Synopsis
Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the human mind, society, and current events. Sam Harris is the author of The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz). The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing has been published in more than 20 languages. Mr. Harris and his work have been discussed in The New York Times, Time, Scientific American, Nature, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and many other journals. His writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, Newsweek, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere.Mr. Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Episodes
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#94 — Frontiers of Intelligence
29/08/2017 Duration: 36minSam Harris speaks with Max Tegmark about his new book Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. They talk about the nature of intelligence, the risks of superhuman AI, a nonbiological definition of life, the substrate independence of minds, the relevance and irrelevance of consciousness for the future of AI, near-term breakthroughs in AI, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#93 — Identity & Terror
21/08/2017 Duration: 39minSam Harris speaks with Douglas Murray about identity politics, the rise of white nationalism, the events in Charlottesville, guilt by association, the sources of western values, the problem of finding meaning in a secular world, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#92 — The Limits of Persuasion
16/08/2017 Duration: 01h10sSam Harris speaks with David Pizarro and Tamler Sommers about free speech on campus, the Scott Adams podcast, the failings of the mainstream media, moral persuasion, moral certainty, the ethics of abortion, Buddhism, the illusion of the self, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#91 — The Biology of Good and Evil
09/08/2017 Duration: 43minSam Harris speaks with Robert Sapolsky about his work with baboons, the opposition between reason and emotion, doubt, the evolution of the brain, the civilizing role of the frontal cortex, the illusion of free will, justice and vengeance, brain-machine interface, religion, drugs, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#90 — Living With Violence
06/08/2017 Duration: 01h01minSam Harris speaks with Gavin de Becker about the primacy of human intuition in the prediction and prevention of violence. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#89 — On Becoming a Better Person
25/07/2017 Duration: 22minSam Harris speaks with David Brooks about his book The Road to Character, the importance of words like “sin” and "virtue," self-esteem vs. self-overcoming, the significance of keeping promises, honesty, President Trump, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#88 — Must We Accept a Nuclear North Korea?
21/07/2017 Duration: 27minSam Harris speaks with Mark Bowden about the problem of a nuclear-armed North Korea. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#87 — Triggered
19/07/2017 Duration: 52minSam Harris and Scott Adams debate the character and competence of President Trump. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#86 — From Cells to Cities
14/07/2017 Duration: 50minSam Harris speaks with Geoffrey West about how biological and social systems scale, the significance of fractals, the prospects of radically extending human life, the concept of “emergence” in complex systems, the importance of cities, the necessity for continuous innovation, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#85 — Is this the End of Europe?
07/07/2017 Duration: 40minSam Harris speaks with Douglas Murray about his book The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#84 — Landscapes of Mind
01/07/2017 Duration: 45minSam Harris speaks with Kevin Kelly about why it’s so hard to predict future technology, the nature of intelligence, the “singularity,” artificial consciousness, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#83 — The Politics of Emergency
23/06/2017 Duration: 38minSam Harris speaks with Fareed Zakaria about his career as a journalist, Samuel Huntington's "clash of civilizations," political partisanship, Trump, the health of the news media, the connection between Islam and intolerance, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#82 — The End of the World According to ISIS
15/06/2017 Duration: 42minSam Harris speaks with Graeme Wood about his experience reporting on ISIS, the myth of online recruitment, the theology of ISIS, the quality of their propaganda, the most important American recruit to the organization, the roles of Jesus and the Anti-Christ in Islamic prophecy, free speech and the ongoing threat of jihadism, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#81 — Leaving Islam
09/06/2017 Duration: 49minSam Harris speaks with Sarah Haider about her organization Ex-Muslims of North America, how the political Left is confused about Islam, "rape culture" under Islam, honesty without bigotry, stealth theocracy, immigration, the prospects of reforming Islam, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#80 — The Unraveling
04/06/2017 Duration: 25minSam Harris speaks with David Frum about political partisanship, recent security leaks, Trump's foreign policy, the Russia investigation, Kathy Griffin's joke, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#79 — The Road to Tyranny
29/05/2017 Duration: 31minSam Harris speaks with Timothy Snyder about his book On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#78 — Persuasion and Control
26/05/2017 Duration: 40minSam Harris speaks with Zeynep Tufekci about "surveillance capitalism," the Trump campaign's use of Facebook, AI-enabled marketing, the health of the press, Wikileaks, ransomware attacks, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#77 — The Moral Complexity of Genetics
22/05/2017 Duration: 44minSam Harris speaks with Siddhartha Mukherjee about the human desire to understand and manipulate heredity, the genius of Gregor Mendel, the ethics of altering our genes, the future of genetic medicine, patent issues in genetic research, controversies about race and intelligence, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#76 — The Path to Impeachment
18/05/2017 Duration: 39minSam Harris speaks with Anne Applebaum and Juliette Kayyem about the unfolding Russia scandal in the White House. SUBSCRIBE to listen to the rest of this episode and gain access to all full-length episodes of the podcast at samharris.org/subscribe.
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#75 — Ask Me Anything 7
12/05/2017 Duration: 29minIn this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris answers questions from listeners about the illusion of the self, his podcast with Charles Murray, the future of brain-machine interfaces, his BJJ practice, reasoning with the extreme Left, mindfulness and parenting, his experience of going back to school after a long break, transgenderism, increasing one’s vocabulary, and other topics. SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.