Making Sense with Sam Harris

Sam Harris and Francis Fukuyama discuss the misunderstood thesis of "The End of History," the mutation of conservatism into ethno-nationalism, and the self-defeating extremes of identity politics and neoliberalism. They examine Trump's second term, geopolitical tensions including Iran and Israel, and the resurgence of antisemitism across the political spectrum.

Sam Harris speaks with Rahm Emanuel about the Democratic Party's strategic challenges heading into 2028, including identity politics, antisemitism across the political spectrum, U.S.-China policy, wealth inequality, and Emanuel's potential presidential ambitions. They explore how Democrats lost messaging dominance on cultural issues and examine the party's response to recent global crises.

Sam Harris speaks with Rahm Emanuel about American politics, the state of the Democratic Party, and the 2028 presidential race.

Sam Harris speaks with Tristan Harris about the dangers of AI and the race to build it.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events.

Sam Harris speaks with William MacAskill about effective altruism, AI, and the future of humanity.

Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about technology, society, and human nature.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events.

Sam Harris speaks with Matt Mahan, mayor of San Jose and Democratic candidate for governor of California, about governance, pragmatism, and California's policy failures.

Sam Harris speaks with Rob Reid about biosecurity, pandemic risk, and the alarming fragility of our defenses against biological catastrophe.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events. They discuss whether the U.S.

Sam Harris speaks with Garry Kasparov about the erosion of American democracy and the global authoritarian threat.

Sam Harris speaks with Jonah Goldberg about the state of American conservatism and the Trump presidency.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events. They discuss Trump's cryptocurrency dealings with the UAE and their national security implications, AI timelines and the looming end of white-collar work, the impact of Trump's immigration crackdown on U.S.

Sam Harris speaks with Sarah Longwell and Tim Miller about Trump and the future of American politics.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events.

Sam Harris speaks with Jonathan Rauch about the emergence of fascism in American politics.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron dive into the chaotic start to 2026.

Sam Harris speaks with Judea Pearl about causality, AI, and antisemitism.

Sam Harris speaks with John McWhorter about language, ideology, and moral certainty.

As digital distraction increasingly fragments our attention, Sam explains why mindfulness is a practical skill for reclaiming clarity and presence. Begin a mindfulness practice using the Waking Up app, and make training your mind the foundation for everything else in the year ahead.

Sam Harris on why mindfulness is a practical skill for reclaiming clarity and presence. A solo reflection on how meditation practice changes the texture of daily life — not by adding something but by removing the constant commentary.

In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events.

Sam Harris speaks with Ross Douthat about religion, modernity, and what can steady a culture that feels increasingly unmoored. They discuss the case for faith in an age of digital disembodiment, declining birthrates, and looming AI-driven upheaval.

Ross Douthat on religion, modernity, and what can steady a culture that feels increasingly unmoored. Harris and Douthat disagree about God but agree that secular society hasn't replaced religion's meaning-making function.

Sam Harris speaks with David Edmonds about moral philosophy and effective altruism.

Sam Harris speaks with Peter Zeihan about Trump's second term and its economic and geopolitical consequences.

Michael Plant on the philosophy and science of well-being. His Happier Lives Institute argues that mental health interventions are the most cost-effective way to reduce suffering — more effective per dollar than many traditional development programs.

Sam Harris speaks with Michael Plant about the philosophy of happiness and effective altruism.

Ross Douthat makes the case for religious faith in an age of digital disembodiment, declining birthrates, and looming AI-driven upheaval. Harris and Douthat debate whether secular frameworks can provide the meaning and community that religion historically supplied.

Peter Zeihan discusses the economic and geopolitical consequences of Trump's second term, covering tariff policies, deglobalization, the AI investment bubble, China's economic trajectory, and why demographics are destiny in the 21st century.

Sam Harris reflects on the 2024 presidential election results. A solo episode on political polarization, the failure of institutions, and the responsibility of individuals to maintain moral clarity in turbulent times.

Mark Cuban on the 2024 presidential election, political polarization, and the responsibility of public figures to engage with ideas rather than retreat into tribalism.

Nate Silver on risk, prediction, and the psychology of gambling. His book On the Edge explores how professional risk-takers think differently from the rest of us — and what politics can learn from poker.

