Sam Harris

Sam Harris

Author of The End of Faith, FreeWill, and other bestselling books; host of the Making Sense podcast; and creator of the Waking Up app (@wakingup).

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5 Book Recommendations by Sam Harris

  • Making Sense

    Sam Harris

    From the bestselling author of Waking Up and The End of Faith, an adaptation of his wildly popular, often controversial podcast "Civilization rests on a series of successful conversations." --Sam Harris Sam Harris--neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author--has been exploring some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events on his podcast, Making Sense. With over one million downloads per episode, these discussions have clearly hit a nerve, frequently walking a tightrope where either host or guest--and sometimes both--lose their footing, but always in search of a greater understanding of the world in which we live. For Harris, honest conversation, no matter how difficult or controversial, represents the only path to moral and intellectual progress. This book includes a dozen of the best conversations from Making Sense, including talks with Daniel Kahneman, Timothy Snyder, Nick Bostrom, and Glen Loury, on topics that range from the nature of consciousness and free will, to politics and extremism, to living ethically. Together they shine a light on what it means to "make sense" in the modern world.

    "Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity" publishes next week. Thanks to @tegmark, @GlennLoury, @DavidDeutschOxf, @anilkseth, @TimothyDSnyder, and my other guests for helping make it a book! https://t.co/UPiPHVyCD4

  • The Madness of Crowds

    Douglas Murray

    The challenging and brilliantly-argued new book from the bestselling author of The Strange Death of Europe. In his devastating new book The Madness of Crowds, Douglas Murray examines the twenty-first century's most divisive issues: sexuality, gender, technology and race. He reveals the astonishing new culture wars playing out in our workplaces, universities, schools and homes in the names of social justice, identity politics and intersectionality. We are living through a postmodern era in which the grand narratives of religion and political ideology have collapsed. In their place have emerged a crusading desire to right perceived wrongs and a weaponization of identity, both accelerated by the new forms of social and news media. Narrow sets of interests now dominate the agenda as society becomes more and more tribal--and, as Murray shows, the casualties are mounting. Readers of all political persuasions cannot afford to ignore Murray's masterfully argued and fiercely provocative book, in which he seeks to inject some sense into the discussion around this generation's most complicated issues. He ends with an impassioned call for free speech, shared common values and sanity in an age of mass hysteria.

    Douglas Murray's new book, "The Madness of Crowds," is fantastic. As I said in my blurb, "Reading it to the end, I felt as though I'd just drawn my first full breath in years...” Do get a copy: https://t.co/xpF4BA0vkK

  • I see that @jockowillink has a new book topping the bestseller lists: https://t.co/9KbT54Xl0t Now that he spends all his time in a suit and tie, eating canapés, he should know that I have stepped up my training: https://t.co/eQZ9FAU3b4

  • Enlightenment Now

    Steven Pinker

    INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2018 ONE OF THE ECONOMIST'S BOOKS OF THE YEAR AND A PERFECT HOLIDAY GIFT "My new favorite book of all time." --Bill Gates If you think the world is coming to an end, think again: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science. Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing. Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress.

    Steve's book isn't even out yet, and it's already making waves... @sapinker https://t.co/u3LSorzmLk

  • Tribe of Mentors

    Tim Ferriss

    Life-changing wisdom from 130 of the world's highest achievers in short, action-packed pieces, featuring inspiring quotes, life lessons, career guidance, personal anecdotes, and other advice

    My friend @tferriss has a new book, and @RedHourBen and I are both in it! (Along with some very impressive people who look nothing like us.) https://t.co/JZGOri5qvH