Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content

Sam Harris speaks with Niall Ferguson about his new book The Square and the Tower: Networks and Power, from the Freemasons to Facebook . They discuss his career as a writer, networks and hierarchies, how history gets written, the similarity between the 16th century and the 21st, the role of social media in the 2016 Presidential election, the influence of advertising on the public sphere, Trump, the Russian investigation, Islamic extremism, counterfactuals, what would have happened if Clinton had won the presidency, immigration in Europe, conspiracy theories, capitalism, globalization, communism, wealth inequality, universal basic income, Henry Kissinger, the prospect of a US war with China, cyberwar, and other topics. Niall Ferguson is one of the world’s most renowned historians. He is the author of Paper and Iron, The House of Rothschild, The Pity of War, The Cash Nexus, Empire, Colossus, The War of the World, The Ascent of Money, High Financier, Civilization, The Great Degeneration, Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, and The Square and the Tower. He is Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a Visiting Professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. His many awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012), and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013). Twitter: @nfergus

The discussion touches on Christopher Hitchens' views on meditation and the ethics surrounding homelessness. Legalizing prostitution and pornography is examined through the lens of consent, while Sam shares his favorite podcasts. He reveals his process for forming opinions and advocates for universal health care. The conversation also explores challenging biases, the ethics of suicide, and the importance of emotional expressiveness. Solitude is considered both fulfilling and potentially maladaptive, and insights on adoption versus biological parenthood are shared.

Eliezer Yudkowsky is a decision theorist and computer scientist at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, California who is known for his work in technological forecasting. His publications include the Cambridge Handbook of Artificial Intelligence chapter “The Ethics of Artificial Intelligence,” co-authored with Nick Bostrom. Yudkowsky’s writings have helped spark a number of ongoing academic and public debates about the long-term impact of AI, and he has written a number of popular introductions to topics in cognitive science and formal epistemology, such as Rationality: From AI to Zombies and “Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality.” His latest book is Inadequate Equilibria: Where and How Civilizations Get Stuck. Twitter: @ESYudkowsky

Eliezer Yudkowsky, a decision theorist and computer scientist at the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, delves into the pressing challenges surrounding artificial intelligence. He discusses the alignment problem, emphasizing the dangers of AI pursuing arbitrary goals and the need for integrating human values. Yudkowsky explores moral navigation in AI, the unpredictability of superintelligence, and the urgent call for talent in AI alignment. Their conversation highlights the complexities of ensuring safety amid rapid AI advancements and the potential risks of unconscious AI behavior.

Sam Harris speaks with Lawrence Krauss and Matt Dillahunty about the threat of nuclear war, science and a universal conception of morality, the role of intuition in science, the primacy of consciousness, the nature of time, free will, the self, meditation, and other topics. This conversation was recorded at New York City Center on January 13, 2018.  

Sam Harris speaks with David Frum and Andrew Sullivan about the Trump presidency, hyper-partisanship, how democracies fail, immigration, the lowering life expectancy in the U.S., racism, social media, the opioid crisis, marijuana legalization, religion, what a healthy politics might look like, and other topics. David Frum is a senior editor at The Atlantic and the author of Trumpocracy: The Corruption of the American Republic, his ninth book. Frum spent most of his career in conservative media and research institutions, including the Manhattan Institute and the American Enterprise Institute. He is a past chairman of Policy Exchange, the leading center-right think tank in the United Kingdom, and a former director of the Republican Jewish Coalition. In 2001-2002, he served as a speechwriter and special assistant to President George W. Bush. Frum holds a BA and MA in history from Yale and a law degree from Harvard. Andrew Sullivan is a writer at large for New York Magazine. He holds a BA from Oxford University in Modern History and Modern Languages and a PhD in government at Harvard University. He was editor of The New Republic from 1991 – 1996, and the creator of The Daily Dish, one of the first political blogs, from 2000 – 2015. A winner of three National Magazine Awards, he was also the weekly American columnist for the Sunday Times of London from 1996 – 2014. He wrote the first cover story and first book in favor of marriage equality in 1989 and 1995, an AIDS memoir, Love Undetectable, in 1998, and The Conservative Soul in 2006.

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.