety, explains how agentic AI reshaped his coding life. He talks about job disruption, whether AI can create genuinely new knowledge, and the plausible paths from powerful agents to catastrophic risk. The conversation also covers containment, pauses in development, and the politics around safety and defense.

Daniel Levy, former Israeli adviser and current president of the U.S. Middle East Project, offers sharp analysis of Israel, Iran, and the Gulf. He maps Iran’s asymmetric strategy and Iran versus US coherence. He explores Israel’s domestic politics, Netanyahu’s incentives, Gulf state dilemmas, and possible regional endgames. Short, pointed, and provocative.

Hooman Majd, political commentator and author with deep ties to Iran’s political life, explains Tehran’s strategy and regional signaling. He breaks down why Iran sought to inflict regional pain to strengthen its bargaining position. He discusses Gulf states’ security calculations, the survival prospects of Iran’s ruling system, and missed chances for U.S.-Iran rapprochement.

Peter Beinart, journalist and author who writes on Jewish politics and foreign policy. He explores how a war with Iran could amplify antisemitic tropes. He examines conflation of Israeli policy with Jewish identity, media bias in coverage, and how policing speech can backfire. Short, sharp conversations on history, representation, and the risks of mislabeling criticism as bigotry.

Daniel Bessner, international relations scholar at the University of Washington and commentator on U.S. grand strategy. Derek Davison, Middle East analyst and newsletter author tracking regional military and political shifts. They debate Trump’s shifting goals, whether airstrikes can topple regimes, who might succeed Khamenei, risks of Turkish escalation, Iran’s retaliation logic, and Europe’s weak response.

Nikita Petrov, commentator and writer on geopolitics and psychopolitics, joins to analyze Iran, Israel, and U.S. foreign policy. They compare rhetoric to Russian narratives. They debate shifting U.S. rationales for strikes, Iran’s measured responses, who is steering escalation, and how media and political incentives push conflict.

Joshua Landis, Middle East scholar and co-director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, outlines the strategic logic and political pressures shaping threats to Iran. He discusses regional deterrence, Iran's possible responses, risks of regime-change, oil disruptions, and how limited strikes can trap decision makers into escalation.

Holly Elmore, executive director of PauseAI US and AI policy advocate who pushes for slowing rapid AI deployment. She critiques Anthropic's persona-focused fixes versus true base-model alignment. Conversations cover naming-and-shaming tactics, Dario Amodei's role in accelerating the race, and how winner-takes-all narratives and geopolitical frames justify risky rushes.