Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Michele Gelfand about the difference between tight and loose cultures. They discuss the primacy of cultural norms in governing human behavior, the trade-offs between order and freedom, conservatism vs liberalism, sensitivity to threat, scarcity, the COVID pandemic, the Jeffrey Toobin affair, political polarization, the problem of extreme stereotypes, and other topics. Michele Gelfand is a Distinguished University Professor of Psychology at the University of Maryland, College Park. Gelfand uses field, experimental, computational and neuroscience methods to understand the evolution of culture and its multilevel consequences. Her work has been published in outlets such as Science, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Psychological Science, and the Journal of Applied Psychology. Gelfand is the founding co-editor of the Advances in Culture and Psychology series (Oxford University Press). Her book Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire the World was published by Scribner in 2018. She is the past President of the International Association for Conflict Management and co-founder of the Society for the Study of Cultural Evolution. Gelfand was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2019.  Website: https://www.michelegelfand.com/ Twitter: @MicheleJGelfand

In this nearly 4-hour SPECIAL EPISODE, Rob Reid delivers a 100-minute monologue (broken up into 4 segments, and interleaved with discussions with Sam) about the looming danger of a man-made pandemic, caused by an artificially-modified pathogen. The risk of this occurring is far higher and nearer-term than almost anyone realizes.  Rob explains the science and motivations that could produce such a catastrophe and explores the steps that society must start taking today to prevent it. These measures are concrete, affordable, and scientifically fascinating—and almost all of them are applicable to future, natural pandemics as well. So if we take most of them, the odds of a future Covid-like outbreak would plummet—a priceless collateral benefit.  Rob Reid is a podcaster, author, and tech investor, and was a long-time tech entrepreneur. His After On podcast features conversations with world-class thinkers, founders, and scientists on topics including synthetic biology, super-AI risk, Fermi’s paradox, robotics, archaeology, and lone-wolf terrorism. Science fiction novels that Rob has written for Random House include The New York Times bestseller Year Zero, and the AI thriller After On. As an investor, Rob is Managing Director at Resilience Reserve, a multi-phase venture capital fund. He co-founded Resilience with Chris Anderson, who runs the TED Conference and has a long track record as both an entrepreneur and an investor. In his own entrepreneurial career, Rob founded and ran Listen.com, the company that created the Rhapsody music service. Earlier, Rob studied Arabic and geopolitics at both undergraduate and graduate levels at Stanford, and was a Fulbright Fellow in Cairo. You can find him at www.after-on.com, or on Twitter at @Rob_Reid.   Organizations Supported by this Podcast: Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics: https://ccdd.hsph.harvard.edu/ The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations: https://cepi.net/

Sam Harris speaks with Lisa Feldman Barrett about the origins and function of the human brain. They discuss brain evolution, the predictive nature of perception and action, the construction of emotion, concepts as prescriptions for action, culture as an operating system, and more.

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Rener Gracie about police procedure and about the special relevance of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for safely controlling resisting suspects. Rener Gracie is a third-generation member of the legendary Gracie Family credited with creating the self-defense system known as Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. He started learning the family craft at two years old, and he was 10 years old when his father created the UFC. Today, Rener is the co-owner and chief instructor at the Gracie University of Jiu-Jitsu, the global jiu-jitsu organization headquartered in Southern California. With over 180 brick-and-mortar locations worldwide, and over 300,000 students learning via the interactive online jiu-jitsu portal (GracieUniversity.com), Rener has dedicated his life to sharing jiu-jitsu with the world.  In recent years, Rener has become a central figure in the discussion surrounding police use of force in the United States. With over 20 years of experience teaching law enforcement professionals, he presents compelling data that substantiates the need for more training for police officers at a time when many are fighting to “defund the police,” which would accomplish the exact opposite.  Website: https://www.gracieuniversity.com/ Twitter: @RenerGracie Instagram: @renergracie YouTube: @GracieBreakdown McDonald’s Taser Incident: https://youtu.be/F4VeHOkt_o8 Jiu-Jitsu Cop Breaks Down His Own Encounter: https://youtu.be/BOBsTJdr0Oo 2 Cops vs. 1 Huge Guy: https://youtu.be/FFTJHu4b4Sw Marietta Police Department Jiu-Jitsu Study: https://youtu.be/pDIG_SKhjUw Gracie University—Police Training Reimagined: GracieUniversity.com/Reform 

