In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Andrew Marantz about his book Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation . They discuss the effect of social media on politics, the distinction between publishers and platforms, the problem of guilt by association, getting too close to interview subjects, the confusing nature of troll culture, the notion of “dog whistles,” how to respond to the current reality of ra...
Oct 21, 2019•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris is interviewed by Chelsea Handler for her Netflix documentary, Hello Privilege. It’s Me, Chelsea . They discuss racism, “white privilege,” the #MeToo movement, and other topics. Chelsea Handler is a comedian, TV host, and author. In recent years Chelsea hosted the late-night talk show Chelsea Lately , released a documentary series Chelsea Does , and hosted the talk show Chelsea . Website: chelseahandler.com Twitter: @chels...
Oct 15, 2019•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Megan Phelps-Roper about her book Unfollow: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church . Megan Phelps-Roper is a writer, educator, and former member of the Westboro Baptist Church. After leaving the church in 2012, Megan began writing and speaking about her experience within the church and decision to defect. As an educator, she covers topics related to extremism and communication across ideological lines. Websit...
Oct 08, 2019•2 hr 37 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Andrew McAfee about the history of human progress and the modern uncoupling of our prosperity from resource consumption. They discuss the pitfalls and hidden virtues of capitalism, technological progress, environmental policy, the future of the developing world, and other topics. Andrew McAfee is Principal Research Scientist at the MIT Sloan School of Management and he was previously a professor at Harvard Business School. Andrew studies how digital technologies are changi...
Oct 02, 2019•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Kathleen Belew about the white power movement in the United States. They discuss white supremacy, white nationalism, white separatism, the militia movement, “The Turner Diaries,” the connection between the white power movement and war, the significance of Ruby Ridge and Waco, the Christian Identity movement, the significance of “leaderless resistance,” the failures of the justice system in prosecuting white power crimes, and other topics. Kathleen B...
Sep 20, 2019•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Barbara Tversky about how our senses of space and motion underlie our capacity for thought. They discuss the evolution of mind prior to language, the importance of imitation and gesture, the sensory and motor homunculi, the information communicated by motion, the role of “mirror neurons,” sense of direction, natural and unnatural categories, cognitive trade-offs, and other topics. Barbara Tversky is a professor emerita of Psychology at Stanford University and a...
Sep 10, 2019•1 hr 26 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris addresses listener concerns that he uses a “double standard” to evaluate the relative threats of white supremacy and jihadism.
Aug 26, 2019•41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Matt McCarthy about his book Superbugs: The Race to Stop an Epidemic. They discuss the problem of drug resistant bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses, and the failure of the pharmaceutical industry to keep pace with evolution. Matt McCarthy , MD, is an infectious disease physician and assistant professor of medicine at Weill Cornell. His writing has appeared in The New England Journal of Medicine, Sports Illustrated, Slate , and other journals. He is the author of Super...
Aug 21, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Caitlin Flanagan about her work as a writer. They discuss controversies on social media, the contradictions within feminism, media bias, #MeToo, the new norms of sexuality, the wokeness of academia, affirmative action, college admissions, HR departments, sexual harassment, and other topics. Caitlin Flanagan is a contributing editor for The Atlantic and a former staff writer for The New Yorker . Her writing has appeared in a number of notable publicat...
Aug 13, 2019•2 hr 15 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Judea Pearl about his work on the mathematics of causality and artificial intelligence. They discuss how science has generally failed to understand causation, different levels of causal inference, counterfactuals, the foundations of knowledge, the nature of possibility, the illusion of free will, artificial intelligence, the nature of consciousness, and other topics. Judea Pearl is a computer scientist and philosopher, known for his work in AI and the development...
Aug 05, 2019•2 hr 54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Ricky Gervais. They discuss fame, the effect of social media, the changing state of comedy, offensive jokes, Louis CK, political hypocrisy, Brexit and Trump, the state of journalism, and other topics. Ricky Gervais is a stand-up comedian, actor, director, and screenwriter. He co-created and starred in the BBC mock documentary series The Office and the sitcom series Extr as. His recent projects include the show After Life and the stand-up comedy special Humanity , both rele...
Jul 12, 2019•2 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Eric Topol about the way artificial intelligence can improve medicine. They talk about soaring medical costs and declining health outcomes in the U.S., the problems of too little and too much medicine, the culture of medicine, the travesty of electronic health records, the current status of AI in medicine, the promise of further breakthroughs, possible downsides of relying on AI in medicine, and other topics. Eric Topol , MD, is a world-renowned cardiologist, Executive Vic...
Jul 03, 2019•1 hr 20 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Jared Diamond about the rise and fall of civilizations. They discuss political polarization, disparities in civilizational progress, the prospect that there may be biological differences between populations, the precariousness of democracy in the US, the lack of a strong political center, immigration policy, and other topics. Jared Diamond is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Among his many awards are the U.S. National Medal of Science, J...
Jun 24, 2019•1 hr 28 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Michael Weiss and Yascha Mounk about the state of global politics. They discuss the rise of right-wing populism in Europe, the prospect that democracy could fail in the US, Trump’s political instincts, the political liability of “wokeness,” the Left’s failure to re-think its support of Chavez, the dangers of political polarization, the attractions of extreme partisanship, cancel culture, and other topics. Michael Weiss is an internationally respecte...
