Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content
Sam Harris
Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the human mind, society, and current events. Sam Harris is the author of five New York Times bestsellers. His books include The End of Faith, Letter to a Christian Nation, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, Waking Up, and Islam and the Future of Tolerance (with Maajid Nawaz). The End of Faith won the 2005 PEN Award for Nonfiction. His writing and public lectures cover a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, human violence, rationality—but generally focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. Harris's work has been published in more than 20 languages and has been discussed in The New York Times, Time, Scientific American, Nature, Newsweek, Rolling Stone, and many other journals. He has written for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Economist, The Times (London), The Boston Globe, The Atlantic, The Annals of Neurology, and elsewhere. Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Feb 28, 2020 • 1h 2min
#188 - A Conversation with Paul Bloom
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris and Paul Bloom speak about the virtues of President Trump, the campaign prospects of Bloomberg and Sanders, the asymmetrical norms of the Democratic and Republican parties, the marginal role that parents play in the development of their children, wealth inequality and the breakdown of the nuclear family, whether Paul should take LSD, the deplatforming of Peter Singer, and other topics.
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art.
Website: http://campuspress.yale.edu/paulbloom/
Twitter: @paulbloomatyale
Feb 20, 2020 • 1h 3min
#187 - A Conversation with Paul Bloom
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris and Paul Bloom speak about the epidemic of child sexual abuse, the ethics of loyalty, eugenics, existential risk, the Bloomberg and Sanders campaigns, and other topics.
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field. Dr. Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion.
Website: http://campuspress.yale.edu/paulbloom/
Twitter: @paulbloomatyale
Feb 17, 2020 • 1h 20min
#186 - The Bomb
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Fred Kaplan about the ever-present threat of nuclear war. They discuss the history of nuclear deterrence, U.S. first-strike policy, preventive war, limited nuclear war, tactical vs. strategic weapons, Trump’s beliefs about nuclear weapons, the details of command and control, and other topics.
Fred Kaplan is the national-security columnist for Slate and the author of five previous books, Dark Territory: The Secret History of Cyber War, The Insurgents: David Petraeus and the Plot to Change the American Way of War (a Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times bestseller), 1959, Daydream Believers, and The Wizards of Armageddon. His latest book is The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War.
Website: http://www.fredkaplan.info/
Twitter: @fmkaplan
Feb 7, 2020 • 58min
#185 - A Conversation with Paul Bloom
In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris and Paul Bloom speak about “Trump Derangement Syndrome,” inequality, the relationship between wealth and happiness, the downside of fame, psychological impediments to noticing progress, and other topics.
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field. Dr. Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion.
Website: http://campuspress.yale.edu/paulbloom/
Twitter: @paulbloomatyale
Feb 3, 2020 • 1h 6min
#184 - The Conversational Nature of Reality
In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris speaks with poet David Whyte about the importance of work and relationships, the balance between training and expressing of one’s talents, the lessons of mortality, and other topics.
David Whyte is a poet and the author of 11 books of poetry along with four books of prose, including Still Possible, David Whyte: Essentials and The Three Marriages: Reimagining Work, Self and Relationships. David holds a degree in Marine Zoology, honorary degrees from Neumann College and Royal Roads University, and has traveled extensively, including living and working as a naturalist guide in the Galapagos Islands and leading anthropological and natural history expeditions in the Andes, Amazon, and Himalaya. He brings this wealth of experience to his poetry, lectures, and workshops.
Website: davidwhyte.com
Twitter: @whytedw
Jan 28, 2020 • 1h 18min
#183 - A Conversation with Paul Bloom
In this episode of the Making Sense podcast, Sam Harris and Paul Bloom discuss topics in the news including the tragic death of Kobe Bryant. They also explore the paradoxes of moral responsibility.
Paul Bloom is the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor of Psychology at Yale University. His research explores how children and adults understand the physical and social world, with special focus on morality, religion, fiction, and art. He has won numerous awards for his research and teaching. He is past-president of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology, and co-editor of Behavioral and Brain Sciences, one of the major journals in the field. Dr. Bloom has written for scientific journals such as Nature and Science, and for popular outlets such as The New York Times, The Guardian, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly. He is the author or editor of seven books, including Just Babies: The Origins of Good and Evil and Against Empathy: The Case for Rational Compassion.
Website: http://campuspress.yale.edu/paulbloom/
Twitter: @paulbloomatyale
Jan 23, 2020 • 1h 33min
#182 - Unlearning Race
In this episode of the Making Sense podcast Sam Harris speaks with Thomas Chatterton Williams about the reality and politics of race. They discuss his book Self Portrait in Black and White, race as a social and biological construct, the prospects of achieving a “post-racial” society, interracial marriage, and other topics.
Thomas Chatterton Williams is the author of Losing My Cool and Self-Portrait in Black and White. He is a contributing writer at the New York Times Magazine and American Scholar, and a 2019 New America Fellow. His work has appeared in the New Yorker, the London Review of Books, Harper’s, and other journals.
Website: www.thomaschattertonwilliams.com
Twitter: @thomaschattwill
Jan 13, 2020 • 1h 32min
#181 - The Illusory Self
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
Dec 29, 2019 • 1h 22min
#180 - Sex & Power
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
Dec 17, 2019 • 1h 5min
#179 - The Unquiet Mind
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.
