Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/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...
Apr 09, 2024•2 hr 33 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/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...
Apr 01, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/360-we-really-dont-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 psychologic...
Mar 27, 2024•2 hr 1 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/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 ...
Mar 19, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/358-the-war-in-ukraine Sam Harris speaks with Yaroslav Trofimov about the War in Ukraine. They discuss the widespread false assumptions that Russia would win a swift victory, Ukrainian attitudes toward Russia, the transformation of the Ukrainian military, Russian incompetence, Russian public opinion, the Azov Battalion and the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine, the role of the Orthodox Church, conspiracy thinking...
Mar 11, 2024•1 hr 6 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/357-america-world-order Sam Harris speaks with Bret Stephens about America’s place in the world. They discuss the waning Pax Americana, American isolationism, Republican fondness for Putin, Tucker Carlson, why America should support Ukraine, the significance of Alexei Navalny, what it would mean to properly hold Putin responsible for his death, nuclear blackmail, valid criticisms of Israel, the war in Gaza, Palest...
Mar 04, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/356-islam-freedom Sam Harris and Rory Stewart debate whether Islam poses a unique threat to open societies. Rory Stewart is a leading thinker on international affairs and development currently serving as Special Advisor to GiveDirectly , which delivers cash directly to the world’s poorest households. Stewart was a member of the British Parliament for almost a decade, where he served as secretary of state for inter...
Feb 28, 2024•2 hr 34 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/355-a-falling-world Sam Harris speaks with Peter Zeihan about the unraveling world order. They discuss the Bretton Woods system, America’s role in securing the global supply chain, the coming end of American security guarantees, the shrinking of the US Navy, Houthi terrorism, deterring Iran, conflict in the Middle East, the future of Israel, the limits of immigration, the demographic pyramid, the demise of Europe,...
Feb 21, 2024•2 hr 38 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/354-is-moral-progress-a-fantasy Sam Harris speaks with John Gray about the possibility of moral and political progress. They discuss historical and current threats to freedom of thought, the limits of law, the spread of dangerous technology, failures of convergence on norms and values, Arthur Koestler, de-industrialization in Europe, fellow travelers and the progressive embrace of barbarism, Bertrand Russell, the absurd...
Feb 16, 2024•2 hr 55 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/353-race-reason Sam Harris speaks with Coleman Hughes about race, racism, and social justice. They discuss the ideal of "color blindness," race and crime, Coleman's experience at TED, LatinX, the confusion of the elites, Ibram X. Kendi, affirmative action, class differences, poverty, single-parent families, the death of George Floyd and the trial of Derek Chauvin, mob rule, Candace Owens, Christopher Rufo, guilt by asso...
Feb 11, 2024•2 hr 41 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/352-hubris-chaos Sam Harris speaks with Rory Stewart about the fraying world order. They discuss the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the problems with nation building, cultural ignorance, tolerance for corruption, our catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the role that Islam played in our failures in Afghanistan and Iraq, conspiracy theories, the influence of social media, cults of martyrdom, the war in Ukraine, the a...
Feb 04, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/351-5-myths-about-israel-and-the-war-in-gaza A transcript of this podcast is available on Sam’s blog .
Jan 29, 2024•43 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/350-sharing-reality Sam Harris speaks with Jonathan Rauch and Josh Szeps about the foundations of knowledge and the fragmentation of society. They discuss the state of the mainstream media, diversity of viewpoints, the "reality-based" community, what Covid did to our information landscape, the Overton window and the news value of controversial stories, the unique challenge of Trump and Trumpism, the dangers of a second ...
Jan 23, 2024•2 hr 48 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/349-generosity-cynicism-and-the-future-of-doing-good Sam Harris speaks with Chris Anderson about generosity in the age of the Internet. They talk about the new spirit of cynicism in tech and finance, the problems with DEI, the Coleman Hughes controversy at TED, the norm of color blindness, the science of generosity, the leverage of the Internet, the false opposition between selfishness and selflessness, mixed motives in...
Jan 16, 2024•2 hr 51 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/348-the-politics-of-antisemitism Sam Harris speaks with Rabbi David Wolpe about the global response to the atrocities of October 7th, 2023. They discuss the difference between Israeli and diaspora Jews, the history and logic of antisemitism, the role of conspiracy theories, Great Replacement Theory, reasons for Jewish success, right-wing antisemitism, left-wing antisemitism, the response of Harvard to October 7th, the c...
Jan 05, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/347-finding-sanity-in-2024 Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam 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. Get 30 days free - https://www.wakingup.com/makingsense ....
Jan 01, 2024•9 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/the-best-kept-secret-in-history Sam Harris speaks with Brian Muraresku about ancient mystery religions and the possible psychedelic roots of Christianity. They discuss the Mysteries of Eleusis, the “pagan continuity hypothesis,” the cult of Dionysius, the Dead Sea scrolls and the Gnostic Gospels, Christianity as a cult of human sacrifice, the evidence for the use of psychedelics in ancient rites, the chemica...
