Making Sense of Social Media and the Information Landscape | Episode 8 of The Essential Sam Harris
Release Date: 05/05/2023
#396 — The Way Forward
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Matthew Yglesias about the future of Democratic politics. They discuss where the Democrats went wrong, the failure of identity politics, the Left’s reaction to the Daniel Penny case, what a second Trump term might look like, immigration and the border, gender and racial disparities in crime, wealth inequality, Matthew’s “nine principles for a common sense Democrat comeback,” and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at . Learning how to train your mind is the single...
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#395 — Intellectual Authority and Its Discontents
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris discusses the breakdown of trust in institutions, the nature of intellectual authority, the danger of bad incentives, the epidemic of conspiracy thinking and misinformation, Trump and Elon, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at . Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the...
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#394 — Bringing Back the Mammoth
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Ben Lamm about his work at Colossal Biosciences. They discuss his efforts to de-extinct the woolly mammoth, the Tasmanian tiger, and the dodo; the difference between Colossal’s approach and Jurassic Park; the details of resurrecting the mammoth; the relevance of this work to human health; the role of artificial intelligence; reintroducing mammoths, Tasmanian tigers, and dodos back into the wild; the environmental and business case for de-extinction; and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all...
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#393 — Is History Repeating Itself?
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Simon Sebag Montefiore about the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, the history of the Jews, and the rise of global antisemitism. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at . Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.
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#392 — Technology & Culture
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Christine Rosen about how technology is changing our culture. They discuss the courage of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, lost practices like handwriting, tradeoffs in our use of technology, social media, conspiracy thinking, X as a platform for breaking news, the future of journalism, the importance of local news, the asymmetry right and left politically, the strange case of Tucker Carlson, the antisemitic hallucinations of Dan Bilzerian, expectations for a second Trump presidency, antisemitism in America, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you...
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#391 — The Reckoning
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris discusses the result of the 2024 presidential election, the lessons that the Democratic Party should draw from it, and the implications of a second Trump term. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at .
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#390 — Final Thoughts on the 2024 Presidential Election
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Mark Cuban about the 2024 presidential election. They discuss Trump’s ethics, his apparent political indestructibility, election denialism, the influence of Elon Musk, the strengths and weaknesses of the Harris campaign, the mystery of the southern border, Trump’s immigration and deportation policies, Elon’s trafficking in the “great replacement theory,” Trump’s economic policy, Harris’s tax and healthcare proposals, the effect of tariffs, the U.S. supply chain, the problem of wealth inequality, a proposed tax on unrealized capital gains, support for...
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#389 — The Politics of Risk
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Nate Silver about cultural attitudes toward risk and the state of American politics. They discuss the erosion of trust in liberal institutions, polling and political narratives, different camps of cultural elites, the influence of Silicon Valley, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Sam Bankman-Fried and the fall of FTX, Gell-Mann amnesia, Christopher Rufo, why Kamala Harris can’t admit to having changed her views, a problem with strict utilitarianism, AI and existential risk, what people misunderstand about election forecasting, which news events have affected the 2024 race, how...
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#388 — What Is Life?
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Sara Imari Walker about a scientific understanding of life. They discuss the contributions of physics to this topic, Erwin Schrödinger, the inadequacy of standard definitions of life, the prospect of "artificial" life, the role of information, constructor theory, assembly theory, the space of all possible structures, a "block universe," the existence of abstract objects like numbers, the Fermi paradox, the likelihood of life elsewhere in the universe, experiments that could decide how likely life is to emerge, the possibility of a Great Filter, the number of Earth-like...
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#387 — Politics & Power
Making Sense with Sam Harris
Sam Harris speaks with Ambassador Rahm Emanuel about the state of world order and American politics. They discuss the mystery of Japan’s economic health, U.S. competition with China, possible conflict over Taiwan and the Philippines, the significance of the South China Sea, the history of the Japan-U.S. friendship, how the Democratic Party lost its way, immigration, whether Vice President Harris needs a “Sister Souljah moment,” whether she should explain her changes of position better than she has, the standing of Israel in the eyes of the world, antisemitism, the Abraham Accords, Hamas,...
info_outlineIn this episode, we examine a series of Sam’s conversations centered around social media’s impact on the information landscape.
We begin with Sam’s second conversation with Tristan Harris, which was conducted shortly after the release of Tristan’s documentary, The Social Dilemma. The documentary lays out Tristan’s thesis on how social media is causing the deterioration of both individual and societal welfare. Author and technologist Jaron Lanier follows, echoing Tristan’s concerns and shifting the conversation to social media’s unique business model, addressing how perverse incentives reliably produce such detrimental outcomes.
We then hear from Jack Dorsey, the former CEO of Twitter. Sam and Dorsey’s conversation took place when Dorsey was still working at Twitter, and Sam still had an account. However, the questions they pose—relating to issues of content moderation and corporate transparency—are even more relevant today.
Next, psychologist Jonathan Haidt presents the alarming findings from his research on the psychological effects of social media, detailing how teenage girls are bearing the brunt of a mental health crisis.
Shifting to a more political lens, Sam and Cass Sunstein discuss Sunstein’s book, #Republic, and Sunstein addresses one of Sam’s most pressing fears of the last seven years: how social media is warping our opinions on politics. We then narrow down on this issue, with Zeynep Tufekci explaining the real-life consequences of social media’s influence on protest movements.
Finally, Sam and technology analyst Nina Schick dive into one of the most urgent concerns of the AI boom: deepfakes and how they might be weaponized to further pollute and degrade our information landscape.
About the Series
Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced The Essential Sam Harris, a new series of audio documentaries exploring the major topics that Sam has focused on over the course of his career.
Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made up about it, we think you’ll find this series fascinating.