Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/332-can-we-contain-artificial-intelligence Sam Harris speaks with Mustafa Suleyman about his new book, “ The Coming Wave: Technology, Power, and the 21st Century’s Greatest Dilemma .” They discuss the progress in artificial intelligence made at his company DeepMind, the acquisition of DeepMind by Google, Atari DQN, AlphaGo, AlphaZero, AlphaFold, the invention of new knowledge, the risks of our m...
Aug 28, 2023•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/331-a-golden-age-for-assholes
Aug 20, 2023•13 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/330-the-doomsday-machine Sam Harris speaks with Carl Robichaud about the ongoing threat of nuclear war. They discuss the film "Oppenheimer," the ethics of dropping atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the false lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis, the history and future of nuclear proliferation, the logic of deterrence, cyber vulnerabilities, the history of de-escalation, the war in Ukraine, war games, the nuclear ta...
Aug 16, 2023•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/329-what-happened-to-the-republican-party Sam Harris speaks with Bret Stephens about the current state of the Republican Party. They discuss the strange change in Republican attitudes toward Putin, the character of Tucker Carlson, the war in Ukraine, the failures of elites and experts, the tension between concerns about misinformation and free speech, the Hunter Biden laptop, the 2024 Presidential election, how Trump ca...
Aug 12, 2023•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/328-health-longevity Sam Harris speaks with Peter Attia about his book, “ Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity .” They discuss "healthspan," centenarians, diet and nutrition, sugar, macronutrients, alcohol, fasting and time-restricted eating, exercise, Zone 2 training, heart disease, blood pressure, cholesterol, cancer, brain health, metabolic disorders, proactive medical testing, medication side effect...
Aug 02, 2023•3 hr 3 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with L.A. Paul about the nature of transformative experiences. They discuss how certain experiences change the self, the nature of regret, changing belief systems, conspiracy thinking, empathy, doing good in the world, our relationship to our future selves, changing our values, the nature of possibility, the ethics of punishment, moral luck, the moral landscape, consequentialism, and other topics. L.A. Paul is the Millstone Family Professor of Philosophy and Professor of Cognit...
Jul 21, 2023•1 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Nina Schick about generative AI and information integrity. They discuss the challenges of regulating AI, authentication vs detection, fake video, hyper-personalization of information, the promise of generative design, productivity gains, disruptions in the labor market, OpenAI, and other topics. Nina Schick is a globally recognized author, entrepreneur, and advisor specializing in Generative AI. She has made it her mission to democratize AI and make it accessible to everyo...
Jul 06, 2023•1 hr 24 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris discusses Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s recent appearances on other podcasts. 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....
Jul 03, 2023•27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Marc Andreessen about the future of artificial intelligence (AI). They discuss the primary importance of intelligence, possible good outcomes for AI, the problem of alienation, the significance of evolution, the Alignment Problem, the current state of LLMs, AI and war, dangerous information, regulating AI, economic inequality, and other topics. Marc Andreessen is a cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz. He is an innovator and creator...
Jun 28, 2023•2 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Martin Rees about the importance of science and scientific institutions. They discuss the provisionality of science, the paradox of authority, genius, civilizational risks, pandemic preparedness, artificial intelligence, nuclear weapons, the far future, the Fermi problem, the prospect of a "Great Filter", the multiverse, string theory, exoplanets, large telescopes, improving scientific institutions, wealth inequality, atheism, the conflict between science and religio...
Jun 22, 2023•2 hr 48 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we traverse a decade of Sam’s conversations on the topic of meditation. We start with the very first recorded episode from the archives: a conversation with Sam’s meditation teacher and friend, Joseph Goldstein . Goldstein recalls how his thinking was unlocked—allowing him to fully realize the power of the practice—by the utterance of one single word. We then hear from author Richard Lang as he guides us towards a strangely obvious insight that came...
Jun 18, 2023•2 hr 2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Andy Clark about the predictive brain, embodied cognition, and the extended mind. They discuss the structure of perception, novelty, precision, pain, psychedelics, emotion, ways to hack our predictions, hypnosis, meditation, artificial intelligence, consciousness, and other topics. Andy Clark is Professor of Cognitive Philosophy at the University of Sussex. He is the author of several books including Surfing Uncertainty , Mindware , Supersizing the Mind , Being There , and...
Jun 12, 2023•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with David Edmonds about the life and philosophy of Derek Parfit. They discuss Parfit’s work on identity, time bias, the “non-identity problem,” population ethics and “the Repugnant Conclusion,” the ethical importance of future people, Effective Altruism, moral truth, and other topics. David Edmonds is a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics at Oxford University and a former BBC radio journalist. He is the author o...
Jun 05, 2023•2 hr 35 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we explore Sam’s conversations about the phenomenon of death. We begin with an introduction from Sam as he urges us to use our awareness of death to become more present in our day-to-day lives. We then hear a conversation between Sam and Frank Ostaseski , founder of the Zen Hospice Project, who shares the valuable lessons he has learned through caring for those in their very last days. Next, we move on to a conversation with Scott Barry Kaufman , who explains what it means...
May 26, 2023•2 hr 48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Shamil Chandaria about how the brain constructs a vision of the self and the world. They discuss the brain from first principles; Bayesian inference; hierarchical predictive processing; the construction of vision; psychedelics and neuroplasticity; beliefs and prior probabilities; the interaction between psychedelics and meditation; the risks and benefits of psychedelics; Sam’s recent experience with MDMA; non-duality; love, gratitude, and bliss; the self model; the B...
May 22, 2023•2 hr 58 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with David Auerbach about the problematic structure of online networks. They discuss the tradeoffs between liberty and cooperation, the impossibility of fighting misinformation, bottom-up vs top-down influences, recent developments in AI, deepfakes, the instability of skepticism, the future of social media, the weaknesses of LLMs, breaking up digital bubbles, online identity and privacy, and other topics. David B. Auerbach is a writer, technologist, and software engineer....
May 15, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we examine a series of Sam’s conversations centered around social media’s impact on the information landscape. We begin with Sam’s second conversation with Tristan Harris , which was conducted shortly after the release of Tristan’s documentary, The Social Dilemma . The documentary lays out Tristan’s thesis on how social media is causing the deterioration of both individual and societal welfare. Author and technologist Jaron Lanier ...
May 05, 2023•2 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Tim Maudlin about the foundations of physics and metaphysics. They talk about the nature of scientific reductionism, emergence, functionalism, the nature of time, presentism vs eternalism, causation, the nature of possibility, the laws of nature, David Lewis’s possible worlds, rival interpretations of quantum mechanics, free will, and other topics. Tim Maudlin is Professor of Philosophy at NYU and the Founder and Director of the John Bell Institute for the Foundation...
May 01, 2023•3 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Paul Bloom about the state of psychological science. They discuss fiction as a window onto the mind, recent developments in AI, the tension between misinformation and free speech, bullshitting vs lying, truth vs belonging, reliance on scientific authority, the limits of reductionism, consciousness vs intelligence, Freud, behaviorism, the unconscious origins of behavior, confabulation, the limitations of debate, language, Koko the gorilla, mental health, happiness, behavior...
Apr 20, 2023•2 hr 59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Matt Thornton about his new book, The Gift of Violence: Practical Knowledge for Surviving and Thriving in a Dangerous World . They discuss his background in martial arts, the reasons to train in combat sports, the UFC and the evolution of mixed martial arts, the fundamental principles of effective martial arts, the "street" vs "sport" fallacy, grappling vs striking, the persistence of fake martial arts, Bruce Lee’s legacy, male violence and emotional maturity, the ma...
Apr 14, 2023•2 hr 30 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we examine the topic of existential threat, focusing in particular on the subject of nuclear war. Sam opens the discussion by emphasizing the gravity of our ability to destroy life as we know it at any moment, and how shocking it is that nearly all of us perpetually ignore this fact. Philosopher Nick Bostrom expands on this idea by explaining how developing technologies like DNA synthesis could make humanity more vulnerable to malicious actors. Sam and historian Fred Kaplan then...