Sara Imari Walker on the physics of life. Life isn't defined by chemistry but by information — the ability of a system to generate and maintain causal structure over time. Assembly theory as a new framework for understanding what makes matter alive.

Mark Cuban discusses the 2024 presidential election, Trump's ethics, the influence of Elon Musk on politics, immigration policy, wealth inequality, and why he believes capitalism needs guardrails to survive.

Yuval Noah Harari on his book Nexus and how information networks — from the Bible to AI — have always been about power, not truth. Every information revolution creates new forms of social organization and new forms of tyranny.

Nick Bostrom on his book Deep Utopia and what happens after AI solves everything. If superintelligent AI eliminates scarcity, disease, and death — what gives life meaning? The problem of meaning in a post-work world.

Barton Gellman on election integrity and how democracies fail. The mechanisms that protect elections are more fragile than most people realize. Surveillance, misinformation, and institutional erosion threaten democratic self-governance.

Yuval Noah Harari discusses his book Nexus, examining information networks throughout history and arguing that the real danger of AI is not sentience but the creation of the first non-human information network capable of making decisions that shape civilization.

William MacAskill on the future of effective altruism after the FTX collapse. The movement's core ideas survive the scandal: rigorous reasoning about where to direct resources for maximum impact. But institutional failures require honest reckoning.

Yoshua Bengio — Turing Award-winning AI pioneer — on why he now supports AI regulation. The same person who helped build deep learning now warns that the technology could pose existential risks without proper safeguards.

Nicholas Christakis on how technology reshapes social networks and human nature. Despite technological disruption, the fundamental social behaviors that define us — cooperation, friendship, hierarchy — are remarkably stable across cultures and centuries.

Renée DiResta on the state of our information landscape. Former Stanford Internet Observatory researcher on how misinformation, propaganda, and algorithmic amplification create alternate realities. The challenge of maintaining shared truth.

Nate Silver discusses cultural attitudes toward risk, the erosion of trust in institutions, election forecasting, AI existential risk, and why the personality traits that make someone a good poker player also make them a good forecaster.

Anne Applebaum on modern autocracy. Her book Autocracy, Inc. reveals how authoritarian regimes now cooperate as a network — sharing surveillance technology, financial tools, and propaganda techniques across borders.

Greg Lukianoff on free speech and cancel culture. The concept of safetyism has migrated from campus to the broader culture. Lukianoff argues this represents a fundamental misunderstanding of what makes people psychologically resilient.

Sam Harris revisits the central argument of The Moral Landscape: moral truths exist and science can discover them. Values relate to facts about the well-being of conscious creatures. The is-ought gap is a philosophical illusion.

Cal Newport on the crisis in knowledge work. Email and Slack destroyed deep work. His solution: redesign workflows around human cognition rather than forcing human cognition to adapt to digital tools. Slow Productivity as an alternative to hustle culture.

Cass Sunstein on habituation — the psychological mechanism of getting used to things. We habituate to both good and bad. This explains the hedonic treadmill but also political normalization: outrageous things become normal through repetition.

Robert Sapolsky on why free will is an illusion. Every decision traces back to neural firing patterns shaped by genetics, hormones, childhood, and environment. There is no moment where a 'you' independent of biology steps in to choose.

Tristan Harris on the AI arms race. The same attention-extracting dynamics that broke social media are being replicated in the AI race — but with higher stakes. Labs are racing to deploy capabilities faster than safety research can keep up.

Peter Zeihan on the unraveling of the post-WWII global order. Demographics, energy, and geography — not ideology — drive geopolitics. Most countries face demographic collapse. America's geographic advantages make it the last superpower standing.

Coleman Hughes on colorblindness as a moral ideal. His book The End of Race Politics argues that treating people as individuals rather than members of racial groups is both morally superior and more practically effective than race-consciousness.

Rory Stewart on the fraying world order and the hubris of intervention. Walking across Afghanistan taught him that reality is far more complex than policymakers imagine. The West's failures stem from overconfidence in its own understanding.

Sam Harris opens 2024 with a solo reflection on maintaining intellectual and emotional sanity in an increasingly chaotic information environment. The role of contemplative practice in sustaining clear thinking.