Sam Harris came to prominence in 2004 with the publication of his first book, The End of Faith.

It was a harsh criticism of organized religion, and it spent 33 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.

He's got a PhD in cognitive neuroscience, and he's been described as an evangelical atheist.

So how is it even possible that 15 years later, Mind, Body, Spirit magazine identified him

as the 13th most influential spiritual person on the planet?

Welcome to people I mostly admire with Steve Levitt.

I think like a scientist. I view the world through the lens of data, skepticism, and

hypothesis testing. And I'm not the slightest bit religious. In spite of that, though, I have to

confess, I've always been curious about spirituality. But I was embarrassed about it, and I kept that curiosity to myself because I felt like there

was no place for spirituality in the scientific mind.

Well, that all changed when I read Sam Harris' amazing 2014 book, Waking Up, A Guide to

Spirituality Without Religion.

It's a rigorous, scientific exploration of spirituality, and it made him the thinking person's guru. The subsequent release of the wildly popular Waking Up app, his 2020 book Making

Sense, Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity, and his

Making Sense podcast

have further cemented his guru status.

I've never spoken to Sam Harris before, and I'm so curious to see what he's like.

Will he talk like a scientist or a guru?

Will he be full of ego or free from ego?

Thank you. or free from ego. I can't tell you, Sam, how much I've been looking forward to getting to talk to you after reading

so much of your amazing work.

Oh, nice.

...