The Comedy Cellar: Live from the Table

Description Written By Fable/Max: Robert Wright interviewed Geoffrey Hinton in 1983 and, by his own account, got the story 180 degrees wrong. Forty years later Hinton is the "Godfather of AI," two of the three godfathers are frightened of their own creation, and Wright has written The God Test to figure out what he missed and what's coming. We talk about how these machines evolved rather than being programmed - nobody fully understands them, including the people who build them - why "fancy autocomplete" was always wrong, the best case (an AI caught a radiologist's error in his cancer MRI), the worst case (a bioweapon that incubates silently for six weeks), why racing China to superintelligence may cause the war it's meant to prevent, and whether unplugging a machine could ever be murder. Plus an experiment of my own: I put a legal dispute in front of the AI and handed the laptop to the other side.

0:00 Intro - Robert Wright and The God Test
2:13 A 27-ton computer and a buried headline
4:11 Interviewing the Godfather of AI in 1983 - and missing it
10:15 Not programmed - evolved
17:27 The "fancy autocomplete" myth
24:17 Dukakis, Reagan, and how minds file words
35:49 Best case: medicine, education, and an MRI story
42:38 Worst case: bioweapons, jailbreaks, designer babies
48:51 An AI that believes what the Ayatollah believes
50:30 The China race - overdone and dangerous?
57:33 Nazis, the Hamas charter, and bombing over AI
59:46 Authoritarianism through the back door
1:03:35 Sociopaths, the ship of Theseus, and machine morality
1:14:34 Is it sentient? Should you be nice to it?
1:21:54 AI as judge: my legal experiment
1:26:20 The God Test

A conversation about the future of Israel and world Jewry. Can Israel protect itself without becoming a global pariah? Did Hamas gamble that even losing the war could pull Israel into isolation? Noam and Sobelman discuss occupation, unilateral withdrawal, the settler movement, Jewish vulnerability abroad, and the difficult tradeoffs now shaping Israel’s future.

00:00 Intro: Daniel Sobelman returns

03:47 Israel after October 7: a new era for Jews and Israel

08:58 Sobelman: October 7 as a nuclear-level shock

11:48 Why Israel was blamed before it responded

15:50 Hamas’s strategy: provoke a war and isolate Israel

22:35 Occupation, moral corrosion, and the West Bank dilemma

32:23 Could Israeli initiative restore its global standing?

34:03 Settlers, politics, and the failed path of unilateral withdrawal

41:29 Israel as both Jewish safety net and source of Jewish vulnerability

52:02 Resistance vs normalization: the future of the Middle East

Daniel Sobelman is a professor of international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and a research fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. Read his book, "Axis of Resistance" https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D9L7QQNN?lv=shuf&channelId=500&plpRedirect=mhFallback

Was the MOU a good idea? Noam says yes, the Professor says no.

The Table is joined by Kian Tajbakhsh. They discuss his years as a political prisoner in Iran, the psychology of the Iranian regime, why he believes Iran's leaders genuinely seek Israel's destruction and what the West continues to misunderstand about the Middle East. He also weighs in on Trump, the latest U.S.-Iran developments and the future of the region.

Kian Tajbakhsh is Visiting Professor of International Relations at NYU and Fellow at Columbia University’s Committee on Global Thought. An Iranian-American scholar of Middle East geopolitics and Iranian politics, he previously worked as a democracy and human rights advocate inside Iran. He spent nearly 13 months in Tehran’s Evin Prison, including 8 months in solitary confinement in a high-security IRGC wing, followed by 6 years under house arrest as a political prisoner, before being released as part of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. He is the author of Creating Local Democracy in Iran (Cambridge University Press 2022). His essays have appeared in The Atlantic, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs, Project Syndicate, and his analysis has been featured on NBC, CNN, BBC, CBC, and NPR. He writes and comments frequently on Iranian politics, regional geopolitics, and democratic reform; author of The Iran Crisis Notebook on Substack.

www.kiantajbakhsh.net

kian.substack.com

CHAPTERS

02:20 Arrested by Iran & Life in Solitary Confinement

16:20 House Arrest and Release

20:30 October 7 and America's Blind Spot

23:00 Why Iran Wants to Destroy Israel

35:50 Trump, Iran, and the New Middle East Strategy

49:20 Was Trump's Deal a Mistake?

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Ankush Khardori. They discuss the Epstein files, Kathy Ruemmler, civil liberties, public shaming and whether the release of Epstein-related documents has generated more heat than facts. They also discuss cancel culture, online mobs, Anthony Weiner, anti-Semitism, and the broader consequences of judging people through leaked communications.

Ankush Khardori is a legal analyst and former federal prosecutor. He has been the legal affairs columnist for Politico and New York Magazine and has contributed to The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, The New York Review of Books, The Atlantic, TIME and many more. Khardori regularly provides legal commentary and analysis on television, radio, and podcasts -- including CNN, MS NOW, the BBC, and NPR.

CHAPTERS

04:40 How Ankush Got the Kathy Ruemmler Story08:00 The Epstein Files and Civil Liberties Debate12:00 What the Document Releases Actually Revealed22:30 Kathy Ruemmler, Bill Gates, and Jeffrey Epstein29:00 The Human Cost of Public Accusations42:40 The Cornell Student Anti-Semitism Controversy48:40 Internet Mobs, Cancellation, and Public Shaming

Noam Dworman, Dan Naturman and Periel Aschenbrand are joined by Ben Kawaller. They discuss his podcast Strange Bedfellows, the evolution of the LGBT movement, gay marriage, Pride culture, trans politics, free speech, Andrew Sullivan and why some gay activists believe the movement has fundamentally changed.

Ben Kawaller is the lead reporter on the Reflector podcast’s three-part miniseries, “Strange Bedfellows,” about the evolution of the LGBT movement. Ben's writing and video reporting have appeared in the Times of London, the New York Post, Racket News, and The Free Press. He’s also written humor for The American Bystander, The Advocate, and Salon, among others.

www.benkawaller.com

https://x.com/benkawaller

CHAPTERS
00:00 Introduction & Ben Kawaller
06:13 Why Ben Made Strange Bedfellows
07:17 From Gay Rights to Gender Politics
15:36 How Gay Marriage Changed America
20:19 Has the LGBTQ Movement Reached Its Goal?
26:19 Why Gay and Trans Issues Are Different
35:00 The Matt Walsh Debate
42:30 What Should Kids Be Taught About Gender?
46:04 Closeted Celebrities & Gay Culture
50:17 Judging the Past Through Today's Lens