Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Richard Lang about how to experience the world beyond the illusion of the self. Richard Lang is a meditation teacher and writer. He was a longtime student of Douglas Harding, the author of On Having No Head, among other books. Richard has written several books, including Seeing Who You Really Are, The Man with No Head, and Open to the Source: Selected Teachings of Douglas Harding. In 1996, Richard co-founded Shollond Trust, a charity created to help share Harding’s vision as widely as possible.  Website: www.headless.org Twitter: @headexchange

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Meghan Daum about her book The Problem with Everything. They discuss contemporary feminism, violence against women, campus sexual assault, moral panics, new norms of conversation, the 2020 Presidential campaign, and other topics. Meghan Daum is the author of five books, including My Misspent Youth, The Quality of Life Report, Life Would Be Perfect If I Lived in That House, The Unspeakable, and Selfish, Shallow & Self-Absorbed. Meghan also writes a biweekly column about culture and politics for Medium. She was an opinion columnist for The Los Angeles Times from 2005 to 2016 and has written for numerous journals and magazines, including The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Atlantic, and Vogue. Website: www.meghandaum.com Twitter: @meghan_daum

Judson Brewer, mindfulness and addiction expert, joins Sam Harris to discuss addiction, craving, and mindfulness. They explore reward-based learning, the neuroscience of craving, effort in meditation, smoking cessation through mindfulness, the difference between reward and happiness, making meditation a habit, and working with anxiety.

Donald Hoffman is a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of more than 90 scientific papers and his writing has appeared in Scientific American, Edge.org, The Atlantic, WIRED, and Quanta. In 2015, he gave a mind-bending TED Talk titled, “Do we see reality as it is?”

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast Sam and Annaka Harris speak with Donald Hoffman about his book The Case Against Reality. They discuss how evolution has failed to select for true perceptions of the world, his “interface theory” of perception, the primacy of math and logic, how space and time cannot be fundamental, the threat of epistemological skepticism, causality as a useful fiction, the hard problem of consciousness, agency, free will, panpsychism, a mathematics of conscious agents, philosophical idealism, death, psychedelics, the relationship between consciousness and mathematics, and many other topics. Donald Hoffman is a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, Irvine. He is the author of more than 90 scientific papers and his writing has appeared in Scientific American, Edge.org, The Atlantic, WIRED, and Quanta. In 2015, he gave a mind-bending TED Talk titled, “Do we see reality as it is?” Twitter: @donalddhoffman Annaka Harris is the New York Times bestselling author of CONSCIOUS: A Brief Guide to the Fundamental Mystery of the Mind. She is an editor and consultant for science writers, specializing in neuroscience and physics, and her work has appeared in The New York Times. Annaka is the author of the children’s book I Wonder, a collaborator on the Mindful Games Activity Cards, by Susan Kaiser Greenland, and a volunteer mindfulness teacher for the Inner Kids organization. All of her guided meditations and lessons for children are available on the Waking Up app. Website: annakaharris.com Twitter: @annakaharris

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Roland Griffiths about the current state of research on psychedelics. They discuss the historical prohibition against their use; the clinical and scientific promise of psilocybin, mescaline, LSD, DMT, MDMA, and other compounds; the risks associated with these drugs; the role of “set and setting”; the differences between psychedelics and drugs of abuse; MDMA and neurotoxicity; experiences of unity, sacredness, love, and truth; the long-term consequences of psychedelic experiences; synthetic vs natural drugs; the prospects of devising new psychedelics; microdosing; research on psilocybin and long-term meditators; the experience of encountering other apparent beings; psilocybin treatment of addiction; and other topics. In his Afterword, Sam discusses his experience on a large dose of psilocybin—his first psychedelic experience in 25 years. Roland Griffiths, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and founding Director of the Johns Hopkins Center on Psychedelic and Consciousness Research. He is author of over 380 journal articles and book chapters, and has trained more than 50 postdoctoral research fellows. Roland has been a consultant to the National Institutes of Health, to numerous pharmaceutical companies in the development of new psychotropic drugs, and as a member of the Expert Advisory Panel on Drug Dependence for the World Health Organization.

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Lynn Novick about her four-part documentary College Behind Bars. The film follows the progress of students in the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) as they pursue their undergraduate degrees. Sam and Lynn are joined by Jule Hall, a BPI graduate who served a 22-year sentence and is now working for the Ford Foundation. Lynn Novick is an Emmy, Peabody and Alfred I. duPont Columbia Award-winning documentary filmmaker. She has been producing and directing documentaries about American culture, history, politics, sports, art, and music for nearly 30 years. In collaboration with co-director Ken Burns, she has created more than 80 hours of acclaimed programming for PBS, including The Vietnam War, Baseball, Jazz, Frank Lloyd Wright, The War, and Prohibition. Jule Hall is a BPI graduate who completed an undergraduate degree in German Studies in 2011. He continued his education by enrolling in a graduate-level, Public Health specialization and became a BPI-Tow Public Health Fellow. In 2015, he volunteered at the Brownsville Community Justice Center, where he tutored justice-involved youth in preparation for high school equivalency exams. In 2016, he secured employment as a campaign coordinator at Picture Motion, where he helped to create social impact campaigns for award-winning documentaries examining Prisoner Reentry, Gun Violence and Inequality in America. In 2017, Jule served on the Documentary Selection Committee of NBCUniversal and AFI DOC’s 2017 Impact Lab. Currently, Jule works as a program associate for the Ford Foundation where he provides data analysis and strategy development in its unit for Gender, Racial and Ethnic Justice. Website: skiffmountainfilms.com Twitter: @LynnNovick

Sam Harris speaks with Yasmine Mohammed about her book Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam. They discuss her family background and indoctrination into conservative Islam, the double standard that Western liberals use when thinking about women in the Muslim community, the state of feminism in general, honor violence, the validity of criticizing other cultures, and many other topics. Yasmine Mohammed is a human rights activist and writer. She advocates for the rights of women living within Islamic majority countries, as well as those who struggle under religious fundamentalism. She is the founder of Free Hearts Free Minds, an organization that provides psychological support for ex-Muslims living within Muslim majority countries.  Website: YasmineMohammed.com Twitter: @YasMohammedxx   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.

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Richard Dawkins. They discuss the strangeness of the “gene’s-eye view” of the world, the limits of Darwinian thinking when applied to human life, the concept of the extended phenotype, ideologies as meme complexes, whether consciousness might be an epiphenomenon, psychedelics, meditation, and other topics. Richard Dawkins is an ethologist, evolutionary biologist, and writer. His latest book is Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide. Website: richarddawkins.net Twitter: @RichardDawkins

In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Bari Weiss about her book How to Fight anti-Semitism. They discuss the three different strands of anti-Semitism (rightwing, leftwing, and Islamic), the Tree of Life shooting in Pittsburgh, the difference between anti-Semitism and other forms of racism, “Great Replacement Theory,” the populist response to globalization, the history of anti-Semitism in the U.S., criticisms of Israel, the fate of Jews in Western Europe, and other topics. Bari Weiss is a writer and editor of the opinion section of The New York Times. She was also a book review editor at The Wall Street Journal and an editor at Tablet, the online magazine of Jewish news, politics, and culture. Bari is a native of Pittsburg, attended Tree of Life Synagogue, and had her Bat Mitzvah ceremony there. Website: BariWeiss.com Twitter: @bariweiss   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.