2025: A Year-End (And Quarter-Century-End) Reckoning (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)

2025: A Year-End (And Quarter-Century-End) Reckoning (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom)

Author: Bloggingheads.tv December 30, 2025 Duration: 1:00:00
David Lynch, Jane Goodall, and other notable 2025 losses ... When Bob called James Watson a "mad scientist" ... Predicting 2050: Star Trek abundance vs. "Total Chaos Planet"? ... The age of algorithmically guided attention ... Global poverty reduction (and its flip side) ... Will anyone care if your newsletter is AI-written? ... Trump's USAID cuts killed a lot of people ... Elon Musk, Alex Karp, and the age of the "manifestly crazy" ... Can the Supreme Court stop Trump? ... JD Vance's identity crisis: Tech bro or populist? ... The "Black Swan": When AI starts killing people ... AI scientific breakthroughs to come ... Bob and Paul's 2025 Entertainment Awards ... Which jobs are truly AI-proof? ... Bob's Epstein document deep-dive ... Bill Ackman's conspiracy-theory-brained year ... Are US arms sales pushing China to invade Taiwan? ... Barry Weiss’s journalistic scruples ...

For over a decade, Bloggingheads.tv has been a unique fixture in the digital landscape, pairing experts and thinkers for in-depth, unscripted dialogues. This podcast captures the essence of those conversations, transforming the split-screen "diavlog" format into an engaging audio experience. You'll hear scholars, journalists, and practitioners dive deep into the week's developments across politics and policy, but the discussions consistently branch into the scientific discoveries, cultural shifts, and public health questions that shape our world. The range is deliberately broad, with episodes moving from a nuanced film analysis to a debate on medical ethics, all grounded in substantive expertise. It’s the intellectual curiosity and genuine exchange between hosts that defines this series, offering listeners a chance to eavesdrop on smart, meandering talks that refuse to stay within narrow lanes. Tune into this podcast not for soundbites, but for the kind of thoughtful, long-form exploration that reveals how interconnected ideas in news, science, and culture truly are.
Author: Language: en-us Episodes: 55

Bloggingheads.tv
Podcast Episodes
Seeing China Clearly (Robert Wright & Tianyu Fang) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... How Tianyu became a “China explainer” ... American vs Chinese exceptionalism ... What you can and can’t say in China ... Is the government more accountable in the US or China? ... How China sees America ... Th…
The Pope Takes On AI (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
A Greek pilgrimage, a mystery guest, and a Discord revival ... The first Papal encyclical devoted to AI ... Pope Leo: just war theory is outdated, and AI lets humans dodge accountability ... Anthropic tells the Pope abou…
Can Rituals Save Us? (Robert Wright & Bruce Feiler) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... Bruce’s new book on ritual, A Time to Gather ... The "Lifequake" that led Bruce to study ritual ... What is a ritual? ... The origins of the shadow ritual renaissance ... Forest bathing and the essence of ritu…
Understanding Iran (Robert Wright & Hamidreza Azizi) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... Hamidreza's background ... A brief history of US-Iran relations ... Understanding Iranian antipathy toward Israel ... Islam vs Islamism ... The Iran-Iraq security dilemma ... The Iran-Israel security dilemma .…
Rethinking China (Robert Wright & Zhengyu Huang) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... Zhengyu’s tech background and new book, Rethinking China ... What kind of threat is China, really? ... How trading with China transformed America ... The stakes of the chip war ... Will tech war lead to real w…
Is the AI Takeoff Starting? (Robert Wright & Timothy B. Lee) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... Is AI a normal technology? ... Mythos and the METR curve ... The current state of coding agents ... The total turbulence problem ... Does Mythos favor offense or defense? ... Mythos and hype ... Regulating dan…
The New Middle East (Robert Wright & Annelle Sheline) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... Annelle’s Middle East bona fides ... The state of play in Iran ... A deepening fissure between Gulf Arab states ... Explaining the Trump-Biden continuity on Middle East policy ... Will the Middle East realign…
Trump Lost the Hormuz Round (Robert Wright & Nikita Petrov) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:00:00
Teaser ... Bob's big personal news ... The US counter-blockade backfires ... Iran retains escalation dominance ... Why the Iranian regime is built to absorb assassinations ... "Donald, it's too late for that." Bob says T…