Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

Ricky Gervais calls Sam to ask if AI will replace comedians. They also discuss the implications of not having free will and if a chimp has ever asked, “what does it all mean?” They agree that bears are dangerous.

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Frank Wilczek about the fundamental nature of reality. They discuss the difference between science and non-science, the role of intuition in science, the nature of time, the prospect that possibility is an illusion, the current limits of quantum mechanics, the uncertainty principle, space-time as a substance, the “unreasonable effectiveness” of mathematics in science, the possibility that we might be living in a simulation, the fundamental building blocks of matter, the structure of atoms, the four fundamental forces, wave-particle duality, the electromagnetic spectrum, the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, the implications of infinite space-time, dark energy and dark matter, and other topics. Frank Wilczek won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2004 for work he did as a graduate student. He was among the earliest MacArthur fellows, and has won many awards both for his scientific work and his writing. He is the author of A Beautiful Question, The Lightness of Being, Fantastic Realities, Longing for the Harmonies, Fundamentals: Ten Keys to Reality, and hundreds of articles in leading scientific journals. His “Wilczek’s Universe” column appears regularly in the Wall Street Journal. Wilczek is the Herman Feshbach Professor of Physics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founding director of the T. D. Lee Institute and chief scientist at the Wilczek Quantum Center in Shanghai, China, and a distinguished professor at Arizona State University and Stockholm University. Website: https://www.frankawilczek.com/ Twitter: @FrankWilczek   Episodes that have been re-released as part of the Best of Making Sense series may have been edited for relevance since their original airing.

Ricky Gervais calls to discuss Sam’s monster joke from their last conversation and then other things happen…

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with mayoral candidate, Andrew Yang, about the future of New York City. Andrew Yang is an entrepreneur, founder of Humanity Forward, and host of the weekly Yang Speaks podcast. Andrew also recently ran as a democratic candidate in the 2020 Presidential primary election. In his early career, Andrew served as the CEO, co-founder or executive at a number of technology and education companies including the well-known test preparation company, Manhattan Prep. In 2011, he founded Venture for America, a non-profit which connects recent college graduates with start-ups. His book, The War on Normal People: The Truth About America’s Disappearing Jobs and Why Universal Basic Income Is Our Future was published in 2018, shortly after announcing his run for presidency. He is now focused on his mayoral campaign, but also leads Humanity Forward, a non-profit organization dedicated to continuing the movements inspired by his campaigns for public office. Websites: https://www.yangforny.com/ https://movehumanityforward.com/ Twitter: @AndrewYang

Ricky Gervais calls Sam to ask why we dream? They discuss why puns are terrible and breakdown some of the mechanics of comedy.

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Iain McGilchrist about the differences between the right and left hemispheres of the human brain. They discuss the evolutionary history of the divided brain, research on surgically divided brains, popular misconceptions about the differences between the hemispheres, the left hemisphere’s propensity for confabulation, the prospect that consciousness might be partitioned in an intact brain, the difference between consciousness and attention, the boundary between the conscious and unconscious mind, how face-to-face encounters differ between the hemispheres, the unique deficits resulting from damage to the left and right hemispheres, the ascendancy of the left-hemisphere in modern culture, the possibility that the brain is a mere receiver of mind, the prospect of surviving death, and other topics. Iain McGilchrist is the author of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World. He is a former Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford University, a Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, and a former research Fellow in Neuroimaging at Johns Hopkins University Medical School. His work on hemispheric specialization inspired the The Divided Brain, a documentary produced for the CBC featuring McGilchrist and other scientists. Website: https://channelmcgilchrist.com

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Zeynep Tufekci about the problem of misinformation and group-think. They discuss the Covid-19 pandemic, the early failures of journalists and public health professionals to make sense of it, the sociology of mask wearing, the problem of correcting institutional errors, Covid as a dress rehearsal for something far worse, asymmetric information warfare, failures of messaging about vaccines, the paradox of scientific authority, the power of incentives, how to reform social media, and other topics. Zeynep Tufekci is an associate professor at the University of North Carolina, an opinion writer at the New York Times, and a contributing writer at The Atlantic. She studies the interaction between digital technology, artificial intelligence, and society. Twitter: @zeynep Website: https://zeynep.substack.com/

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Jack Goldstone about the rise in social inequality and political instability in the United States. They discuss how wealth is deployed, the loss of social mobility, comparative judgments of well-being, cosmopolitanism and the isolation of the rich, decreased life expectancy, taxation, the need for government to solve problems, success and social obligation, the causes of revolution, universal basic income (UBI), and other topics. Jack Goldstone is a sociologist and is also the Virginia E. and John T. Hazel, Jr. Chair Professor of Public Policy at George Mason University. He is a Senior Fellow of the Mercatus Center, a Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center, and is the Director of Schar’s Center for the Study of Social Change, Institutions and Policy (SCIP). Jack is a leading expert on revolutions and the social, political and economic variables that produce them. His research focuses on conditions for building democracy and stability in developing nations, particularly the impact of global population changes. His 2010 essay in Foreign Affairs, The New Population Bomb, analyzed the impact of aging and youth bulges on the global economy and international security, and was one of the most downloaded and viewed essays in recent years. His latest book is Revolutions: A Very Short Introduction for Oxford’s widely-read Very Short Introductions series and his latest article, Welcome To The ‘Turbulent Twenties’, was published by Noema Magazine. Twitter: @jgoldsto

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with General Stanley McChrystal and Chris Fussell about the radicalization of the far Right under Trump. They discuss the events of January 6, 2021, the behavior of the Capitol police, the history of white supremacy in the US, the effect of banning extremists from social media, the logic of insurgency, the consequence of public lies, what should happen to Trump and his enablers, and other topics. Stanley McChrystal retired from the US Army as a four-star general after more than 34 years of service. In his last assignment, he was the commander of all American and coalition forces in Afghanistan. He has written several books including a memoir titled My Share of the Task, which was a New York Times bestseller. Stanley is a senior fellow at Yale University’s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs, and he is the founder of the McChrystal Group leadership institute. Chris Fussell is a Partner at the McChrystal Group and the co-author (with Stanley McChrystal) of Team of Teams: New Rules of Engagement for a Complex World, which was also a New York Times bestseller. Chris was a commissioned naval officer and he spent 15 years in the Navy SEALs in various points around the globe. He served as the aide-de-camp to General McChrystal during his final year commanding the joint special operations task force fighting Al Qaeda. Chris is on the board of directors of the Navy SEAL Foundation and is a lifetime member of The Council on Foreign Relations. Chris also teaches at the Jackson Institute at Yale University.  Together, Stanley and Chris host No Turning Back—a podcast that explores the future of leadership and teams with the world’s most consequential leaders.   Website: www.McChrystalGroup.com Twitter: @McChrystalGroup, @StanMcChrystal, @FussellChris

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris discusses two dangerous misconceptions about the siege of the Capitol.