#414 — Strange Truths

Richard Dawkins presents Sam Harris with the 2026 Richard Dawkins Award at a live Center for Inquiry event. After the tribute, the two friends discuss consciousness and epiphenomenalism, AI and the Turing test, the scientific basis of morality, the failures of democracy and Trump ...  Show more

Sam Harris speaks with economist and Substack writer Noah Smith about the U.S. national debt, wealth inequality, and the economic consequences of AI. They discuss the mechanics of debt and inflation, the case for fiscal austerity, why the U.S. squandered low interest rates, moder ...  Show more

Heard enough lame insights about caveman psychology? Jared Diamond goes hard into what life was really like, how we thought and how it compares to today.A masterclass of a book when it comes to truly understanding our history and humanity and packed full of insights.Sam digests t ...  Show more

“The bad days are back” wrote Batya Ungar-Sargon in the Forward in December, “Orthodox Jews are living through a new age of pogroms. This week, as we celebrated the Festival of Lights, there were no fewer than 10 anti-Semitic attacks in the New York area alone.”  Antisemitism is ...  Show more

Marc Andreessen, cofounder Andreessen Horowitz, joins the Hermitix podcast for a conversation on AI, accelerationism, energy, and the future.

From the thermodynamic roots of effective accelerationism (E/acc) to the cultural cycles of optimism and fear around new technolo ...

We chase alignment with our purpose, values, passions but can sometimes get a little lost on the way. Life has a scary habit of passing us by in a rush and Sam has just turned 35 years old and feeling very philosophical about the whole thing. We take a tour of some of the big pro ...  Show more