The Wright Show show

The Wright Show

Summary: Conversations with a series of people who have nothing in common except that program host Robert Wright is curious about what they’re thinking.

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Podcasts:

 Going the Distance (Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Will Fauci be Trump’s next scapegoat? ... Mickey: The White House's guidelines for reopening are "insane" ... Does Trump grasp the nature of the challenge? ... The future of podcasts and what really killed blogs ... Debating whether "diversity" encourages coronavirus ... Bob accuses Mickey of spreading a racist anti-Chinese rumor ... The real villains—the cosmopolitan elites! ... Should we believe the WHO? Should we believe China? ... If Biden wins, who will actually run the government? ...

 My War Criminal (Robert Wright & Jessica Stern) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Jessica's new book, My War Criminal ... A capsule history of Serbian nationalism ... Radovan Karadžić, chameleon ... Karadžić's career trajectory: psychiatrist, poet, politician ... The breakup of Yugoslavia and Karadžić's rise ... Trying to understand the Serbian perspective ... Karadžić's genocidal role in the Bosnian War ... Is Karadžić an example of the banality of evil? ... The obligatory Trump parallels ... Why to explain all is not to forgive all ...

 Getting to the Ventilators (Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Bob takes a victory lap on overestimated COVID deaths ... How many people have had COVID but don't know it? ... Stumbling toward economic normalcy ... Should Trump get blamed for all this? ... Mickey explains why Fox has fallen in line ... A theory about COVID being a blood disease, not a lung disease ... Mickey's triage nightmares seem not to be in the cards ... Will the presidential election be vote-by-mail? ... Should we trust the World Health Organization? ...

 The New Science of Self-Actualization (Robert Wright & Scott Barry Kaufman) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Scott's new book, Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization ... Debunking myths about Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs ... The origins of humanistic psychology ... Optimism for the thinking person ... Psychological security in an era of new threats and superficial social connections ... Psychological growth: exploration, love, and purpose ... Defining "peak experiences" ... Scott says Bob is a "transcender." Bob is skeptical. ... Is this a kind of secular spirituality? ... Evaluating peak experiences achieved through psychedelics ...

 The Next Phase in the War on COVID-19 (Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Mickey and Bob’s big announcement ... When Mickey met Steve Bannon ... Was there any hope of keeping COVID-19 out of the US? ... Is phase two of the war against COVID a creepy surveillance state? ... Mickey and Bob argue about the supposed coronavirus cover-up in China ... Bob is shocked that Pa Kushner could buy Jared’s way into Harvard for only $2.5 million ... Mickey: What good has staying friends with China done us? ... Bob: Is it my imagination or is journalism worse than it used to be? ...

 COVID-19 and Boomer Anxiety (Robert Wright & Mickey Kaus) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Bob: Trump is 100% public relations and 0% problem solving ... The time Bob embarrassed Mickey in front of Anthony Fauci ... Right-wing media and coronavirus policymaking ... Bob fails to get Mickey to bemoan the lack of a clear national plan ... Is Andrew Cuomo getting too hokey? ... Is COVID-19 telling us to strengthen national borders? ... Mickey fears merit-based ventilator triaging ...

 Anxiety and Happiness (Robert Wright & Ruth Whippman) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Ruth's book, America the Anxious ... Ruth is skeptical that meditation leads to happiness ... Is being in the moment overrated? ... Is there a mindful view of the coronavirus pandemic? ... Radical self-help at the Landmark Forum ... The CEO of Zappos created a happiness city in Las Vegas. It did not go well. ... A plea for tolerance in the battle over attachment parenting ... Why are Mormons so gosh darn happy? ... Happiness in the UK vs. the US ...

 Psychology, Politics, and the Pandemic (Robert Wright & Paul Bloom) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

How we’re coping with COVID-19 ... Will the pandemic promote division or unity? ... How this crisis is and isn’t like climate change ... Nipping it in the bud vs. flattening the curve ... The role of social shaming ... Theories of Trump ... Paul’s new life as a virtual professor ... How grim can this get? ...

 The Magnanimous Heart (Robert Wright & Narayan Helen Liebenson) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Is Bob a bad yogi? ... Narayan's book, The Magnanimous Heart ... Narayan's journey from Janet to Narayan ... How Narayan entered contemplative practice ... Learning from snakes and lizards in Thailand ... Defining the Buddhist term dukka as "a constant squeeze" ... Dealing with feelings of grief and loss after a divorce ... Narayan: Not taking sides is not the same as passivity ... Mindfulness and the death of a loved one ...

 Pandemic Politics (Robert Wright & Damon Linker) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Economic and political effects of coronavirus ... Even viruses are processed through the lens of tribalism ... Will the virus shred the social fabric or bring people together? ... Damon: The virus will strengthen nationalism worldwide ... Could corona revive economic localism? ... Will the right blame "cosmopolitans" for spreading the virus? ... Damon: The virus reminds us how much is beyond human control ...

 Health Care Policy and Politics (Robert Wright & Christen Linke Young) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

The coronavirus makes health care policy even more personal ... Christen on the administration's response: "They botch even the easy things" ... Bob: There's something to be said for fear during a pandemic ... Biden's plan to fortify Obamacare with a public option ... Why insurance companies might support the public option ... Assessing Bernie's Medicare for All plan ... Trump's attempts to undermine Obamacare ... Christen: The latest Supreme Court challenge to Obamacare is the dumbest ... Trump's health care plan: spend less money but give people more stuff ...

 Exploring Daoism (Robert Wright & Robin Wang) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Unpacking the Dao De Jing's famous opening line, "The Dao that can be told is not the eternal Dao" ... "The way" as a descriptive and prescriptive moniker ... Rising above the perspective of the moment ... The relationship among Daoism, Confucianism, and Zen Buddhism ... Spirituality and transcendence in Daoism ... Robin's work as a consultant on The Karate Kid remake ... Why Robin's book uses "yinyang" instead of "yin and yang" ...

 The Bernie Bro Problem (Robert Wright & David Klion) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

David (an alleged BernieBro) defends his infamous anti-Bloomberg tweet ... When good people support bad policies ... Who is more likely to beat Trump, Biden or Bernie? ... Chronicling the emergence of a Bob-friendly foreign policy ideology ... Sanders's fight against the Yemen war ... David's critique of Bloggingheads ... Bob's critique of Resistance argumentation ... What is Twitter, exactly? ...

 Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation (Robert Wright & David Bentley Hart) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

David's new book, That All Shall Be Saved: Heaven, Hell, and Universal Salvation ... What does the New Testament actually say about Hell? ... Original sin and the crucifixion of Jesus ... David's case against eternal damnation ... Free will, sin, and freedom ... What did "the Kingdom of Heaven" mean to Jesus? ... David: Envisioning the afterlife "always results in a kind of cartoon" ... David's quick thoughts on the mind-body problem ... Mysticism in the Eastern Orthodox Church ...

 Coverup at OPCW? (Robert Wright & Aaron Maté) | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 01:00:00

Did the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons suppress evidence that an infamous attack in Syria didn’t actually happen? ... Evidence from OPCW whistleblowers ... Evidence that the scene of the attack was staged ... Why reporters aren't incentivized to investigate this story ... What happened at the hospital? ... OPCW's side of the story ... Why Bob is agnostic about whether the Douma attack was real or faked ... Bob: A large news organization needs to investigate this story ...

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