The Wright Show

Why didn't the Emerging Democratic Majority ever emerge? ... John's new book, The Nationalist Revival ... America's history of ethnonationalism and assimilation ... The coalition of the "left behind" ... The global tension between the "somewheres" and the "anywheres" ... Europe's refugee crisis as a hinge point ... Toward a liberal nationalism ... Is John optimistic or pessimistic? ...

Sally's new book, The Opposite of Hate ... Why (gay, lefty) Sally took a gig at Fox News ... A test case of tamping down hate: Ben Shapiro's very bad tweet ... What do liberals get wrong about Trump supporters? ... Sally: Hate is never the answer to hate ... The desire for a loathsome enemy ... Is it crazy to be talking about a second American civil war? ... Sally reveals what the opposite of hate actually is ...

Steve's new book, The Hell of Good Intentions ... Steve: "Liberal hegemony" has been almost a complete failure ... Why foreign policy watchers were so optimistic in 1993 ... Bill Clinton's foreign policy blunders: Expansion of NATO and "dual containment" of Iran and Iraq ... Steve: Within the foreign policy establishment, failure has no consequences and dissent is punished ... How both Obama and Trump were captured by the foreign policy "blob" ... Why are so many think tanks interventionist? ... Steve's proposal for a smarter foreign policy: "offshore balancing" ...

John's book on unconscious motivations, Before You Know It ... Why thinking about the flu makes you more opposed to immigration ... Are ethnic and gender stereotypes self-fulfilling prophecies? ... The Protestant work ethic as a core part of American psychology ... Don’t resist temptations. Avoid them! ... How to use an "implementation intention" to get things done ... How have John’s famous lever-pulling experiments held up over time? ... Is the "replication crisis" really a crisis? ...

Why are Democrats attacking Trump’s foreign policy from the right? ... How many voters really care about foreign policy? ... What’s behind the recurring impulse to expand NATO? ... Is the new Cold War driven more by Russia or the US? ... The case for letting China have Taiwan ... Bob’s pitch for a progressive realist foreign policy ...

Is Buddhism a philosophy or a religion? ... Surya Das: "I'm enlightened enough for now" ... Attachment, aversion, and "original goodness" ... Is an enlightened person by definition a moral person? ... Not-self and Emerson's "transparent eyeball" ... The Dzogchen approach to enlightenment ... Surya Das: Trump has the spark of Buddha nature (and so do you) ...

Greg's new book, The Gutfeld Monologues ... How going to Berkeley pushed Greg toward conservatism ... Trumpism creates strange ideological bedfellows ... Bob offers a magic solution to the freedom vs. security dilemma ... Was Obama right to avoid the phrase "Islamic radicalism"? ... Trump's savvy use of identity politics ... The secret ingredient to Greg's meditation practice ...

Anand’s new bestseller, Winners Take All: The Elite Charade of Changing the World ... How the targets of Anand’s book have reacted to it ... Why Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk aren’t saving the world ... Anand explains why it’s not enough for zillionaires to “give back” to society ... What exactly is wrong with American capitalism? ... Bob takes a courageous stand on behalf of Cinnabon ... Anand says the developing world is worse off under Trump ... When Anand dropped a bomb at the Aspen Institute ...

Was Alex Jones kicked off social media unfairly? ... Are social media platforms biased against conservatives? ... Algorithms built to play on our intense emotions ... How Facebook catalyzed atrocities in Myanmar ... Could international human rights law help save the Internet? ... Do we need local social media councils? ... Why Europe is leading the way in online regulation ...

So what's the deal with Mickey and Trump? ... Trump the authoritarian, or Trump the pathetic? ... Mickey defends the GOP tax cut ... Bob: Trump’s team wants regime change in Iran, which is a terrible idea ... Bad news for Trump from the New York primary ... Trump Derangement Syndrome at the NYT? ... Is Russiagate a nothingburger? ... Mickey sees an immigration deal, but fears Trump is too incompetent to push it ... Mickey endorses Medicare for All ...

The anonymous NYT op-ed and who qualifies as a "senior administration official" ... Marc's critique of Bob Woodward's new book ... The various motivations for being an anonymous source ... A history of the idea of a "deep state" ... The ethics of reporting on intelligence leaks ... Marc's new book, The Brink: President Reagan and the Nuclear War Scare of 1983 ... How can the US respond mindfully to Russian provocations? ...

What is neuroexistentialism? ... Neuroscience, free will, and existentialism ... The "compatibilist" claim that free will and determinism can co-exist ... To define “free will,” first redefine “agency” ... Why the importance of luck should make us doubt intuitions about free will ... Moral responsibility and the Nazi war criminal thought experiment ... Does Gregg’s personality predispose him to reject retribution? ...

Ian's new book, Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism ... Trump’s foreign policy: belligerent nationalism or non-interventionism or both? ... What Trump offers disgruntled voters and the news media ... The perilous future of US-Iran relations ... Do US foreign policy makers pay too much attention to the oil states? ... Ian: Technology is empowering authoritarian regimes ... Why Ian is still optimistic about the world ...

Anthony's new book, The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity ... Anthony's own unusual identity ... Cosmopolitanism and its discontents ... Patriotism, nationalism, and "legitimate forms of partiality" ... Against essentialism in religion ... The invention of the idea of a national spirit ... Who owns the culture? ... How class conflict has changed in the US and UK ...

Why the media loved John McCain ... How McCain's irascible streak helped him survive torture in Vietnam ... From a "Vietnam-syndrome realist" to the hawkiest hawk ... How calculated were McCain's political shifts? ... Allying with neocons in the late '90s to fight cynicism ... Matt: McCain had "an elitist disdain for populist bigotry" ... The 2008 election and our current predicament ... When McCain was not particularly mavericky ...