We evolved to have these kind of cycles of conscious experience, right? Surges of adrenaline, fight or flight response, vigorous activity. I think we want to be able to recover our equanimity and our best selves as quickly as possible. But sometimes people lose track of this idea that like the experience of common relaxation is sublime.
Neuroscientist, philosopher, podcaster, author, meditation guru, and unabashed atheist Sam Harris is one of our best-known — and most controversial — public intellectuals. In this bonus episode, he and Rufus talk about consciousness, free will, morality, and people’s stubborn insistence on being irrational.