I have been a listener for years, but now I’ve come to realize that Sam Harris cherry picks arguments and grossly oversimplifies complex issues that he has no expertise on. I am so disappointed in him. I am disappointed in myself for not realizing it sooner and wish I never wasted my $. He essentially blames transgender people for Trump’s win. He blames the conflict in Israel on Palestinians and their religion. These ideas are dehumanizing. I know Sam could be better than this. These last couple of years he seems to have fallen victim to Russian disinformation campaigns and is more obsessed with woke issues than the libs.

It sounds like you have a desire to talk about trans issues, but didn’t because it’d be messy and highly likely to be criticized. I hope the next time you want to do a topic, you do it, relying on your ability to work through your analysis. Otherwise we miss out on important topics and don’t ever see examples of being wrong in the process of figuring out your position.

Thank you for sharing your intellect with the world.

I subscribe and listen to about 50 different podcasts regularly, about 12 frequently. This is the only one I pay for.

Nothing I can say that hasn’t been said before, but we are all lucky to have Sam Harris.

Brilliant mind, and equally laudable attempts to explain to us the mind noise we all carry and how to take a step back from it. Probably the most articulate human I’ve ever had the pleasure to listen to, and sadly now subjected to much trolling as evidenced by many reviews here.

Sam, your interview with Caruso was beyond softball. He spouted so much blame without any context and with much misrepresentation: he touted himself so much but could do no wrong. His facts about water and the fire department were outright falsehoods- the fire dept budget increased but went to salaries. Also as a community leader why wasn’t he giving warnings to the Palisades rather than keeping to himself? and then his rant about the election, where he spent 10s of millions on his own campaign. he isn’t different- he’s a wealthy guy who thinks he can solve everything- sounds familiar? see how he is treating his tenants at the Palisades.. that is what he cares about. You were excellent at the end- where you talked about charity and Caruso touted his doing but seemed very uncomfortable with your proposal…

Reasonable and well-thought out arguments and points. Even when I disagree, I feel compelled to consider his opinions because of his approach. His voice is disarming and very easy to listen to as well.

Sam Harris is undoubtably an extraordinary brilliant person, but he is so blinded by what he doesn’t want to see he can talk himself out of the truth, sitting right in front of him, which is so bizarre.

Sam Harris’s Making Sense podcast is a rare and invaluable platform for thoughtful, objective discussion in today’s polarized world. Having read his books and listened to countless episodes, I can confidently say that Sam approaches complex topics with intellectual honesty and a sincere desire to understand our chaotic culture as clearly as possible. His commitment to being an impartial observer naturally frustrates those on both the political left and right—a clear sign that he’s challenging tribal thinking rather than catering to it. I don’t agree with Sam on everything, and that’s exactly why his podcast is worth listening to. His conversations invite genuine dialogue rather than the blind, thoughtless reactions that many of his critics seem to prefer. The negative, often cranky comments from detractors only reinforce how important voices like Sam’s are. His commentary forces people to confront uncomfortable truths, and instead of engaging with his ideas, some would rather silence him. That’s precisely why Making Sense is so essential today.

Sam needs to get over Trump and realize democrat policies don’t work out very well.

Amazing Sam is a great he has an excellent idea of how to make geopolitical easy to understand I love it P.S do not listen to the low stars comments his arguments is good to me

I love listening to this podcast to see how insane Sam Harris has become these days. It’s like listening to someone with schizophrenia who reads nothing but the New York Times. He’s really living in a bubble

I have always been a fan of Sam, but he has really shown himself to be an embarrassment. He can not see pat his own delusions of who he thinks Trump is and who are his followers. I know many fellow highly educated intellectuals that have given up on him. He dropped the ball on the pandemic and most definitely his ridiculous support of Kamala. This was my last listen.

Not Making Sense should be the new title. Sam has become a shell of himself.

“What a glut of books! Who can read them?” Robert Burton, The Anatomy of Melancholy

Harris’ blurb on this page describes him as having “profound wisdom.” Good grief. Maybe I have it wrong, but Isn’t meditation supposed to engender some degree of humility?

Sam sees the world through the lens of woke atheist.

Just listened to your pre-election debate with Ben Shapiro. I see that you’ve started to adopt the asking of “right?” In the middle of sentences like so many other others in the podcast world. Please cut this off immediately – it is extremely distracting.

The people leaving negative comments, especially the one-sentence ones about Sam being anti Trump and “like CNN” are not worth listening to, as they clearly haven’t listened to very much of this show. Surely some MAGA c-word put Mr Harris on their shít list and sent all the cronies over to leave bad reviews… If you value intelligent analysis and brave realism, give him a listen for real - don’t listen to the idiots.

Respectfully, your constant content and attempts to convince the audience that Trump and Elon are the worst things to happen to this country are out of touch. As a centrist, I agree with you on most things, but your refusal to look deeper into understanding why the majority of the country voted for Trump comes off naive and close minded, especially as you yourself have acknowledged how far woke the ultra left have become and the dangerous/ Marxist direction they are leading us. Also, as an ex Muslim intellectual, it’s disappointing that you no longer dedicate episodes to the dangers of Islam. This needs to be discussed more than ever right now. Please don’t give into fear. Please Sam, I beg you to not let our community down. You are a light in the darkness for us and one of the only public figures that give us hope. We appreciate your voice more than you can imagine. Thanks Sam

Idk. Was told this guy had a nice moderate take, but not really. Just cnn, but with casual “the right could be right, but they aren’t”.

I trust this man’s quest for realism and honesty.

I try to consider all points of view, but your hubris and inability to recognize your own hypocrisy make it impossible to take you seriously. I prefer listening to someone with more humility, like Eric Weinstein. Your tone and energy come across as pompous and arrogant, and you seem entirely unaware of how off-putting that is.

Harris' need to express his polical views distorts his message.

Very articulate and thoughtful.

Can we evolve to be better human beings? Not more hateful human beings ? This guy is dark with a mask of lightness.

Harris is delusional and has a weird obsession with Mike Cernovich.

Very objective, analytical, insightful analysis of everything. I love these topics.

Absolutely best, smartest analysis post-election.

It dawned on me the reason for my newfound ambivalence towards Sam Harris. I have been a long time listener and enjoyed the show quite a bit. I enjoy language and grammar as well as logic and reason, Sam has the beautiful command of language , he flows , but smooth language is not always representative of sound, dispassionate reason. Sam is a sharp guy in many ways but not the great philosopher by any measure. This could be caused by repeated use of psychedelics.

Used to be an ardent supporter of Sammy until he became so partisan… Don’t be fooled by his disdain for the “far” left… He continues to demagogue Trump and Jan 6, as if Obama and his administration did not do the same. Silently supplanting a false “Russian” narrative, which totally ruined Tump’s first term; is as peaceful of a transition as citizens roaming the halls of the people’s house on Jan 6.

While I don’t agree with everything you say, you have changed my mind on a few things which is genuinely impressive.

Quite concerned and alarmed by this host’s hate speech and Islamophobia.

Just the guy, that flip-flops, hypocritical, dry, no backbone, sell out to Big government.

It is clear that Sam Harris is a thoughtful individual. However, he seems to be moving increasingly to the far right. Possibly for relevancy/listeners in the midst of the transition to the “new normal”. November 11th’s episode addressed supposed reasons that the Democratic Party lost. None of his arguments as to why the Democratic Party lost were authentic or genuine (eg. his insistence that the left was pushing trans rights above all else). He must be listening to talking points by the right and the identity politics that they rely so heavily on. This last episode was extremely disappointing.

As always, a great show! You have a way of explaining things in such a way that a layperson can understand. The “republicans” would have been very sore losers, btw it is not the party I grew up with, the party is now a party of haters and conspiracy theorists, no longer a party of fiscal conservatism. I think it’s time for a three party system, far left, center and far right - the center party can be called the democratic republicans! In other words, many of us are reasonable and willing to compromise and put this country first - except for a few extremists to the far left and far right - so let them have their own party.

Joe and Elon > CNN and NPR

This guy is just not impressive. How can someone be so wrong about all of the most important things the last 5 years and be considered even marginally intelligent ?

Sad to see the lack of objectivity, just another out of touch pillow bitter.

You had me for the entire Reckoning episode until you continued your hand wringing about January 6th and election fraud (which I agree with you were unacceptable-no argument there). What I disagree with you about is how no one takes Kamala to task for doing the exact same thing during the summer of 2020. She encouraged “activists” to continue to loot and riot and burn down Minneapolis in the name of justice—openly and verbally—saying the riots should continue until the election. She also supported the organizing of Go Fund Me campaigns to bail the jailed rioters out of jail. She is an elected officer and licensed attorney, officer of the court, and former head of CA’s attorneys general office—the head law enforcer, encouraging crime in the name of justice. To me this is just as bad as the horrible things Trump did but no one talks about it. Why?

Smug Clown

Always a thought provoking discussion.

Sam: you raised some interesting points but you missed the mark: this country is racist, misogynistic, xenophobic and filled with deplorables.

Bummer. I used to truly respect Mr. Harris and thought of him as a critical thinker and a trustworthy source of intellectual information. As it turns out politics reveal his true unappealing nature. In the latest episode, He just spewed lies and insults in the nature of an angry adolescent boy, the legacy media and former administration would be impressed by his absolute biased ability to ignore reality. Previous to this I honestly thought only untraveled non critical thinking hive mind types actually believed such nonsense that because his disastrous candidate lost, the free world will now end with the rise of an orange racist dictatorship. How very disappointing to hear him point fingers calling people “freaks” and “liars”. Including another podcast host who has spoken very highly of Mr Harris himself just recently. Just like the celebrities that publicly endorsed the loser and insulted over half their fellow countrymen by talking down to them as if they were children incapable of having their own opinion, Sam exposes his true unappealing nature. I won’t be wasting my time in the future listening to his untrustworthy opinion. We clearly do not agree on what is good for our country and society. He and all the other people still crying about the failure of their far left agenda can go put a tampon up the butt, sack up and deal. The sky isnt falling. Your reputation and ratings are Mr. Harris.

Excellent analysis filled with common sense

This episode is quite possibly one of the best podcast episodes on politics I’ve heard in the last 4 years. Sam…you are so right. The left bears a lot of blame, which I think hopefully they are now starting to understand with the focus on trans issues. But the right…my goodness, they have really lost their way uniting behind this psycho and have been totally manipulated by the Joe Rogans and Elon musks of the world. God help us all.

Zero stars

This episode provided an excellent summary of what happened, where we stand and what we can do about it. Really appreciate your clear and concise delivery on the topics that need to be addressed if we are to move forward in a productive way. Sam, please keep the information. we need your voice.

The fall from grace (and sense) continues for Mr. Harris, it is disappointing to see and I wish him well on his path to recovery.