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Peter Singer, Francesca Minerva, and Jeff McMahan about the newly launched Journal of Controversial Ideas. They discuss the ethics of discussing dangerous ideas, the possibility of having a market in vaccines, the taboo around the topic of race and IQ, the relationship between activism and academia, the shallow-pond argument for doing good, and other topics. Peter Singer is a professor of bioethics at Princeton University. He focuses on practical ethics, and is best known for his book Animal Liberation and for his writings about global poverty. Francesca Minerva is a research fellow at the University of Milan and a co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Controversial Ideas. Her research focuses on applied ethics, medical and bioethics, discrimination, and academic freedom. Jeff McMahan is a professor of Moral Philosophy at Oxford University. He focuses on a range of issues related to harm and benefit—including war, self- and other-defense, abortion, infanticide, euthanasia, personal identity, the moral status of animals, causing people to exist, disability, philanthropy, and other topics. Website: https://petersinger.info/, http://francescaminerva.com/, http://jeffersonmcmahan.com/ Twitter: @PeterSinger, @FranciMinerva, @JConIdeas

In this episode of the podcast Sam Harris speaks with Bruce Friedrich and Liz Specht from the Good Food Institute about the way the problems of climate change and pandemic risk are directly connected to animal agriculture. The Good Food Institute is an international nonprofit reimagining protein production. Bruce Friedrich oversees GFI’s global strategy, working with the U.S. leadership team and international managing directors to ensure that GFI is maximally effective at implementing programs that deliver mission-focused results. Bruce is a TED Fellow, Y Combinator alum, and popular speaker on food innovation. He has penned op-eds for the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Wired, and many other publications. Bruce’s 2019 TED talk has been viewed two million times and translated into dozens of languages. He graduated magna cum laude from Georgetown Law and also holds degrees from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Economics. Liz Specht works to identify and forecast areas of technological need within the alternative protein field. Her efforts also catalyze research to address these needs while supporting researchers in academia and industry to move the field forward. Liz has a bachelor’s degree in chemical and biomolecular engineering from Johns Hopkins University, a doctorate in biological sciences from the University of California San Diego, and postdoctoral research experience from the University of Colorado Boulder. Prior to joining GFI in 2016, Liz had accumulated a decade of academic research experience in synthetic biology, recombinant protein expression, and development of genetic tools. Website: gfi.org Twitter: @GoodFoodInst, @BruceGFriedrich, @LizSpecht

   

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with James Fadiman about the psychedelic experience. They discuss who should and shouldn’t take psychedelics, set and setting, the role of a guide, the effects of microdosing, the difference between MDMA and true psychedelics, “good” and “bad” trips, the power of thought, the fiction of a unified self, changing states of self, compassion, and other topics. James Fadiman, Ph.D., has been exploring psychedelics since 1961 and the effect of microdosing since 2010. As well as holding consulting, training, counseling and editorial jobs, he has taught in psychology and design engineering at San Francisco State, Brandeis, and Stanford. His most recent books are The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide and Your Symphony of Selves: Discover and Understand More of Who We Are (with Jordan Gruber). Website:  https://www.jamesfadiman.com microdosingpsychedelics.com Twitter: @Jfadiman

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris presents his full argument on the illusoriness of free will—and explores its ethical and psychological implications.

Sam speaks with poet David Whyte about his new series on the Waking Up app, based on his book, Consolations. They discuss the power of language, the essence of friendship, the paradox of ambition, the transformative nature of aloneness, and becoming the ancestor of your future happiness.