Special: Interview with Sam Harris on Gurus, Tribalism & the Culture War

Sam Harris probably needs no introduction in our neck of the info-sphere as he is seemingly never far from the spotlight, or the occasional controversy. We’ve had some nice things to say about Sam, but we’ve also made some harsh criticisms, particularly regarding a short episode he released which appeared to suggest it was necessary to practice his form of introspective meditation in order to fully understand why his political and culture war views were correct. Although we’ve never done a ‘proper’ episode on Sam, we have always stated that anyone we discuss is welcome to come on the show and discuss or dispute our charges – which is exactly what Sam is doing here! This interview is split into two sections. In the first, we discuss Sam’s app and whether it might encourage guru dynamics, the role of meditation and (non) self-awareness in forming an accurate political outlook. We put some of our criticisms to Sam especially regarding guru dynamics, issues of introspective verification of truth claims, and t