Making Sense review – Sam Harris urges us to make conversation, not war

Sam Harris has the annoying habit of being right on the money. Since he emerged as one of a band of “new” atheists in the mid-2000s he has been a tireless proponent of rigorous debate and rational thought, establishing himself as one of America’s most prominent and controversial public intellectuals in the process.

His latest book, Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality and the Future of Humanity, a collection of discussions cherry-picked from his popular podcast, continues in the same vein.

Both the book and the podcast cover an array of heavyweight topics, from consciousness, artificial intelligence, ethics and physics to epistemology, racism, free will and the future of humankind. Each conversation is an enlightening and often meandering discussion with an expert guest.

Harris deploys the same forensic clarity that he used to dismantle religion in The End of Faith – the book that propelled him to worldwide notoriety – and to advocate secular spirituality in Waking Up. He brings his own expertise in neuroscience to the table, along with several lifetimes’ worth of reflection that he’s managed to cram into one; this is a man who, in his 20s, spent a total of two years on silent retreats.

The fact he enjoys such a large following is testament to the wider podcast phenomenon. As Harris notes in the preface, “I will reach more people in forty-eight hours with my new podcast than I will reach in a decade with all my books.” Which raises the question – why bother with a book at all?

There does seem to be a point, however. Harris and his guests have smoothed out the creases in their exchanges to restore nuances lost in quick-fire audio. Reading the conversations also allows you to dwell on and digest arguments that can often flash past while listening. And besides, some people just prefer books…

Harris is a brilliant interlocutor dedicated to good faith disagreement and free inquiry wherever it leads. One contributor, the physicist David Deutsch, wanted to discuss in private the fundamental problems he had with Harris’s book The Moral Landscape, in which he argues that a conception of morality grounded in science is both possible and desirable. He didn’t want to call Harris out on his own podcast. But Harris insisted Deutsch lay out his objections to his “cherished thesis” for all to hear. The result, reproduced in the book, is compelling.

Every chapter’s worth a read but a personal favourite is the economist Glenn C. Loury’s in which the two dissect the problems of racial inequality and police violence. Recorded in 2016, the chapter is even more relevant today and the candour of the conversation is refreshing.

Harris argues that discussing delicate issues like race, gender and religion has become almost impossible because “we are now living in a culture that is addicted to outrage”, fuelled by the “poison” of identity politics. We have become entrenched in our camps and impervious to facts.

The theme is continued in Timothy Snyder’s chapter on the history of tyranny and the twenty lessons we must learn to prevent it. He presents a shrewd analysis of Russia’s new political model and of how despots dismantle democracies from the inside drawing on his extensive scholarship on Nazi Germany.

Snyder also offers a nugget of advice for living in the modern world: limit your news and social media intake. Instead, read books and converse with people: “Reading is a precondition of conversation, and conversation is something we very much need politically.”

While it’s easy to see why it didn’t make the cut, it would have been great to see one particular podcast gem reproduced in print – an hour-long grudge match between Harris and Ezra Klein, editor of Vox. The two clashed after Harris invited the political scientist Charles Murray onto the podcast, who made the claim that IQ differs across racial groups in his highly controversial book, The Bell Curve. Harris felt that a subsequent Vox article suggested he was a racist for even talking to Murray and invited Klein onto his show to slog it out.

Harris labelled the Klein podcast a disaster, “a study in two people speaking across each other”. But the collision of philosophies – given added spice by a genuine mutual dislike – made for great listening. The episode also confirmed that the podcast is a real experiment that sometimes fails, though always in interesting ways.

The point is to always try. As Harris observes, “We have two options as human beings. We have a choice between conversation and war. That’s it.”