I’ve been listening to Sam’s podcast for years now and it’s been one hell of a journey. I remember when he mentioned putting together a book on some of his favourite conversations from the podcast, which perked my initial interest. I wasn’t disappointed. The conversations in here are fascinating, even though they are copied from the already existing content on the podcast. Reading things slowly really gives you an opportunity to take stock in the conversation in comparison to listening to a conv...

I'm a big fan of Sam Harris and the making sense podcast. I found with this "book" that the podcasts seem life changing whilst you're listening to them, but then totally forgettable once you finish them.

This book definitely inspires future reading

I certainly don't agree with everything Sam Harris says, but I feel that his desire to intellectually challenge is generally well thought out and it is interesting to read through this. If you have listened to the podcast, you will know the premise and probably much of the material, but if he is new to you or you are a fan of the podcast, this is a good read.

DEUTSCH: Well, I see human history as a long period of virtually complete failure—failure, that is, to make any progress. Our species has existed for, depending on where you count it from, maybe a hundred thousand or two hundred thousand years. And for the vast majority of that time, people were alive, they were thinking, they were suffering, and they wanted things. But nothing ever improved. The improvements that did happen happened so slowly that archaeologists can’t distinguish between artifa...

Since 2014, Sam Harris—neuroscientist, philosopher, and best-selling author—has been exploring some of the most important questions about the human mind, society, and current events on his podcast, Making Sense. With more than one hundred million downloads, 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 and...

Heavy going. Think I understood possibly three sentences in total.

Sam Harris' Making Sense is for those looking for some intellectual stimulus. His newest book covers the gamut of current topics relevant to almost anyone. He uses the conversations from his notable podcast to form the basis of his book. As he says, by putting it into writing it gives both him and his interviewees the time to reflect and refine their arguments. I particularly loved his conversations on race in America and consciousness. While this book didn't make me want to stay up all night re...

I've never listened to Harris' podcast (I tend to lean towards reading content rather than listening to it), but the topics broached in this book were fascinating. To be completely honest, I'm sure some of the information went over my head - I am not a philosopher, and one of my gripes with this book is that I don't think it's user friendly for the vast majority. I took philosophy courses in college which give me some background to speak of, but there were many concepts and thought processes tha...

I thought this was a great read, but I would say it’s important to know that I was familiar with Sam Harris and the topics he regularly engages in before I picked up this book. I first came across his name when I saw some videos passing by on YouTube and I thought he made a lot of sense on a wide range of subjects (pun not intended). Afterwards I read his book Waking Up and I listened to the most recent episodes of the Making Sense podcast. This book seemed like a perfect catch-up for someone li...

Ben Stiller continues his multi-year project masquerading as a philosopher-turn-podcast host. Tricks very smart people into having conversations with him. Said conversations recorded here in text form.

I have been following Sam Harris for a while and have read a couple if His books, The End of Faith and Letters to a Christian Nation, with yet another couple on my to read list.He is a brilliant mind and what I like most about his writing is the clarity of his message while using highly complex language. He takes very complicated ideas and issues from a couple different domains, mostly philosophy and neuroscience, and tries(successfully in my books) to weave an image that is clear enough for eve...

OK, I’m biased - I’m a huge fan of Harris and have been for many years. This book consists of edited transcripts from a handful of his best conversations lifted from his ‘Making Sense’ podcast. There’s some great ones here, I loved Nick Bostrom, Glenn Loury and Timothy Snyder’s contributions in particular. (I think I’m going to seek out Snyder’s ‘On Tyranny’ very soon in fact).There’s something nice about reifying, or at least making less ephemeral, these podcasts. I’ve also been a big fan of th...

Liked this a lot. Harris is smart and clever and interested in a lot of the same things I am - but something about his attitude often bugs me. I’ve read several of his books, but I think I really like him in this format better, having interesting discussions with other people. And they’re definitely discussions, not interviews.

I, for one, am grateful to Sam Harris for favouring us with this hard-copy access to a number of his podcasts. As Harris himself says, this provides the reader with a greater control over the subjects discussed, especially in regard to the details of the topic under discussion. The current popularity of podcasts is increasing exponentially, it seems, and they provide outlets for many to express and disseminate their views readily and extensively. Whether this is a good thing or not is a moot poi...

A fun trip through memory lane of a few of the old podcast episodes. It felt a little disjointed at times moving between topics/episodes, but overall seemed to do a decent job of taking deep dive into relevant topics without too much overlap. Also, it's quite easy to progress through written/audiobooks when they are dialogue-based, so the length of this shouldn't be intimidating to anyone, especially those newer to Sam's work and looking to familiarize themselves with his major topics of interes...

Good collection of podcasts, obv works well as audiobook (if willing to pay for it).

Audiobooks are very popular right now and I envy all of you who are able to listen to them. If I could listen and do other things, I would get more books read. Also, many people point out how much more personal a book is when the author reads it themself. And then there's the added entertainment value.However, my brain doesn't absorb audio nearly as well as visual. If I listen to a book, I have to go back and read it because I don't retain the information.  Even watching movies - If there are no...

It was good. Just not particularly the content I was expecting. I went in thinking it would be like Tools of Titans, but it didn't resonate as well as ToT, likely due to the format of the conversations mostly transcripts from podcasts and not particularly summarized per se. 2.8/5

Met my expectations; interesting conversations on consciousness, AI, race, ethics, human behavior, etc.