#210 — The Logic of Doomsday

Making Sense with Sam Harris

Waking Up with Sam Harris

Samharris, Currentevents, Politics, Ethics, Religion, Neuroscience, Science, Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.6 • 29.1K Ratings

🗓️ 9 July 2020

⏱️ 106 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with William J. Perry and Lisa Perry about the ever-present threat of nuclear war. They discuss the history of nuclear weapons, the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Cuban Missile Crisis, the present threat of accidental nuclear war, nuclear terrorism, unilateral disarmament, the psychology of deterrence, tactical nuclear weapons, cybersecurity, details of command and control, nuclear proliferation, the steps we could take toward safety, strategic missile defense, nuclear winter, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Making Sense podcast.
0:23.3	This is Sam Harris.
0:26.3	This is yet another occasion where I'm putting the whole podcast outside the paywall.
0:33.6	We've been doing this a lot during the pandemic.
0:36.1	There are certain topics where I feel a responsibility to reach the widest possible audience,
0:40.8	and I seem to be doing podcasts on the source of topics of late.
0:45.5	So the topic today is the Threat of Nuclear War.
0:50.3	And as you'll hear, I think the prospect of our blundering into a nuclear war, either
0:55.6	by accident or political miscalculation, is probably the greatest risk we face.
1:04.0	And it's dangerous compounded by the fact that almost no one appears to be thinking about
1:09.2	this risk.
1:11.2	So this podcast is another PSA.
1:13.3	I'll just remind you that if you value what I'm doing over here, subscribing is what makes
1:19.0	that possible.
1:20.8	And it's what helps this platform grow.
1:25.3	And it's what makes it a place where I can talk about anything.
1:30.4	Now as chance would have it, we're coming up on the 75th anniversary of the atomic bomb
1:37.1	in about a week.
1:38.7	July 16th is the 75th anniversary of Trinity, the explosion of the first atomic bomb at the
1:46.2	Trinity Test Site in Alamed Gordo, New Mexico.
1:49.8	Whatever the merits or necessity of our building the bomb, and even using it to end the war
1:55.7	with Japan, I can certainly be debated.
	...

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