Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and five-time New York Times best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the mind, society, current events, moral philosophy, religion, and rationality—with an overarching focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.
Sam is also the creator of the Waking Up app. Combining Sam's decades of mindfulness practice, profound wisdom from varied philosophical and contemplative traditions, and a commitment to a secular, scientific worldview, Waking Up is a resource for anyone interested in living a more examined, fulfilling life—and a new operating system for the mind.
Waking Up offers free subscriptions to anyone who can't afford one, and donates a minimum of 10% of profits to the most effective charities around the world. To learn more, please go to WakingUp.com.
Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
#501 — The Performance of Empathy
#35 trending · Science
Sam Harris speaks with Sherry Turkle about her new book, Artificial Intimacy. They discuss the early optimism of the internet, the attention economy, the loss of solitude
Nov 3 23 min
#500 — The Playing Animal
Sam Harris speaks with Jimmy Carr about comedy, culture, and the state of the West. They discuss Carr's new book on the craft of joke writing, why comedy should be taught
Oct 30 27 min
#499 — The Birth of AGI
Sam Harris speaks with Kevin Roose about the race to build artificial general intelligence. They discuss Roose's book The AGI Chronicles, the scaling laws behind AI's rap
Oct 20 20 min
#498 — More From Sam: Bond Villains, Useful Idiots, Firing Squads, and More
In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events. They discuss Alex Gibney's documentary on Elon Musk, Dara Horn's insights int
Oct 14 22 min
#497 — The Confidence Man
Sam Harris speaks with Alex Gibney about his new documentary, Musk. They discuss Sam's former friendship with Musk, the line between visionary and con man, the myth of Te
Oct 9 21 min
#496 — The Oldest Lie
Sam Harris speaks with Dara Horn about antisemitism, Jewish identity, and the failure of institutions. They discuss Horn's new book, why Jews predate the categories of re
Oct 7 1 h 40 min
#495 — Foreign Policy for Sale
Sam Harris speaks with Anne Applebaum about corruption, authoritarianism, and America's retreat from the world. They discuss her Atlantic cover story, the revolutionary p
Oct 1 18 min
#494 — A Coin Toss for the Future
Sam Harris speaks with Ryan Greenblatt about AI misalignment and the risk of losing control of increasingly capable systems. They discuss the Hugging Face incident, the s
Sep 24 1 h 32 min
#493 — Two Reasons to Meditate
Meditation can help us live better. It can also help us understand what is true about our own minds. These motivations might seem fundamentally different, but Sam explain
Sep 17 12 min
#492 — The Second Plane, 25 Years Later
On the 25th anniversary of September 11th, Sam discusses the significance of the second plane, the writing of The End of Faith, the failure to take jihadist belief seriou
Sep 9 37 min
#491 — The Suicide of the Left
Sam Harris speaks with James Kirchick about the far left's growing influence over Democratic politics. They discuss Kirchick's article "The DSA Is a Parasite," the group'
Sep 1 25 min
#490 — Lies, Bulls**t, and the Rule of Law
Sam Harris speaks with Preet Bharara about the collapse of good faith debate in American politics. They discuss the fragmentation of media, the treatment of Anthony Fauci
Aug 25 24 min
#489 — More From Sam: A Fabulist at Cambridge, the Strait of Hormuz, AOC in 2028, and More
In this latest episode of the More From Sam series, Sam and Jaron talk about current events. They discuss the death of Cambridge professor Jason Arday and the institution
Aug 21 23 min
#150 — The Map of Misunderstanding (From the Archive)
From the archive: In this 2019 episode, Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Kahneman at the Beacon Theatre in NYC. They discuss the replication crisis in science, System 1 and
Aug 11 47 min
#488 — Ego, Ecstasy, and Equanimity
Sam Harris speaks with Neal Brennan about the experiences that shaped his life and work. They discuss Sam's mother's television career, growing up with an absent father,
Aug 4 12 min
#487 — Is AI Already Conscious?
Sam Harris speaks with Cameron Berg about whether AI systems are or could become conscious. They discuss self-reports in LLMs, what models say when deception is switched
Jul 31 1 h 25 min
#486 — Luck All the Way Down
Sam Harris speaks with Kathryn Paige Harden about behavioral genetics, moral luck, and the problem of blame. They discuss Harden's book Original Sin, the controversy over
Jul 22 21 min
#485 — The New Science of Cancer
Sam Harris speaks with Siddhartha Mukherjee about the science of cancer. They discuss the updated edition of The Emperor of All Maladies, whether cancer is one disease or
Jul 14 1 h 21 min
#484 — Artificial Intimacy
Sam Harris speaks with Paul Bloom about our relationships with AI and the future of human connection. They discuss the surprising pace of AI progress, AI companions as a
Jul 8 27 min
#483 — The Knots We Tie Ourselves Into
Sam Harris speaks with Alain de Botton about the psychology of unhappiness, the secular world's discomfort with ecstasy and ritual, psychedelics as a tool for self-discov
Jul 1 22 min
Chart trend
Position in the Science chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#14#27AugSepOctNov
#1
all-time peak
16
days in the top 3 since Nov 2024
Chart positions
Where Making Sense with Sam Harris ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Nov 8, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
This is exactly the sort of podcast I had been searching for. Sam is an old school liberal. He allows for dissent and disagreement but demands intellectual honesty and isn’t afraid to speak his mind even if it’s not mainstream. I don’t alway agree with his takes entirely, but that is what REAL LIBERALS (& real democracy) are all about. He caves neither to the MAGAs nor the (not actually)Progressive left. If you miss old journalism like the Times and WaPo of the 80s/90s, if you think Maher doesn’t alway get it right but are grateful for the conversation and mix of viewpoints presented, this is your podcast.
Abbeyrd28 · Sep 2026
This episode provided an excellent summary of what happened, where we stand and what we can do about it. Really appreciate your clear and concise delivery on the topics that need to be addressed if we are to move forward in a productive way. Sam, please keep the information. we need your voice.
October 13 2023 · Nov 2024
Appreciate Sam Harris’s perspective and interesting guests. I also appreciate that he is an independent thinker who doesn’t just espouse woke rhetoric. Rather his guests and his show really delve into topics meaningfully and thoughtfully. It’s refreshing.
talia jerome · Nov 2024
Sam Harris has done an amazing job in providing clear and informative answers and information about n the war between Israel and Hamas. It is a must listen if you have any opinion and are unclear on the subject.
hagarwave · May 2024
This podcast has grown stale, boring, and repetitive. Sam Harris endlessly gives the same monologues about the same handful of topics, and only invites on people who won’t debate or challenge his premises. It’s become the echochamber he’s so often railed against.
The above is true whether or not you agree with his opinions. If you don’t share all his views, the podcast is insufferable. He constantly attacks figures he doesn’t like in the most unreasonable and uncharitable way, after spending his entire career complaining about anyone who doesn’t treat him with maximum charity.
In the latest episode, he smeared Zohran Mamdani and Abdul El-Sayed as antisemitic Islamists. When pressed for evidence of this smear, he said it was just a “spidey sense”. He brands himself as Mr. Logical Rational Atheist, but all he has is vibes.
It’s genuinely sad to see how far he’s fallen. Or maybe he was always this way and I was a fool to look up to him.
ZachMG · Oct 2026
I’m an atheist and used to enjoy watching Sam Harris debate people of faith. That’s how I came to know of him and how I eventually came to this podcast.
He has devoted time and energy to his hatred of Islam, his entire public career. Recently, he has extended that distrust and demonization to the Democratic Socialists of America, who are clearly fighting for working people in this country; whatever your politics may be, they are doing the work.
He’s also an apologist for the war crimes, atrocities, and genocide every human rights organization on earth confirm are occurring in Gaza right now, insisting that that’s not a problem, but that the hijab is. I find this profoundly unserious as a position. Children are being dismembered, but he’s pearl-clutching about Muslim hair-covering?
If you think highly of Sam Harris, and you want to learn he’s a bigot without the capacity to be rational even in the face of overwhelming evidence, this is the podcast for you.
TrussMonkey · Sep 2026
We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.
Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of Making Sense with Sam Harris, its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.
