Robinson's Podcast

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.