Robinson's Podcast

Support the Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxwneBx6apV1mQ7CbWKfXQ/join

Michael Hudson is an economist, financial historian, and distinguished research professor of economics at the University of Missouri–Kansas City. In this episode, Michael and Robinson discuss how financialization has changed the American economy, why working for a living has become harder, and the growing power of billionaires. More particularly, they talk about Trump and political influence, oil wars involving Iran and Russia, their consequences for fuel and food prices, and Hudson’s argument that China is using the industrial model America abandoned. They also discuss private equity, public banking, de-dollarization, AI, ancient debt jubilees, and the difference between creating wealth and collecting economic rent. Michael’s most recent published book is Temples of Enterprise (2024).

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com/

Temples of Enterprise: https://michael-hudson.com/2024/05/temples-of-enterprise/

OUTLINE

00:00 Highlights

00:39 Inherited Wealth and Earning a Living

07:03 Financialization, Bank Bailouts, and Private Equity

13:05 Industrial Capitalism, Banking, and Colonial Debt

25:39 Public Investment, Technology, and the Managerial Class

33:18 Reagan, Thatcher, and Privatization

46:35 Oil Wars, Fuel Shortages, and Food Prices

54:06 Debt Jubilees and the Rise of Ancient Oligarchies

1:00:42 Empire, Oil, and Economic Dependence

1:06:24 De-Dollarization, BRICS, and Public Money

1:13:08 Economic Rent, Value, and the Cost of Living

1:27:51 Neoliberalism and the Rejection of Classical Economics

1:39:19 Pension Funds and the Financialization of Retirement

1:45:06 China’s Industrialization and Public Banking

1:59:15 China’s Property Bubble and Evergrande

2:11:16 Billionaires and Wealth Concentration

2:15:22 Trump, Political Influence, and Regulatory Capture

2:26:59 AI, Intellectual Property, and Social Costs

2:30:58 Billionaires in China and Russia

2:36:21 Gulf Monarchies, Oil Wealth, and the United States

2:45:45 Democracy, Oligarchy, and US Foreign Policy

2:55:41 Alternatives to the Rentier Economy

3:01:16 Michael’s Outlook for the Next Few Years

Robinson’s Website: https://robinsonerhardt.com/

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Disclaimer: Robinson’s Podcast is a forum for open discussion. Guests’ views are their own and do not necessarily reflect Robinson's. Hosting a guest does not imply that he endorses the views or opinions they express.

Support the Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxwneBx6apV1mQ7CbWKfXQ/join

Jessica Tarlov is a political strategist and co-host of The Five on Fox News and Raging Moderates with Scott Galloway. She holds a PhD in political science from the London School of Economics. In this episode, Jessica and Robinson discuss Trump’s political vulnerabilities, the Democrats’ prospects in the 2026 midterms, and how to argue across political divides. More particularly, they talk about immigration and ICE, healthcare costs, the debate over billionaire donors, and Jessica’s view that Trump’s corruption is catching up with him. They also discuss Democratic purity tests, criticism of Trump from the right, Jessica’s career on Fox News, and the cases for James Talarico, Abdul El-Sayed, Jon Ossoff, and Mary Peltola. Jessica’s latest book is I Disagree: Winning Arguments Without Losing Friends (Random House, 2026).

Jessica on Fox News: https://www.foxnews.com/person/t/jessica-tarlov

Raging Moderates: https://podcasts.voxmedia.com/show/raging-moderates

I Disagree: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/803493/i-disagree-by-jessica-tarlov/

OUTLINE

00:00 Is Immigration Trump’s Greatest Strength?

03:34 Why Admitting You’re Wrong Makes You More Persuasive

06:04 What Do Democrats Stand For?

08:32 How to Disagree Without Losing Friends

10:10 Healthcare, Billionaires, and the Democrats’ Dilemma

12:25 Why Do Billionaires Back Democrats?

17:39 How Jessica Tarlov Found Her Voice on Fox News

26:19 Can Democrats Win Over Conservative Voters?

27:21 Should Voting Be Mandatory?

32:59 Why Talarico Wants to Turn Texas Purple

34:47 How to Win Progressives Without Passing Every Purity Test

39:02 Nick Fuentes, Trump’s Weakness, and the Limits of Debate

42:01 Why Jon Ossoff Is a Democrat to Watch

44:42 Why Jessica Tarlov Is Backing Mary Peltola

47:16 Bobby Pulido, Cait Conley, and the Democrats to Watch

54:42 The Case for El-Sayed and Talarico

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Disclaimer: Robinson’s Podcast is a forum for open discussion. Guests’ views are their own and do not necessarily reflect Robinson's. Hosting a guest does not imply that he endorses the views or opinions they express.

Support the Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxwneBx6apV1mQ7CbWKfXQ/join

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and co-founder of Democracy at Work. Cornel West holds the Dietrich Bonhoeffer Chair at Union Theological Seminary. Norman Finkelstein is a political scientist and author who received his PhD in politics from Princeton University. In this episode, Richard, Cornel, Norman, and Robinson discuss the crisis of the American left and whether it can rebuild its political power. More particularly, they discuss Zohran Mamdani’s compromises, Cornel’s warning that he could become another Barack Obama, and their disagreements over working with Tucker Carlson. They also discuss Donald Trump and American decline, Bernie Sanders and class politics, Cornel’s break with Jill Stein and the Green Party, immigration, Gaza, and where to draw moral lines when building political coalitions. Their recent books include Richard’s Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024), Cornel’s Truth Matters, coauthored with Robert P. George (Post Hill Press, 2025), and Norman’s Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places (OR Books, 2026).

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com/

Understanding Capitalism: https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Cornel’s Website: https://www.cornelwest.com/

Truth Matters: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Truth-Matters/Robert-P-George/9798888451700

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/

Gaza’s Gravediggers: https://www.orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/

OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
01:06 What Do Elections Actually Change?
05:47 How Enthusiasm Turned Into Disappointment for Zohran Mamdani
09:36 The Deep Denial in the United States
14:11 Is Another New Deal Still Possible?
17:27 The Repression of American Colonialism
23:49 Is America’s Decline Irreversible?
30:25 Cornel West on Bernie, Mamdani, and Colonialism
42:12 America Fears Socialism—But for How Long?
44:36 Neoliberalism Is a Curse on Socialism
49:06 Jill Stein and Why Cornel West Left the Green Party
52:15 Bernie Sanders and the Holocaust
59:52 Is Tucker Carlson Dangerous for the Left?
1:06:53 Can Immigration Be Fixed?
1:11:04 How Capitalism Destroyed Itself in Germany
1:15:21 Do Blacks Have Legitimate Complaints About Immigrants?
1:19:23 International Relations
1:21:04 Biden, Obama, and Red Lines
1:25:09 What If Our Heroes Were Racist?
1:27:27 Will the Rest of Us Ever Be Prosperous Again?
1:42:29 Who Is Pumping Denial Down America’s Throat?
1:48:55 John Stuart Mill on Truth
1:50:34 Rick’s Biggest Mistake in Life
1:57:00 Cornel’s Biggest Mistake in Life
2:01:49 The Academy Caved to Biden, Trump, and Israel

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Support the Show: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsxwneBx6apV1mQ7CbWKfXQ/join

Robert Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago and director of the Chicago Project on Security and Threats. In this episode, Robert and Robinson discuss why the Iran war has become an escalation trap for Donald Trump, the United States, and Israel. More particularly, they talk about Pape’s argument that the war has strengthened Iran while weakening America’s regional position, Iran’s leverage over the Strait of Hormuz, and how cheap drones and precision weapons are changing the balance of military power. They also discuss how the 2026 midterms could prolong escalation, the limits of predicting war, how AI could make political assassinations easier, and the risks of weapons operating without human oversight. Robert’s latest book is Our Own Worst Enemies: America in the Age of Violent Populism (The New Press, 2026).

Robert’s Substack (Prof Robert Pape): https://professorrobertpape.substack.com/

Robert’s Substack (Escalation Trap): https://escalationtrap.substack.com/

Robert’s YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ProfRobertPape

Our Own Worst Enemies: https://thenewpress.org/books/our-own-worst-enemies/

OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
00:45 Why the Iran War Is Nowhere Near Over
08:08 How Iran Can Defy a Superpower
15:22 How Cheap Drones Changed the Balance of Power
20:31 Is America Building Weapons for the Wrong War?
29:00 Why War Experts Must Risk Being Wrong
40:25 Has Pape Been Wrong About Iran?
45:33 How Time Shifts the Balance of Power
51:23 Why the 2026 Midterms May Prolong the Iran War
55:16 How a Leader’s Health Can Change a War
1:01:40 How Assassinations and Elections Can Upend the World
1:05:28 Is AI Making Iran’s Attacks More Deadly?
1:07:38 Could AI Make Assassinations Easier?
1:13:36 Could Hezbollah Shut Down Israel’s Ports?
1:18:25 When Weapons Act Without Human Control

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Rick Wilson is a political strategist, author, and co-founder of The Lincoln Project. After decades working in Republican politics, he became a prominent conservative critic of Donald Trump. In this episode, Rick and Robinson discuss the Republican Party Rick believes Trump has destroyed, America’s changing position in the world, and the struggle to defeat Trumpism. More particularly, they talk about the GOP’s competing factions, Trump’s relationships with Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin, and American policy toward Iran and Venezuela. They also discuss divisions among Democrats, Bernie Sanders and the progressive left, Abdul El-Sayed and James Talarico, the influence of podcasts and social media, and the prospects for the 2026 and 2028 elections. Rick’s books include Running Against the Devil (Forum Books, 2020).

Rick’s Website: https://www.therickwilson.com/

Running Against the Devil: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/623822/running-against-the-devil-by-rick-wilson/

OUTLINE
00:00 Introduction
00:47 The Best Reasons for Voting Trump
02:16 The Republican Party Is Broken into Three Pieces
09:16 Why Rick Left the Republican Party
13:58 The United States' Fall from Grace
24:27 How Netanyahu Plays Trump
28:21 Deconstructing Trump's Takeover of Venezuela
31:43 Why Democrats Can’t Get Their Act Together
35:35 Why Progressives Struggle to Win the Presidency
39:46 El-Sayed Has 'The Gift'
42:40 Podcasts and Elections
45:06 Nick Fuentes and the Groypers
51:58 Will Trump Be President Forever?
53:33 Talarico and the Republicans' Loss
56:38 Why Trump Could Cost Republicans 2028

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Anne Applebaum is a Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and staff writer at The Atlantic. Her work focuses on authoritarianism, democracy, and the history of Central and Eastern Europe. In this episode, Anne and Robinson discuss corruption, foreign policy, and the threat of autocracy in Donald Trump’s America. More particularly, they talk about Anne’s assessment of unprecedented corruption, Trump’s relationship with Vladimir Putin, and Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff’s involvement in diplomacy and business negotiations. They also discuss China’s mass surveillance system, the power of tech companies to suppress political campaigns, retaliation against political opponents, and whether the 2026 elections can slow America’s democratic decline. Anne’s recent book is Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want to Run the World (Doubleday, 2024).

Anne’s Website: https://www.anneapplebaum.com/

Autocracy, Inc.: https://www.anneapplebaum.com/book/autocracy/

OUTLINE00:00 Introduction00:40 Trump’s Latest Corruption Is Unprecedented07:56 Trump’s Foreign Policy Has No Strategy10:41 Trump Is Anti-Isolationist13:32 Donald Trump’s Greatest Enemies18:57 Trump’s USA Is Becoming an Autocracy26:17 Trump Is Copying China’s Mass Surveillance31:09 How Tech Billionaires Secretly Control Politicians35:46 Are Assassinations Coming to the USA?39:22 The 2026 Elections Will Limit Donald Trump42:41 Will Trump’s USA Become a New Russia?

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Norman Finkelstein is a political scientist and author who received his PhD in politics from Princeton University. His work focuses on political theory, the Israel-Palestine conflict, and the Holocaust. In this episode, Norman and Robinson discuss Gaza, Israel, and the Middle East three years after October 7. More particularly, they talk about changing public opinion, free speech on American campuses, Norman’s rejection of the claim that Netanyahu knowingly allowed the attacks, Israel’s goals in Gaza and the wider region, and Iran’s confrontation with Israel and the United States. They also discuss Donald Trump’s political appeal, Bernie Sanders, China’s role in the conflict, Hannah Arendt, Norman’s mother’s testimony at a Nazi war-crimes trial, and his friendship with Noam Chomsky. Norman’s recent book is Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places (OR Books, 2026).

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com/

Gaza’s Gravediggers: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/

OUTLINE
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:02 What We’ve Learned Since October 7, 2023
00:06:00 The Sheer Insanity of Israel’s War on Gaza
00:09:06 Why Young People See Themselves in Gaza
00:12:51 Jewish-Muslim Unity
00:14:02 How Free Speech Crumbled Over Gaza
00:24:05 Why Won’t Anyone Review Norman Finkelstein’s New Book?
00:29:04 Did Netanyahu Allow Hamas to Attack on October 7th?
00:35:31 Why Israel Still Backs Netanyahu
00:41:12 Finkelstein: Israel Is a Lunatic Society
00:53:55 How Did Hamas Get Past Israeli Intelligence?
00:59:06 Israel’s Three Goals After October 7
01:07:53 What Hezbollah Lost With Nasrallah
01:09:32 Think Twice Before You Play with Iran
01:11:10 Can Anyone Control Israel?
01:13:36 Israel Underestimated Iran’s 5,000-Year-Old Civilization
01:30:01 The Two Things Trump Really Cares About
01:40:17 Trump Isn’t Media-Savvy—His Opponents Are Phony
01:54:43 Talking About Trump Is a Waste of Time

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Richard D. Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor in the Graduate Program in International Affairs at The New School. He is also co-founder of Democracy at Work and host of Economic Update. In this episode, Richard and Robinson discuss Donald Trump, socialism in the United States, and Richard’s disagreements with Victor Davis Hanson. More particularly, they talk about Richard’s case against Trump, his criticisms of Hanson’s understanding of socialism, American power, European colonialism, Russia and NATO, and Israel. They also discuss James Talarico and Abdul El-Sayed, the history of American socialism, the minimum wage, money in politics, Thomas Massie, JD Vance’s relationship with Peter Thiel, and Richard’s experience running for city council. Richard’s books include Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Richard’s Website: rdwolff.com

Democracy at Work: democracyatwork.info

Understanding Capitalism: democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

OUTLINE00:00:00 Introduction00:01:03 Republicans Should Vote (About) Trump!!!00:07:05 America Is Getting Weaker!00:11:53 Trump’s America Is Over00:14:14 Trump’s America Has Forgotten Its History00:19:12 Is There Still a Good Case for Trump?00:26:23 Trump’s Promises He Cannot Keep!00:34:53 Recap: Richard Wolff vs Victor Davis Hanson 202600:41:06 The Red Scare in the Cold War00:44:23 Victor Davis Hanson Doesn’t Understand Socialism!00:48:06 Victor Davis Hanson Equates Socialism and Immigrants01:05:01 Trump and Europe’s Colonialism Is Over!01:08:48 Russia Is a Victim of NATO01:11:24 Israel Has Been Bombed01:15:52 Richard Wolff’s Problem with James Talarico01:25:22 Socialists Ruled the United States01:28:28 The Rich Screwed the Poor on the Minimum Wage01:33:08 Why Don’t Socialists Want Trump’s Free $5,000?01:35:18 Why Money Must Get Out of Politics01:44:41 Does Abdul El-Sayed Have “the Gift”?01:48:27 French Socialism vs American Socialism01:54:43 Why Americans Can’t Get into Socialism02:03:16 Richard Wolff Is Struck by Thomas Massie02:04:50 When Richard Wolff Ran for City Council02:09:20 JD Vance Is Funded by Peter Thiel!02:16:53 What Is Democracy at Work?

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, economic history, and the role of debt in shaping economies and societies. In this episode, Michael and Robinson discuss the war in Iran and Michael’s prediction that it will cause a global depression. More particularly, they talk about oil and the Strait of Hormuz, which countries Michael thinks will suffer most, his skepticism about the changes the 2026 elections can deliver, and his criticisms of how economists describe the American economy. They also discuss AI and the future of employment, Donald Trump’s foreign policy, China’s role in the international economic order, instability in Europe, and the future of the United States. Michael’s recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024).

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com

Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm

OUTLINE00:00 Introduction00:23 Iran War Will Cause a Global Depression10:57 The 2026 Elections Mean Nothing19:45 2026 Voters Can Do Nothing About AI, Israel, or Iran30:51 Economists Are Lying About the State of the Economy38:02 Different Economic Metrics42:25 AI and an Employment Collapse48:35 Trump Is Choking the World's Oil59:32 The Strait of Hormuz1:04:16 The Iran War Will Destroy These Countries First1:12:27 Trump Wants the World to Pay Tribute1:17:43 Is China the Hero?1:28:16 Destabilization in Europe1:37:32 Anti-Protest Drone1:40:20 What Does Chinese Dominance Look Like?1:46:15 Where Does History Go from Here?1:55:39 Where Does the United States Go from Here?

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Platypus Economics on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@PlatypusEconomics

Justin Wolfers is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of Michigan, where his research spans macroeconomics, labor economics, political economy, and behavioral economics. He is also affiliated with the Brookings Institution, Peterson Institute for International Economics, and National Bureau of Economic Research, and in 2026 launched Platypus Economics, a new media platform devoted to making economics accessible to a broad audience. In this episode, Robinson and Justin discuss the intersection of economics, technology, and American politics. More particularly, they talk about Elon Musk and the influence of extreme wealth on elections, how artificial intelligence could transform the labor market, whether current economic data accurately reflects Americans’ experiences, and political bias in economics. They also discuss inflation, Justin’s criticisms of the Trump administration’s economic policies, proposed $5,000 checks, and how economic considerations shape political choices.

Platypus Economics: https://platypuseconomics.com

Justin’s University of Michigan Profile: https://fordschool.umich.edu/faculty/justin-wolfers

Justin’s X: https://x.com/JustinWolfers

Justin’s Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/justinwolfers.bsky.social

Platypus Economics Newsletter: https://newsletter.platypuseconomics.com

00:00 Introduction

00:25 Elon Musk Can Buy ANY Election He Wants

07:21 AI Could DESTROY Jobs If We Don’t Do This

14:28 Is Current Econ Data Misleading?

19:36 Political Bias in Economics

28:35 Corruption in the Trump Admin

36:33 Understanding Inflation and Cheap Candy

44:58 Is Trump Personally Responsible for Inflation?

51:40 Trump’s 5k Checks Are IDIOTIC LIES

56:50 How to Vote If Trump Were on Ballot

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Jason Stanley is the Bissell-Heyd-Associates Chair in American Studies at the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto, where he is also Professor of Philosophy. Before moving to Toronto in 2025, he was the Jacob Urowsky Professor of Philosophy at Yale University. Jason’s work focuses on propaganda, authoritarianism, democracy, free speech, and political language. In this episode, Robinson and Jason discuss Jason’s account of how political propaganda has changed during the Trump era. More particularly, they talk about soft and hard propaganda, social media and political bots, Trump’s political communication, Jason’s decision to leave Twitter and later the United States, and the effects of online attacks. They also discuss artificial intelligence and democracy, the political influence of tech billionaires, Elon Musk and Peter Thiel, and Jason’s transition toward the philosophy of propaganda. Jason’s most recent book is Erasing History: How Fascists Rewrite the Past to Control the Future (Atria/One Signal, 2024).

