The Importance of Positive Affect

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

"There is this low lying misery, maybe isn't the right word, but it's a source of unease in life that I can't shake," he says. "I know people who are especially high in positive affect who seem never to think about that." He adds: "If you're at all self-aware, or if you're Jewish, you do notice that even in the midst of everything good happening, that life is fragile"

Sam Harris returns to the podcast to talk about meditation and his new Waking Up meditation app. What are the goals of mindfulness practice - stress reduction and greater focus, or something much deeper? Can it cure David's existential dread? Tamler's fear of his daughter going away to college? Can sustained practice erode the illusion of self? Is that even something we'd want to do? What if it diminishes our attachment to people we love? And what is the self anyway? Is Sam a defender of panpsychism? So many questions... Plus, the ethics of creating talking elephants by curing them of their autism through bonding and possibly mounting. (Seriously.)

Support Very Bad Wizards

Links: