#365 – Sam Harris: Trump, Pandemic, Twitter, Elon, Bret, IDW, Kanye, AI & UFOs
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What is discussed at the start of this section?
The following is a conversation with Sam Harris, his second time on the podcast. As I said two years ago, when I first met and spoke with Sam, he's one of the most influential, pioneering thinkers of our time, as the host of the Making Sense podcast, creator of the Waking Up app, and the author of many seminal books on human nature and the human mind, including The End of Faith, The Moral Landscape, Lying, Free Will, and Waking Up. In this conversation, besides our mutual fascination with AGI and free will, we do also go deep into controversial, challenging topics of Donald Trump, Hunter Biden, January 6th, vaccines, lab leak, Kanye West, and several key figures at the center of public discourse, including Joe Rogan and Elon Musk, both of whom have been friends of Sam and have become friends of mine.
Somehow, an amazing life trajectory that I do not deserve in any way, and in fact believe is probably a figment of my imagination. And, if it's alright, please allow me to say a few words about this personal aspect of the conversation, of discussing Joe, Elon, and others. What's been weighing heavy on my heart since the beginning of the pandemic, now three years ago, is that many people I look to for wisdom in public discourse stop talking to each other as often, with respect, humility, and love, when the world needed those kinds of conversations the most. My hope is that they start talking again. They start being friends again. They start noticing the humanity that connects them that is much deeper than the disagreements that divide them.
So let me take this moment to say with humility and honesty why I look up to and am inspired by Joe, Elon, and Sam.
How does Sam Harris define empathy?
I think Joe Rogan is important to the world as a voice of compassionate curiosity and open-mindedness to ideas, both radical and mainstream, sometimes with humor, sometimes with brutal honesty, always pushing for more kindness in the world. I think Elon Musk is important to the world as an engineer, leader, entrepreneur, and human being who takes on the hardest problems that face humanity and refuses to accept the constraints of conventional thinking that made the solutions to these problems seem impossible. I think Sam Harris is important to the world as a fearless voice who fights for the pursuit of truth against growing forces of echo chambers and audience capture, taking unpopular perspectives and defending them with rigor and resilience.
I both celebrate and criticize all three privately, and they criticize me, usually more effectively, from which I always learn a lot and always appreciate. Most importantly, there is respect and love for each other as human beings, the very thing that I think the world needs most now, in a time of division and chaos. I will continue to try to mend divisions, to try to understand, not to ride, to turn the other cheek if needed, to return hate with love. Sometimes people criticize me for being naive, cheesy, simplistic, all of that. I know. I agree. But I really am speaking from the heart. And I'm trying. This world is too fucking beautiful not to try. In whatever way I know how. I love you all. And now a quick few second mention of each sponsor.
Check them out in the description. It's the best way to support this podcast. We got Notion for AI-powered note-taking and team collaboration. Indeed, for hiring great teams and a masterclass for online learning. Choose wisely, my friends. Also, if you want to work with our team, we're always hiring. Go to lexfriedman.com slash hiring. And now onto the full ad reads. As always, no ads in the middle. I try to make this interesting, but if you must skip them, please still check out our sponsors. I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. This show is brought to you by Notion. a note-taking and team collaboration tool, my favorite note-taking and team collaboration tool, and they have a new feature, Notion AI, that I've been using and loving, and this thing is probably the best
implementation of a system that uses a language model to generate text, because it integrates across the entirety of your note-taking process, and it adds just a giant number of small and big features that help you out, that save a lot of time, but also make everything more fun and creatively sort of inject ideas into your workflow.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is discussed at the start of this section?
0:00–1:50
2
How does Sam Harris define empathy?
1:50–5:46
3
What are the implications of empathy versus reason?
5:46–11:13
4
How does the discussion on Trump reflect on broader societal issues?
11:13–2:22:47
5
How does empathy influence public discourse?
2:22:47–2:23:39
6
What are the implications of antisemitism in today's society?
2:23:39–2:26:23
7
What responsibilities do public figures have regarding misinformation?
2:26:23–2:31:03
8
How do we navigate the challenges of AI and superintelligence?
2:31:03–4:33:23
Speakers
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