#330 — The Doomsday Machine

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. They also debate tribalism and ...  Show more

Sam Harris speaks with David Edmonds about moral philosophy and effective altruism. They discuss Edmonds's book Death in a Shallow Pond, Peter Singer's famous drowning child thought experiment, arguments for and against thought experiments, "trolleyology," consequentialism, the o ...  Show more

On this episode of Cyber we talk about an old technology that suddenly feels very new. The bomb. That’s right, this episode is all about nuclear weapons. Thanks to Moscow’s war in Ukraine and Putin’s implicit and explicit threats to use them should Russian territory be threatened ...  Show more

First J. Robert Oppenheimer created the weapon, then he fought for years to warn of its dangers. During the second world war, the so-called “father of the atomic bomb”, led a team of scientists in the US in a race against Nazi Germany to create the first nuclear weapon. Then it w ...  Show more

Nine countries, including North Korea, have nuclear weapons. What would happen if a nuclear bomb was dropped-- say, in New York City? We talk to nuclear historian Dr. Alex Wellerstein, nuclear engineer Dr. Tetsuji Imanaka, and epidemiologist Dr. Eric Grant. UPDATE 04/27: We've ad ...  Show more

Russlands Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine und Drohungen des russischen Präsidenten an den Westen wiedererwecken bei einigen Menschen Ängste vor einem eigentlich längst der Vergangenheit zugeordnetem Szenario: ein Krieg unter Einbeziehung nuklearer Waffen. Der promovierte Politikw ...  Show more