Apr 12, 2023•2 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Tim Urban about his new book, What’s Our Problem: A Self-Help Book for Societies . They discuss Tim’s unusual career, the finitude of life, existential risk, exponential technological change, political tribalism, the corruption of the media, how one thinks vs what one thinks, trust in institutions, the firing of James Bennet at the New York Times, digital mobs, the mechanics of cancellation, Alex Jones, election integrity, and other topics. Tim Urban is a write...
Apr 07, 2023•2 hr 39 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Megan Phelps-Roper about the new podcast series she hosts and produced, “ The Witch Trials of J. K. Rowling .” The series is also produced by Andy Mills and Matt Boll for The Free Press . Born and raised in the Westboro Baptist Church, Megan Phelps-Roper left a life of religious extremism in 2012. She has spent the past decade using her experiences to work with schools on anti-bullying campaigns, with law enforcement organizations investigating deradicali...
Mar 31, 2023•1 hr 22 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Bart D. Ehrman about the prophecies contained in the book of Revelation. They discuss his latest book, Armageddon , and widespread Christian beliefs about the coming end of the world. Bart D. Ehrman is a leading authority on the New Testament and the history of early Christianity and a Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The author of six New York Times bestsellers, he has written or edited more than thirty books...
Mar 25, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we examine a series of Sam’s conversations centered around religion, atheism, and the power of belief. First, we hear the stories of three guests who have fled their respective oppressive religious organizations. We begin with Sarah Haider, founder of the advocacy group Ex-Muslims of North America, who details how her encounters with militant atheists catalyzed her journey to secularism. Then our narrator, Megan Phelps-Roper, walks us through her story of abandoning ...
Mar 17, 2023•2 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Stuart Russell and Gary Marcus about recent developments in artificial intelligence and the long-term risks of producing artificial general intelligence (AGI). They discuss the limitations of Deep Learning, the surprising power of narrow AI, ChatGPT, a possible misinformation apocalypse, the problem of instantiating human values, the business model of the Internet, the meta-verse, digital provenance, using AI to control AI, the control problem, emergent goals, locking down...
Mar 07, 2023•2 hr 27 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Matt Ridley and Alina Chan about the origins of the COVID pandemic. They discuss the evidence of a lab leak from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, media and academic censorship of this topic, the history of collaboration between western scientists and Chinese labs, the risks of "gain-of-function" research, the evidence for the zoonotic origins of SARS-CoV-2, the initial complacency and denialism of the Chinese, the biosafety levels at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, molecu...
Feb 20, 2023•2 hr 45 min•Transcript available on Metacast In this episode, we examine the timeless question of “free will”: what constitutes it, what is meant by it, what ought to be meant by it, and, of course, whether we have it at all. We start with the neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky who begins to deflate the widely held intuition and assumption of “libertarian free will” by drawing out a mechanistic and determined description of the universe. We then hear from the philosopher who has long been Sam’s intellectual wrestl...
Feb 14, 2023•2 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Sam Harris speaks with Bari Weiss, Michael Shellenberger, and Renee DiResta about the release of “the Twitter files” and the loss of trust in the institutions of media and government. They discuss Bari and Michael’s experience of participating in the Twitter files release, the problem of misinformation, the relationship between Twitter and the federal government, Russian influence operations, the challenges of content moderation, Hunter Biden’s infamous laptop, the need f...
Jan 31, 2023•2 hr•Transcript available on Metacast This episode centers around the specter of violence and surfaces some of Sam’s most controversial positions and difficult conversations. We begin with author and former FBI hostage negotiator Chris Voss, who delivers some potentially life-saving aspects of “tactical empathy,” which can also be applied to less extreme circumstances. Author and security expert Gavin de Becker then lays out his thesis from The Gift of Fear , which recasts this unfairly maligned emotion as an impor...
Jan 26, 2023•2 hr 52 min•Transcript available on Metacast 
