Sam Harris speaks with Yasmine Mohammed about her book Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam. They discuss her family background and indoctrination into conservative Islam, the double standard that Western liberals use when thin

#151 — Will We Destroy the Future?

Nov 20th, 2023 1h 33m

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 dete

#207 — Can We Pull Back From The Brink?

Nov 13th, 2023 1h 53m

Sam discusses the 2020 social protests and civil unrest, in light of what we know about racism and police violence in America. Episodes that have been re-released as part of the Best of Making Sense series may have been edited for relevance s

#104 — The Lessons of Death

Nov 6th, 2023 1h 8m

Sam Harris speaks with Frank Ostaseski about death and dying—and about how the awareness of death can improve our lives in each moment. Frank Ostaseski is a Buddhist teacher, international lecturer, and a leading voice in end-of-life care. In 1

#91 — The Biology of Good and Evil

Oct 30th, 2023 1h 38m

Sam Harris speaks with Robert Sapolsky about the brain and human behavior. They discuss the relationship between reason and emotion, the role of the frontal cortex, the illusion of free will, punishment and retributive justice, neurological dis

#125 — What is Christianity?

Oct 23rd, 2023 1h 50m

Sam Harris speaks to Bart Ehrman about his experience of being a born-again Christian, his academic training in New Testament scholarship, his loss of faith, the most convincing argument in defense of Christianity, the status of miracles, the c

#22 — Surviving the Cosmos

Oct 16th, 2023 1h 53m

Sam Harris speaks with David Deutsch about his book, The Beginning of Infinity. They discuss the boundary between science and philosophy, the nature of scientific authority, the utility of knowledge, artificial intelligence, moral relativism, t

#68 — Reality and the Imagination

Oct 9th, 2023 1h 12m

Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about meditation, the need for stories, the power of technology to erase the boundary between fact and fiction, wealth inequality, the problem of finding meaning in a world without work, religion as a vi

#14 — The Virtues of Cold Blood

Oct 2nd, 2023 1h 29m

Sam Harris speaks with psychologist Paul Bloom about the limitations of empathy as a guide to moral reasoning, why empathy is a bad metric for measuring one’s character, cognitive biases, and other topics. Paul Bloom is Professor of Psychology

#34 — The Light of the Mind

Sep 25th, 2023 1h 44m

Sam Harris speaks with philosopher David Chalmers about the nature of consciousness, the challenges of understanding it scientifically, and the prospect that we will one day build it into our machines. David Chalmers is Professor of Philosophy

#68 — Reality and the Imagination

Sep 18th, 2023 38m 47s

#96 — The Nature of Consciousness

Aug 7th, 2023 40m 37s

Sam Harris speaks with Thomas Metzinger about the scientific and experiential understanding of consciousness. They also talk about the role of intuition in science, the ethics of building conscious AI, the self as an hallucination, how we ident

#143 — The Keys to the Mind

Jul 31st, 2023 39m 19s

Sam Harris speaks with Derren Brown about his work as a “psychological illusionist.” They discuss the power of hypnosis, the power of expectations, the usefulness of Stoic philosophy, and other topics. Derren Brown began his UK television caree

#254 — The Mating Strategies of Earthlings

Jul 24th, 2023 39m 32s

Sam Harris speaks with David Buss about the differential mating strategies of men and women. They discuss the controversy that surrounds evolutionary psychology, the denial of sex differences, cross-cultural findings in social science, the repl

#126 — In Defense of Honor

Jul 17th, 2023 46m 19s

Sam Harris speaks with Tamler Sommers about cultures of honor. They discuss the difference between honor and dignity, “justice porn,” honor killings, honor and interpersonal violence, prison and gang culture, collective responsibility and colle

#205 — The Failure of Meritocracy

Jul 10th, 2023 44m 44s

Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Markovits about the problems with meritocracy. They discuss the nature of inequality in the United States, the disappearance of the leisure class, the difference between labor and capital as sources of inequality,

#238 — How to Build a Universe

Jul 3rd, 2023 36m 4s

Sam Harris speaks with Frank Wilczek about the fundamental nature of reality. They discuss the difference between science and non-science, the role of intuition in science, the nature of time, the prospect that possibility is an illusion, the c

#226 — The Price of Distraction

Jun 26th, 2023 36m 43s

Sam Harris speaks with Adam Gazzaley about the way our technology is changing us. They discuss our limited ability to process information, our failures of multitasking, “top-down” vs “bottom-up” attention, self-interruptions and switching costs

#219 — The Power of Compassion

Jun 19th, 2023 36m 17s

Sam Harris speaks with James R. Doty about his memoir Into the Magic Shop: A Neurosurgeon’s Quest to Discover the Mysteries of the Brain and the Secrets of the Heart. They discuss the significance of childhood stress, the possibility of changin

#137 — Safe Space

Jun 12th, 2023 39m 50s

Sam Harris speaks with Jonathan Haidt about his book The Coddling of the American Mind. They discuss the hostility to free speech that has grown more common among young adults, recent moral panics on campus, the role of intentions in ethical l

#127 — Freedom From the Known

Jun 5th, 2023 44m 32s

Sam Harris speaks with Michael Pollan about his book How to Change Your Mind. They cover the resurgence of interest in psychedelics in clinical practice and end-of-life care, the “betterment of well people,” the relationship between thinking a

#116 — AI: Racing Toward the Brink

May 29th, 2023 48m 19s

Sam Harris speaks with Eliezer Yudkowsky about the nature of intelligence, different types of AI, the “alignment problem,” IS vs OUGHT, the possibility that future AI might deceive us, the AI arms race, conscious AI, coordination problems, and

#77 — The Moral Complexity of Genetics

May 22nd, 2023 33m 16s

Sam Harris speaks with Siddhartha Mukherjee about the human desire to understand and manipulate heredity, the genius of Gregor Mendel, the ethics of altering our genes, the future of genetic medicine, patent issues in genetic research, and othe

#48 — What Is Moral Progress?

May 15th, 2023 38m 53s

Sam Harris speaks with Peter Singer about the concept of universal moral truths, the ethics of violence, free speech, euthanasia, animal welfare, and other topics. Peter Singer is the Professor of Bioethics at the University Center for Human Va

#196 — The Science of Happiness

May 8th, 2023 31m 19s

Sam Harris speaks with Laurie Santos about the scientific study of happiness. They discuss people’s expectations about happiness, the experiencing self vs the remembered self, framing effects, the importance of social connections, the effect of