Dec 22, 2023•1 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/345-resilience Sam Harris speaks with Amanda Knox about her experience of having been falsely convicted and imprisoned for murder in Italy. Amanda Knox is an exoneree, journalist, public speaker, and author of The New York Times best-selling memoir Waiting to Be Heard . She is the co-host, with her husband Christopher Robinson, of the podcast Labyrinths . Between 2007 and 2015, she spent nearly four years in an Italian ...
Dec 18, 2023•2 hr 4 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/344-the-war-in-gaza Sam Harris comments on the recent testimony of university presidents before Congress, along with Elon Musk's reinstating of Alex Jones on X. He then introduces a recent episode of the Call Me Back podcast about the war in Gaza, hosted by Dan Senor. Sam really enjoyed listening to this conversation and we’re delighted to be able to share it with the Making Sense community. Dan Senor is co-author...
Dec 12, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/343-what-is-islamophobia Sam Harris discusses the social and political consequences of a weaponized term. A transcript of this podcast is available on Sam’s blog .
Dec 06, 2023•12 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/342-animal-minds-moral-truths Sam Harris speaks with Peter Singer about important problems in ethics. They discuss his career as a philosopher, the moral status of non-human animals, the ethics of moral hierarchies, speciesism, the scale of animal suffering, conscientious omnivores, animal experimentation, the tragic case of Sam Bankman-Fried, concerns about Effective Altruism, the problems with focusing on existential ...
Nov 27, 2023•2 hr 46 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/341-gaza-global-order Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about the events of October 7th and the resulting war in Gaza. They discuss the unraveling of global order, the failure of the IDF, the incompetence of the Netanyahu government, the goals of Hamas, the Saudi peace treaty, the right of Israel to exist, the status of Palestinian and Jewish refugees, victim and perpetrator narratives, compromise vs justice, the...
Nov 16, 2023•2 hr 36 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/340-the-bright-line-between-good-and-evil Sam Harris speaks about the ongoing war in Gaza, the global rise of antisemitism, and the enduring problem of jihadism. A transcript of this podcast is available on Sam’s blog . ...
Nov 07, 2023•59 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/339-the-infernal-logic-of-jihad Sam Harris speaks with Graeme Wood about the October 7th atrocities in Israel, the unfolding war in Gaza, and the ongoing problem of global jihadism. Graeme Wood is a national correspondent for The Atlantic . He has written for The New Yorker , The Wall Street Journal , The New York Times , and many other publications. He was the 2014–2015 Edward R. Murrow Press Fellow at the ...
Nov 03, 2023•2 hr 32 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/338-the-sin-of-moral-equivalence A transcript of this podcast is available on Sam’s blog .
Oct 12, 2023•14 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/337-the-future-of-psychedelic-medicine Sam Harris speaks with Jeannie Fontana and Robin Carhart-Harris about the TREAT Initiative in California and the growing promise of psychedelics for mental health care. Jeannie Fontana , MD, PhD, is a multifaceted leader in healthcare, specializing in Internal Medicine, Environmental Toxicology, and Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics. She initiated an ALS-focused research team a...
Oct 04, 2023•2 hr 42 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/336-the-roots-of-identity-politics Sam Harris speaks with Yascha Mounk about identity politics. They discuss Yascha’s concept of the “identity synthesis,” skepticism about “cancel culture,” racial segregation in schools, the ideological change on college campuses, Michel Foucault and postmodernism, the rejection of universalism, Derrick Bell, Kimberlé Crenshaw, the “permanence ...
Sep 28, 2023•2 hr 10 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/335-a-postmortem-on-my-response-to-covid
Sep 22, 2023•1 hr 11 min•Transcript available on Metacast https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/334-the-low-trust-society Sam Harris speaks with David Brooks about the state of American democracy and the liberal world order. They discuss the weakness of moral individualism, the loss of social trust, the dangers of identity politics, what happened to the Republican Party, the hatred of elites, the 2024 Presidential Election, the Trump indictments, the war in Ukraine, moral force, the roots of liberalism, the various flavors of Trump s...
Sep 18, 2023•1 hr 29 min•Transcript available on Metacast Share this episode: https://www.samharris.org/podcasts/making-sense-episodes/333-sanity-check-on-climate-change Sam Harris speaks with Chris Field about climate change and its consequences. They discuss skepticism about climate change, the accuracy of climate models, the magnitude of temperature increases, how global temperatures are measured, the historical record of climate variation, the range of possibilities in the coming decades, feedback mechanisms, wildfires, water vapor, air poll...
Sep 05, 2023•1 hr 8 min•Transcript available on Metacast