
Making Sense with Sam Harris - Subscriber Content
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.
Latest episodes

6 snips
Jun 6, 2024 • 1h 21min
#370 - Gender Apartheid and the Future of Iran
Activist Masih Alinejad discusses gender apartheid in Iran with Sam Harris and Yasmine Mohammed. They cover the hypocrisy of Western feminists, hijab significance, My Stealthy Freedom campaign, plots against Masih, lack of US government action, cowardice of journalists, Persian Jews' perspective, Islamism, immigration, and more.

11 snips
May 30, 2024 • 1h 17min
#369 - Escaping Death
Journalist Sebastian Junger discusses his experiences in war zones and surviving a burst aneurysm. Topics include danger and meaning, near-death experiences, trauma, awe, psychedelics, atheism, consciousness, and the intersection of drug-induced states with near-death experiences.

11 snips
May 21, 2024 • 1h 40min
#368 - Freedom & Censorship
Greg Lukianoff and Sam Harris discuss free speech, cancel culture, origins of political correctness, First Amendment principles, technology impact on ideas, social media cancellations, McCarthyism comparisons, self-censorship in academia, Hunter Biden laptop story, handling Trump in media, state of higher education, and more.

32 snips
May 13, 2024 • 54min
#367 - Campus Protests, Antisemitism, and Western Values
Sam Harris discusses campus protests, antisemitism, and Western values. Topics include double standards in activism, influence of Qatar on universities, challenging perceptions of anti-Semitism, and balancing security with freedom.

11 snips
May 7, 2024 • 1h 39min
#366 - Urban Warfare 2.0
Urban warfare expert John Spencer discusses the reality of urban warfare and Israel's conduct in the Gaza conflict. Topics include Hamas attacks, distinguishing combatants, IDF double standards, defeating Hamas, underground warfare tactics, and the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

23 snips
May 1, 2024 • 1h 48min
#365 - Reality Check
Author and journalist David Wallace-Wells discusses the distorted reality during Covid, success of vaccines, global pandemic responses, climate change consensus, consequences of warming, air pollution impact, Greta Thunberg's influence, economic growth vs degrowth, carbon taxes, political stagnation, US debt, attacking Trump's candidacy, and more with Sam Harris.

40 snips
Apr 23, 2024 • 1h 6min
#364 - Facts & Values
Sam Harris explores the reality of moral truth and the objectivity of concepts like good and evil. He discusses training the mind through meditation and demystifying the practice. The podcast delves into the intersection of subjectivity and morality, explores moral truths in subjective reality, and challenges traditional ethical boundaries.

22 snips
Apr 15, 2024 • 1h 33min
#363 - Knowledge Work
Sam Harris speaks with Cal Newport about the impact of technology on knowledge work, slow productivity, managing up in organizations, finding meaning in a post-scarcity world, and the effects of artificial intelligence. They touch on social media, free speech, reasonable deadlines, and the anti-work movement.

32 snips
Apr 9, 2024 • 1h 33min
#362 - Six Months of War
Author and commentator Douglas Murray discusses the ongoing war in Gaza, public opinion, Hezbollah/Iran conflict, Iron Dome, Israeli Arabs, global Islamism, European right-wing resurgence, US border crisis with host Sam Harris and Josh Szeps

4 snips
Apr 1, 2024 • 1h 25min
#361 - Sam Bankman-Fried & Effective Altruism
Sam Harris and William MacAskill discuss the implosion of FTX and its impact on Effective Altruism. They cover 'earning to give,' SBF's philanthropy, AI risk, and challenges with focusing on long-term outcomes. They analyze the character of the EA community, the fallout of FTX on Will personally, and delve into ethical dilemmas within the movement.
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