Making Sense

May 15, 2020
The text version of the popular, hyperarticulate, interviewed-based podcast. So much of public debate in America, circa 2020, takes one of two forms: people arguing in order to generate controversy or conversations in which the interviewer is little more than a set piece for an unchallenged monologue. Harris aims for something eminently more useful. This lightly edited sampling of his podcast of the same name includes long-form interviews with scholars and intellectuals on a range of topics. Whether the discussion is about artificial intelligence, the future capacities of knowledge, politics, philosophy, intuition, history (philosopher Thomas Metzinger shares experiences from post-World War II Germany that are hard to look away from), religion, reason, or the nature of consciousness, Harris grounds lofty discussions with concrete examples and his gift for analogy. Few of the interviewees are household names--perhaps aside from psychologist Daniel Kahneman and Timothy Snyder--but readers will not question their credentials or motives. If you're bright, well read, and secure in yourself, you don't mind having your arguments examined, even by thinkers with the intellectual chops to poke holes in the fabric of your life's work. Case in point: The interview with physics professor David Deutsch contains the guest's criticism of the host's self-described "cherished" thesis from Harris' book The Moral Landscape. This critique wasn't spontaneous; Deutsch had initiated a private conversation, and Harris asked for permission to press record. This speaks to the author's agenda: free and open debate, in the best sense of the word. Nonacademics may hit intellectual potholes when encountering words like epiphenomenalism and panpsychist and, to be sure, this is no breezy read. But the book's advantage over the podcast is that readers can linger as they need to and cherry-pick interviews at will. Recommended for anyone who wants to spend time with intelligent minds wrestling not with each other but with understanding.

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June 22, 2020
Religious skeptic Harris (coauthor, The Four Horsemen) challenges a wide range of political, spiritual, and cultural orthodoxies in this greatest-hits selection from his podcast Making Sense. In his favorite discussions (updated with “many small amendments and clarifications”) from the podcast’s six-year history, Harris displays his skills as an interviewer and conversationalist capable of clarifying complex ideas and engaging scholars from diverse backgrounds and fields of study on their areas of expertise. Highlights include a conversation with Swedish philosopher and physicist Nick Bostrom (Superintelligence) about existential risk, the Cold War, and nuclear deterrence; Harris’s efforts to create a working, contemporary definition of racism and with economist Glenn C. Loury (coauthor, Race, Incarceration, and American Values); and a discussion with biologist and MacArthur “genius grant” recipient Robert Sapolsky (Behave) about the evolution of the brain and the human capacity for good and evil. The result is a collection full of stimulating, nuanced, and deeply informed discussions on both abstract concepts (the future of humanity; the nature of reality) and hot-button current events (the #MeToo movement). Readers will appreciate this accessible introduction to the work of some of today’s most cutting-edge thinkers. Agent: John Brockman, Brockman, Inc.