Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

Sam Harris speaks with Professor Anil Seth about consciousness and the self. They discuss perception as a controlled hallucination, emotion, measures of brain complexity, psychedelics, conscious AI, and more. Anil Seth's interdisciplinary research aims to understand the biological basis of consciousness, driving innovative methods in machine learning and brain-inspired technologies. They also explore topics like anesthesia, sleep, dreams, and the definition and challenges of consciousness. The chapter descriptions cover various aspects of consciousness including perception, synesthesia, the neuronal basis, different aspects of self, and the relationship between intelligence and consciousness. They also touch on ethical implications of AI and the dangers of online behavior.

Sam Harris speaks with Eric Weinstein and Ben Shapiro about the breakdown of shared values, the problem with identity politics, religion, free will, the primacy of reason, and many other topics. Eric Weinstein is a managing director of Thiel Capital in San Francisco. He is also a research fellow at the Mathematical Institute of Oxford University. Weinstein speaks and publishes on a variety of topics including, gauge theory, immigration, the market for elite labor, management of financial risk and the incentivizing of risk taking in science. And he, along with brother Bret—whom I just did a podcast with in Seattle—has become an unusually powerful advocate for free speech. Ben Shapiro is editor-in-chief of DailyWire.com, and host of “The Ben Shapiro Show,” the top conservative podcast in the nation, and a leading conservative speaker on college campuses, consistently defending free speech and open debate. Ben is the author of seven books, including The New York Times bestseller, Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America. He has also been a nationally syndicated columnist since age 17. He’s a graduate of UCLA and Harvard Law School. Twitter:@EricRWeinstein@BenShapiro

Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Goleman and Richard J. Davidson about the stigma and history of meditation, the collaboration between Buddhism and western science, the difference between altered states and traits, the relationship between mindfulness and flow, the connection between pain and suffering, and the significance of gamma oscillations in long-term meditation practitioners.

Sam Harris speaks with A.J. Jacobs about religion, gossip, polyamory, health advice, our past and future selves, “radical honesty,” human genealogy, tribalism, and other topics. A.J. Jacobs is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Know-It-All, The Year of Living Biblically, and The Guinea Pig Diaries. He is the editor at large of Esquire magazine, a contributor to NPR, and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Entertainment Weekly. His most recent book is It’s All Relative: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree. He lives in New York City with his wife and kids. Visit him at AJJacobs.com.

Sam Harris speaks with Bret Weinstein about the moral panic at Evergreen State College, the concept of race, genetic differences between human populations, intersectionality, sex and gender, “metaphorical truth,” religion and “group selection,” equality, and other topics. Bret Weinstein has spent two decades advancing the field of evolutionary biology. He has made important discoveries regarding the evolution of cancer, senescence, and the adaptive significance of moral self-sacrifice. He is currently working to uncover the evolutionary meaning of large-scale patterns in human history, and applying evolutionary insight in the quest to prototype a liberating, sustainable anti-fragile governance structure for humanity’s next phase. Twitter: @BretWeinstein

Sam Harris speaks with Tom Nichols about his book The Death of Expertise. They discuss the “Dunning-Kruger Effect,” the growth of knowledge and reliance on authority, when experts fail, the repudiation of expertise in politics, conspiracy thinking, North Korea, Trump, and other topics. Tom Nichols is Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, an adjunct professor at the Harvard Extension School, and a former aide in the U.S. Senate. He is also a five-time undefeated Jeopardy! champion, and as one of the all-time top players of the game, he was invited back to play in the 2005 Ultimate Tournament of Champions. Nichols is the author of several works on foreign policy and international security affairs, including The Sacred Cause, No Use: Nuclear Weapons and U.S. National Security, Eve of Destruction: The Coming Age of Preventive War, and The Russian Presidency. His most recent book is The Death of Expertise: The Campaign Against Established Knowledge and Why it Matters. Twitter: @RadioFreeTom

Sam Harris speaks with David Benatar about his philosophy of “anti-natalism.” They discuss the asymmetry between the good and bad things in life, the ethics of existential risk, the moral landscape, the limits and paradoxes of introspection, the “experience machine” thought experiment, population ethics, and other topics. David Benatar is Professor of Philosophy at University of Cape Town, South Africa. He is the author of Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming Into Existence and The Human Predicament: A Candid Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions. 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.

Did the Vegas shooting change your position on guns in any way?Do you ever have arguments with your wife that result in total failures of communication?What is your opinion of Dave Rubin's approach to interviewing?What have you changed your mind about recently?Is it ever morally defensible to incite violence?Do you struggle with a feeling of superiority when around other people?Will you have Elon Musk on the podcast?If you ruled the world, what would you decree?What is your argument against Ayn Rand’s philosophy?If free will is an illusion, how can intentions be morally relevant?What is your response to Hume's Is-Ought distinction?What are your thoughts on feminism?

When you talk about creativity, what kind of art, music, and fiction do you like? Do you think creativity has as important of a role to play as reason in helping to maintain a civil and flourishing society?What one piece of advice would you give your 20-year-old self, your 30-year-old self, and your 40-year-old self?Have you ever considered that you may be wrong about the value–though of course not the veracity–of religion?In your opinion, why do so many Americans have trouble accepting science while enjoying the fruits of science in their daily lives? Can we blame religious fundamentalism as the only contributing factor? Do we have an uncommonly poor science education in the U.S.? Is science somehow disturbing some fundamental human value system or emotional state unique to Americans?In meditation, is it possible that the experience of selflessness is just the obscuring of the self by other cognitive processes and not proof that the self is an illusion? In other words, how can we be sure that the self is illusory and not just a construct that can be occluded?Are you concerned that some of your listeners are becoming dogmatic and inadvertently taking the wrong lessons from your talks and podcasts? For example, the somewhat large number of listeners who support Trump and who are surprised that you didn't support him that would seem to indicate that some nominal supporters have a shallow understanding of your views.If you could and would you and should you choose not to die, is finding a "cure" for aging a laudable quest granting the fact that people die has been a great evolutionary benefit and that ubiquitous "immortality" would cause numerous practical problems? Would it be moral to deny people a choice when relevant technology is inevitably developed?What's a day in the life of Sam Harris like? How much of your time do you devote to writing, planning podcasts, tweeting, meditating, etc?You've said that human life is inherently worth living. Why? How would you respond to a philosophical pessimist who says that even the best lives are not worth living because happiness cannot compensate for all the suffering? And there's a related question here from a different person: Why have children? I'm finding it hard to justify the decision to have biological children in the present-day given they're relatively likely to experience suffering. I believe it morally wrong to create life if the quality of that life is likely to be low. What is your take?Do you take notes when reading books or articles? How do you organize them? What's your process in other words? How do you optimize your reading experience in such a way that you will retain as much as possible from a book or article.Can you talk about your parenting philosophy in your experience raising your children and insights on how to raise an intelligent, mindful, thoughtful, and caring children. What values do you think most important to instill in your children?Who have been your favorite podcast guests?

Sam Harris speaks with Jennifer Doudna about the gene-editing technology CRISPR/Cas9. They talk about the biology of gene editing, how specific tissues in the body can be targeted, the ethical implications of changing the human genome, the importance of curiosity-driven science, and other topics. Jennifer A. Doudna is a professor in the Chemistry and the Molecular and Cell Biology Departments at the University of California, Berkeley, investigator with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, and researcher in the Molecular Biophysics and Integrated Bioimaging Division at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. She is internationally recognized as a leading expert on RNA-protein biochemistry, CRISPR biology, and genome engineering. She is the author (with Samuel Sternberg) of A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution.