How To Take Control Of Your Mind - Sam Harris - #661

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends, welcome back to the show. My guest today is Sam Harris. He's a bestselling author, moral philosopher, neuroscientist, and a podcaster. The entire world seems to be at each other's throats, and finding peace in the chaos is becoming increasingly difficult. But there are tools at our disposal to improve the quality of our lives. As Sam says on this episode, wisdom is a matter of making your mind your friend. Expect to learn what Sam's life is like after Twitter, Sam's reflections on his famous talk on death and the present moment, how to live a life full of meaning, how to take your mindfulness off the cushion and into the real world, Sam's thoughts on Tucker Carlson's move, his opinion on Andrew Tate, RFK Jr, Andrew Huberman and Jordan Peterson, whether we have reached peak woke, Sam's take on young Western men converting to Islam, and much more. I had so much fun recording this episode. Sam was a huge influence on me starting this podcast. Six years ago, and it feels great for everything to have come full circle and to get to sit down for three hours opposite him in a disgustingly sweltering warehouse in the middle of LA because we wanted to get some awesome visuals and this was the best looking location that we could find, but also happened to be a very hot tin box. Anyway, I hope that you take tons away from this episode. It really is Sam at his best as far as I can see. And don't forget that if you are new here or if you're a long time listener, you might be listening but not subscribed. And that means you're going to miss episodes when they go up. The next six months has the biggest, most ridiculously stacked list of guests that I have ever, ever had and I cannot wait to get these ones out. So you need to press the subscribe button or you're going to be trez sad because you're going to miss those episodes. So go and press the button. I thank you. But now, ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Sam Harris.
Sam Harris, welcome to the show.

**Sam Harris** (2:11)
Thank you, great to meet you finally.

**Chris Williamson** (2:13)
What is life like after Twitter?

**Sam Harris** (2:17)
It is immensely improved, to a degree that I find actually embarrassing in retrospect, because it's proof that I was needlessly degrading the quality of my life for, it was 12 years tactically, I think it was probably five years where it was actually degrading the quality of my life. But it was, I mean, retrospective was a psychological experiment that we all got enrolled in, and no one read the consent form, much less signed it, and it has given it, for me, if you're someone who has a significant platform, and you're at all controversial, I think it gives you a sense of what the world is, which is basically and destructive to the feelings you have for the rest of humanity. I mean, it was incrementally like a slow ratchet, but never to be reversed, often undetectable, but still nevertheless always in one direction, changing me into a misanthrope. I mean, I was just starting to perceive people who I had never met and many who I had met as the worst, most grotesque versions of themselves. And it's not that it's totally inaccurate. It's not that, I mean, people tweet what, you see them at their worst moments or their most bad faith moment or their most cynical moments.
But it's like the evidence of that, of those moments becomes indelible and you lose sight of the rest. And I just was noticing this mismatch of being out in the world with people and people are great. And then checking into my life online and recognizing that people are horrible and just bouncing back between these two views. And I just realized I really only wanted one of them.

**Chris Williamson** (4:19)
It seems to me that a lot of people feel that, that when they step out into the real world, and the people who spend more time in the real world, they realize this is kind of nice. Everyone seems pretty balanced out here. No one's that antagonistic, no one's backbiting or screaming or shouting or accusing me of being a bigot or a racist or whatever. And then for some reason you step onto the internet with frictionless communication and all hell breaks loose.

**Sam Harris** (4:43)
Yeah. Yeah. And it's not just anonymity, anonymity is part of it, but it's also people you know who are captured by their echo chamber, which you're not seeing, right? Like it's this illusion that you're inhabiting the same space with the people you're in conversation with. But in reality, they're talking to their fans, you're talking to your fans, you have weaponized your fans against their fans and vice versa and without even necessarily thinking in those terms, those are the network dynamics of what's happening.