Jason’s Website: https://jasonstanley.org

How Propaganda Works: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Jason+Stanley+How+Propaganda+Works

Erasing History: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Jason+Stanley+Erasing+History

OUTLINE

00:00 How Propaganda Has Changed with Donald Trump

10:42 Soft and Hard Propaganda

13:56 Defining Propaganda

25:01 Is Trump Trying to Broaden Popular Support?

30:12 Trump Is Ruining Democracy

33:15 Social Media is Political Theater for BOTS

45:39 Why Jason Left Twitter

49:54 Attacks Against Jason on Twitter

53:20 The Terrible Cost of Leaving the US

01:04:56 How AI Threatens Democracy

01:08:26 Tech Billionaires Want to Wipe Out Humanity

01:12:02 Elon Musk's Secret Plans 

01:14:30 Does Peter Thiel Want All Humans Dead?

01:17:37 Jason's Transition to Philosophy of Propaganda

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Daron Acemoglu is an Institute Professor of Economics at MIT and a recipient of the 2024 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, which he shared with Simon Johnson and James Robinson for research on how institutions shape prosperity. He is also the bestselling co-author of Why Nations Fail, The Narrow Corridor, and Power and Progress. In this episode, Robinson and Daron discuss the future of liberal democracy in an age of artificial intelligence. More particularly, they talk about how AI could undermine democratic institutions, whether tech billionaires have accumulated too much power, and why Daron believes current approaches to AI could produce an increasingly unequal, two-tier American society. They also discuss the importance of the 2026 elections, Zohran Mamdani, disagreements between the center and far left, and Daron’s proposal for a renewed “working-class liberalism.” Daron’s latest book is What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: Remaking a Politics of Shared Prosperity (Dutton, 2026).

Daron’s Website: https://www.daronacemoglu.com

What Happened to Liberal Democracy?: https://a.co/d/0f0qGMxt

OUTLINE

00:00 What Is Liberal Democracy?

09:30 How Does AI Undermine Democracy?

18:30 Are the Tech Billionaires Out of Control?

24:50 AI Is an Existential Threat

27:18 How AI Will Turn the USA into a Two-Tier Dystopia

35:17 Other Views on AI

38:19 Why the 2026 Elections Are So Important for the Left

42:30 What Makes Mamdani a Great Politician?

45:58 The Far Left vs the Center Left: Who Should Win?

52:00 Working Class Liberalism

Why Is the World So Beautiful?: https://a.co/d/0d3LsupA

Nicholas Humphrey is a theoretical psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics, where his work has focused on the evolution of intelligence and consciousness. Among his many contributions, he was the first to demonstrate “blindsight” in monkeys, studied mountain gorillas with Dian Fossey, and developed influential theories about the social evolution of intelligence. In this episode, Robinson and Nicholas discuss the evolutionary origins of beauty and why human beings are so drawn to it. More particularly, they talk about rhyme, pattern-recognition, the adaptive value of aesthetic experience, the relationship between beauty and social life, and the methodology of evolutionary psychology. They also discuss whether beauty implies agency or creation, difficult cases for an evolutionary theory of aesthetics, spirituality and transcendence, and why some art is deliberately ugly. Nicholas’s upcoming book is Why Is the World So Beautiful? Our Minds in Search of Nature’s Rhymes (MIT Press, 2026).

Nicholas’s Website: https://humphrey.org.uk

OUTLINE

00:00 Why Is the World So Beautiful?

08:48 What Is Rhyme?

18:47 The Utility of Beauty

24:09 Beauty and Pattern-Recognition

34:26 Beauty and Society

41:21 The Methodology of Evolutionary Psychology

49:20 Creation and Agency

56:24 Problem Cases

01:02:26 Spirituality and Transcendence

01:07:34 Ugly Art

Joe Henrich is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University. His research focuses on cultural evolution, human psychology, sociality, prestige, cooperation, and the emergence of complex societies. In this episode, Robinson and Joe discuss how culture transformed human evolution and enabled our species to build increasingly large and complex societies. More particularly, they talk about the tools of paleoanthropology, hunter-gatherer societies, the rise of massive cities, and why Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic—or WEIRD—people are psychologically unusual. They also discuss dominance hierarchies, attractiveness and prestige, the evolution of morality, and the importance of punishment in human societies. Joe’s most recent popular book is The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020).

Joe’s Website: https://henrich.fas.harvard.edu

The WEIRDest People in the World: https://amzn.to/3F3wUY7

OUTLINE

00:00 Tools of Paleoanthropology

07:31 Two Hunter-Gatherer Societies

13:12 How Culture Enabled Massive Cities

19:08 The WEIRDEST People in the World

25:59 Dominance Hierarchies

35:40 Attractiveness and Prestige

46:01 The Evolution of Morality

52:33 Punishment

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Richard Wrangham is the Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Emeritus, at Harvard University. A primatologist and biological anthropologist, he has studied wild chimpanzees in Uganda since 1987 and is known for his work on human evolution, the origins of violence, and the role of cooking in shaping our species. In this episode, Robinson and Richard discuss how humans diverged from our primate ancestors and the evolutionary importance of learning to control fire. More particularly, they talk about Richard’s cooking hypothesis, how cooking may have transformed the human brain and body, the relationship between fire and culture, and what chimpanzee behavior can teach us about the origins of human violence. Richard’s books include Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, and The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution.Richard’s Harvard Profile: https://heb.fas.harvard.edu/people/richard-w-wranghamCatching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human: https://a.co/d/0iaxEBhyOUTLINE00:00 Puzzles Posed by Human Beings09:32 The Cooking Hypothesis17:54 Cooking and the Brain22:12 Diverging From Our Ancestors28:27 Playing with Fire35:19 How Cooking Shaped Culture51:29 What Does Chimpanzee Warfare Look Like?01:04:50 Chimpanzee vs Human ViolenceRobinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Daniel Lieberman is the Edwin M. Lerner II Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University, where he studies the evolution of the human body and its relevance to health. In this episode, Robinson and Dan discuss the evolution of the human diet. More particularly, they talk about our last common ancestors with chimpanzees, how changes in the gut shaped human evolution, what Homo sapiens actually ate during the Paleolithic, and the transformative role of cooking. They also discuss whether there is such a thing as a natural human diet, why junk food is so appealing, and what an evolutionary perspective can teach us about weight loss and eating well. Dan’s latest book is Fed Up: What Evolution Reveals About Food, Diet, Health, and Eating Well (Knopf, 2026).

Fed Up: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0593537998

OUTLINE

00:00 Dan’s Interest in Human Evolution

04:43 Why Our Heads Don’t Topple Over When We Run

07:41 Human Evolution and “Fed Up”

10:40 Understanding the Evolution of the Human Diet

19:12 Our Last Common Ancestors with Chimpanzees

30:05 Evolutionary Changes in the Gut

38:51 Homo Sapiens and the Paleolithic Diet

48:18 The Transformative Power of Cooking

54:30 The Most Important Diets

59:19 Why Are Junk Foods So Appealing?

01:03:19 Weight Loss

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Adam Mockler is a liberal political commentator, YouTube host, and digital media creator who has become one of the most prominent Gen Z voices in American political media. He hosts The Adam Mockler Show and has built an audience of more than two million subscribers on YouTube, where he produces daily political commentary and reporting. In this episode, Robinson and Adam discuss the changing relationship between politics, media, and the internet. More particularly, they talk about Adam’s liberal values, why independent media can outperform legacy media, the battle for attention online, how clipping has become a new form of political canvassing, and what Democrats need to do to win elections in 2026. They also discuss Charlie Kirk, political conspiracy theories and death threats, what Nick Fuentes is doing effectively as a communicator, Gavin Newsom’s media strategy, and whether Generation Alpha speaks a fundamentally different political language.

Adam’s Website: https://www.adammockler.com

Adam’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adammockler/

Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@adammockler

Adam’s TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@adammockler

Adam’s X: https://x.com/adammocklerr

OUTLINE

00:45 Adam’s Expertise

10:53 Adam’s Liberal Values

14:30 Why Independent Media Beats Legacy Media

18:26 Clipping Is the New Canvassing

20:39 The Battle for the Attention Economy

26:06 How to Win Elections in 2026

31:16 What Constraints Are There on Independent Media?

38:44 On Charlie Kirk, Conspiracies, and Death Threats

41:46 What Is Nick Fuentes Doing Right?

47:18 Gavin Newsom’s Media Strategy, Explained

52:46 Does Gen Alpha Speak a New Political Language?

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s twelfth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. This is Michael’s eighth appearance on the show. In this episode, Robinson, Richard, and Michael discuss colonialism and the death of modern nations. More particularly, they discuss the evolution of capitalism toward socialism, whether colonialism has officially ended, Russia, China, Israel, Iran, Trump, Putin, and the United States. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024). Michael’s most recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024). 

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com

Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm

OUTLINE

00:00 Is Capitalism Evolving into Socialism?

07:20 Is Today the Post-Colonial Period?

18:10 How Colonialism Divided the World

28:54 China and the Revenge of Feudalism

41:06 Productive vs Unproductive Labor

49:24 Overcoming the “Discipline” of Academia

01:01:17 The Danger of Education

01:13:19 Will the United States Break Up?

01:21:22 Why the EU and NATO Will Break Up

01:29:15 Why Michael Believes the US Will Remain United

01:38:37 Trump’s Army and the Militarized Police

01:46:49 Is the US Turning into a Police State?

01:48:49 The Choice Before a Declining Empire

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Steve Keen is an economist and was most recently Head of the School of Economics, History and Politics at Kingston University in London. He has done research on a wide variety of topics, including Marxist economics, debt, complexity theory, and systems dynamics. In this episode, Steve and Robinson discuss his economic framework in relation to wars around the globe. More particularly, the discuss the importance of oil in the Iran War, the cold war with China, the war in Ukraine, and more.

OUTLINE

00:00 The Crucial Importance of Oil in the Iran War

08:54 Systems Dynamics and Economics

14:22 How Much Inflation Will the Iran War Cause?

18:17 Will the Iran War Cause Famine?

28:56 Conspiracy and the Iran War

30:48 Tariffs and Trade Deficits

46:03 Will Trump’s Tariffs Bring Manufacturing Back to the United States

52:49 Steve’s Motivation

59:25 The Crucial Flaw in Marxism

01:12:43 Understanding the War in Ukraine’s Impact on Europe

01:16:38 On Putin’s Motivations in Ukraine

01:26:32 Understanding Trump through Narcissistic Personality Disorder

01:32:52 Trump and the Takeover of Venezuela

01:38:11 Economists Misunderstand Everything About China

01:53:01 Why Will China Survive Global Warming?

01:57:18 AI and the Future Economics of the World

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Timothy Snyder holds the inaugural Temerty Chair in Modern European History at the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy at the University of Toronto. Snyder’s work has appeared in forty languages and has received a number of prizes, including the Emerson Prize in the Humanities. Snyder was a Marshall Scholar at Oxford, has received the Carnegie and Guggenheim fellowships, and holds state orders from Estonia, Lithuania, and Poland. He is researching a family history of nationalism and finishing a philosophical book about freedom. In this episode, Robinson and Timothy discuss the future of the United States. More particularly, they delve into AI, rebellion, conspiracy theory, our relationship with Russia and Ukraine, Donald Trump, and more. Timothy’s most recent book is On Freedom (Crown, 2024).

Timothy’s Website: https://timothysnyder.org

On Freedom: https://timothysnyder.org/books/

OUTLINE

00:00 Will the United States Cease to Exist?

13:47 Is Trump Breaking the United States Apart?

21:09 Will AI Prevent Armed Rebellion Against the Government?

30:20 Trump, Conspiracy Theories, and the Politics of Small Numbers

39:46 Putin Does Not Think Ukraine Is Real

45:57 What Are Trump’s Soft Spots?

50:26 How Tim Organizes His Thought

57:59 Donald Trump and the Superloser

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s eleventh appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In this episode, Richard and Robinson discuss the ongoing war in Iran, as well as the war in Russia and Ukraine, our cold war with China, and the future possibilities of World War III. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00 China, Iran, and the Implosion of the West

13:00 The Irreconcilable Gulf Between Russia and the West

16:01 Europe’s Hard World War II Lesson

21:20 Europe’s Final Collapse Is Coming

28:42 How China Is Methodically Conquering the World

35:44 Russia’s Siberian Advantage

39:15 Marx, War, and Economic Decline

52:39 Why Iran Will Always Control the Strait of Hormuz

01:02:02 How the United States Already Failed in Iran

01:06:37  What the United States Can Learn from the Collapse of the British Empire

01:12:19 Why the War in Iran Will Not Lead to Nuclear War

01:14:44 John Mearsheimer’s Escalation Ladder and the Threat of Nuclear War in Russia

01:29:53 What Would World War Look Like in the 21st Century?

01:36:17 Donald Trump, The Isolator

01:41:40 The Sad Legacy of the League of Nations

01:51:04 Is World War III Inevitable?

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. This is Michael’s Seventh appearance on the show. On past episodes, including with Richard Wolff, he and Robinson have neoliberalism, industrial capitalism, the rentier economy, Marxism, and the role of economics in political history. In this episode, Michael and Robinson talk about debt and the destruction of empires. Michael’s most recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024). 

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com

Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm

OUTLINE

00:00 Keeping Governments Under Control

07:01 Understanding the Church

17:27 Why Debts Grow Too Fast to Be Paid

22:57 Understanding the BRICS

26:50 How Can Countries Get Rich?

32:47 Where Is the United States’ Debt Dragging Us?

46:26 Why Michael Hudson Is Not a Mainstream Economist

48:59 The Historical Approach to Economics

01:06:01 Controlling Governments Through Tax Policy

01:23:55 How Michael Researches

01:33:31 The Myth of Economic Rent

01:38:47 The United States’ Hereditary Oligarchy

01:41:04 Why the United States Can’t Go Bankrupt

01:44:42 Closing Thoughts

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Jacob Barandes is Senior Preceptor in Physics at Harvard University, where he works widely across the philosophy of physics, with focuses on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the philosophy of spacetime, and the metaphysics of laws. In this episode, Robinson, Jacob, and David discuss Jacob’s novel Indivisibility Approach to quantum mechanics. After beginning with an introduction from David, the conversation touches on the measurement problem, completeness, scientific realism, the purpose of physics, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Jacob’s Website: https://www.jacobbarandes.com

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 The Problem with the Wave Function

05:30 The Indivisibility Approach

17:28 What Is Indivisibility?

25:13 The Measurement Problem

32:18 The Incompleteness of Jacob’s Theory

42:20 Completing the Theory

47:12 Realism in Quantum Mechanics

01:03:13 The Fundamental Task of Physics

01:10:57 The Structure of the Indivisibility Theory

01;22:26 Summarizing and Calculating

01:40:01 The Game of Fundamental Physics

01:46:31 Can Bohmian Mechanics Work?

01:56:26 A Version Including David’s Theory

02:04:49 What Is the Wave Function?

02:15:33 Where We’ve Ended Up

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist and Regents’ Professor at Arizona State University. Paul works on quantum mechanics, astrophysics, and cosmology, with emphasis on the origin and early stages of the universe, the quantum properties of black holes and the nature of time. He is interested in the nature and origin of life – including extraterrestrial life – beyond Earth, and in complex systems. In this episode of Robinson’s Podcast, Paul and Robinson discuss the second revolution in quantum mechanics. Among other things, they dig into the origin of quantum theory, how we should interpret it, various quarks of quantum physics, such as teleportation and entanglement, quantum computing, and more. Paul’s recent book is Quantum 2.0 (Pelican, 2025).

Quantum 2.0: https://a.co/d/0ckzsWav

OUTLINE

00:00 Why Quantum Mechanics?

11:59 How Should We Interpret Quantum Mechanics?

22:22 Complexity and Quantum Theory

30:59 What Will Be the Next Quantum Revolution?

39:59 The Next Generation of Quantum Technology?

49:47 Can Quantum Teleportation Move Macroscopic Objects?

52:47 Supercomputers vs Quantum Computers

01:04:16 The Fine-Tuning Problem?

01:12:37 Do We Have a Scientific Theory of Life?

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Priyamvada Natarajan is the Joseph S. and Sophia S. Fruton Professor of Astronomy and Professor of Physics at Yale University, where she is also the Chair of Astronomy. Priya researches broadly across astrophysics and cosmology; some topics she has worked on include gravitational lensing, black hole physics, the philosophy of science, and dark matter. In this conversation, Priya and Robinson largely stick to the latter. They discuss her interest in cosmology writ large, as well as how the scientific community tackles the unknown. Priya’s most recent book is Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas that Reveal the Cosmos (Yale, 2016).

Mapping the Heavens: https://a.co/d/02HPcMB1

OUTLINE

00:00 A Paradox of Cosmology

06:16 Investigating Invisibilia

11:25 The Sociology of Astrophysics

16:52 Phenomenology in Physics

19:47 What Is the Mystery of Dark Matter?

29:07 The Problem of Dark Energy

36:38 Models and Simulations

46:17 Modifying the Standard Model to Explain Dark Matter

58:20 The Crisis in Dark Matter

01:12:22 Alternative Explanations of Dark Matter

01:19:51 Fine-Tuning and the Multiverse

01:25:24 Black Holes

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. In this episode, Robinson and Tim discuss the nature of philosophy. More particularly, they discuss philosophy’s origin, its connections to physics, what characterizes some of its well-known sub disciplines, and some of its biggest problems. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 The Beginning of Philosophy

06:53 Where Physics and Philosophy Diverged

14:07 Quantum Gravity

18:30 Physicists and Philosophers on Space and Time

23:10 Is Metaphysics Different From Physics?

34:54 Why Don’t Universities Have Departments of Metaphysics?

49:27 Are Numbers Real?

01:07:50 What Are Continental and Analytic Philosophy?

01:14:58 The Age-Old Puzzle of the Statue and the Clay

01:28:05 What Is Epistemology?

01:38:57 Is the World Around Us an Illusion?

01:49:13 What Are the Biggest Open Problems in Philosophy?

01:57:00 A John Bell Institute Update

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Craig Callender is Professor of Philosophy and Co-Director of the Institute for Practical Ethics at UC San Diego, where he is a leading philosopher of science and physics. Craig also appeared on episode 73, in which he and Robinson discussed pseudoscience and conspiracy theories, and epidote 114, where he, Robinson, and Tim Maudlin discussed the philosophy of time, including the reality of the past, present, and future, the direction of time, its relationship to relativity and quantum mechanics, and time travel. In this episode, Robinson and Craig turn to a different assortment of topics. They talk about disinformation, lab-grown meat, de-extinction, scientific communication, quantum mechanics, and the Tolman-Ehrenfest Effect.

Craig’s Website: https://www.craigcallender.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Craig’s Interest in Lab-Grown Meat

04:25 Disinformation and the Philosophy of Science

18:18 The Root of the Error

23:43 The Importance of Science Communication

31:12 What Is De-Extinction?

47:28 What Is the Tolman-Ehrenfest Effect?

1:00:00 Tolman-Ehrenfest, Continued

01:15:07 A Philosopher’s Perspective

01:23:05 What Is The Problem with Quantum Mechanics?

