Robert Wright's Nonzero

Eli Lake, investigative journalist and foreign policy writer, brings sharp reporting and national security perspective. He and Robert Wright spar over when US–Iran conflict began. They debate legality of strikes, Iran’s role in regional proxies, nuclear enrichment and the JCPOA, and how Gaza, Hamas, and political Islam fit into broader strategy.

Andrew Day, senior editor at The American Conservative and co-host of Tack Right Now, offers sharp conservative foreign-policy commentary. Curt Mills, executive director at The American Conservative and foreign-policy analyst, brings strategic analysis. They debate MAGA resistance to the Iran war, Trump's decision-making, China and Russia's gains, the Strait of Hormuz, intra-MAGA splits, and prospects for withdrawal or detente.

Andrea Miotti, founder and CEO of Control AI, works to prevent and govern dangerous AI and superintelligence. She defines superintelligence and how AGI might rapidly become vastly more capable. They explore where the nuclear analogy helps and fails. Andrea outlines detectable signs, inspection priorities, and a bottom-up strategy to mobilize governments amid rising geopolitical pressures.

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.