Jun 17, 2019•2 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with his wife, Annaka Harris, about her new book, CONSCIOUS: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind . Annaka Harris is an author, editor, and consultant for science writers, specializing in neuroscience and physics. Annaka is also the author of the children’s book I Wonder , a collaborator on the Mindful Games Activity Cards , by Susan Kaiser Greenland, and a volunteer mindfulness teacher for the Inner Kids organization. All of her guided meditations and les...
Jun 05, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Adam Grant about the social science of the workplace. They discuss how teams work effectively, the nature of power, personality types and fundamental styles of interaction, the critical skill of saying “no,” creativity, resilience, the strange case of Jonas Salk, the nature of mindfulness, the power of cognitive reappraisal, reflections on mortality, the replication crisis in social science, and other topics. Adam Grant is an organizational psychologist and pro...
May 30, 2019•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Benjamin Wittes about both volumes of the Mueller Report. Benjamin Wittes is a legal journalist who focuses on issues of national security and law. He is a Senior Fellow in Governance Studies at the Brookings Institution, where he is the Research Director in Public Law. Benjamin is also the cofounder of Lawfare, a blog devoted to discussion of U.S. national security choices, and a cohost of the Rational Security podcast. His books include The Future of Violence: Robots and...
May 20, 2019•1 hr 16 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. His books include Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care and Connected: The Surprising Power of Our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives (coauthored with James H. Fowler). He was on Time magazine’s list of the 100 most infl...
May 14, 2019•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about his new book, Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society . Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician known for his research in the areas of social networks and biosocial science. He is the Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science at Yale University, where he directs the Human Nature Lab. His books include Death Foretold: Prophecy and Prognosis in Medical Care and Connected: The Surprising Power of Our ...
May 13, 2019•2 hr 38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Shane Parrish about some of the mental models that should guide our thinking and behavior. Shane Parrish is the host of The Knowledge Project podcast and the founder of Farnam Street blog, which aims to help others develop an understanding of how the world works, make better decisions, and live a better life. Shane was previously a cybersecurity expert at Canada’s top intelligence agency, Communications Security Establishment, a division...
Apr 29, 2019•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris reads from an issue of Dabiq, the magazine of ISIS, and discusses the beliefs and goals of jihadists worldwide.
Apr 24, 2019•54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris introduces John Brockman’s new anthology, “ Possible Minds: 25 Ways of Looking at AI ,” in conversation with three of its authors: George Dyson, Alison Gopnik, and Stuart Russell. George Dyson is a historian of technology. He is also the author of Darwin Among the Machines and Turing’s Cathedral . Alison Gopnik is a developmental psychologist at UC Berkeley and a leader in the field of children’s learning and development. Her books include The Philosophic...
Apr 15, 2019•4 hr 50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Roger McNamee about his book Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe . Roger McNamee has been a Silicon Valley investor for thirty-five years. He has cofounded successful venture funds including Elevation with U2’s Bono. He was a former mentor to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and helped recruit COO Sheryl Sandberg to the company. He holds a B.A. from Yale University and an M.B.A. from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Twitter: @Moonalice...
Mar 27, 2019•2 hr 54 min•Transcript available on Metacast Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence. He is Professor at Oxford University, where he leads the Future of Humanity Institute as its founding director. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias, Global Catastrophic Risks, Human Enhancement, and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, a New York Times bestseller. Website: nickbostrom.com...
Mar 19, 2019•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Nick Bostrom about the problem of existential risk. They discuss public goods, moral illusions, the asymmetry between happiness and suffering, utilitarianism, “the vulnerable world hypothesis,” the history of nuclear deterrence, the possible need for “turnkey totalitarianism,” whether we’re living in a computer simulation, the Doomsday Argument, the implications of extraterrestrial life, and other topics. Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philoso...
Mar 18, 2019•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Kahneman at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. They discuss the replication crisis in science, System 1 and System 2, where intuitions reliably fail, expert intuitions, the power of framing, moral illusions, anticipated regret, the asymmetry between threats and opportunities, the utility of worrying, removing obstacles to wanted behaviors, the remembering self vs the experiencing self, improving the quality of gossip, and other topics. Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Prof...
Mar 12, 2019•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Sally Satel about addiction. They discuss whether addiction should be considered a disease, the opiate epidemic in the U.S., the unique danger of fentanyl, the politicization of medicine, PTSD, and other topics. Sally Satel , M.D., is a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine who examines mental health policy as well as political trends in medicine. Her publications include PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine ; ...
Mar 04, 2019•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast What are your thoughts about picking a career, or about picking areas of academic study that lead to viable careers? Recently you mentioned that Noam Chomsky had expressed interest in coming on the podcast. Can you provide an update on whether this is happening? Who is your favorite thinker that you mostly disagree with? What exactly were the "pointing out instructions" you got from Tulku Urgyen that you described in your book Waking Up as "the most important thing you ever learned from another ...
Feb 19, 2019•50 min•Transcript available on Metacast Jack Dorsey is a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Twitter and Square, which he cofounded. He was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people, was named an “outstanding innovator under the age of 35” by MIT Technology Review and named “Innovator of the Year” by the Wall Street Journal for his work in technology. Website: twitter .com and squareup.com Twitter: @jack...
Feb 06, 2019•10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Jack Dorsey about how he manages his dual CEO roles at Square and Twitter, the role that Twitter plays in journalism, how it’s different from other social media, what makes a conversation healthy, the logic by which Twitter suspends people, the argument for kicking Trump off the platform, Jack’s practice of meditation, and other topics. Jack Dorsey is a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Twitter and Square, which he cofounded. He was recognized as one of Time Ma...
Feb 05, 2019•1 hr 23 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
