31 October 2026
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May 14, 2019 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Leah Finnegan
- How Leah realized that she should not “be herself”
- The mental health benefits of getting a dog
- Leah: We must bring back Kierkegaardian irony
- Leah on the scourge of “urgent earnestness”
- Is it ethical to not read the news?
- Leah’s reflections on being “a year Twitter sober”
- Lessons from the great “horseface” controversy of 2018
Oct 23, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Max Read
- Viewing the Trump-Kanye meeting through the lens of mental illness
- The shared traits that make Trump and Kanye irresistible to the media
- How online news and social media created the “attention economy”
- Did reality TV remake reality?
- Jake and Logan Paul: brothers, YouTube superstars, and possible sociopaths
- How social media helps people with mental illness
Oct 10, 2018 —
Aryeh Cohen-Wade & Lauren Oyler
- What is it about social media that’s so depressing?
- Twitter, the unpopular website that elites love
- Is what happens on social media real or fake?
- Is @laurenoyler the same as Lauren Oyler?
- How everything in life became “toxic”
- Do all online communities eventually become toxic?
- The moral challenge of social media
Dec 26, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Paul Bloom
- Is “dehumanization” really the root of cruelty?
- How love deludes us
- Paul: Empathy makes us morally stupid
- The weird psychology of the Trump era
- What people get wrong about Harvey Weinstein and dehumanization
- When is objectification morally acceptable?
- Keeping our worst selves in check
- Getting pleasure out of your own pain
Sep 8, 2017 —
Josh Summers & Stephen Asma
TAGS altruism | cognitive science | consciousness | Donald Trump | dreaming | empathy | ethics | evolution | meditation | philosophy
Jul 26, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Daniel Ingram
TAGS anger | Buddhism | Donald Trump | enlightenment | ethics | human nature | meditation | mindfulness | spirituality
May 22, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Jay Van Bavel
- The partisanship that bolsters Trump
- Jay’s favorite experiments on the psychology of tribalism
- Is the anti-Trump movement its own worst enemy?
- What’s going on in Trump’s brain?
- How a sports fan’s brain warps reality
- Is there hope for overcoming our tribal psychology?
- Want a retweet? Stoke moral outrage.
TAGS cognitive science | democracy | Donald Trump | moral imagination | psychology | science | tribalism
Feb 20, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Mark Van Steenwyk
- Meet Mark Van Steenwyk, Christian Anarchist
- Mark’s mystical experience at a Bible camp
- The time Mark was diagnosed with demonic possession
- Forms of Christian activism
- Trump makes anarchism more appealing
- Mystical dimensions of political activism
- Getting the attention of Christians via civil disobedience
Jan 13, 2017 —
Robert Wright & Mark Juergensmeyer
- How Mark got his start studying under Reinhold Niebuhr
- Using religion to justify violence
- The appeal of ISIS’s apocalyptic vision
- What Obama got right—and wrong—in his response to terrorism
- Will Trump’s war on terrorism lead to another 9/11?
- What would Reinhold Niebuhr say about religion and violence today?
- Reinhold Niebuhr’s Christian realism
TAGS Christianity | Donald Trump | foreign policy | fundamentalism | Islam | politics | psychology | religion | terrorism | violence | war
Dec 2, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Jay Michaelson
TAGS anger | Buddhism | Christianity | compassion | democracy | Donald Trump | empathy | ethics | happiness | human nature | identity | Islam | Judaism | love | meditation | mental health | mindfulness | moral imagination | politics | psychology | religion | sadness | spirituality | tribalism | Zen
Nov 14, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Daniel Kaufman
- Announcing a series of “sixty-second sermons”
- Tribalism and Trump’s success
- Apocalypse now?
- Dan vs. Bob on whether a global community is possible
- The moral dimensions of the election
- The backlash against political correctness
- What it feels like to be an outsider
- A closer look at MeaningofLife.tv’s “sermons” and other local news
TAGS democracy | Donald Trump | economics | empathy | ethics | human nature | identity | moral imagination | nationalism | perception | psychology | tribalism
Nov 6, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Arlie Hochschild
TAGS anger | climate change | democracy | Donald Trump | economics | empathy | human nature | identity | perception | politics | psychology
Oct 31, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Pamela Cooper-White
TAGS Christianity | Donald Trump | history | mental health | moral imagination | nationalism | politics | psychology | religion | tribalism
Oct 25, 2016 —
Philip Menchaca & Benjamin Zeller
TAGS Buddhism | Christianity | death | Donald Trump | economics | psychology | religion | science | spirituality
Sep 29, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Roger Petersen
TAGS Donald Trump | economics | empathy | fear | human nature | identity | Islam | moral imagination | nationalism | politics | psychology | tribalism | violence
Jul 27, 2016 —
Oliver Burkeman & Susan Piver
TAGS anger | Buddhism | compassion | Donald Trump | empathy | evil | fear | happiness | love | meditation | mindfulness | moral imagination | psychology | tribalism
Jul 13, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Cristina Bicchieri
- What is a social norm?
- Why do norms like genital mutilation exist?
- Ways to change norms (and ways to fail)
- Change we have seen: smoking, gay marriage, bullying
- Fear disrupts norms and helps people like Trump
- The internet as a tool against “pluralistic ignorance”
- Why the political establishment is in trouble
TAGS crime | Donald Trump | economics | game theory | nationalism | politics | psychology | violence
Jul 5, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Steven Nadler
TAGS ancient philosophy | atheism | Buddhism | Christianity | Donald Trump | enlightenment | ethics | evolution | Judaism | meditation | mysticism | philosophy | politics | religion
Feb 4, 2016 —
Robert Wright & Heather Hurlburt
TAGS Christianity | Donald Trump | family | Judaism | Paul Tillich | politics | religion | spirituality | tribalism
Dec 15, 2015 —
Robert Wright & Francis Fukuyama
TAGS Barack Obama | democracy | Donald Trump | foreign policy | history | politics | religion | science | technology | terrorism | the future
Nov 23, 2015 —
Robert Wright & David Carr
- How personal trauma inspired David’s book on trauma and the Bible
- Ancient Israel’s transition from polytheism to “monolatry”
- The Babylonian exile and the birth of Abrahamic monotheism
- The link between trauma and God’s covenant with Israel
- Why the crucifixion of Jesus shocked his followers
- Why have Biblical texts survived?
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