Making Sense with Sam Harris - Making Sense with Sam Harris

Episode Date: December 7, 2020

Join Sam Harris as he explores some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events. 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.

There's so much here that's confusing. So let's first talk about what went wrong and what could have not gone wrong. Your whole podcast is about just having honest conversations about topics. It's offensive to your and my sense of justice. You actually care. How has my mind been fundamentally warped? So the topic today is the threat of nuclear war. Slow erosion of the social fabric.

Synthetic media revolution. Collapse of our economy. The role of religion in public life. Morality and moral disagreement. Breakdown of truth. I'm scared that us two in a room will egg each other on. You can't have a subtle argument anymore. There's no place for nuance.

Everything has to be binary for the right people to agree and disagree. Everything has to be binary for the right people to agree and disagree. It's not a healthy place for society to be when everyone is afraid to say anything. I've learned to exercise censorship of myself in a way that is deeply disturbing. I don't feel that I should have to. I appreciate who you are, really. And you elevated me and those ideas. I'll never forget you for it. Real danger during the Cold War was blundering into a nuclear war, and I believe that that

is the same situation today, and with at least the same likelihood today. You're so full of Christmas cheer. Today I'm speaking with Robert Plowman. Here I reached out to Jonathan Haidt, William J. Perry. I am here with Gabriel Dance, Siddhartha Mukherjee, David Miliband, Graham Wood, Ricky Gervais, Stephen Fry, James Doty, Tristan Harris, Michael Sandel, Noah Harari. Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast. This is Sam Harris.