01:24:56 What’s the Best Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Nate Soares is the President of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, and plays a central role in setting MIRI’s vision and strategy. Soares has been working in the field for over a decade, and is the author of a large body of technical and semi-technical writing on AI alignment, including foundational work on value learning, decision theory, and power-seeking incentives in smarter-than-human AIs. Prior to MIRI, Soares worked as an engineer at Google and Microsoft, as a research associate at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, and as a contractor for the US Department of Defense. In this episode, Nate and Robinson discuss the problems of AI from the ground up. They touch on how AI is trained, why it will surpass human intelligence, why this is dangerous, how it could wipe out humankind, and more. Nate’s recent book, co-written with Eliezer Yudkowsky, is If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies (Little, Brown and Company, 2025).

If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies

Nate’s X: https://x.com/So8res

MIRI: https://intelligence.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Nate’s Existential Dread

07:11 What’s the REAL Problem with Artificial Intelligence?

11:39 How Is AI Trained?

17:15 The Vital Importance of Interpreting AI

20:53 Why AI Will Soon Surpass Human Intelligence

32:58 Why Solving the AI Alignment Problem is Crucial to Human Survival

38:40 Will AI Render Human Software Engineers Obsolete?

48:03 Does It Make Sense to Say AI Has Goals?

01:00:02 Why AI Consciousness Is Unimportant

01:11:33 How, Realistically, Could AI Wipe Out Humanity?

01:35:27 A Sci-Fi (But Realistic) AI Doomsday Scenario

01:44:34 Is There Hope that Humans Will Survive AI?

Norman's Upcoming Book, Gaza's Gravediggers: https://orbooks.com/catalog/gazas-gravediggers/

Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine.  Norman also appeared on episodes 192, 218, 228, 244, and 250, where he addressed the facts and fictions generated by the Israel-Hamas War, October 6th, allegations of genocide and apartheid, Hezbollah, the Holocaust, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Norman discuss Trump, Netanyahu, Putin, the wars in Ukraine and Iran, and more. Norman’s new book is Gaza’s Gravediggers: An Inquiry into Corruption in High Places (OR Books, 2026).

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com

OUTLINE

00:00 No Investigation, No Right to Speak

02:15 Why the War with Iran is Unjustified

09:07 Israel Violated Article II of the UN Charter

13:44 Will the Iran War the End the World in Nuclear War?

21:03 Why Trump Is Underestimating Iran

30:55 How Israel and the United States Tried to Deceive the World About Iran

38:27 Is Israel’s Mentality “Homicidal”?

44:43 What’s Less Justified: Putin’s War on Ukraine or Netanyahu’s on Iran?

01:00:00 More on Ukraine

01:12:31 What Should We Make of Joe Kent?

01:21:00 More on Kent

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s tenth  appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In this episode, Richard and Robinson discuss the ongoing war in Iran. More particularly, they discuss whether it was predictable, how it will affect the United States, Israel, and Europe, what really motivated the war, and more. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00 Was the Iran War Predictable?

05:43 How History Made Trump’s War with Iran Inevitable

15:00 The Historical Perspective

24:45 The War in Iran Is a Catastrophic Mistake for Israel

32:03 Will Europe Survive the War in Iran?

46:32 Is the Iran War the Last Straw for Donald Trump?

53:48 Why China Is Obliterating American Companies

01:03:17 How Trump and Israel Are Ending the American Empire

01:08:35 Is the United States Turning on Donald Trump?

01:13:54 Why Mamdani Is Winning Over New Yorkers

01:17:20 The Iran War Is Really About Oil

01:28:20 What Happens When The People of Iran Say “No More”?

01:39:13 Does AI Mean the End of Capitalism?

01:50:55 Will the United States Lose the War in Iran?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. This is Michael’s sixth appearance on the show. On past episodes, including with Richard Wolff, he and Robinson have neoliberalism, industrial capitalism, the rentier economy, Marxism, and the role of economics in political history. In this episode, Michael and Robinson talk about Donald Trump, the war in Iran, Russia and Ukraine, Israel, China, and the possibility of World War III. Michael’s most recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024). 

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com

Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm

OUTLINE

00:10 How Oil Controls US Foreign Policy
10:44 How American Foreign Policy Is Leading to World War III
31:03 Trump’s Neocon War Strategy
34:56 Why Does the United States Need Israel for its Iran War?
41:26 Does the US Finance Terrorism in Ukraine and Israel?
44:16 How the West Provoked Russia’s War in Ukraine
52:53 Why Does the US Support Ukraine?
56:10 How China Became an Economic Superpower
59:49 AI and the Economic War for Global Dominance
01:10:21 Oil, Renewable Energy, and the Shifting Global Power Structure
01:12:25 The US Economy After WWI
01:24:21 Why Europe Fell from WWII to the Present
01:36:45 How Trump Ignores the First Amendment
01:40:20 The Apex of American Power after WWII
01:43:12 Who Will Win the Economic World War?
01:49:25 Why Iran Is Crucial to the World’s Future
01:53:38 The Dismal Future of the American Empire

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Sara Imari Walker is Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where she is Deputy Director of the Beyond Center. Sara is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist, with research interests in the origins of life, artificial life, life and detection on other worlds. Lee Cronin is Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. Among his many pursuits are the digitization of chemistry, the discovery of alien life, and the creation of artificial life. In this episode, Robinson, Sara, and Lee discuss the relationship between philosophy and science, quantum physics, time, determinism, AI, and the origin of Life.

Life as No One Knows It: https://a.co/d/2fdKa2e

Lee’s Website: https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

Lee’s Twitter: https://x.com/leecronin

OUTLINE

00:00 Chemistry, Biology, Physics, and Philosophy

07:57 Philosophy and Science

20:58 Is Time an Object?

30:00 More on Time

44:38 On Time and Entropy

51:13 Is the Universe Deterministic?

01:08:54 What’s Wrong with Quantum Physics?

01:17:08 Contingency, Selection, and Evolution

01:29:05 Scientific Temperament

01:44:18 Do We Experience ChatGPT as Human?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Jacob Barandes is Senior Preceptor in Physics at Harvard University, where he works widely across the philosophy of physics, with focuses on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the philosophy of spacetime, and the metaphysics of laws. In this episode, Robinson, Tim, and Jacob discuss Jacob’s novel approach to quantum mechanics, which he calls the “Indivisible Approach”. More particularly, they discuss the problems at the core of quantum mechanics, the ontology of the theory, causality and quantum phenomena, probability, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

Jacob’s Website: https://www.jacobbarandes.com

The Stochastic-Quantum Correspondence: https://philosophyofphysics.lse.ac.uk/articles/10.31389/pop.186

Historical Debates over the Physical Reality of the Wave Function: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.09397

Pilot-Wave Theories as Hidden Markov Models: https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.10569

OUTLINE

00:21 The Problems at the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

13:00 More on the Problems

26:09 Is the Wave Function a Real Thing?

32:48 Causation, Correlation, and Quantum Mechanics

42:03 Terminological Issues

44:34 Causal Models and the Markov Condition

01:00:57 Can Time Exist Without Change?

01:15:00 On Time and Change

01:30:38 Newtonian Mechanics and the Markov Condition

1:45:00 More on Newtonian Mechanics

2:00:00 More on the Markov Condition

02:17:49 Tim’s Response

02:28:18 Philosophy and Physics

02:32:38 More on Probability

02:42:13 Probability and the Double Slit Experiment

 02:59:42 Why Tim Remains Puzzled

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Scott Aaronson is the Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. He researches the capabilities and limits of quantum computers, and computational complexity theory more generally. For the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years, he was on leave to work at OpenAI on the theoretical foundations of AI safety. In this episode of Robinson’s Podcast, Scott answers a host of questions about the basics of quantum computing. He and Robinson discuss the physics- and computer science elements of the field, how it connects to the foundations of quantum mechanics, the biggest myths about quantum computing, and whether quantum computers will every actually be built.

Scott’s Blog: https://scottaaronson.blog

OUTLINE

00:00 Scott’s Interest in Quantum Computing

07:10 Distinguishing the Physics from the Computer Science

14:43 What Is Quantum Computation?

39:41 The Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

53:31 Quantum Information

55:54 Prime Factorization

01:03:19 The Biggest Myths About Quantum Computing

01:14:06 Can Quantum Computers Actually Be Built?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Jeffrey Pfeffer is the Thomas D. Dee II Professor of Organizational Behavior at the Graduate School of Business, Stanford University where he has taught since 1979. He is the author or co-author of 16 books. Dr. Pfeffer received his B.S. and M.S. degrees from Carnegie-Mellon University and his Ph.D. from Stanford. In this episode, Robinson and Jeffrey discuss the field of organizational behavior. More particularly, they talk about the aims and methods of the field, some of its subjects—such as power and influence—and case studies. Jeffrey’s latest book is the 7 Rules of Power (Holt, 2022). 

7 Rules of Power: https://a.co/d/58WWhiC

OUTLINE

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

05:46 Understanding Vs Implementation

11:42 The Seven Principles of Influence

19:33 Evolutionary Biology

20:49 How Self-Interest Rules Organizations

29:37 Power and the Prevalence of Conspiracies

33:53 Jeffrey Epstein and the Laws of Power

42:55 The Administration of Health Benefits

49:16 How Jeffrey’s Research Has Influenced His Behavior

59:06 The Price of Power

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Lee Cronin is Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. Among his many pursuits are the digitization of chemistry, the discovery of alien life, and the creation of artificial life. Lee was most recently on the show for episode 264, in which he and Robinson and Lee discussed astrobiology, the chemistry of life as we know it, and the controversies surrounding artificial intelligence. In this follow-up conversation, they focused primarily on artificial intelligence, aliens, and assembly theory.

Lee’s Website: https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

Lee’s Twitter: https://x.com/leecronin

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:01 AI or Aliens?
02:46 What Is Intelligence?
13:57 Are Autonomous Vehicles Intelligent?
21:39 Assembly Theory and the Origin of Life
28:23 Is ChatGPT Intelligent?
34:12 What Would Genuine Artificial Intelligence Really Look Like?
41:13 Are “AI Skills” Just Product Placement?
49:45 Are AI Actually Intelligent “Agents”?
56:21 Concluding Thoughts
59:16 Will Aliens Be Biological?
01:00:01 How Common Are Aliens in the Universe?
01:05:51 How Will Aliens Search for Life on Earth?
01:12:58 The Chemistry of Minds
01:17:10 The Biggest Myths About Aliens

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of CONSCIOUS: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind and writer and producer of the audio documentary series, LIGHTS ON. Her work has appeared in The New York Times, Nautilus Magazine, the Journal of Consciousness Studies, and IAI Magazine. She is also an editor and consultant for science writers, specializing in neuroscience and physics. In this episode, Robinson and Annaka discuss panpsychism and the case that consciousness is fundamental. More particularly, they talk about complexity and emergence, the relationship between consciousness and physics, and artificial intelligence.

Lights On: https://a.co/d/cy8YTpd

Conscious: https://a.co/d/3uFZ2Jq

Annaka’s Website: https://annakaharris.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:52 Annaka’s Obsession with Consciousness

06:09 How Should We Define Consciousness?

13:06 Why the Complexity Might Not Explain Consciousness

25:30 Is Consciousness Emergent or Fundamental?

29:45 Are Fundamentalia Conscious?

45:18 How Can Consciousness Solve Deep Problems of Physics?

52:14 Consciousness and Quantum Entanglement

01:00:11 Consciousness and the Many Worlds Theory of Quantum Mechanics

01:10:50 What Does an Electron Feel?

01:13:41 AI and Consciousness

01:22:42 Science and the Fundamentality of Consciousness

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Jacob Barandes is Senior Preceptor in Physics at Harvard University, where he works widely across the philosophy of physics, with focuses on the foundations of quantum mechanics, the philosophy of spacetime, and the metaphysics of laws. In this episode, Robinson and Jacob focus on the foundations of quantum mechanics. They discuss the importance of history and philosophy in the same, its connections to mathematics, many of the biggest puzzles in quantum physics, and Jacob’s new approach to the foundations, which he refers to as the “Indivisibility” approach.

Jacob's Website: https://www.jacobbarandes.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Mathematics, Nature, and Physics

07:55 The Deep Link Between Math and Physics CLIP

15:21 Scrutinizing the History and Philosophy of Physics

28:11 A Digression on Achille Varzi

36:53 The Etymology of “Matrix”

41:17 Learning from the History of Physics

52:38 Why Does Quantum Mechanics Need New Foundations?

59:04 Does Quantum Gravity Need New Quantum Foundations?

01;08:26 What Is a Constructive Physical Theory?

01:32:31 Markov Laws and Determinism

01:45:30 The Wave Function

02:06:53 Inconsistencies in Quantum Mechanics

02:12:20 What Is Quantum Decoherence?

02:23:10 The Biggest Problems in Quantum Foundations?

02:33:49 Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

02:38:57 Quantum Mechanics, Many Worlds, and the Problem of Induction

02:50:05 The Indivisibility Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

03:04:42 What Are the Fundamentalia of the Universe?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Lee Cronin is Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow. Among his many pursuits are the digitization of chemistry, the discovery of alien life, and the creation of artificial life. In this episode, Robinson and Lee focus on astrobiology, the chemistry of life as we know it, and the controversies surrounding artificial intelligence.

Lee’s Website: https://www.chem.gla.ac.uk/cronin/

Lee’s Twitter: https://x.com/leecronin

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:55 Lee’s Interests in the Origin of Life

10:29 Is Life Unique to Earth?

18:16 What Is the Self?

24:05 Is the Selfish Gene Hypothesis Wrong?

30:46  How Does Sand Turn into Cells?

44:02 What Is Chemputation?

45:41 What Is Assembly Theory?

01:11:33 Why Won’t We Find a Mine of Coffee Mugs on an Asteroid?

01:25:09 Has AI Become a Cult?

01:32:16 Will AI Use Biological Weapons to Wipe Out Humanity?

01:55:24 Why AI Can’t Be Agents

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Sara Imari Walker is Professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University, where she is Deputy Director of the Beyond Center. Sara is an astrobiologist and theoretical physicist, with research interests in the origins of life, artificial life, life and detection on other worlds. In this episode, Robinson and Sara discuss the physics that makes life possible. More particularly, they discuss assembly theory, the growing field of astrobiology, the difficulties of defining life, and where we are most likely to find aliens. Sara’s latest book is Life as No One Knows It: The Physics of Life’s Emergence (Riverhead Books, 2024).

Life as No One Knows It: https://a.co/d/2fdKa2e

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:35 The Connection Between Physics and Biology

07:15 Philosophy and the Origin of Life

10:03 Is the Selfish Gene Theory Wrong?

22:17 On Her Work with Lee Cronin

38:47 Experiments To Discover the Origin of Life

48:52 What Is Assembly Theory?

01:00:42 Are Boltzmann Brains Possible?

01:05:53 The Paradox of Defining Life

01:31:10 Is Life a Vague Concept?

01:38:13 Where Are All the Aliens?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Visit our sponsor, Wealthfront!: wealthfront.com/robinson

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. This is Slavoj’s fifth appearance on the show. On episode 109, he and Robinson discussed wokeness and psychoanalysis. On episode 118, he, Sean Carroll, and Robinson discussed quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. And on episode 206 he, Lee Smolin, and Robinson discussed quantum physics. In episode 212, Robinson and Slavoj talk about ancient philosophy, god, communism, quantum mechanics, and psychoanalysis. In this episode, they discuss current political events, marxism, quantum mechanics, and artificial intelligence. Slavoj’s upcoming book is Quantum History: A New Materialist Philosophy (Bloomsbury, 2025).
Quantum History: https://a.co/d/7WFcAGi

Visit our sponsor, Wealthfront!: wealthfront.com/robinson

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Robinson Erhardt is a Wealthfront client and was compensated for the testimonial and promotion of the Wealthfront Cash Account. This compensation creates a conflict of interest. Experiences may vary among Cash Account clients, and results are not guaranteed. 

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OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:07 Marxism and Quantum Mechanics

07:34 Why We Aren’t Pessimistic Enough

16:29 The Wisdom of the First Philosopher

29:27 The Assassination of Charlie Kirk

38:10 On Curtis Yarvin

49:23 The Naivety of Pete Hegseth

51:06 The Contradiction in American Fascism

57:43 Could a Coup Overthrow Trump?

01:04:17 The Utter Shamelessness of Today’s Society

01:14:15 The Danger of the Disappearing Left

01:18:06 AI Is a Tool of Authoritarian Suppression

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Go to https://surfshark.com/robinsonerhardt and use code robinsonerhardt at checkout to get 4 extra months of Surfshark VPN!

Tyler Cowen is the Holbert L. Harris Chair of Economics at George Mason University and serves as chairman and faculty director of the Mercatus Center at George Mason University. A dedicated writer and communicator of economic ideas, Tyler is the author of several bestselling books and is widely published in academic journals and the popular media. In this episode, Robinson and Tyler discuss the economics of artificial intelligence. More particularly, they touch on whether AI will destroy humanity, how it will affect employment, whether there will no longer be a place for art in the marketplace, and more. Tyler’s latest book is Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World (St. Martin’s Press, 2022).

Marginal Revolution: https://marginalrevolution.com

Tyler’s X: https://x.com/tylercowen

Talent: https://a.co/d/ftqNWcn

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:03 What is State-Capacity Libertarianism?

00:04:32 Should Government Regulate AI?

00:05:54 Is AI an Existential Threat to Humanity?

00:07:33 The Fallacy of Mood Affiliation

00:11:11 AI Music and the Velvet Sundown

00:15:03 Is AI Ending America’s Great Stagnation?

00:19:45 How Will Top-Tier AI Cognition Impact the Labor Market?

00:30:17 How Will AI Transform Education?

00:42:15 Does AI Doom Human-Generated Research?

00:45:21 Why Is AI Taking Off So Slowly?

00:48:39 Does AI Mean the End of Lawyers?

00:51:41 Is Harvard Just a Dating Hack in the World of AI?

00:54:53 Does AI Help or End Social Mobility?

00:57:03 How We Should Write When AI Is Reading It All?

01:02:24 Will AI Enable Us to Eat All We Want?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Reid Hoffman is the co-founder of LinkedIn, Manas AI, and Inflection AI. As an investor at Greylock, he is one of the leading figures in the tech industry, working at the forefront of AI development. In this episode, Reid and Robinson talk all about the future of AI. They begin by covering the worst case scenario—doomsday—and why Reid is optimistic about our chances. From there, they turn to how AI could help us cure cancer, replace therapists, enable us to be more powerful agents, and make our lives better. Reid’s most recent book is Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future (2025).

Reid’s Website: https://www.reidhoffman.org

Superagency: https://a.co/d/hdSZeCY

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:09 Why Won’t AI Destroy Humanity?

00:06:39 Will AI Be Good or Bad for Employment?

00:08:20 On Optimism

00:10:10 It Isn’t Inevitable that AI Will Wipe Out Human Life

00:19:03 How to Align AI with Human Interests

00:24:40 Reid’s Interest in Friendship

00:32:13 Why AI Can’t be Our Friends

00:36:33 Could AI Replace Therapists?

00:45:18 Using AI to Cure Cancer

00:52:04 Will AI Extinguish Humanity with a Virus?

01:00:02 How Will AI Make Us More Powerful Agents?

01:07:06 Will Academia Be Revolutionized by AI?

01:15:10 Are You an AI Native?

01:17:36 How to Invest in AI

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where he is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Support our sponsor, FarmKind, to fix factory farming: https://www.farmkind.giving

The code “ROBINSON” will increase your donation by 50% with a bump from large donors.

Kenneth Roth is the Charles and Marie Robertson Visiting Professor at the Princeton School for Public and International Affairs. Until August 2022, he served for nearly three decades as the executive director of Human Rights Watch. In this episode, Robinson and Ken discuss his work with HRW and what he has been doing since. More particularly, they get into the details of how HRW operated, how shaming tactics can be deployed against figures like Putin, Trump, and Orban, Israel and Palestine, the relationship between genocide and ethnic cleansing, and more. For more, read Ken’s recent book, Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments (Knopf, 2025).

Righting Wrongs: https://a.co/d/gHkbmmw

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:00:53 Why Human Rights?

00:08:23 How Does Human Rights Watch Work?

00:14:04 Can Putin or Orban Be Shamed?

00:21:14 Can Trump Be Shamed into Standing Up to Putin?

00:26:53 Libya, Gaddafi, and Forcing the Release of Political Prisoners

00:29:14 Fighting the Dreaded M23 Rebel Group in Congo

00:31:56 Why Governments Always Violate Human Rights

00:33:57 Is Torture Ever Justified?

00:38:21 Facts and Investigations

00:46:27 Verifying Starvation and Famine in Gaza

00:51:29 Can Netanyahu Be Shamed?

00:58:24 Genocide vs. Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine

01:04:16 The United States’ Biggest Human Rights Violations

01:09:24 Sudan: The World’s Worst Humanitarian Crisis

Support our sponsor, FarmKind, to fix factory farming: https://www.farmkind.giving

The code “ROBINSON” will increase your donation by 50% with a bump from large donors.

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s ninth  appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In this episode, Richard and Robinson discuss the tariffs that President Donald Trump would like to place on goods imported from around the world. More particularly, they cover the real problems America is facing that Trump has to solve, the connection to Russia, China, and the BRICS, Elon Musk and electric vehicles, and more. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:07 Is Trump’s Tariff Plan Nuts?

00:06:31 Is the United States Unsustainable?

00:15:33 Can Tariffs Solve America’s Debt Problems?

00:19:17 Tesla’s Electric Vehicle Tariff War on China

00:25:19 The Declining American Empire

00:32:53 Exposing the Myths About Trump’s Tariffs

00:44:55 The Empty Promises of American Politics

00:53:54 Why DC Doesn’t Have Representation in Congress

01:00:22 The Bizarre Alliance Between Israel and the United States

01:04:48 Why Russia Is Exempt from Trump’s Tariffs

01:13:48 Are Israel and the United States “Winning” Against Gaza?

01:24:25 How Wealth Now Controls the United States

01:27:52 On The Impending Economic Downturn in the United States

01:31:47 How Trump is Turning Allies into Enemies

01:37:12 America’s Terrible Healthcare

01:42:25 Who Really Rules America?

01:57:04 How Should Trump Solve America’s Real Problems?

02:04:39 What America Can Learn from Britain’s Collapse

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a JD candidate in the Law School.

Carl Hart is Mamie Phipps Clark Professor of Psychology at Columbia University, where he researches the behavioral and neuropharmacological effects of psychoactive drugs in humans. In this wide-ranging conversation, Robinson and Carl discuss drugs from many different angles, touching on the neuroscience of addiction, the opioid crisis, drugs’ connections to poverty, the roles they can play in a creative life, and more. Carl’s most recent book is Drug Use for Grown-Ups (2021, Penguin).

Drug Use for Grown-Ups: https://a.co/d/efgXuJK

OUTLINE

00:00:49 Introduction

00:03:14 What Is a Drug?

00:14:58 DARE and Drug Education

00:26:07 Rodrigo Duterte and the Drug War in the Philippines

00:39:25 Studying Drugs in the Lab

00:49:07 Does Addiction Change the Brain?

00:58:12 On the Opioid Crisis

01:10:42 How Should We Solve the Opioid Crisis?

01:14:01 What Is the Connection Between Drugs and Poverty?

01:18:21 How Do Drugs Affect the Brain?

01:28:27 How Can Drugs Improve Your Creativity?

01:36:04 Should Science Inform Drug Policy?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s eighth appearance on the show. His second to  last appeared on episode 246 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of the philosophy of time. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, fundamentality, simultaneity, time’s flow, rate, and limits, connections to physics, time travel, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:01 “What Is” Questions

00:06:09 Everyday Misconceptions About Simultaneity

00:15:12 The Relativity of Duration

00:20:19 Is Time Fundamental?

00:28:55 Does Time Exist at Quantum Scales?

00:40:19 Is Quantum Mechanics Complete?

00:50:16 What Is Time-Reversal Invariance?

01:01:01 Parity Violations

01:11:46 What Is Metaphysics?

01:22:16 Does Time Have A Rate of Passage?

01:25:02 Does Time Flow?

01:27:04 What Does Time Really Measure?

01:29:15 Is There a Limit to How Accurately Clocks Can Measure Time?

01:33:06 Is Time Continuous or Discrete?

01:36:36 On Zeno’s Paradoxes of Motion

01:44:08 Is Time Discrete?

01:51:14 Did Time Have a Beginning?

02:02:41 Stephen Hawking on Time

02:05:39 David Albert’s Past Hypothesis

02:14:13 The Debate Between Presentism and Eternalism

02:23:16 Lee Smolin’s Black Hole Theory

02:24:46 A Shortcoming of the Standard Model

02:26:05 Arrival Time and Time of Flight

02:34:51 Arrival Time Experiments and Bell’s Inequality

02:46:07 The Black Hole Information Paradox

02:56:27 Is Time Travel Back to the Dinosaurs Possible?

02:58:34 A Rant on Aliens

03:03:35 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University, where is also a student in the Law School.

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. This is Michael’s fifth appearance on the show. He was also a guest on episode 180, where he and Robinson discussed neoliberalism, industrial capitalism, and the rentier economy, and on episode 198, where they discussed Marxism, economic parasites, and contemporary debt cancellation. He has also joined with Richard Wolff. In this episode, Michael and Robinson discuss how the Crusades shaped the future of economics, the role of economics in political history, the current budget of the Republicans, problems with social security, the effects of AI on economics, and more. Michael’s most recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024). 

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com

Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:37 Why Historians Missed How the Crusades Shapes Economics

00:10:39 What Motivated the Crusades?

00:20:09 The Problem of Financing Wars

00:29:23 How The Roman Catholic Church Invented Financial Interest

00:40:08 Importing Jewish Merchants to England

00:45:12 The Intolerance of the Catholic Church

00:48:51 The Origin of Roman Catholic Indulgences

00:58:39 Using Indulgences to Finance the Crusades

01:05:54 Neglecting the Role of Economics in Political History

01:15:43 Finance as the Central Planning Power of Governments

01:18:17 What’s Wrong with the Republicans’ Budget?

01:19:48 The Dark Problem with Social Security

01:26:40 The Conflict Between Finance and Democracy

01:37:19 How the 1 Percent Don’t Contribute to the Economy

01:38:40 How Will AI Impact the Future of Economics?

01:45:55 How Will AI Affect Unemployment Rates?

01:54:18 Will the 1 Percent Need People in an AI Future

01:58:32 How Will AI Affect the Future of Academia?

02:08:59 Papal Financial Control vs The IMF

02:19:37 How the Government Favors the Creditor over the Debtor

02:23:42 The Difference Between the Chinese and American Economies

02:32:37 Global Warming’s Devastating Effects on the Economy

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

In this special episode, Robinson and Karl Zheng Wang co-host at the Yale US-China Forum. Return guests from the show include Slavoj Žižek, Richard Wolff, and Yascha Mounk. Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. Yascha Mounk is a Professor of the Practice of International Affairs at Johns Hopkins University. He is also a Contributing Editor at the Atlantic, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and the host of The Good Fight podcast. Yannis Varoufakis is a Greek economist and politician, and current Secretary-General of the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025. Robin Visser is Professor in the Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she researches modern Chinese and Sinophone literatures, urban cultural studies, and environmental studies. Pei Wang is Professor in the Chinese History and Culture Program at the University of Hong Kong, where she specializes in comparative philosophy, psychoanalysis, and more. Daniel Mattingly is Professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University, where he studies the domestic and international politics of authoritarian regimes, with a focus on China.  

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:46 The Future of Europe and China

00:10:40 There Is No Such Thing as Trade Wars, They Are All Class Wars

00:15:50 How Wall Street’s Failures Fueled the Rise of Tech

00:20:02 Why Is There a New Cold War Between the US and China?

00:27:18 Why the United States Is Abandoning Democracy and Why China is Yannis Varoufakis’s Only Hope

00:29:26 Richard Wolff to Yannis Varoufakis: Are We Heading Toward Nuclear War with China?

00:35:58 How Class WARFARE Shaped the World Superpowers CLIP

00:41:01 Is China Capitalism’s Final Form?

00:52:03 Is There Any Way that China and the United Stated Could Avert Conflict?

00:59:16 Varoufakis to Wolff: Is a Tariff Hail Mary Trump’s Only Remaining Option?

01:03:39 Daniel Mattingly on China’s Sociopolitical Organization

01:08:39 How Does Xi Jinping Talk About Socialism?

01:13:47 Yascha Mounk on US-China Competition

01:22:36 Philosophy, Socialism, and Capitalism

01:48:40 Pei Wang on the Hero and Father in US-China Competition

01:54:31 Hero and Father Archetypes in Politics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Peter Zeihan is a geopolitical analyst, futurist, and best-selling author who researches and strategizes around demography, economics, energy, politics, technology, and security. In this episode, Peter and Robinson focus on revisiting content from his latest book—The End of the World is Just the Beginning—in the context of today’s developments. More particularly, they discuss, Donald Trump, tariffs, ICE Raids, deportations, how demography and geography will affect the future balance of world powers, the impact of AI on global economics, what the end of the world order could look like, Trump’s immigration policies, and more. You can keep up with Peter through his website or YouTube channel, links to which are below.

Peter’s Website: https://zeihan.com

Peter’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@ZeihanonGeopolitics

The End of the World is Just the Beginning: https://a.co/d/bZJES4t

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:09 Trump and the End of the American-Led World Order

00:06:49 Does AI Change the Economics of the Future?

00:14:39 The 2,000,000,000$ Failure of the F-35 Fighter Jet

00:25:00 Why the United States Needs Immigrants

00:33:03 Is There Any Strategy Behind Donald Trump?

00:41:43 Why Food Will Become Weaponized in the Near Future

00:50:39 Why China’s Economy is Doomed to Recession

00:53:55 How Do We Prepare For China’s Collapse?

01:00:37 Trump’s Tariffs and the Fall of America

01:01:54 Was Russia Doomed to Fall Even Before Ukraine?

01:05:51 The Biggest Underestimated Global Conflicts

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

David Kipping is a Professor of Astronomy at Columbia University, where he runs Cool Worlds Lab and researches planets and moons that revolve around stars other than our own, in addition to his own work on the search for—and theorization about—alien life. In this episode, David and Robinson have a wide-ranging conversation about extraterrestrials. They discuss  alien civilizations, propulsion, megastructures, Oumuamua, quantum immortality, Dyson spheres, simulation theory, ancient aliens, and much more. David also runs the YouTube channel Cool Worlds Lab, where he has produced many videos on these topics.

Cool Worlds Lab (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@CoolWorldsLab

David’s Website: http://davidkipping.co.uk

OUTLINE

00:01:05 Astronomy or Aliens?

00:06:12 How Scientists Get Burned by Alien Research

00:16:52 Three Big Obstacles to UFO Science

00:23:59 What is the Kardashev Scale of Alien Civilizations?

00:30:28 Cloaking Devices

00:33:46 How To Detect Alien Civilizations with Heat Signatures

00:37:21 Other Schemes for Detecting Civilizations

00:47:22 Does Alien Life Need Water to Exist?

00:51:46 Why Would Aliens Have Very Different Technology From Us?

00:55:54 When Did the First Life Form in the Universe?

01:07:23 Is the Universe Filled with Ancient Alien Civilizations?

01:16:45 What Is the Great Filter Hypothesis For Alien Life?

01:19:31 Artificial Intelligence, Aliens, and the End of Humanity

01:25:05 How Rare Is the Creation of Life From Nothing?

01:31:53 Communicating with Extraterrestrials

01:37:28 What Are Alien Megastructures?

01:47:07 Can We Engineer the Sun to Live Longer?

01:51:08 Clark Belt Detection

01:54:35 Should We Look for Alien Life on Exomoons?

02:01:33 Could We Find Alien Life on Planets in the Interstellar Medium?

02:04:34 Future Telescopes

02:13:35 What Is a Warp Drive and Why Can’t We Build One?

02:21:47 On Time Travel and the Best Time Machines

02:26:40 What Are the Best Interstellar Propulsion Technologies?

02:34:07 Was Oumuamua an Alien Spacecraft?

02:43:09 Are the TicTac UFOs Alien Spacecraft?

02:56:58 Do We Live in a Simulation?

03:00:17 What Is Quantum Immortality?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decision theorist, computer scientist, and author who co-founded and leads research at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute. He is best known for his work on the alignment problem—how and whether we can ensure that AI is aligned with human values to avoid catastrophe and harness its power. In this episode, Robinson and Eliezer run the gamut on questions related to AI and the danger it poses to human civilization as we know it. More particularly, they discuss the alignment problem, gradient descent, consciousness, the singularity, cyborgs, ChatGPT, OpenAI, Anthropic, Claude, how long we have until doomsday, whether it can be averted, and the various reasons why and ways in which AI might wipe out human life on earth.

The Machine Intelligence Research Institute: https://intelligence.org/about/

Eliezer’s X Account: https://x.com/ESYudkowsky?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:43 The Default Condition for AI’s Takeover
00:06:36 Could a Future AI Country Be Our Trade Partner?
00:11:18 What Is Artificial Intelligence?
00:21:23 Why AIs Having Goals Could Mean the End of Humanity
00:29:34 What Is the Alignment Problem?
00:34:11 How To Avoid AI Apocalypse
00:40:25 Would Cyborgs Eliminate Humanity?
00:47:55 AI and the Problem of Gradient Descent
00:55:24 How Do We Solve the Alignment Problem?
01:00:50 How Anthropic’s AI Freed Itself from Human Control
01:08:56 The Pseudo-Alignment Problem
01:19:28 Why Are People Wrong About AI Not Taking Over the World?
01:23:23 How Certain Is It that AI Will Wipe Out Humanity?
01:38:35 Is Eliezer Yudkowski Wrong About The AI Apocalypse
01:42:04 Do AI Corporations Control the Fate of Humanity?
01:43:49 How To Convince the President Not to Let AI Kill Us All
01:52:01 How Will ChatGPT’s Descendants Wipe Out Humanity?
02:24:11 Could AI Destroy us with New Science?
02:39:37 Could AI Destroy us with Advanced Biology?
02:47:29 How Will AI Actually Destroy Humanity?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine.  Norman also appeared on episodes 192, 218, 228, and 244, where he addressed the facts and fictions generated by the Israel-Hamas War, October 6th, allegations of genocide and apartheid, Hezbollah, the Holocaust, and more. In this episode, Robinson and Norman discuss Trump, the current state of Gaza, the fate of Palestine, wokeness, Bernies Sanders, Chuck Schumer, antisemitism, free speech, and other topics. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com

OUTLINE

00:01:11 Norman’s Predictions for the War

00:10:12 Trump and the End of the Ceasefire

00:14:29 Why Didn’t The Democrats Strike a Ceasefire in Israel?

00:25:50 A Jeremy Corbin Witch Hunt?

00:29:52 On Wokeness and DEI

00:54:01 Bernie Sanders and the Working Class

00:57:16 Bernie Sanders, Chuck Schumer, and Anti-Semitism

01:04:17 Is Trump a Slave to Money, Power, and Putin?

01:11:02 Is Chuck Schumer’s Definition of Anti-Semitism Terrible?

01:19:52 Free Speech and Academia

01:24:34 How Norman Feels About Being Academically Canceled

01:27:45 On Noam Chomsky’s Deceptiveness

01:29:42 More on the Cancelation

01:34:13 How Should We Define Anti-Semitism?

01:43:45 What Should We Do With Holocaust Deniers?

01:47:14 On W.E.B Du Bois

01:58:31 On Race and IQ

02:01:35 Suppression of Free Speech

02:09:02 How to Prevent Another Holocaust

02:18:18 Chuck Schumer is Wrong About Media Echo Chambers

02:22:01 How to Fight Violent Hate

02:35:58 On Chuck Schumer’s Backstory and the Holocaust

02:40:05 Cleaning the Augean Stables of Gaza Scholarship

02:46:21 What Changed on October 7th

02:48:59 Gaza Is Already Rubble: What’s Next?

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning author and journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times. He has covered numerous wars across the decades, written many books—including America: The Farewell Tour and American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America—and has been involved in work for prisoner advocacy. In this episode, Robinson and Chris discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk, and the rise of American fascism. More particularly, they address comparisons between Trump and Hitler, DOGE, the new crisis for the Democratic Party, Israel and Palestine, the Christian far right, Marxism, and more. Chris’s latest book is A Genocide Foretold (Penguin Random House, 2025). 

Chris’s YouTube Channel: https://youtube.com/@chrishedgeschannel?si=XIMAFyQFmWGoYyuO

The Chris Hedges Report Substack: https://chrishedges.substack.com

A Genocide Foretold: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/786808/a-genocide-foretold-by-chris-hedges/

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:59 PTSD and Weightlifting

00:06:49 The Decline of the American Empire

00:11:10 The Strongest Dimension of Trump’s Presidency

00:17:20 Was Hitler a Better Speaker than Trump?

00:19:54 How the Democratic Party Sold Out the Working Class

00:22:21 Elon Musk and the Oligarchic Takeover of America

00:28:26 Is Elon Musk Wrong About the Efficiency of Government?

00:31:02 What Is the Deep State?

00:42:46 Is Donald Trump at War with the Deep State?

00:49:23 Infiltrating the Far Right Christian Community

00:54:04 Becoming a Minister

00:57:27 The Christian Right and the Fascist State

01:06:26 The Problem of Evil

01:10:31 On Sadism and the Decline of Empires

01:17:35 Why the Christian Right Supports Israel

01:20:20 How Does Trump Think of Israel?

01:27:38 On How the CIA Attempted to Recruit Him

01:31:06 Is Israel Still Committing Genocide in Gaza?

01:40:25 Chris’s New Book

01:46:24 On His Time with Hamas

01:55:01 Journalism vs Academia

01:58:28 Is Zionism Anti-Semitism?

02:04:52 How to Read the Bible

02:12:01 Where Does Integrity Come From?

02:22:26 Dehumanization in Palestine

02:26:15 On Marxism and Elon Musk

02:31:16 The Farewell Tour

02:35:34 On Trump’s Love of TV

02:37:50 On Reporting the Middle East

02:39:56 Russia and Ukraine

02:42:59 Growing Wealth Disparities in the United States

02:46:56 Fascist Attacks on Education

02:51:39 The Dark Future of the Press

02:57:30 Could the American Empire Be Revived?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In his last appearance, episode #243, he and Robinson discussed 2025 and the first weeks of Trump’s presidency, as well as what’s to come. More particularly, they discuss the irrelevance of Donald Trump, his domestic and global policies, China, narratives on the right and left, and the future of the United States. In this episode, they continue the discussion by diving deeper into recent events, Doge, Elon Musk, the relationship between Trump and Hitler, and important historical Marxists. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:27 What Do Trump and Hitler Have in Common?

00:09:42 Is This the Democratic Party’s Worst Crisis?

00:14:58 Is Trump’s Economic Policy a Hail Mary?

00:26:29 The Mexican Deportation Crisis

00:30:19 Global Retaliation Against American Tariffs

00:33:29 America’s Big Mistake with Russian Sanctions

00:40:50 Trump’s Big TikTok Mistake

00:47:05 How Adolf Hitler Came to Power in Germany

01:08:40 Does Elon Musk Symbolize the End of America?

01:16:07 How Bosses Lie When They Fire You

01:23:08 On Elon Musk’s Chainsaw Public Relations Disaster

01:28:52 On the Drowning American Empire

01:34:36 On Elon Musk and the Self-Destruction of Tesla

01:39:27 Feudalism, Communism, and the Death of Capitalism

01:46:22 Does China Represent a New Breed of Capitalism?

01:55:16 What Can the United States Do to Beat China?

02:03:46 What Makes Mao an Important Marxist?

02:17:56 Richard Wolff’s Mediocre Ivy League Education

02:23:59 How Mao Made the China of Today

02:40:39 The Myth of European Global Dominance

02:52:08 On Antonio Gramsci and Mussolini

02:57:03 Why Is Gramsci One of the Great Marxists?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Dr. Nolan is the Rachford and Carlota A. Harris Professor in the Department of Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine. He has published over 350 research articles and is the holder of 50 US patents, and has been honored as one of the top 25 inventors at Stanford University. He specializes in groundbreaking cancer and immunotherapy research. Yet Garry is also a world-renowned UAP investigator and Executive Director of the Board at the Sol Foundation, one of whose unofficial mottos is: Science, Policy, and Public Education for a Post-UAP World. In this episode, Robinson and Garry discuss the evidence that aliens exist and have already visited Earth. More particularly, they discuss various hypotheses about what aliens are—interdimensional travelers, visitors from other planets, Boltzmann Brains, and others—the Atacama Mummy, Garry’s own UFO encounter, the relationship between aliens and national security, the Pentagon Videos, the Fermi Paradox, and more. Keep up with Garry through X and the Sol Foundation.

Garry’s X Account: https://x.com/GarryPNolan

The Sol Foundation: https://thesolfoundation.org

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:23 Garry’s Interest in Aliens

00:05:03 How Garry’s Medical Research Turned into Alien Investigations

00:14:44 The Alien Controversy Around the Atacama Mummy

00:24:08 What Is the Definitive Proof for Aliens?

00:29:34 What Are UAPs

00:32:46 What Are Interdimensional Aliens??

00:36:03 What Are Ultraterrestrial Aliens?

00:40:01 The Time-Traveling Alien Hypothesis

00:41:13 The Angry-Monkey Alien Hypothesis

00:43:35 The Panspermia Alien Hypothesis

00:48:20 Could Intelligent Aliens Have Come to Earth?

00:54:50 Garry’s Background in Genetics

00:57:13 Does Extraterrestrial Life Need Air and Water to Live?

01:07:16 What Is the Fermi Paradox?

01:15:56 UFOs and Government

01:22:23 Garry’s UAP Experience

01:35:27 On Telepathy and Paranormal Abilities

01:39:31 On the Credibility of Alien Witnesses

01:41:34 Does the Government Suppress UFO Reports?

01:49:11 Why Are Aerospace Companies Hiding UFO Data?

01:51:53 Does the Government Possess Alien Metals?

01:58:29 Is Knowledge of Aliens a National Security Threat?

02:02:15 On Alien Abductions and Animal Mutilations

02:06:28 The Violent Changes to Brains Exposed to UFOs

02:17:56 Garry’s Top Secret Clearance

02:19:15 The Truth About the Tic-Tac UFO Incident

02:37:25 What Is the Skywatcher UAP Contact Program?

02:46:01 The Sol Foundation

02:58:24 Why Alien Research Can Prevent Nuclear War

03:02:03 What Are Transmedium Alien UAPs?

03:04:50 Are UAPs Biological Threats?

03:06:31 On Avi Loeb’s Pioneering UAP Research

03:12:49 Is Jacques Vallee One of the Most Important Alien Researchers?

03:18:17 What Should You Tell Someone Who Doesn’t Believe in Aliens?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s seventh appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 237 for a masterclass on Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. In this episode Tim returns for a discussion of another of Einstein’s major impacts on physics: his theory of general relativity. More particularly, Tim and Robinson discuss black holes, time, paradoxes of distance, Penrose diagrams, figures like Leonard Susskind and Richard Feynman, the curvature of space, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

00:00:42 An Extended Prelude

00:05:08 Naming Names

00:10:02 The Difference Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity

00:13:46 Einstein on General Relativity and Metric

00:27:21 More on Coordinates

00:40:26 A Novel Coordinate System

00:46:25 What Is Special Relativity?

00:50:30 The Conflict Between Quantum Theory and Relativity

01:02:00 Doing Physics with Geometry

01:12:38 Geometry and Special Relativity

01:30:20 More on Geometry and Relativity

01:36:19 Lorentz Frames

01:46:56 Simultaneity

02:02:03 John Bell and Special Relativity

02:11:00 Paradoxes of Distance

02:22:12 A Penrose Diagram

02:27:47 Introducing General Relativity

02:32:23 The Most Important Experiment About Gravity 

02:45:52 Changing the Geometry of Spacetime

02:55:28 Curvature of Space

03:02:03 Be Careful with Diagrams in Science 

03:05:45 The Basic Idea of General Relativity

03:10:23 The Equivalence Principle

03:19:40 Clocks and Gravity

03:28:09 Richard Feynman on General Relativity

03:37:00 The Cosmological Constant

03:41:56 What Are Black Holes?

03:50:45 What Steven Weinberg Got Wrong About General Relativity 

04:01:01 Black Holes and the Centrifugal Force Paradox

04:06:32 Curved Black Holes and Gödel Spacetime

04:19:34 The John Bell Institute

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Leonard Susskind is Felix Block Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Along with other accomplishments, he is among the fathers of such revolutionary concepts in physics as string theory, black hole complementarity, the holographic principle, and the string-theoretic landscape. He was also the guest on episode #217, where he and Robinson discussed the fine-tuning problem and the physics of the multiverse. In this episode, Leonard and Robinson get into another topic—black holes and the information paradox. More particularly, they talk about important figures like Stephen Hawking and Gerard ’t Hooft, singularities, chaos, whether the cosmos is a hologram, the end of the universe, and more. For further details, check out Leonard’s book on the title: The Black Hole War (Back Bay Books, 2009).

The Black Hole War: https://a.co/d/3eTOHoZ

The Theoretical Minimum: https://theoreticalminimum.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

05:21 Black Holes and the War Between Relativity and Quantum Mechanics

11:18 Is The Singularity at the Heart of a Black Hole Real?

21:51 Demystifying the Puzzle of Quantum Information

28:27 What Does The Famous Phrase “It From Bit” Mean?

38:47 Can Information Be Stored on the Surface of a Black Hole?

47:11 Was Stephen Hawking a Good Physicist?

56:21 How Will The Universe End?

1:00:49 What Is the Black Hole Information Paradox?

1:10:47 What Is the Holographic Principle?

1:20:01 How Leonard Susskind Won the Black Hole War Against Stephen Hawking

1:25:09 What Is the Infamous AdS/CFT Correspondence?

1:32:29 Is Physics in a Deep Crisis?

1:39:29 Are String and M-Theory Totally Wrong?

1:43:05 Is String Theory the Theory of Everything?

1:47:43 Is String Theory a Failure?

1:50:15 Does Our World Have Extra Dimensions?

1:53:34 Could Our World Be a Hologram?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode, Norman and Robinson sit down for a discussion about Donald Trump, the latest from Israel, Palestine, and Gaza, and the dying Left. Norman also appeared on episode 192, where he and Robinson discussed allegations of genocide and apartheid, Hamas and Hezbollah, and connections between the war and the Holocaust. Norman was also featured on episode 218, where he addressed the facts and fictions generated by the Israel-Hamas War, and episode 228, which was all about October 6th. Norman and Robinson also discuss Mehdi Hassan, Noam Chomsky, Christopher Hitchens, the Holocaust, Apartheid, Joan Peters, Julia Sebutinde, the Mossad, Sheryl Sandberg, Destiny, Lex Fridman, Bill Ackman, Alan Dershowitz, and more. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:07:25 Mehdi Hassan: The Working Class is Stupid

00:12:59 How Far Will the Supreme Court Go with Donald Trump?

00:21:49 Why Bernie Sanders Appeals to the Common Man

00:38:12 How Did Identity Politics Help Trump Win?

00:46:02 The Joy of Stereotypes

01:01:23 Why the People Loved Bernie Sanders and Trump

01:06:16 Noam Chomsky, Philosopher King

01:11:16 Christopher Hitchens Was Not a Serious Intellectual

01:20:58 Norman’s Parents Hate For Religion After the Holocaust

01:34:06 A Lex Fridman and Destiny Conspiracy

01:37:12 Norman’s Family and the Holocaust

01:45:43 Why Jews Stopped Caring About the Holocaust

01:54:43 Why Norman Never Had a Bar Mitzvah

02:02:52 Why Norman’s Parents Hated Germans and Poles

02:11:22 Comparing Gaza to the Holocaust

02:16:48 Comparing Gaza to Apartheid South Africa

02:24:41 Corruption Over Genocide in Palestine

02:27:05 On the Colossal Joan Peters Palestine Hoax

02:30:16 On Norman’s Time as a Maoist

02:39:35 The Corruption of Julia Sebutinde at the International Court of Justice

02:42:25 Does the Mossad Blackmail Public Figures?

02:52:49 Sheryl Sandberg and the War Crime “Israeli Propaganda Machine”

03:05:19 On Accusations of Sex Crimes on October 6th

03:18:12 On His Mortal Feud With Alan Dershowitz

03:31:19 On Bill Ackman and the Pro-Israel American Billionaire Class

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s seventh appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In his last appearance, episode #230, he and Robinson discussed Richard’s arguments against electing Donald Trump for president, as well as his analysis of the election. In this episode, Richard and Robinson talk about 2025 and the first weeks of Trump’s presidency, as well as what’s to come. More particularly, they discuss the irrelevance of Donald Trump, his domestic and global policies, China, narratives on the right and left, and the future of the United States. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Class Theory and History (Book): https://a.co/d/ht4trZN

Understanding the 2024 Elections (Article): https://asiatimes.com/2024/08/capitalism-mass-anger-and-2024-elections/

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

05:48 Three Months Later: Why Did Trump Defeat Harris?

08:34 How the Left Can Defeat Donald Trump

12:57 Donald J. Trump Is a Naughty Boy

15:06 Why Kamala Harris Lost the Election

16:27 Why Trump Won the Longshoremen’s Union (Because the Left Failed Them)

25:23 Is Victor Davis Hanson Wrong About the Elites’ War on the Working Class?

36:31 Did West Coast Elites Cause the LA Wildfire Disaster (Is Victor Davis Hanson Wrong?)?

42:26 Why Richard Wolff Enjoys Tucker Carlson

47:02 Can Psychoanalysis and the Subconscious Explain Donald Trump’s Victory?

54:32 Why Unemployment Tanked Harris in the Election

59:45 Deep Seek, The Chinese Phenomenon

1:05:31 The Astonishing Story of How China Came to Dominate Elon Musk Over Electric Cars

1:13:25 Donald Trump’s Huge Misunderstanding About Tariffs

1:17:44 Donald Trump’s Irrational Bluster Tactics

1:20:04 Richard Wolff Exposes Donald Trump’s Contradictions About Immigration

1:34:23 The Marxist Truth About Why Immigrants Are a Gift to the United States

1:41:37 The Weakness of the American Empire

1:44:34 Why Trump’s Policies Will Increase Illegal Mexican Immigration and Drug Trafficking

1:47:58 Should Trump Make Canada the 51st State?

1:51:04 How Elites Rejected Donald Trump and Created the Man He Became

1:54:45 On Larry Summers’s Debacle at Harvard (And How Donald Trump Did It Better)

1:59:25 Why Donald Trump Wants to Take the Panama Canal (And the Actual Best Reason to Control It)

2:02:33 How American Neocons Failed to Stop China From the World Superpower

2:13:29 How the BRICS Are Drastically Outperforming the American Economy

2:20:14 On Europe’s Impending Economic Doom

2:25:18 Is There a Fatal Contradiction in Trump’s Climate Policy?

2:30:03 On Donald Trump’s Anti-Elitist, Anti-DEI Rhetoric

2:33:20 How Will AI Affect China and America’s Economic War?

2:43:19 How Elon Musk is Only an Unsuccessful Bureaucrat

2:45:04 How China’s Communist Government Is More Efficient than the United States’s

2:48:11 Why the United States Is the Aggressor Against China

2:51:10 Why Trump Thinks We Should Conquer Greenland

3:02:18 On China’s Number One Global Priority

3:09:41 What Marxists Learned from the Failure of the Soviet Union

3:15:23 Some Key Lessons from Marx’s Kapital

3:21:56 On How History Will Overwhelm Trump In the Next Four Years

3:26:30 Donald Trump and the Gulf of America

3:28:28 Why We Should Expect More of the Same from Donald Trump

3:32:26 On His Hope For a Brighter Future From the Left

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented with the National Humanities Medal in 2007. Victor most recently appeared on episode #231, which came out just before the 2024 election, and where he made a case to vote for Donald Trump. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss the results of the election and President Trump’s inauguration. More particularly, they talk about the biggest challenges he will face as president, the class- and culture war in the United States, Trump’s rhetorical abilities, the California wildfires, and geopolitics, including our relationships with China, Canada, Russia, and the Middle East. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show.

Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com

Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson

The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show

The End of Everything: https://a.co/d/46O0mMB

The Case for Trump: https://a.co/d/8Bf0OdC

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:53 Victor’s Biggest Worries For Donald Trump’s Presidency

06:38 Donald Trump, The Troll

10:53 Should Donald Trump and the United States Annex Greenland and Canada?

12:50 Will President Donald Trump Take Over the Panama Canal?

14:57 Why the World Fears Donald Trump

17:53 Are the CIA and FBI More Damaging to the United States than Donald Trump?

25:33 The Ideological Disease that Caused the California Wildfire Disaster

28:33 How Victor’s Life Was Saved by Three Hispanic Women

30:08 Is Donald Trump the Problem with America, or Something Else?

32:13 The Real Reason People Hate Donald Trump

34:04 Victor Davis Hanson’s Rude Awakening at Stanford from University Elites

37:43 How California’s Incompetence Destroyed Its Own Water Supply

45:16 Did California Elites Cause the Los Angeles Wildfire Disaster?

50:48 Why Competence Defeated Ideology in Trump’s 2024 Election Victory

54:41 Does Donald Trump Have an Incompetent Cabinet?

1:04:45 Who’s More Competent? Blue Collar Americans or Bicoastal Elites?

1:07:07 Is China Trump’s Biggest Challenge?

1:11:44 Will the Middle East Finally See Peace Under Trump?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Raphael Bousso is the Chancellor’s Chair in Physics at the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, where he leads the Bousso Group in research on quantum gravity and quantum information. He is a renowned string theorist famous also for his development of the string theoretic landscape and the Bousso bound in holography. In this episode, Robinson and Raphael talk about the foundations of quantum mechanics and whether or not there are any deep mysteries within the theory that remain to be solved, and whether philosophical discussion of these issues is overblown. More particularly, they get into what quantum theories tell us about the world, whether we need different interpretations of quantum mechanics, whether the final theory of the universe will be quantum mechanical, how quantum mechanics connects to cosmology, the multiverse, and quantum gravity, and more. The Bousso Group: https://lightsheet.berkeley.edu OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 00:58 Raphael’s Interest in the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics 06:11 What Does Quantum Mechanics Tell Us About the World? 19:43 Just What Is an Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics? 26:17 Are There Serious Holes in Quantum Mechanics? 31:01 Schrödinger’s Cat 45:11 UV Completion 48:57 Will The Final Theory of Physics Be Quantum Mechanical? 58:00 How Cosmology Might Help Answer Questions About Quantum Mechanics 1:13:44 String Theory and the Multiverse 1:20:39 How the Multiverse Can Explain Probability 1:30:01 Will the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics Help Us Solve Quantum Gravity? Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Robinson’s Podcast #240 - Peter Godfrey-Smith: Cuttlefish, Octopuses, and the Consciousness of Mysterious Minds

Peter Godfrey-Smith is a professor in the School of History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Sydney. He has also taught at Stanford University and Harvard University. Among other topics, he has researched the philosophy of biology and mind, and is very well-known for his book Other Minds: The Octopus, The Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness (FSG, 2016). In this episode, Peter and Robinson discuss that book, as well as his latest, Living on Earth (William Collins, 2024). More particularly, they discuss cuttlefish, octopuses, consciousness, metaethics, and animal welfare.

Peter’s Website: https://petergodfreysmith.com

Living on Earth: https://a.co/d/9MvUFHV

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:10 Scuba Diving with Cuttlefish and Octopuses

09:43 Why Did Creatures Evolve Nervous Systems?

16:18 Why Did Conscious Minds Evolve?

27:23 Why Do We Believe that Other Animals Have Minds?

36:49 Do Shrimp or Fish Feel Pain?

47:01 What’s It Like to Be an Octopus?

57:32 What Is Metaethics?

1:04:57 First-Order Ethics

1:08:12 Is It Morally Acceptable to Eat Animals?

1:16:04 What Does Peter Eat?

1:29:49 Future Work

Ned Block is Silver Professor at New York University in the Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, where he works on the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of neuroscience, and cognitive science. In this episode, Robinson and Ned discuss some of the titans he studied under, ChatGPT and the nature of artificial intelligence, the Turing Test, androids, consciousness, the connection between seeing and thinking, blindsight, change blindness, and more. Ned’s most recent book is The Border Between Seeing and Thinking (OUP, 2023).

Ned’s Website: https://www.nedblock.us

The Border Between Seeing and Thinking: https://a.co/d/fqVb7gj

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:53 Ned’s Entry into Philosophy of Mind

02:08 On Hilary Putnam, John Rawls, and Philippa Foot

08:10 Can ChatGPT Do Multiplication?

10:57 Does Noam Chomsky Understand ChatGPT?

13:11 Is the Turing Test Completely Wrong?

17:52 On Daniel Dennett

23:46 On Michael Graziano and the Attention Schema Theory of Consciousness

26:03 Are Animals Conscious?

30:51 Does ChatGPT Pass the Turing Test?

36:53 Mary in the White Room

41:16 The Blockhead Thought Experiment

45:53 How to Show that ChatGPT Is Dumb

48:51 Why Can’t ChatGPT Reason About Images?

51:48 How to Create an Android

55:10 What Is Thought?

1:00:13 Susan Carey

1:03:19 Are There Different Kinds of Consciousness?

1:05:10 On Psychoanalysis

1:06:08 What Are Blindsight and Change Blindness?

1:11:38 The Difference Between Seeing and Thinking

1:16:03 Was Helen Keller Conscious?

1:18:39 Are Salmon Conscious?

1:20:58 What Are the Dominant Theories of Consciousness?

1:27:35 Do We Know What Consciousness Is?

1:31:25 Functionalism and Mental Properties

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Barry Loewer is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers. Before that he did his PhD in philosophy at Stanford. Barry works largely in the philosophy of physics, the philosophy of science, and metaphysics. This is Barry’s third appearance on the show. He was last on episode 189 with David Albert, in which Robinson, David, and Barry discussed David and Barry’s joint program known as “The Mentaculus”, which they use to solve many problems in the foundations of physics, from probability to the direction of time. In this episode, Barry and Robinson discuss the philosophical foundations of science, touching on the relationship between science and pseudoscience, Karl Popper, string theory, scientific realism, and many other important debates and figures. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

The Probability Map of the Universe: https://a.co/d/4XoYTMY

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

7:53 On Pseudoscience and Astrology

11:40 Falsification as a Criterion of Science

16:40 Is String Theory Pseudoscience?

20:14 On Marxism

24:45 What Is Scientific Realism?

34:35 On Hilary Putnam

42:16 Science Vs Metaphysics

48:32 Time in Science and Metaphysics

52:38 On Fundamentalia

56:01 On Reductionism

1:00:04 On Consciousness and Emergence

1:04:56 On Causation

1:25:52 On Time Travel

1:28:29 On Explanation and Thermodynamics

1:39:23 On Free Will

1:47:00 The Laws of Nature

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is Tim’s seventh appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 210 with David Albert for a discussion of the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. In this episode, Tim and Robinson talk about Albert Einstein’s theory of special relativity, explaining it from the ground up and elucidating some common misconceptions. More particularly, they get into Einstein’s magnificent mind, how special relativity displaced the theory of the ether, absolute and relative space, the speed and nature of light, the possibility of time travel, relativistic quantum mechanics, and more. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:59 The Amazing Fertility of Einstein's Mind

08:50 The Mysterious Ether and Why It Isn't All Around Us

25:01 Einstein Versus Relative and Absolute Space

29:58 The Single Most Important Experiment in Physics

45:23 Special Relativity and Absolute Space

53:56 The Conceptual Clarity of Genius Physicists

1:01:05 A Thought Experiment to Explain Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity

1:13:48 Is the Speed of Light an Illusion?

1:23:33 Richard Feynman's Big Mistake About Einstein

1:34:23 On Einstein and the Possibility of Time Travel

1:42:53 Is Special Relativity Compatible with Quantum Mechanics?

1:49:55 Relativistic Bohmian Mechanics

1:57:00 Does Anything Move Faster than Light?

1:59:03 The John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s ninth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 221 to discuss the measurement problem of quantum mechanics. In this episode, David gives a pedagogical and introductory overview of the problem of time’s arrow, which is one of the most enduring of all physical and philosophical puzzles. David’s most recent book is A Guess at the Riddle (2023). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:58 The Tension Between Past and Future in Physics

8:56 The Arrow of Time in Life and Physics

12:26 The Three Arrows of Time

18:12 Entropy and the Direction of Time

29:12 Thermodynamics and the Problem of the Past

38:26 Why Do We Remember the Past But Not the Future?

48:46 Two Ways to Understand the Past

1:04:21 Why Can We Affect the Future But Not the Past

1:17:51 Why Can Agents Control the Future but not the Past?

1:26:57 Can the Laws of Quantum Physics Be Run Backward?

1:33:11 The Connection Between the Foundations of Quantum Physics and Statistical Mechanics

1:41:53 Cosmology and the Past Hypothesis

1:44:25 Why are Left and Right Different from Past and Future?

1:49:28 The Difference Between Space and Time

1:57:14 Is Time a Fundamental Part of Reality?

1:59:14 Future Work

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University

Janna Levin is the Claire Tow Professor of Physics and Astronomy at Barnard College of Columbia University. She is also the Chair and Founding Director of the Science Studios at Pioneer Works. In this episode, Robinson and Janna talk all about black holes and how to survive them. More particularly, they discuss how black holes were discovered both theoretically and empirically, common misconceptions about black holes, their role in theories of quantum gravity, and how they do and will contribute to both the life and death of the universe. If you’d like to learn more about black holes, read Janna’s latest book, Black Hole Survival Guide (Anchor, 2022). Janna’s Website: https://jannalevin.com Black Hole Survival Guide: https://a.co/d/biGGqZc Pioneer Works: https://pioneerworks.org OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 06:10 The Original Theory of Black Holes 14:45 Is There Gravity in Space? 20:40 Just What IS a Black Hole? 38:47 Why Physicists Resisted the Possibility of Black Holes 50:44 What’s at the Center of a Black Hole? 55:34 What Happens When Something Falls into a Black Hole? 1:03:23 Is Leonard Susskind a Genius Physicist? 1:12:07 What Is the Fine-Tuning Problem? 1:17:52 How Close Can You Get to a Black Hole and Still Survive? 1:25:10 Why Are Black Holes Perfect Objects? 1:32:12 How Do Black Holes Form? 1:41:31 What Will Happen to the Sun When It Dies? 1:50:38 Black Holes, Dark Energy, and the Fate of the Universe 1:54:45 The Heat Death of the Universe 1:59:18 Pioneer Works Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

This episode came on the heels of a traumatic, eight-interview sprint in NYC. As you’ll see, this one was particularly chaotic, but the stars aligned to make it happen. Camera switches, bathroom breaks, health concerns, equipment malfunctions, and even a robbery didn’t prevent the conversation from coming together. With this in mind, I hope you’ll forgive how crazy and inconsistent the video is; the fact that it even got put together is courtesy of my friend and editor Yu Guo (a philosopher who got his PhD from NYU with past guest Paul Boghossian). Given that there’s some new intro music, and you’re already getting an abundance of distracting production nuggets, I decided to show the soup being made. My thanks go to Richard, who met with me twice in three days (not to mention his wife, who allowed it), and Michael, who put up with me for over four hours.
- Robinson

P.S. Toward the end of the episode Michael eats a jerky stick from Maui Nui Venison, which is a company operating out of Hawaii that manages the invasive deer population of Maui that is decimating the landscape. Instead of culling the animals and disposing of their bodies, the meat is butchered and sold. It is the only meat I eat, full-stop, and the ethical reasons are sufficient for this, but it is also the best meat that I have ever had. I reached out to Maui Nui and told them that I support what they are doing and would like to be of any help that I can. They gave me this coupon code—ROBINSON—which you can use for 15% off. I am not being paid for this in any way. I believe in what they are doing and I want this model to succeed. People are going to be eating meat for the foreseeable future and I would be happier if it was not factory-farmed meat. So please check Maui Nui out and give them a try!

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics.

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:51 Michael and Rick's Histories with Marx

16:50 A Marxless Education

29:42 Marxism and the West

35:18 Marx and the Emergence of Capitalism

43:59 Socialism Vs State Capitalism

49:21 The Culmination of Economics in Marx

57:16 The Crucial Features of Marxism

1:12:15 Marx, China, and the BRICS

1:25:57 The Laws of Motion of Finance Capitalism

1:28:58 Why Won't Mainstream Media Interview Michael Hudson and Richard Wolff?

1:42:16 Why is the American Empire Crumbling?

1:54:51 Is the Dollar Destroying the United States?

2:01:38 Marx as the Culmination of Classical Economics

2:10:19 Will Trump's China Tariff Policy Spell Disaster for America?

2:22:43 Is Trump's Policy on Russia Idiotic?

2:27:23 Does It Matter for America Who Wins the Election?

2:37:13 Michael's Rhetorical Abilities

2:43:54 How Can We Use Economics to Forecast the Future?

2:54:48 Does Paul Krugman Know Anything About Economics?

2:57:57 How Michael Got His PhD

3:04:59 What's Wrong With the Nobel Prize in Economics?

3:10:04 The Long and Short of Marx's Kapital

3:17:20 Capitalism and Labor

3:31:51 The Biggest Myth About Karl Marx

Judith Butler is Distinguished Professor in the Graduate School and formerly the Maxine Elliot Chair in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley. In this episode, Robinson and Judith discuss three broad topics. First, they talk about Judith’s latest book, Who’s Afraid of Gender? (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2024). In particular, they touch on the dynamics of sex and gender, as well as their political dimensions. Second, the conversation turns to the 2024 presidential election between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. Finally, they broach the topic of Israel and Palestine, with particular attention to the questions of genocide and anti-semitism. Who’s Afraid of Gender?: https://a.co/d/beDcQ1S OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 01:03 Judith’s Introduction to Philosophy and Gender Studies 11:00 Who’s Afraid of Gender? 22:11 On Trans and Intersex Olympics Controversies 26:09 Is the Man/Woman Binary a Fantasy? 35:17 Are Putin and Orban Transphobic? 41:49 How to Change One’s Gender 47:25 Language and Gender 52:16 On Psychoanalysis 58:49 On Gender Issues and the 2024 Election 1:04:30 On Trump 2024 1:06:14 On Harris 2024 1:10:39 Is Anti-Zionism Anti-Semitism? 1:18:51 Is Gaza a Concentration Camp? 1:20:49 How Will the War in Israel and Palestine End? Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.

Sir Niall Ferguson is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University, where he served for twelve years as the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History. In this episode, Robinson and Niall discuss three of the biggest conflicts currently gripping the news—the election in the United States and the two wars between Israel and Hamas on the one hand, and Russia and Ukraine on the other. Undergirding the entire discussion is the question of whether the United States is an empire, whether it is failing, and what the world needs America to be. Niall's most recent book is Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe (Penguin, 2021).

Niall's Website: https://www.niallferguson.com

Doom: https://a.co/d/eWAx65C

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

00:44 Niall's Take as a Scottish Historian

05:20 Is the United States an Empire?

12:49 What Does the World Need the United States to Be?

19:47 Is Trump or Harris Better for the Russia-Ukraine War?

26:35 Is Trump Too Dangerous to Have the Nuclear Launch Codes?

29:54 How Terrible Was Biden's Withdrawal from Afghanistan?

34:22 Is the United States on the Precipice of Self-Destruction?

41:08 Will Donald Trump Actually Help the Suffering Poor of America?

46:23 Will Niall Ferguson Vote For Donald Trump?

50:31 The Dangers of American Politics

54:55 The Right Versus the Left on the Wars in Ukraine and Israel

1:00:07 How Has the Media Fed the Israel-Hamas War in Palestine?

1:06:35 Is Benjamin Netanyahu a Satanic Figure?

1:11:19 Is Israel Committing a new Holocaust—Genocide—in Palestine?

1:17:21 Trump, Harris, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Palestine: Do They Even Matter?

Robinson's Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss the 2024 presidential election. More particularly, they review some of the main arguments for and against electing Donald Trump or Kamala Harris. This includes their records, domestic and foreign policies, recent assassination attempts, and more. Victor also appeared as a guest on episode #112, in which he and Robinson talked about what was at the time Victor’s latest book, The Dying Citizen. He was also a guest on episode #191, which covered Victor’s views on the current crisis in Israel and Palestine. Most recently, on episode #208, they spoke about Victor’s most recent book, The End of Everything. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show.

Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com

Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson

The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show

The End of Everything: https://a.co/d/46O0mMB

The Case for Trump: https://a.co/d/8Bf0OdC

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:56 Why Is The 2024 Election So Important?

10:18 Is Trump Innocent of All Charges?

20:19 Is Trump a Unique Election Denier?

27:30 On the Trump Assassination Attempts and Anti-Trump Conspiracy Theories

35:21 The Best Reasons to Have Voted for Joe Biden

44:44 Will Kamala Harris Bring a New Radical Agenda to the White House?

48:49 Why You Shouldn’t Vote for Kamala Harris

55:51 The Case for Trump

1:01:50 On Hillsdale College

1:07:52 On Hard Political Discussions in Hard Times

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Robinson’s Fashion Empire: http://bit.ly/3XBKqO2

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s fifth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #127, he and Robinson discussed some of the most profound criticisms of capitalism; in #154, they focused on the myths surrounding Marxism and Marx himself; in #190 they covered the Israel-Palestine conflict from a Marxist perspective; and in #222 they assess the end of the American Empire. In this episode, Richard and Robinson talk about the 2024 election. More particularly, they discuss the irrelevance of Donald Trump, both candidates’ economic policies, the Biden administration’s track record, Ukraine and Russia, Israel and Palestine, the promise of Kamala Harris, immigration, and the future of the United States. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Class Theory and History (Book): https://a.co/d/ht4trZN

Understanding the 2024 Elections (Article): https://asiatimes.com/2024/08/capitalism-mass-anger-and-2024-elections/

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:08 Is it Possible to Predict the Future?

07:51 The Irrelevance of Donald Trump

12:15 The United States vs The Savages

15:41 Does the Government Even Matter?

18:26 On Young Frankenstein and the Declining American Empire

20:49 On Richard’s Astounding Rhetorical Abilities

29:40 What Makes Donald Trump Great?

37:38 Was Trump Good for the Economy?

40:52 Did Trump Win the Economic War Against China?

43:46 Were Trump’s Tax Cuts Disastrous for Americans?

50:00 Why Won’t Trump Just Go Away?

52:29 Is Ukraine Doomed to Lose the Russian War?

54:26 On Private Versus State Capitalism (Or, American vs Russia)

1:00:21 Who Will be Left When America Crumbles?

1:05:04 How Can We Sum Up Biden’s Presidency?

1:13:14 What on Earth Should We Make of Kamala Harris

1:23:24 Donald Trump Versus Marxism

1:29:30 The Republican and Democratic War on Immigrants

1:37:38 Trump Vs Harris on Economics | Who Wins?

1:43:44 Trump Vs Harris on Russia, Ukraine, Israel, & Palestine

1:50:37 Trump, Harris, and the War on Data

1:55:10 On Richard Wolff, the Man, and Donald Trump

1:57:43 Will Trump or Harris Win 2024?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Robinson’s Fashion Empire: http://bit.ly/3XBKqO2

Some speakers, like Norman (https://youtu.be/vhFm62msNGc), are whip-smart and all I can do is ask a question before letting them take me along for the ride. Others are just as sharp, but the interview is an entirely different experience. I feel silly being this dramatic, so forgive me; it just seems that what follows is the proper extended metaphor to describe our conversation. Rashid crackles with energy when he talks, just as if he were a fighter. Even if he’s not using his fists, his cadence is like a boxer’s and I had to roll with the punches. This was another great one, and as usual I bear very little responsibility beyond sticking it out in the ring. I’m going to resist the urge to make any more boxing comments and instead finish with this: Thanks for listening.

- Robinson

P.S. In a number of recent episodes I’ve mentioned Maui Nui Venison, which is a company operating out of Hawaii that manages the invasive deer population of Maui that is decimating the landscape. Instead of culling the animals and disposing of their bodies, the meat is butchered and sold. It is the only meat I eat, full-stop, and the ethical reasons are sufficient for this, but it is also the best meat that I have ever eaten. I reached out to Maui Nui and told them that I support what they are doing and would like to be of any help that I can. They gave me this coupon code—ROBINSON—which you can use for 20% off. I am not being paid for this in any way. I believe in what they are doing and I want this model to succeed. People are going to be eating meat for the foreseeable future and I would be happier if it was not factory-farmed meat. So please check Maui Nui out and give them a try!

---

Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor Emeritus of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. He was editor of the Journal of Palestine Studies, President of the Middle East Studies Association, and an advisor to the Palestinian delegation to the Madrid and Washington Arab-Israeli peace negotiations from October 1992 until June 1993. In this episode, Rashid and Robinson discuss the history that culminated in October 7th, 2023, what has happened since then, and what might happen in the future. More particularly, they talk about Zionism, the Nakba, how Gaza was created, the war between Israel and Hamas, Egypt’s role in the crisis, the question of genocide, and the future of Palestine. Rashid’s most recent book is The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (Metropolitan Books, 2021).

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: https://a.co/d/7Mrwuz9

The Neck and the Sword: https://shorturl.at/N7HRo

A New Abyss (The Guardian Long Read): https://shorturl.at/oVn5j

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:07 On His Palestinian Ancestors’ Battle Against Zionism

04:04 Is the Israel-Hamas War an American War?

06:04 How Far Back Must We Go to Understand October 7th?

07:33 The Nakba Versus the Bible

12:42 The Zionist Propaganda War

15:40 Is the War Between Israel and Hamas Fought in the Media?

18:52 Is All Zionist History Propaganda?

22:12 How Did the Nakba Create Gaza?

27:16 How Rashid’s Family Was Scattered by the Nakba

28:45 Has Gaza Become a Concentration Camp?

33:10 Did Hamas Cause the Apocalyptic Blockade on Gaza?

38:04 Did the Election of Hamas Further Doom Gaza?

40:21 Is Israel Committing Genocide in Gaza?

45:17 Were the War Crimes of October 7th Justified?

46:52 Can Israel’s War Crimes Against Gaza Be Justified?

48:48 Can Israel Destroy Hamas?

51:30 Is Egypt Responsible for the Gaza Crisis?

53:30 Who Are the Biggest Players in the Israel-Hamas War?

54:30 Is the Israel-Hamas War Just Beginning?

01:00:07 How Soon Will Israel Conquer Gaza?

01:05:19 Rashid’s Hope for the Future of Israel and Palestine

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University.

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Robinson’s Fashion Empire: http://bit.ly/3XBKqO2

Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode, Norman and Robinson sit down for a discussion centered around the anniversary of October 7th, and they speak about the immensity of what has happened in the Israel-Palestine region in the time before and since. Norman also appeared on episode 192, where he and Robinson discussed allegations of genocide and apartheid, Hamas and Hezbollah, and connections between the war and the Holocaust. Norman was also featured on episode 218, where he addressed the facts and fictions generated by the Israel-Hamas War. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com

OUTLINE

00:00:00 Introduction

00:01:44 Why Norman Couldn’t Have Predicted October 7th

00:04:45 Gaza’s Last Victim

00:07:55 Is the Palestine Question Dead?

00:11:13 What Hamas in Gaza and American Slave Rebellions Have in Common

00:17:22 How the Nakba Created Gaza in 1948

00:21:21 Is Gaza a Concentration Camp?

00:25:20 High-Tech Israeli Killing Sprees in Gaza

00:29:23 The Butcher of Beirut & The Sabra and Shatila Massacre

00:31:20 On the First Intifada and the Silencing of Gaza

00:37:11 On Hassan Nasrallah, Leader of Hezbollah

00:41:59 How Israel Will Destroy Hezbollah

00:42:35 Israel Vs The Party of God

00:45:32 On the Courage of Dying for a Cause

00:48:24 On His Time with Hezbollah and Nasrallah

00:52:41 Noam Chomsky on Hezbollah’s Threat to Israel

00:56:30 On Nasrallah’s Prophetic Speech Before His Assassination

01:02:10 On Martin Luther King Jr’s Final Words

01:04:35 On Nasrallah and the Assassination of Pro-Palestine Leaders

01:07:08 The Parallel Between American Slaves and Gazan Palestinians

01:12:37 Will the Gazans Be Emancipated like American Blacks from Slavery?

01:19:16 Norman’s Big Question for Noam Chomsky

01:21:26 The Question of Gaza as a Concentration Camp

01:23:03 The Crushing Toll of the Holocaust on Norman

01:32:08 On His Mother, Piers Morgan, and Gaza as a Holocaust

01:34:14 On the Rise of Hamas

01:38:49 On Hamas, Nasrallah, and the Sealed Fate of Gaza

01:41:36 Does Israel Have the Right to Commit Genocide?

01:45:48 Does Israel Intentionally Murder Innocent Civilians?

01:50:10 Just How Brutal Are Israel’s High Tech Military Operations?

01:54:09 On Gandhi’s Meditations in Jail

01:56:07 Does Israel Go on Killing Sprees in Palestine?

01:58:43 Are the Leaders of Hamas Rich Billionaires?

02:04:43 Comparing Gaza and the Warsaw Ghetto

02:09:33 The Absurdity of Gaza’s Economy

02:15:11 What Was Hamas’s Intentions on October 7th?

02:18:14 Did Hamas Commit Sexual Violence Against Israelis on October 7th?

02:24:07 On Israel’s Violent Revenge Against Hamas

02:26:50 Has Israel Restored Its Fearsome Reputation in the Middle East?

02:30:34 Has Israel Exterminated Gaza?

02:36:31 The Bottom Line on Israel and the Desolation of Gaza

02:39:39 Will There Be a Ceasefire in Gaza?

02:43:58 Why Does Israel Always Win?

02:52:40 On Philosophy, Chattel Slavery, and Justice in Palestine

02:58:02 On Justice and Norman Finkelstein’s Purpose in Life

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between.

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Robinson’s Fashion Empire: http://bit.ly/3XBKqO2

David Eagleman is a neuroscientist at Stanford University who works on synesthesia, brain plasticity, and sensory substitution, among other topics. He is also a bestselling author, the host of the Inner Cosmos podcast, and writer and presenter of the international PBS series The Brain with David Eagleman. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss brain plasticity and its optimization, the neuroscience of language-learning, consciousness and animal minds, synesthesia, sensory substitution, artificial intelligence, conspiracy theories, and more. David’s most recent book is Livewired: The Inside Story of the Ever-Changing Brain (Vintage, 2021). 

David’s Website: https://eagleman.com

Livewired: https://a.co/d/67w3TQ3

Inner Cosmos: https://eagleman.com/podcast/

OUTLINE

00:00:53 David’s Interest in the Mind

00:02:52 Solving A Problem of Kant with Modern Neuroscience

00:06:08 On Brain Plasticity and How to Maximize It

00:15:23 Do Children Really Learn Languages Faster than Adults?

00:19:46 Using Neuroscience to Maximize Weight Loss and Improve Diet Outcomes

00:22:09 Was Helen Keller Conscious?

00:24:14 Why Neuroscience Hasn’t Figured Out Consciousness

00:28:32 What Really Is Synesthesia?

00:36:44 On Animal Consciousness and Eating Meat

00:42:56 What Is Intelligence?

00:45:52 What Is the Intelligence Echo Illusion?

00:52:02 Will ChatGPT Surpass Our Greatest Thinkers?

00:55:50 Do We Need to Replace the Turing Test?

01:05:57 Inner Cosmos

01:09:16 Why Does the Brain Love Conspiracy Theories?

01:11:33 Why Does the Brain Fall for Magic Tricks?

01:13:14 Why Can’t We Tickle Ourselves?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

David Builes is an Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University, where he works in metaphysics and epistemology and has made serious contributions to the philosophies of mind, science, and mathematics. In this episode, Robinson and David discuss the metaphysics of time—including debates about the reality of the past, present, and future—the question of whether science can explain consciousness, and whether numbers exist as abstract objects.

David’s Website: https://davidbuiles.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:05 David’s Interest in Philosophy

05:47 On the Philosophy of Time

16:01 In Defense of Presentism

24:21 How Long is the Present?

25:58 Humean and Non-Humean Laws

28:02 Can Science Explain Consciousness?

40:25 Does David Believe His Work?

43:32 First-Person Realism

53:18 Is First-Person Realism Correct?

57:42 The Philosophy of Math

01:01:45 Do Numbers Exist?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Alexander Nehamas is the Edmund N. Carpenter II Class of 1943 Professor in the Humanities, both of philosophy and comparative literature, at Princeton University. He is best known for his work on ancient philosophy, literary theory, the philosophy of art, and his scholarship on Friedrich Nietzsche. In this episode, Robinson and Alexander primarily discuss the latter, though they also delve into some of his other work. More particularly, they discuss Nietzsche’s writings on eternal recurrence, the will to power, and morality, among other topics, as well as the perils of doing history as a philosopher, the infamous Elgin marbles, great works of literature, and personal style. Alexander’s most well-known work on Nietzsche is Nietzsche: Life as Literature (Harvard, 1987).

Nietzsche: Life as Literature: https://a.co/d/7V3MYk0

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

3:07 The Essentials of Nietzsche

11:42  Nietzsche and Eternal Recurrence 

14:46  Nietzsche on Free Will

19:06  Nietzsche on Art and the Ideal Life

20:41  Nietzsche on Herd Morality and Mediocrity

23:20  Nietzsche on the Will to Power

27:02 Nietzsche on Our Dominance Over Animals  

30:41 Was Nietzsche an Anti-Semite? 

33:02 Nietzsche’s Relationship to Animals

36:53 Was Nietzsche an Enemy of Morality?  

39:54 Nietzsche and the Worship of Greatness 

41:06 Favorite Literature 

48:39 Nietzsche and the Perils of the History of Philosophy  

1:05:43 The Elgin Marbles

1:13:50 On Plato and Ancient Philosophy  

1:22:34 Nietzsche on Animal Agriculture

1:29:10 Nietzsche on Seeing Life as a Literary Work

1:34:10 Nietzsche on the Weak and the Great

1:39:32 Philosophy and Life  

1:46:11 On Philosophy and Fashion

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Peter Woit is a senior lecturer in the Department of Mathematics at Columbia University, where he researches quantum field theory and quantum gravity. Peter is one of the most well-known critics of string theory, and in this episode he and Robinson discuss his work and research in the area, which is encapsulated in his book Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law (Basic Books, 2007), as well as his website by the same name. More particularly, they talk about the standard model of particle physics, the problem of quantum gravity, the main figures in string theory, the arguments for and against this approach to physics, its many alleged failures, and the future of research in the area.

Not Even Wrong (Book): https://a.co/d/iVnPEi1

Not Even Wrong (Website): https://www.math.columbia.edu/~woit/wordpress/

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:29 Peter’s Training in Physics

06:21 What Is the Standard Model of Physics? 

10:42 What Is Symmetry? 

21:37 Experiment and the Standard Model of Particle Physics 

26:15 What’s Wrong with the Standard Model of Particle Physics? 

29:36 What Are Grand Unified Theories in Physics?

34:47 What Is Supersymmetry? 

40:15 On Ed Witten and the Genius Mind Behind M-Theory

49:08 What Is String Theory? 

1:04:56 What Is M-Theory?

1:07:59 On AdS/CFT 

1:16:03 On Holography and Quantum Gravity

1:20:27 String Theory and the Sokal Hoax

1:24:09 Peter’s Love of Physics

1:32:13 On the String-Theoretic Landscape and the Multiverse 

1:41:51 What’s the Path Forward for Physics?

1:47:52 Is String Theory the Only Game in Time?

1:53:17 How Did String Theory Become Dominant?

1:56:45 String Theory: Not Even Wrong?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Michael Graziano is Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Princeton University, where he and his lab research the brain basis of consciousness. This is Michael’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #169, they discussed Michael’s Attention Schema Theory of consciousness, in which consciousness is a way in which the brain models attention to better organize and monitor itself. In this conversation, Robinson and Michael reexamine the Attention Schema Theory with an eye toward the problem of studying the consciousness not only of humans, but of other animals, and with particular regard to the moral questions surrounding animals’ roles in our lives. Michael’s most recent book is Rethinking Consciousness (W. W. Norton, 2019).

Rethinking Consciousness: https://a.co/d/8euR1EL

Graziano Lab: https://grazianolab.princeton.edu

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:28 Michael’s Interest in Consciousness

07:22 What Is Consciousness?

16:03 Is there a Magical Essence to Consciousness?

28:43 How Did Consciousness Evolve?

35:29 Testing Michael’s Model of Consciousness

44:55 What’s It Like to Be a Human?

48:25 Is Human Suffering an Illusion?

54:07 The Neuroscience of Pain and Suffering

01:00:39 Is There Value to Human Life?

01:10:42 Was Helen Keller Conscious?

01:21:15 The Global Workspace Theory of Consciousness

01:30:20 Do Animals Value Their Own Lives?

01:41:23 Are Shrimp Conscious?

01:52:23 Should Science Inform Morality?

01:54:03 Can Chickens Suffer?

01:57:12 Are Salmon Conscious?

02:09:40 Are Octopuses Conscious?

02:22:43 Are Poultry Conscious?

02:29:43 Are Barnyard Animals Conscious?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Richard Wolff is Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and a visiting professor at The New School, where he works on economics in the Marxist tradition. This is Richard’s fourth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode #127, he and Robinson discussed some of the most profound criticisms of capitalism; in #154, they focused on the myths surrounding Marxism and Marx himself; and in #190 they covered the Israel-Palestine conflict from a Marxist perspective. In this wide-ranging episode, Richard and Robinson talk about the end of the American empire. More particularly they discuss the wars in Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and Palestine, the rivalry between China and the United States, the global interplay between capitalism and socialism, the distinction between socialism and communism, the conflict between the BRICS and G7 nations, and more. Richard’s latest book is Understanding Capitalism (Democracy at Work, 2024).

Understanding Capitalism (Book): https://www.democracyatwork.info/understanding_capitalism

Class Theory and History (Book): https://a.co/d/ht4trZN

Understanding the 2024 Elections (Article): https://asiatimes.com/2024/08/capitalism-mass-anger-and-2024-elections/

Richard’s Website: https://www.rdwolff.com

Economic Update: https://www.democracyatwork.info/economicupdate

OUTLINE

03:10 On the Trauma of His Family Background

10:50 Academia’s War on Marxism 

22:45 Economics as the Secret Undercurrent of History

28:01 Will Ukraine Defeat Russia?

31:52 Is China the Empire of the New World?

39:04 The Best American Strategy Against China

45:24 How Trump Won and Lost America

56:22 Is Israel a Colonialist State?

01:03:23 On the Expulsion of the Palestinians from Israel

01:10:49 Israel as America’s Economic Baby

01:18:08 Global Capitalism as the Enemy of the Islamic World

01:23:00 Why You Should Distrust Wartime Propaganda

01:33:03 Zelensky and the Ukrainian Chess Match

01:42:53 The Economic Conspiracy Behind the American Pick-Up Truck

01:49:31 Israel, Ukraine, and the New Cold War

01:54:20 The Many Taboos of Socialism and Communism

01:58:54 The War Between Socialism and Capitalism

02:07:51 Is Socialism More Efficient than Capitalism?

02:16:58 World War I and the Rise of Socialism

02:22:58 The Failed American Attempt to Destroy Russian Communism

02:27:26 Why Did Russia Choose Communism over Socialism?

02:38:06 Communism, Socialism, and the War for the Workplace

02:43:00 Is China Secretly Capitalist?

02:53:18 America’s Choice Between Equality or Subservience to China

02:58:45 Europe’s Hidden Economic Apocalypse

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. This is David’s eighth appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 210 with Tim Maudlin, which was a more advanced episode on Niels Bohr and the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, David gives a pedagogical and introductory overview of the measurement problem, which is the issue at the core of many discussions about the foundations of quantum mechanics. David’s most recent book is A Guess at the Riddle (2023). If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Note: Unfortunately, the cameras turned off in the middle of the episode. For twenty minutes there is no video, and for most of the episode only the camera focusing on David is recording.

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:54 On Philosophy and the Foundations of Physics

15:35 The Bizarreness of the Quantum World

19:16 What Is the World of Classical Physics?

24:00 How Quantum Mechanics Destroyed the Classical World

29:19 What Is Quantum Mechanical Superposition?

32:18 How Quantum Mechanics Became the Theory of Reality

39:53 What Is the Measurement Problem of Quantum Mechanics?

51:05 Niels Bohr and the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics

01:01:14 Niels Bohr and the EPR Paper

01:08:45 Was Niels Bohr the Most Charming Physicist of All Time?

01:15:59 Is the Measurement Problem a Scientific Problem?

01:21:24 Is String Theory Pseudoscience?

01:31:03 Why Don’t Many Philosophers Work on String Theory?

01:34:08 The Wave Function and the Measurement Problem

01:37:57 Quantum Measurement and Wave Function Collapse

01:41:34 Hidden Variable Theories of Quantum Mechanics

01:44:54 Quantum Mechanics and the Multiverse

01:48:47 Solving the Measurement Problem with Experiment

01:56:41 Quantum Mechanics and the Scientific Project

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Michael Hudson is Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City and President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends. He researches domestic and international finance, the history of economics, and the role of debt in shaping class stratification, among many other topics. This is Michael’s third appearance on the show. He was also a guest on episode 180, where he and Robinson discussed neoliberalism, industrial capitalism, and the rentier economy, and on episode 198, where they discussed Marxism, economic parasites, and contemporary debt cancellation. In this episode, Michael and Robinson talk about the history of debt cancellation in the ancient world—including Babylon, Greece, and Rome—how they helped to stave off economic collapse, how the failure to implement them contributed to the demise of these civilizations, and how they might be used in today’s economies. Michael’s most recent book is Temples of Enterprise (ISLET, 2024). This episode was recorded at Austin’s Ale House in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, and comes highly recommended.

Michael’s Website: https://michael-hudson.com

Temples of Enterprise: https://a.co/d/a3c53dm

Austin’s Ale House: https://www.austinsteakandalehouse.com/

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:08 Michael’s Interest in Debt

08:23 Why Countries Can’t Pay Their Debts

12:14 Debt Cancellations in the Ancient World

16:51 Can Society Survive Forgiving Everyone’s Debts?

21:30 The Brilliance of Bronze Age Economics

29:19 What Happened When Ancient Harvests Failed?

32:04 The Timeless War of Creditors Against Debtors

37:49 Why States Should Print Their Own Money

41:11 How the Catholic Church Created the Modern State

55:50 On the Origin of Money

01:01:28 On the Economics of Ancient Babylon

01:07:17 Were Ancient Economists Better than Today’s?

01:09:09 The Most Important Prices of an Economy

01:11:39 Uncovering the Collapse of Babylon

01:22:30 Debt and the End of Civilization

01:24:58 Are Ancient Economics the Key to the Future?

01:30:33 Should the Government Forgive Student Loan Debt?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, historians, economists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

This is the August 2024 AMA for Robinson’s Podcast. It is supported by the members of the Patreon. In this installment, Robinson answers questions about metaethics, art history, discipline, fashion, fitness, fantasy world-building, consciousness, fine-tuning, quantum mechanics, and more.

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

01:01 What to Do

07:43 Thoughts on Discipline

17:29 Art History

20:43 Philosophy for Daily Life

23:30 Planners and Pantsers

27:53 Favorite Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics?

33:06 Favorite Color?

35:57 On Magic and Fantasy World-Building

46:32 Black Holes, Electrons, and Thumbnails

52:45 Favorite Comedy

55:37 Physicality in Life

01:02:19 Is Consciousness Emergent or Fundamental?

01:04:54 Views on Fashion

01:15:16 What’s It Like to be a Philosopher?

01:24:00 Solutions of the Fine-Tuning Problem

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Joscha Bach is a computer scientist and artificial intelligence researcher currently working with Liquid AI. He has previously done research at Harvard, MIT, Intel, and the AI Foundation. In this episode, Joscha and Robinson discuss the nature of consciousness—both in humans and synthetic—various theories of consciousness like panpsychism, physicalism, dualism, and Roger Penrose’s, the distinction between intelligence and artificial intelligence, the next developments of ChatGPT and other LLMs, OpenAI, and whether advances in AI will spell the end of humankind.

Joscha’s X: https://x.com/Plinz

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:33 Why are Legos Like Computer Programs?

08:23 Philosophy and Mental Representation

11:17 Using Computer Science to Understand Reality

16:26 Could We Make Minds from Machines?

19:14 Is Reality a Simulation?

21:46 What Is the Mind?

24:27 What Do Mysterions Believe About Consciousness?

26:20 Does Roger Penrose’s Theory of Consciousness Make Sense?

35:15 Could Dualism Explain the Human Mind?

37:58 What Is Physicalism About the Human Mind?

41:03 What’s Wrong with Panpsychism?

47:58 On the Next Breakthrough in Consciousness

52:59 What Is Intelligence? 

55:45 What’s Artificial Intelligence?

58:22 What Defines the Current Wave of AI?

01:00:57 On the First AI Winter

01:04:55 On Meaning, LLMs, and ChatGPT

01:08:18 Does ChatGPT Mirror the Human Mind?

01:13:18 Is ChatGPT Intelligent?

01:18:43 Will ChatGPT Become Smarter than Humans? 

01:24:25 What Is the ARC Challenge for AI?

01:27:58 Will ChatGPT Philosophize Better than Philosophers?

01:35:04 Are Apple, Google, and Microsoft on the Cutting Edge of AI?

01:39:16 Shoulder We Fear AI?

01:45:34 Are We the Smartest Thing on Earth?

01:49:47 What’s More Dangerous: The Internet or AI?

01:54:20 Could AI Take Over the Planet? 

01:59:22 Will AI Make Human Artists Obsolete?

02:04:10 Will AI Make Humankind Dependent on the One Percent?

02:11:28 Could AI Solve Climate Change?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-betwee

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Norman Finkelstein received his PhD from the Princeton University Politics Department, and is best known for his research on Israel and Palestine. In this episode of Robinson’s Podcast, Norman addresses some of the most common arguments made in defense of Israel, such as those purporting to show Israel is not committing genocide, that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, that Israel is fighting in self-defense, that Egypt is responsible for the crisis, and more. Norman also appeared on episode 192, where he and Robinson discussed October 7th, allegations of genocide and apartheid, and connections between the war and the Holocaust. Norman’s most recent book is I’ll Burn That Bridge When I Get to It! Heretical Thoughts on Identity Politics, Cancel Culture, and Academic Freedom (Sublation Media, 2023).

Norman’s Website: https://www.normanfinkelstein.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:47 Will Israel Nuke Palestine?

12:07 On Palestine and the Holocaust

15:10 Is Israel Getting Away with Genocide?

20:35 On Nuclear War and Israel’s Dependence on the United States

24:00 How Responsible Is Egypt for the Crisis in Gaza?

27:43 Does the Israeli Military Target Civilians?

36:27 Why Norman Finkelstein Can’t Watch the News from Palestine

38:06 On Hoaxes and Conspiracies in Israel-Palestine

47:06 On Corruption in Academia

49:16 Propaganda in Holocaust Scholarship

53:00 Facts and Fiction in Israel-Palestine

1:00:27 Norman Finkelstein’s Research Habits

1:05:10 Do Israeli Settlements Break International Law?

1:07:44 Why Does the United States Support Israel?

1:12:21 “Jewish Supremacy” Versus Harvard

1:20:11 Does Anti-Zionism = Anti-Semitism? 

1:29:38 Does Anti-Semitism Cause Protests Against Israel?

1:35:44 Is The War in Gaza Justifiable as Self-Defense?

1:42:39 On Becoming a Public Figure

1:50:51 On His War with Alan Dershowitz

2:04:19 On Integrity and Palestine Scholarship

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Leonard Susskind is Felix Bloch Professor of Physics at Stanford University. Among other accomplishments, he is among the fathers of such revolutionary concepts in physics as string theory, black hole complementarity, the holographic principle, and the string-theoretic landscape. It is this last concept that Robinson and Leonard discuss in this episode. More particularly, they address the fine-tuning problem—that so many of the constants in physics, such as the cosmological constant—appear to have been selected precisely to allow for human life, as if they were substantially different we would not exist. In answering this question they talk about string theory, dark energy, the Higgs boson, god and supernatural explanations, eternal inflation, the multiverse, the interpretations of quantum mechanics, the anthropic principle, alternative answers to the problem, and the future of research in the area. For more detail, read Leonard’s book on the topic, The Cosmic Landscape.

The Cosmic Landscape: https://a.co/d/j2njH7h

The Theoretical Minimum: https://theoreticalminimum.com

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:03 A Parable About the Fine-Tuning Problem

09:58 String Theory and the Fine-Tuning Problem

18:04 The Problem of Dark Energy

25:05 Could Dark Energy Rip the Universe Apart?

33:11 God, String Theory, and the Illusion of Intelligent Design

42:51 On the String-Theoretic Landscape

48:54 The Eternal Inflation of the Universe

55:07 What Determines the Physics of the Multiverse?

01:02:09 On the Interpretations of Quantum Mechanics

01:05:50 On the Future of String Theory and Fine-Tuning

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Raphael Bousso is the Chancellor’s Chair in Physics at the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics, where he leads the Bousso Group in research on quantum gravity and quantum information. He is a renowned string theorist famous also for his development of the string theoretic landscape and the Bousso bound in holography. In this episode, Robinson and Raphael discuss the groundbreaking work of Jacob Bekenstein, Stephen Hawking, Leonard Susskind, Gerard ’t Hooft, and others on the black hole information paradox. They then turn to how this led to the formulation of the holographic principle, which has had profound implications for research on quantum gravity, especially for Raphael himself, who has recently been working on quantum information theory, quantum communication, and other ways in which classical gravity “knows about” and encodes its own quantum states. 

The Bousso Group: https://lightsheet.berkeley.edu

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:14 Working with Leonard Susskind and Stephen Hawking

6:29 Why Do Physicists Care About Black Holes?

19:11 Do Black Holes have a Temperature?

23:51 How Cold is a Black Hole?

27:32 The Black Hole Information Paradox

41:31 Do Black Holes Mean Quantum Mechanics Must be Thrown Out?

47:09 Black Hole Complementarity and Holography

54:09 What Is Quantum Gravity?

01:01:15 Why is Quantum Gravity a Low Energy Problem?

01:06:54 The Bottom-Up Approach to Quantum Gravity

1:11:12 On String Theory and Holography

01:16:00 What Are Bousso Bounds?

01:22:58 Is Gravity a Quantum Error-Correcting Code?

01:32:09 Is Gravity a Fundamental Force? 

01:37:25 On String Theory and the Multiverse

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Dr. Anna Lembke received her undergraduate degree in Humanities from Yale University and her medical degree from Stanford University. She is currently Professor and Medical Director of Addiction Medicine at the Stanford University School of Medicine. She is also Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. This is Anna’s second time on the show. On episode 117, she and Robinson discussed her latest, New York Times bestselling book, Dopamine Nation (Dutton/Penguin Random House, August 2021). In this episode, they discuss psychiatry and some of its philosophical connections. Some of the topics they cover include psychiatric phenomenology, eating disorders, the patient-psychiatrist relationship, therapeutic modalities, moral realism, the goals of therapy, and the upcoming Official Dopamine Nation Workbook.

Dopamine Nation: https://a.co/d/0AJw6Je

The Official Dopamine Nation Workbook: https://a.co/d/0eVHKFc1

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:01 Meta-Commentary, Telehealth, and In-Person Psychiatry

13:50 Transference in Therapy

23:01 Moral Realism

33:45 Nietzsche and Veganism

42:43 Reductionism, Emotion, and Psychiatry

45:55 On Treating Eating Disorders

52:24 The DSM-V and Psychiatric Practice

01:00:00 The Relationship Between Science and Psychiatry

01:08:31 Robinson’s Speech Patterns

01:15:40 Medication Versus Therapy

01:23:07 Creative Pursuits and Therapy 

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

This is the inaugural AMA for Robinson’s Podcast. It is supported by the members of the podcast’s Patreon. In this installment, Robinson answers questions about the reality of mathematics, podcasting, moral facts, ice cream, the nature of time, literary books for neophytes, and more.

Denying Infinity: https://doi.org/10.1080/01445340.2024.2344346

Abstract: Abraham Robinson is well-known as the inventor of nonstandard analysis, which uses nonstandard models to give the notions of infinitesimal and infinitely large magnitudes a precise interpretation. Less discussed, although subtle and original—if ultimately flawed—is Robinson’s work in the philosophy of mathematics. The foundational position he inherited from David Hilbert undermines not only the use of nonstandard analysis, but also Robinson’s considerable corpus of pre-logic contributions to the field in such diverse areas as differential equations and aeronautics. This tension emerges from Robinson’s disbelief in the existence of infinite totalities (any mention of them is ‘literally meaningless’) and the fact that much of his work involves them. I argue that he treats infinitary avenues of mathematics as useful tools to avoid this difficulty, but that this is not successful to the extent that these tools must be justified by a conservative extension from finitary mathematics. While Robinson provides a compelling and unorthodox pragmatic justification for the role of formal systems in mathematical practice despite their apparent infinitary presuppositions, he deflates mainstream mathematics to a collection of games that occasionally produces meaningful results. This amounts to giving up on a commitment to reconciling his finitism with his mathematical practice. 

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Joyce Carol Oates is the Rogers S. Berlind ’52 Professor Emerita in the Humanities at Princeton University with the Program in Creative Writing. She is among the most widely-recognized and respected writers of our time, and has written in a wide variety of media and genres, from poetry and fiction in the former category to horror and Gothic in the latter. Her work has also been adapted into various other media, from plays to film. Joyce is the recipient of two O. Henry Awards and the National Book Award, among many others. This is Joyce’s second appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. In episode 137, she and Robinson discussed craft in fiction and poetry. In this episode, they talk about Joyce’s most recent collection of short stories, Zero-Sum (link in the description), as well as philosophy, Peter Singer, dealing with criticism, translation, and more.

Joyce’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/JoyceCarolOates

Joyce’s Substack: https://joycecaroloates.substack.com

Zero-Sum: https://a.co/d/0cYh3ndo

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:16 On Peter Singer

12:41 On Buddhism

21:50 On Hemingway

25:50 Dealing with Criticism

38:17 On Translation

47:53 Writing Short Stories

58:38 Imagery and Recreating the World

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New York University, and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. This is Slavoj’s fourth appearance on the show. On episode 109, he and Robinson discussed wokeness and psychoanalysis. On episode 118, he, Sean Carroll, and Robinson discussed quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. And on episode 206 he, Lee Smolin, and Robinson discussed quantum physics. In this episode, Robinson and Slavoj talk about ancient philosophy, god, communism, quantum mechanics, and psychoanalysis.

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:47 Why Is Philosophy More important Now Than Ever?

11:08 On Socrates and the Importance of Philosophy

19:12 On Excrement, God, and Atheism

27:50 A Communist Paradise

34:18 Ukraine and Marxism

39:24 Philosophy and Quantum Mechanics

47:56 Is Lying the Point of Language?

55:49 Cursing as a Test for Artificial Intelligence

58:25 On Philosophers and Physicists

1:01:50 On Superpositions and Quantum Mechanics

1:09:28 On Analytic and Continental Philosophy 

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between.

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Deborah Gordon is Professor of Biology at Stanford University. She is a myrmecologist—an entomologist who studies ants—focusing on how complex behavior emerges from ant colonies, which have no central control. In this episode, Deborah and Robinson discuss some of the distinctive features of ants, how pheromones help to determine their behavior, examples of fascinating ant species, collective ant behavior, and the life cycle of an ant colony. For more of Deborah’s work on collective behavior, check out her book The Ecology of Collective Behavior (Princeton, 2023).

The Gordon Lab: https://web.stanford.edu/~dmgordon/

Ants at Work: https://a.co/d/7bpokYU

The Ecology of Collective Behavior: https://a.co/d/1bBT1h7

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:33 Ants and Embryology

05:29 General Features of Ants

13:14 Some Fascinating Ant Species

28:20 Pheromones and Ant Behavior

38:17 Ant Slavery

41:30 Collective Ant Behavior

47:04 A Colony’s Life Cycle

59:01 Revisiting Embryology

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Jay Chandrasekhar is a director, writer, stand-up comic, and actor. Some of his works include directing Super Troopers, Beerfest, and Dukes of Hazzard. He has also directed episodes of Arrested Development, Community, and New Girl. Jay also wrote Mustache Shenanigans (2017) and co-hosts the podcast Mustache Tales. In this episode, Robinson and Jay discuss his growth as a writer, the importance of purpose in comedy and film, creative integrity in Hollywood, working on Supertroopers, and his time with Johnny Knoxville and the Jackass crew.

Mustache Tales: https://www.mustachetales.com

Mustache Shenanigans: https://a.co/d/8DZscAT

Opening Scene of Super Troopers: https://youtu.be/-wdVF_zJS4s?si=goQsJLqLqvBbMyF0

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

02:58 Jay’s Name Means…What?

5:22 Mustache Shenanigans

7:54 The Importance of Strong Beginnings in Comedy

20:41 The Importance of Purpose in Comedy and Film

24:39 Keeping Creative Integrity in Hollywood

32:20 On Writing a Novel

36:32 How to Have a Good Podcast

41:34 On Working with the Jackass Crew

59:20 Developing the Talent of a Storyteller

1:12:20 Breaking Down the Raiders of the Lost Ark

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

David Albert is the Frederick E. Woodbridge Professor of Philosophy at Columbia University, director of the Philosophical Foundations of Physics program at Columbia, and a faculty member of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and Founder and Director of the JBI. This is David’s seventh appearance on Robinson’s Podcast. He last appeared on episode 189 with Barry Loewer to talk about the Mentaculus, their joint project on the foundations of statistical mechanics. This is Tim’s sixth appearance on the show. He last appeared on episode 188 with Sheldon Goldstein to discuss Bohmian mechanics. Tim and David last joined Robinson together for episode 67, which gave an overview of the foundations of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, David, and Tim talk about the measurement problem, the role of philosophy in physics, various thought experiments, like Schrödinger’s cat and Wigner’s friend, and Niels Bohr’s effects both on quantum mechanics and the philosophy of science. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics, then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

A Guess at the Riddle: https://a.co/d/6qcsidl

Tim’s Website: www.tim-maudlin.site

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:04 Einstein, Bell, and Pearl on the Measurement Problem

13:00 On “Measurement” in Quantum Mechanics

25:34 What IS the Measurement Problem?

34:42 John Bell on the Measurement Problem

40:32 An Example of the Measurement Problem

43:08 Von Neumann on the Measurement Problem

45:38 Niels Bohr and the Measurement Problem

57:54 Niels Bohr’s Drastic Revision of Physics

1:08:36 Quantum Measurement and the Philosophy of Physics

1:22:52 On Schrodinger’s Cat and Wigner’s Friend

1:38:34 On Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics

1:45:40 The Measurement Problem, Solved?

1:51:04 On the Role of Philosophy in Physics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Peter Singer is Ira W. DeCamp Professor Emeritus of Bioethics in the Department of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is among the most influential living philosophers, and among the most influential moral philosophers of the last century. Peter is best known for his work in applied ethics on animal welfare and global poverty. In this episode, Robinson and Peter discuss these topics after first introducing his more general views on moral philosophy, including those on utilitarianism and meta-ethics. Throughout their conversation they also touch on Peter’s new podcast, Lives Well Lived, co-hosted with Kasia de Lazari Radek, the Journal of Controversial Ideas, Peter’s Substack, Bold Reasoning with Peter Singer, and his latest and next books, which are respectively The Buddhist and the Ethicist (Shambhala, 2023) and Consider the Turkey (Princeton, 2024).

Peter’s Website: https://www.petersinger.info

Lives Well Lived Podcast: https://shows.acast.com/6628460c6b51e80012b834c2

The Life You Can Save Organization: https://www.thelifeyoucansave.org.au

The Journal of Controversial Ideas: https://journalofcontroversialideas.org

Peter’s Substack: https://boldreasoningwithpetersinger.substack.com

The Buddhist and the Ethicist: https://a.co/d/38DOmbK

Consider the Turkey: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691231686/consider-the-turkey 

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

04:14 Peter Singer’s Entry into Philosophy

08:54 What Is Utilitarianism?

10:58 On Consequentialism vs Deontology

13:12 On Trolley Problems and Moral Facts

16:40 On Moral Realism and Anti-Realism

20:51 On Hedonistic Utilitarianism

26:17 The Lives Well Lived Podcast

33:43 A Puzzle About Trolley Problems

38:48 On the Origin of Peter Singer’s Concern for Animals

49:38 Is It Ever Morally Permissible to Eat Meat?

55:32 Consider the Turkey

1:03:07 Famine, Affluence, and Morality

1:09:08 The Life You Can Save

1:10:50 The Buddhist and the Ethicist

1:18:08 The Journal of Controversial Ideas

1:25:50 Peter’s Substack

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Victor Davis Hanson is a renowned classicist, military historian, and political commentator. He is the Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow in Residence in Classics and Military History at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. Among numerous other awards, Victor was presented the National Humanities Medal in 2007. In this episode, Robinson and Victor discuss his latest book, The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation (Basic Book, 2024), which was released on May 7th. More particularly, they cover the historical connection between annihilation and genocide, how we should interpret the past through today’s moral standards, genocides in the present, and the likelihood of World War III. Victor appeared as a guest on episode #112, in which he and Robinson talked about what was at the time Victor’s latest book, The Dying Citizen. He was also a guest on episode #191, which covered Victor’s views on the current crisis in Israel and Palestine. Keep up with Victor on Twitter, through his website, and on his podcast, The Victor Davis Hanson Show. 

Victor’s Website: https://victorhanson.com

Victor’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/VDHanson

The Victor Davis Hanson Show: https://art19.com/shows/the-victor-davis-hanson-show 

The Dying Citizen: https://a.co/d/dPocUJg

The End of Everything: https://a.co/d/46O0mMB

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

03:41 On Annihilation, Extinction, and Genocide

09:31 What Causes Genocide?

16:38 The Applicability of Military Strategy to Everyday Life

24:00 On Alexander the Great

36:26 Should We Judge the People of the Past by the Moral Standards of the Present?

44:29 Uyghurs, Jews, and Genocides of the Present

50:45 What Are the Biggest Existential Threats to America?

59:28 Is World War III on the Horizon?

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7

Sean Carroll is Homewood Professor of Natural Philosophy at Johns Hopkins University and fractal faculty at the Santa Fe Institute. He is also the host of Sean Carroll’s Mindscape, a podcast about science, society, philosophy, culture, arts, and ideas. This is Sean’s fourth appearance on the show. He appeared with David Albert of Columbia University on episode 106, which covers the Many-Worlds theory of quantum mechanics, Boltzmann Brains, and the fine-tuned universe. He was also on episode 118 with Slavoj Žižek on quantum physics, the multiverse, time travel, and a whole lot more, and then episode 200 with Daniel Dennett and Steven Pinker on AI, parapsychology, and consciousness. This episode is coming out in advance of Sean’s next book, Quanta and Fields: The Biggest Ideas in the Universe (Penguin, 2024), which will be released on May 14, 2024. Sean and Robinson discuss many of the topics and themes of Quanta and Fields, including the books’ namesake subjects, as well as more decides, like scientific realism, free will, the simulation hypothesis, and the end of physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life.

Sean’s Website: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com

Sean’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/seanmcarroll

Quanta and Fields (The Biggest Ideas in the Universe): https://a.co/d/gfMDLQo

The John Bell Institute: https://www.johnbellinstitute.org

OUTLINE

00:00 Introduction

5:00 The Biggest Ideas in the Universe

9:38 Do Physicists Understand Physics?

15:51 What Is the Role of Philosophers in Physics?

18:24 The Measurement Problem and Quantum Field Theory

20:24 Scientific Realism and the Standard Model of Particle Physics

25:11 What Is the Wave Function?

34:46 What Is Quantum Field Theory?

37:45 What Is the Fundamental Layer of Reality?

41:01 What Is the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

45:42 What Are the Fundamental Objects in the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

47:39 How Do We Test the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

49:38 What Are the Weaknesses of the Standard Model of Particle Physics?

54:41 Will We Ever Find a Theory of Everything?

56:19 Is String Theory the Final Theory of Physics?

58:14 String theory and the Fine-Tuning Problem

01:00:18 Is Quantum Gravity the End of Progress in Physics?

01:06:12 What is Philosophical Naturalism?

01:08:05 On Naturalized Epistemology

01:10:24 On the Philosophy of Mathematics

01:19:08 On Naturalizing Morality

01:22:33 The Myths of Quantum Entanglement

01:29:53 Is There Only One Electron?

01:34:09 Are Atoms Mostly Empty Space?

01:36:51 Are We Living in a Simulation?

01:39:58 Is Infinity a Problem for Quantum Mechanics? 

01:41:59 The Mysteries of Quantum Mechanics

Robinson’s Website: http://robinsonerhardt.com

Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, and everyone in-between. 

Patreon: https://bit.ly/3v8OhY7 Slavoj Žižek is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London and a senior researcher at the University of Ljubljana’s Department of Philosophy. He was also the guest for episodes 109—on psychoanalysis, wokeness, racism, and a hundred other topics—and 118, where he appeared with Sean Carroll to discuss quantum physics, the multiverse, and time travel. Lee Smolin is a founding and senior faculty member at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics, and the author of a number of bestselling books, including The Trouble with Physics (Mariner, 2006). He was the guest for episode 148, in which he and Robinson discussed presentism, the foundations of mathematics, and the philosophy of quantum mechanics. In this episode, Robinson, Slavoj, and Lee discuss time, space, superposition, and other concepts at the core of physics, as well as postmodernism, the big bang, problems with democracy, and much more. Lee is also an Honorary Fellow of the John Bell Institute for the Foundations of Physics. If you’re interested in the foundations of physics—which you absolutely should be—then please check out the JBI, which is devoted to providing a home for research and education in this important area. Any donations are immensely helpful at this early stage in the institute’s life. Lee’s Website: ⁠http://leesmolin.com⁠ The Trouble with Physics: https://a.co/d/eJZPWaE OUTLINE 00:00 Introduction 06:26 Breaking the Copenhagen Interpretation 11:55 On Sabine Hossenfelder  21:11 On Monads, Atoms, and Democritus 30:18 Is the World a Game of Physics? 38:46 On the Big Bang 45:26 On European Immigration and Populism 53:09 A Few Jokes

Robinson’s Website: ⁠http://robinsonerhardt.com⁠ Robinson Erhardt researches symbolic logic and the foundations of mathematics at Stanford University. Join him in conversations with philosophers, scientists, weightlifters, artists, and everyone in-between.