0:28 Cameron’s work at AE studio 5:37 Why consciousness is such a hard problem 10:15 Why AI consciousness matters 16:42 Does consciousness need carbon? 23:20 The ethics of AI subjectivity 30:09 Can we trust LLM self-reports? 42:57 Cameron’s innovative AI consciousness experiments 48:24 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Cameron Berg (AE Studio, Truity). Recorded December 17, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:28 Joel’s legendary Bloggingheads line 6:55 NASA’s new chief: More than a Musk toady? 12:53 Why we’re still not living in Star Trek 21:05 The space alien question 31:27 Can we make the moon program great again? 46:16 Heading to Overtime

Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Joel Achenbach (The Grand Idea, Captured by Aliens, A Hole at the Bottom of the Sea). Recorded December 22, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

0:28 David Lynch, Jane Goodall and other notable 2025 losses 8:59 When Bob called James Watson a “mad scientist” 14:02 Predicting 2050: Star Trek abundance vs. “Total Chaos Planet”? 21:46 The age of algorithmically guided attention 26:18 Global poverty reduction (and its flip side) 30:54 Will anyone care if your newsletter is AI-written? 34:48 Trump’s USAID cuts killed a lot of people 37:48 Elon Musk, Alex Karp, and the age of the “manifestly crazy” 41:08 Can the Supreme Court stop Trump? 44:18 JD Vance’s identity crisis: Tech bro or populist? 49:15 The “Black Swan”: When AI starts killing people 53:10 AI scientific breakthroughs to come 1:00:22 Bob and Paul’s 2025 Entertainment Awards 1:04:52 Which jobs are truly AI-proof? 1:18:39 Bob’s Epstein document deep-dive 1:27:39 Bill Ackman’s conspiracy-theory-brained year 1:31:08 Are US arms sales pushing China to invade Taiwan? 1:37:13 Barry Weiss’s journalistic scruples Robert Wright (Nonzero, The Evolution of God, Why Buddhism Is True) and Paul Bloom (https://smallpotatoes.paulbloom.net, University of Toronto, The Sweet Spot, Against Empathy). Recorded December 29, 2025. Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods