Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence. He is Professor at Oxford University, where he leads the Future of Humanity Institute as its founding director. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias, Global Catastrophic Risks, Human Enhancement, and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, a New York Times bestseller. Website: nickbostrom.com

Sam Harris speaks with Nick Bostrom about the problem of existential risk. They discuss public goods, moral illusions, the asymmetry between happiness and suffering, utilitarianism, “the vulnerable world hypothesis,” the history of nuclear deterrence, the possible need for “turnkey totalitarianism,” whether we’re living in a computer simulation, the Doomsday Argument, the implications of extraterrestrial life, and other topics. Nick Bostrom is a Swedish-born philosopher with a background in theoretical physics, computational neuroscience, logic, and artificial intelligence. He is Professor at Oxford University, where he leads the Future of Humanity Institute as its founding director. He is the author of some 200 publications, including Anthropic Bias, Global Catastrophic Risks, Human Enhancement, and Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, a New York Times bestseller. Website: nickbostrom.com 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.

Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Kahneman at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. They discuss the replication crisis in science, System 1 and System 2, where intuitions reliably fail, expert intuitions, the power of framing, moral illusions, anticipated regret, the asymmetry between threats and opportunities, the utility of worrying, removing obstacles to wanted behaviors, the remembering self vs the experiencing self, improving the quality of gossip, and other topics. Daniel Kahneman is Eugene Higgins Professor of Psychology Emeritus at Princeton University and Professor of Psychology and Public Affairs Emeritus at Princeton’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. He received the 2002 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for his pioneering work with Amos Tversky on decision-making. His most recent book is Thinking Fast and Slow.

Sam Harris speaks with Sally Satel about addiction. They discuss whether addiction should be considered a disease, the opiate epidemic in the U.S., the unique danger of fentanyl, the politicization of medicine, PTSD, and other topics. Sally Satel, M.D., is a practicing psychiatrist and lecturer at the Yale University School of Medicine who examines mental health policy as well as political trends in medicine. Her publications include PC, M.D.: How Political Correctness Is Corrupting Medicine; When Altruism Isn’t Enough: The Case for Compensating Organ Donors; One Nation Under Therapy (coauthored with Christina Hoff Sommers); and Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience (coauthored with Scott Lilienfeld), which was a 2014 finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in Science. Website: sallysatelmd.com Twitter: @slsatel

What are your thoughts about picking a career, or about picking areas of academic study that lead to viable careers?Recently you mentioned that Noam Chomsky had expressed interest in coming on the podcast. Can you provide an update on whether this is happening?Who is your favorite thinker that you mostly disagree with?What exactly were the "pointing out instructions" you got from Tulku Urgyen that you described in your book Waking Up as "the most important thing you ever learned from another human being"?I’m a middle-aged man who has never had children. Do I need to have kids for my existence to matter?They say that "the unexamined life is not worth living," but is this really true? I spend hours every day thinking about (and sometimes agonizing over) "deep" questions and political problems, and I experience real suffering as a result. My girlfriend is completely oblivious to these concerns, and she’s generally happy. What should I make of this?How do you see the election of Trump now that a few years have gone by? Have you come to new insights or conclusions?Teachers like Eckhart Tolle advise us to “let go of the past.” Jordan Peterson and others recommend that one “go through one’s life with a fine-toothed comb” to become a better person. Which approach do you feel is more beneficial?Does the rigorous nature of scientific consensus itself justify belief?Do you see any downside to your association with the "Intellectual Dark Web"?What are your thoughts on the morality of football given its connection to CTE?What do you think of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s suggested marginal tax of 70% on income above $10M?How do you determine when it is a good idea to respond to lies and dishonest criticism, and which charges are better ignored?You've said that society would be better off if we recognized that we don't have free will. What positive effects on society do you think would follow if people realized the self is an illusion?Have you ever had anti-Semitism directed at you? If so, how did it make you feel, given your ambivalence toward Judaism as a cultural identity?Under the influence of certain psychedelics, users regularly report "receiving messages" from entities, plants, or spirits. What is your take on this?What are your thoughts on the problem of cultural appropriation?How do you think about regret? If free will is an illusion, one cannot (or should not) feel regret towards something one didn’t choose. I can understand this conceptually, but this doesn’t eliminate feeling bad about past choices and their consequences.

Jack Dorsey is a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Twitter and Square, which he cofounded. He was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people, was named an “outstanding innovator under the age of 35” by MIT Technology Review and named “Innovator of the Year” by the Wall Street Journal for his work in technology. Website: twitter.com and squareup.com Twitter: @jack

Sam Harris speaks with Jack Dorsey about how he manages his dual CEO roles at Square and Twitter, the role that Twitter plays in journalism, how it’s different from other social media, what makes a conversation healthy, the logic by which Twitter suspends people, the argument for kicking Trump off the platform, Jack’s practice of meditation, and other topics. Jack Dorsey is a tech entrepreneur and CEO of Twitter and Square, which he cofounded. He was recognized as one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people, was named an “outstanding innovator under the age of 35” by MIT Technology Review and named “Innovator of the Year” by the Wall Street Journal for his work in technology. Website: twitter.com and squareup.com Twitter: @jack

Stephen Fry is a comedian, actor, writer, presenter, voiceover artist and activist. Some of Stephen’s most well-known acting work includes A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder, Kingdom, QI, and V for Vendetta. He has also written and presented several documentary series, including the Emmy Award–winning Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. Stephen has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines and written four novels and three volumes of autobiography. He also appears frequently on British radio. Website: stephenfry.com Twitter: @stephenfry

Sam Harris speaks with Stephen Fry about comedy, atheism, political correctness, meditation, ambition, empathy, psychedelics, Christopher Hitchens, Stephen’s experience of manic depression, and much else. Stephen Fry is a comedian, actor, writer, presenter, voiceover artist and activist. Some of Stephen’s most well-known acting work includes A Bit of Fry and Laurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder, Kingdom, QI, and V for Vendetta. He has also written and presented several documentary series, including the Emmy Award–winning Stephen Fry: The Secret Life of the Manic Depressive. Stephen has contributed columns and articles for newspapers and magazines and written four novels and three volumes of autobiography. He also appears frequently on British radio. Website: stephenfry.com Twitter: @stephenfry

Sam Harris speaks with Douglas Rushkoff about the state of the digital economy. Douglas Rushkoff is the host of the Team Human podcast and author of Team Human as well as a dozen other bestselling books on media, technology, and culture. He is a research fellow of the Institute for the Future, and founder of the Laboratory for Digital Humanism at CUNY/Queens, where he is a Professor of Media Theory and Digital Economics. He made the PBS Frontline documentaries Generation Like, The Persuaders, and Merchants of Cool. His book Coercion won the Marshall McLuhan Award, and the Media Ecology Association honored him with the first Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. Website: rushkoff.com Twitter: @rushkoff