388 episodes
Making Sense with Sam Harris Sam Harris
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- Science
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4.6 • 4.1K Ratings
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Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and five-time New York Times best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the mind, society, current events, moral philosophy, religion, and rationality—with an overarching focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.
Sam is also the creator of the Waking Up app. Combining Sam’s decades of mindfulness practice, profound wisdom from varied philosophical and contemplative traditions, and a commitment to a secular, scientific worldview, Waking Up is a resource for anyone interested in living a more examined, fulfilling life—and a new operating system for the mind.
Waking Up offers free subscriptions to anyone who can’t afford one, and donates a minimum of 10% of profits to the most effective charities around the world. To learn more, please go to WakingUp.com.
Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
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#364 — Facts & Values
Sam Harris revisits the central argument he made in his book, The Moral Landscape, about the reality of moral truth. He discusses the way concepts like “good” and “evil” can be thought about objectively, the primacy of our intuitions of truth and falsity, and the unity of knowledge.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it. -
#363 — Knowledge Work
Sam Harris speaks with Cal Newport about our use of information technology and the cult of productivity. They discuss the state of social media, the "academic-in-exile effect," free speech and moderation, the effect of the pandemic on knowledge work, slow productivity, the example of Jane Austen, managing up in an organization, defragmenting one's work life, doing fewer things, reasonable deadlines, trading money for time, finding meaning in a post-scarcity world, the anti-work movement, the effects of artificial intelligence on knowledge work, and other topics.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it. -
#362 — Six Months of War
Sam Harris and Josh Szeps (episode co-host) speak with Douglas Murray about the ongoing war in Gaza. They discuss public opinion about the war, the prospect of a widening conflict with Hezbollah and Iran, whether the Iron Dome was a mistake, the sentiments of Israeli Arabs, the global problem of Islamism, the risk of a resurgent right-wing in Europe, the crisis at the southern border in the US, and other topics.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it. -
#361 — Sam Bankman-Fried & Effective Altruism
Sam Harris speaks with William MacAskill about the implosion of FTX and the effect that it has had on the Effective Altruism movement. They discuss the logic of “earning to give,” the mind of SBF, his philanthropy, the character of the EA community, potential problems with focusing on long-term outcomes, AI risk, the effects of the FTX collapse on Will personally, and other topics.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it. -
#360 — We Really Don’t Have Free Will?
Sam Harris speaks with Robert Sapolsky about the widespread belief in free will. They discuss the limits of intuition, the views of Dan Dennett, complexity and emergence, downward causation, abstraction, epigenetics, predictability, fatalism, Benjamin Libet, the primacy of luck, historical change in attitudes about free will, implications for ethics and criminal justice, the psychological satisfaction of punishing bad people, understanding evil, punishment and reward as tools, meritocracy, the consequences of physical beauty, the logic of reasoning, and other topics.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it. -
#359 — Getting Used to It
Sam Harris speaks with Cass Sunstein about habituation and its consequences. They discuss habituation to positive and negative experiences, marriage, happiness, meaning, variety, doing good vs feeling good, midlife crises, kids, wealth and happiness, things vs experience, the “illusory truth effect,” misinformation and social media, echo chambers and extremism, what governments can do to respond to misinformation, free speech on college campuses, the 2024 Presidential election, and other topics.
If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.
Customer Reviews
Thank you
Thank you for framing this background. How so many diverse groups in the west choose to come out after a disaster like this and throw their weight against Israel is horrifying.
Where are they on all the issues in the Muslim world? Silent.
No idea how the left coalesced in picking Israel as country to demonize
Sam you the best at articulating rationale positions on complex issue. Very much appreciated.
Re: 355 Falling World
First off want to emphasize how much I value and enjoy all of Sam’s work, guests and enlightenment.
My comment is regarding a content element Peter Zeighan delivers highlighting the growing isolationism of the US and the fact that trade and exports are a relatively minor factor economically for the US. In particular he states that exports only account for about 5 percent of GDP.
I found this surprisingly low and did some fact checking and the results indicate that exports actually represent something in the 10 to 11 percent of GDP range. I think this is both a significant variance and meaningful to the case he makes.
To that extent, if his facts are skewed to this extent on this item, it raises questions for me as to his other data points supporting his overall thesis that the world ahead is looking very bleak.
I don’t doubt the validity of the overall concepts he presents but I do believe accuracy and some fact checking is useful so as not to mislead listeners.
Minor critique and again love the work you do here.
Thanks
M Glass
Vancouver Canada
Used to love this guy, but realized he’s a hawk and a liar
Pay attention to how Sam talks abouts Islam. He is totally fine with bombing Middle East countries based purely on their beliefs. He ignores other factors that also lead to their actions.
He has defended racial profiling at airports (i.e., he believes all brown people, as an official policy, need to be investigated in case they’re a terrorist, and ignore people who are white, asian, etc.). He has written an article called “In Defense of Torture.” He has played with “thought experiments” about launching a pre-emptive strike on Middle East countries.
He is a hawk.
He is also very dishonest. When people accurately describe his views, he lazily says he’s been “taken out of context” without further explanation. Just watch, he says this about all his critics without ever providing proof. He will also lob ad hominems at them, calling his critics crazy, deranged, etc..
I know he can sound logical, but that’s all in his delivery and presentation. The real substance of what he’s saying is often ridiculous, at least on political topics. Please think about what he is actually saying. He is not right about everything.