Sam Harris Substack

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -47:44 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. From the archive: In this 2019 episode, Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Kahneman at the Beacon Theatre in NYC.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -11:08 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Sam Harris speaks with Neal Brennan about the experiences that shaped his life and work.

Sam Harris speaks with Cameron Berg about whether AI systems are or could become conscious. They discuss self-reports in LLMs, what models say when deception is switched off, the “bliss attractor” state, consciousness and sentience, the hard problem of consciousness, parallels between neural networks and biological brains, the moral risk of building minds that can suffer, possible parallels to factory farming, moral patienthood, the alignment problem, and other topics.

Sam Harris speaks with Kathryn Paige Harden about behavioral genetics, moral luck, and the problem of blame. They discuss Harden’s book Original Sin, the controversy over Charles Murray and Ezra Klein, why behavioral genetics remains taboo, the meaning of heritability, nature and nurture as feedback loops, why biological explanations can increase blame, psychopathy as a continuum, a hypothetical cure for evil, embryo selection and IVF, and other topics.

Sam Harris speaks with Siddhartha Mukherjee about the science of cancer. They discuss the updated edition of The Emperor of All Maladies, whether cancer is one disease or many, why prevention is so hard, inflammation and air pollution as carcinogens, the myth that cell phones cause cancer, liquid biopsies and Bayesian reasoning, immunotherapy and CAR T cells, drug pricing, the promise of AI in drug discovery, the state of American medical science, and other topics.

[Note: The original email for this post contained the wrong URL for sharing. The error has been corrected below. Apologies!] Many of you know me primarily through my writing and the Making Sense podcast, where I spend most of my time thinking about intractable problems: political and religious extremism, existential risk, the unintended harms of new technology. Waking Up is a place where I don’t think about any of those things. Or so it seems.

Sam Harris speaks with Paul Bloom about our relationships with AI and the future of human connection. They discuss the surprising pace of AI progress, AI companions as a remedy for loneliness, the importance of mattering to other people, digitally resurrecting the dead, whether AI can be conscious, the moral failings of artists, what science actually knows about parenting, the ethics of apology, why late converts from Trump provoke outrage, and other topics.

Sam Harris speaks with Alain de Botton about the psychology of unhappiness, the secular world’s discomfort with ecstasy and ritual, psychedelics as a tool for self-discovery, Freud’s legacy, AI as the ultimate mirror, the case against meritocracy, the cancel culture purity trap, the psychological meaning of death, and other topics. Alain de Botton is a writer, psychotherapist, and founder of The School of Life.

Current time: 0:00 / Total time: -54:31 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Richard Dawkins presents Sam Harris with the 2026 Richard Dawkins Award at a live Center for Inquiry event.

Sam Harris speaks with economist and Substack writer Noah Smith about the U.S. national debt, wealth inequality, and the economic consequences of AI.