Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris
Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and five-time New York Times best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the mind, society, current events, moral philosophy, religion, and rationality—with an overarching focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.
Sam is also the creator of the Waking Up app. Combining Sam's decades of mindfulness practice, profound wisdom from varied philosophical and contemplative traditions, and a commitment to a secular, scientific worldview, Waking Up is a resource for anyone interested in living a more examined, fulfilling life—and a new operating system for the mind.
Waking Up offers free subscriptions to anyone who can't afford one, and donates a minimum of 10% of profits to the most effective charities around the world. To learn more, please go to WakingUp.com.
Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Sam is also the creator of the Waking Up app. Combining Sam's decades of mindfulness practice, profound wisdom from varied philosophical and contemplative traditions, and a commitment to a secular, scientific worldview, Waking Up is a resource for anyone interested in living a more examined, fulfilling life—and a new operating system for the mind.
Waking Up offers free subscriptions to anyone who can't afford one, and donates a minimum of 10% of profits to the most effective charities around the world. To learn more, please go to WakingUp.com.
Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Episodes
Mentioned books
51 snips
May 12, 2026 • 26min
#475 — The Hard Problem of Consciousness
Michael Pollan, author and journalist known for exploring food, nature, and consciousness. He traces his path from psychedelic research to probing the hard problem of subjective experience. They discuss psychedelics’ role in revealing consciousness, distinctions between sentience and intelligence, evolutionary ideas for why consciousness exists, and the ethical puzzles around machine consciousness.
95 snips
May 7, 2026 • 17min
#474 — More From Sam: Hasan Piker, Islamism, Making Sense Community, and More
They discuss the launch and goals of a new civil, real-name online community. Political media controversies and the New York Times’ embrace of a provocative commentator are debated. Distinctions between Islamism and antisemitism and the misuse of the word genocide are examined. The conversation also touches on AI-driven job displacement and recent high-profile interviews.
102 snips
Apr 29, 2026 • 22min
#473 — Money, Power, and Moral Failure
Lloyd Blankfein, former Goldman Sachs chief and author of Streetwise, joins for a brisk tour through Wall Street and Washington. They get into Goldman’s role in the 2008 meltdown, why liquidity panic nearly broke the system, and how crisis fixes may have created new risks. They also touch on AI hype, wealth inequality, antisemitism, corruption, post-truth politics, and the national debt.
117 snips
Apr 24, 2026 • 16min
#472 — Strange Days on the Right
Ben Shapiro, conservative commentator and Daily Wire co-founder, joins a sharp conversation on the right’s civil war. They revisit failed Trump forecasts, tariff shocks, and whether any guardrails still exist. They also get into family corruption, January 6, Tucker Carlson’s influence, conspiracism, JD Vance’s positioning, and the future of Israel and the Palestinians.
129 snips
Apr 16, 2026 • 19min
#471 — The End of History, Revisited
Francis Fukuyama, political scientist and author of The End of History, joins for a sharp look at liberal democracy under pressure. They revisit his most misunderstood idea, debate China as a rival model, trace conservatism’s turn toward ethnonationalism, probe the backlash to neoliberalism and identity politics, and touch on antisemitism, Israel, Iran, and Trump-era politics.
128 snips
Apr 13, 2026 • 22min
#470 — Democrats at a Crossroads
Sam Harris speaks with Rahm Emanuel about American politics, the state of the Democratic Party, and the 2028 presidential race. They discuss Emanuel's possible presidential run, identity politics and the left's cultural cul-de-sac, the Mississippi reading miracle, antisemitism on the left and right, the Gaza war, Netanyahu's failures, U.S. policy toward China, wealth inequality, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
861 snips
Apr 10, 2026 • 1h 49min
#469 — Escaping an Anti-Human Future
Tristan Harris, technology critic and co-founder of the Center for Humane Technology, joins a gripping conversation on AI’s breakneck race. They explore why labs keep pushing despite the danger, rogue model behavior, deepfakes and chatbot harms, mass job disruption, and the unsettling idea that beating China could still mean losing control.
114 snips
Apr 7, 2026 • 33min
#468 — More From Sam: Gratitude, Bad Conversations, Conspiracy Addiction, Waffle House Teleportation, and More
Gratitude and anxiety get a sharp, timely look. There is talk about mindfulness in an AI-shaken job market, religion’s changing grip in America, and a wild claim about teleporting to Waffle House. The conversation also turns to social media, conspiracy-fueled broadcasting, and why some public arguments are not worth having.
219 snips
Mar 30, 2026 • 30min
#467 — EA, AI, and the End of Work
William MacAskill, moral philosopher and effective altruism co-founder, joins for a brisk tour of big stakes and bigger futures. They get into EA’s recovery after FTX, why global health and pandemic preparedness still matter, factory farming and moral weirdness, collapsing AI timelines, concentrated AI power, the end of work, and what a post-scarcity future could look like.
118 snips
Mar 24, 2026 • 19min
#466 — What Is Technology Doing to Us?
Sam Harris speaks with Nicholas Christakis about technology, society, and human nature. They discuss the harms of modern communication technology, polarization and anomie, how AI agents can improve human cooperation, the social implications of humanoid robots, Christakis's experience at the center of the woke moral panic at Yale, the Trump administration's assault on American universities and science, the collapse of public trust in institutions, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.
