Midterm violence warnings, AI timelines and childhood trauma

On Modern Wisdom, Robert Pape told Chris Williamson that the midterms would be the most dangerous US elections in living memory, with the risk concentrated around the certification date of January 6, 2027. He predicted that whichever side loses could mount violent protests larger than those of January 6, 2021, and argued that a different 2024 outcome would not have changed this because the violence stems from underlying social change.

Live at the Texas Tribune Festival, Pod Save America focused on electoral math. Dan Pfeiffer predicted Democrats would win all nine Republican-held House seats carried by Kamala Harris and suggested a Trump visit to Alabama's 2nd district could backfire by energizing Black voters. Jon Favreau argued that maximizing House gains would help a future Democratic president pass an agenda.

Comedian Druski told Steven Bartlett on The Diary Of A CEO that his father disciplined through physical punishment, describing his home as emotionally broken rather than financially poor. He said his brother was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, while he himself found comedy as a coping mechanism, and he said he had forgiven his father, describing a grudge as a burden on the person who holds it.

On The Daily, Sylvester Stallone discussed his own abusive childhood with Lulu Garcia-Navarro and argued that parents act as sculptors who shape their children for better or worse.

Tony Robbins predicted on Modern Wisdom that AGI would arrive within 36 months and superintelligence within five to six years, citing Ray Kurzweil. On a Moonshots audience Q&A, Alexander Wissner-Gross argued that foundation models trained on internet behavior are already a weak form of mind uploading, and predicted a window of a few years, at most ten, in which AI can productively orchestrate human labor.

Dave Blundin advised computer science students to shift toward manufacturing, arguing that software careers are being automated while hardware will last much longer, and compared managing large numbers of AI agents to managing large organizations of people.

On Pod Save America, Tommy Vietor argued that the Trump-Xi summit lacked any purpose or outcome and left Trump looking subservient. He contended that Xi holds leverage over Trump through rare earths and trade issues. REAL AF with Andy Frisella also discussed the visit.

Druski described a period of college depression in which he stayed in his dorm room and skipped classes for an entire semester. In a re-aired episode of Mayim Bialik's Breakdown, Rainn Wilson said a childhood sense of being unloved led to anxiety and depression, and that his heavy reading of science fiction was rooted in loneliness.

Rainn Wilson told Mayim Bialik that he decided early to embrace playing alienated misfits, argued that the label of character actor has become more limiting in Hollywood, and said audiences expect him to behave like Dwight Schrute. On Good Hang with Amy Poehler, SNL's Ashley Padilla said she admired the character because it was played from its own truth rather than for jokes.

Whatnot co-founder Grant LaFontaine told My First Million that Y Combinator backed the company repeatedly, adding money when better-known investors were passing. On Moonshots, Wissner-Gross took the opposite tack, advising builders not to start by seeking funding because superintelligence makes deployment nearly free.