Making Sense with Sam Harris

Episode #450 — More From Sam: Resolutions, Conspiracies, Demonology, and the Fate of the World

Release Date: December 30, 2025
Host: Sam Harris

Episode Theme Overview

In this wide-ranging "More From Sam" episode, Sam Harris and his co-host field questions from listeners and discuss key topics at the crossroads of individual well-being, global existential risk, and social sanity. Major themes include: personal resolutions and the fragility of plans, the benefits and mechanics of mindfulness, cultural and theological critique, the real and present threats posed by artificial intelligence, global governance (or its absence), and cultural conspiracies. Throughout, Sam maintains his trademark rational, skeptical, and sometimes sharply ironic tone.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. New Year’s Resolutions & Living with Urgency

• Sam’s 2025 Resolution: To live as though it might be his last year—a framing disrupted by unexpected real-life events (wildfires, housing displacement).
• Reflections on Goal Adjustment:
  • Being forced into "terrestrial and practical" concerns by circumstance, rather than more transcendent aims.
  • Quote:

    "I would give myself maybe a B on this aspiration. I mean, I did have my priorities pretty straight...it's really—obviously, one doesn’t know how many [years] one has left. And...no regrets that that was my resolution.” (02:04–03:09)

2. Mindfulness, Technology, and the Waking Up App

• Fragmented Attention:

  • Widespread societal addiction to smartphones and social media has fragmented attention, making it nearly "impossible to fully be anywhere anymore."
  • Sam contrasts mindless digital consumption with the potential for mindful, enriching engagement through technology.
  • Quote:

    “I view most...of the audio I consume on a phone, which is a lot, as some version of very productive and unifying of my attention...listening to guided meditations and meditation instruction is, I think, the ultimate example of a good use of attention on this device...” (03:20–04:26)

• Real Results from Mindfulness:

  • The problem isn't the device, but its uses: meditation delivers insight into how "helplessly buffeted" most people are by distraction, and helps break the spell of compulsive thinking.
  • Analogy: Thoughts are like cards dealt in blackjack: "You don't have to play every card dealt."
  • Quote:

    "We're living in a dreamscape and virtually nobody notices...when you try to practice meditation...what you recognize in yourself is this pervasive incapacity to pay attention to anything for more than a few moments at a time without being distracted.” (05:51–08:02)

  • Tibetan Buddhist Metaphor: Thoughts are "like thieves entering an empty house...there's nothing for them to steal." (09:03–09:51)

3. Philosophical Critique of Theological Rationalizations

• Recent Discussion with Ross Douthat:
  • Douthat had posited that God's allowance of immoral ideas (e.g., slavery) in the bible was meant to leave space for moral evolution.
  • Sam finds this line of reasoning intellectually unsatisfying and, at worst, "idiotic."
  • Quote:

    "It's well made in the sense that it's totally unfalsifiable and it could absorb anything, any possible contents of the Bible, you know, even mathematical errors...it's just idiotic...at a certain point we have to run out of our patience with these dodges." (11:03–12:21)

4. Artificial Intelligence: Existential Risk and Social Unreadiness

• AI as a New Era Threat:

  • Sam notes the continuing sense of existential peril around AI that persists, despite the difficulty of maintaining sufficient concern.
  • Statistics Shared: AI researchers often estimate a “20%” likelihood of catastrophic failure, an unnervingly high probability compared to nuclear-era physicists.
  • Quote:

    “The people who are doing this work and the people who are closest to it…when asked what probability they give to our destroying ourselves with this technology, I think to a man they all say something terrifying. I mean, they're all like, oh, maybe 20%.” (14:35–16:46)

  • Comparison to Nuclear Risk:

    "Imagine if [the Manhattan Project scientists] had been willing to pull the trigger at Alamogordo on the Trinity test, thinking there was a 10% chance that they were going to ignite the atmosphere and kill all life on Earth. ... That's insane." (17:11–18:39)

• Society’s & Government’s Inadequacy:

  • Sam is deeply skeptical that American social and political systems are equipped to respond nimbly or sanely to AI disruption.
  • Issues around alliances, regulatory capacity, and the dangers of isolationist, populist politics are foregrounded.
  • Quote:

    “We would have continued being a country that is looking to solve global problems in a sane way under President Harris. There’s no question about that.” (25:44–26:53)

• The UBI (Universal Basic Income) Debate in an AI-Transformed Economy:

  • Heated disagreement about UBI reveals society’s inability to adapt or even discuss radical changes to human labor and meaning.
  • Quote:

    "If we can't even have that conversation and agree about what we should do...We seem totally incapable of absorbing [positive shocks]. That would be kind of the final irony. It's like, give us the best thing that could ever be invented and we will turn it into the worst thing..." (21:41–25:44)

5. Media, Conspiracies & Demonology: Cultural Critique

• Upcoming Segment:
  • The episode was set to shift to a discussion of Tucker Carlson's demonology stories, as another instance of the irrational or fantastical seeping into American discourse (stopped at the paywall).

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On meditation and thought:
  • "Thoughts are like thieves entering an empty house...there's nothing for them to steal." (09:03)
• On AI risk:
  • “You have the people...making the decisions...telling us, yeah, we're sort of in coin toss land, or at least dice roll land. A single die may come up 6, and we cancel the future. That's insane.” (18:39)
• On American politics and global cooperation:
  • “It’s not exclusively Trump, but it’s Trump to an extraordinary degree. ... We're not ready for the political and economic pivot that will be required in success.” (19:46–21:36)
• On moral reasoning and theological apologetics:
  • “As at a certain point, we have to run out of our patience with these dodges.” (12:21)

Timestamps for Key Segments

| Time | Topic | |-----------|--------------------------------------------------------------| | 01:16 | Sam reflects on his New Year's "living as if dying" resolution| | 03:09 | Sam on the role of smartphones and attention | | 04:38 | The case for (and limitations of) mindfulness benefits | | 08:02 | Analogy: thoughts as blackjack cards & thieves in an empty house| | 10:29 | Theological debate (with Ross Douthat) on God, morality, and scripture| | 12:41 | Concerns around AI risk and existential threat | | 16:46 | Comparing AI risk to nuclear risk | | 21:36 | Society's inability to debate UBI (as an example of unreadiness)| | 26:53 | Preview to a segment on conspiracy culture and demonology |

Tone and Language

Sam’s tone remains rational, skeptical, and rigorously secular throughout, while the co-host occasionally injects humor or light sarcasm. Sam moves fluidly from philosophical depth to sharp critique, maintaining a sense of urgency, especially regarding societal risk and the necessity of mindfulness.

Summary Takeaways

This episode is a quintessential Sam Harris meditation on the profound limitations and pressing dangers at the individual, societal, and global level. Listeners are reminded to cultivate mindfulness, resist distraction, and take seriously the technical and ethical threats that loom as technology and old tribalism collide.