Robinson's Podcast

Richard Wolff, Marxist economist and professor emeritus, gives a big-picture take on the Iran conflict and global shifts. He traces historical roots, explains why the war heightens Israeli and European vulnerabilities, links energy and industrial decline to geopolitical risk, and explores how deindustrialization, China’s rise, and AI reshape power and economic winners. The conversation focuses on cause, consequence, and global realignment.

Michael Hudson, economist and president of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends, discusses how oil and the petrodollar shape U.S. foreign policy. He explores U.S. coercion via the dollar and sanctions. He examines NATO expansion, Russia and Ukraine, Israel’s strategic role, China’s development model versus neoliberalism, and the risk of global confrontation.

Lee Cronin, a chemist exploring digitized and artificial chemistry, and Sara Imari Walker, an astrobiophysicist probing time and life's origins, discuss deep cross-discipline puzzles. They debate time as causal history, how complex molecules encode pasts, determinism versus generative randomness, and whether life and selection create apparent laws. They also consider AI, measurement, and rethinking scientific foundations.

Tim Maudlin, philosopher of physics at NYU known for work on quantum foundations, and Jacob Barandes, Harvard physicist-philosopher who developed the Indivisible Approach, discuss core quantum puzzles. They explore the reality of the wave function, non‑Markovian versus hidden‑variable models, causality and the Markov condition, interference as a feature of indivisible processes, and how classicality and detectors emerge.

Scott Aaronson, a leading quantum computing theorist and professor at UT Austin, explains quantum basics with clarity. He discusses amplitudes, qubits, interference, and why quantum simulation is the clearest application. He debunks parallel-universes myths, contrasts interpretations of quantum mechanics, and outlines real engineering challenges and timelines for practical quantum machines.

Jeffrey Pfeffer, a renowned organizational behavior scholar at Stanford, dives deep into the dynamics of power and influence. He explores the complexities of self-interest in organizations, revealing how it often drives behavior more than altruism. Pfeffer discusses moral rationalization, particularly in toxic workplaces, and critiques the U.S. healthcare system's inefficiencies. Using vivid examples, he explains the personal costs leaders face in their pursuit of power and challenges the notion of conspiracies, advocating for simpler explanations of social dynamics.

Lee Cronin, Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, dives into the fascinating intersection of artificial intelligence and alien life. He challenges traditional views of intelligence, arguing that human creativity transcends AI's capabilities. Cronin introduces assembly theory, linking it to life and intelligence, and discusses the search for extraterrestrial beings. With thoughts on the chemistry that could define alien life and the signals they might send, he unpacks myths about aliens while questioning our understanding of consciousness and agency.

Annaka Harris, a New York Times bestselling author and expert on consciousness, dives into the fundamental nature of consciousness. She challenges traditional views and discusses panpsychism, questioning whether consciousness is emergent or a core aspect of reality. Annaka connects consciousness to physics, especially in relation to quantum mechanics and the many-worlds theory. She also explores how artificial intelligence might experience consciousness differently, and the intriguing idea of consciousness solving deep problems in physics.

Jacob Barandes, Senior Preceptor in Physics at Harvard, dives deep into the philosophy of quantum mechanics and its foundations. He emphasizes the vital link between history, mathematics, and physics, arguing for a more interdisciplinary approach. Jacob presents his 'Indivisibility' concept to address major puzzles in quantum physics. They discuss the measurement problem versus black hole experiments, the limitations of the Standard Model, and how innovative theories like Bohmian mechanics and stochastic laws might reshape our understanding of quantum reality.

Lee Cronin, Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, dives into the mysteries of life's origins and the digitization of chemistry. He explores whether life is unique to Earth and breaks down the core processes that transform sand into cells. The conversation touches on chemputation, the application of AI in chemistry, and the concerns of AI as an agent. Lee challenges the narratives around the selfish gene and emphasizes the significance of assembly theory, all while debunking extreme AI apocalypse fears.