#349 — Generosity, Cynicism, and the Future of Doing Good

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

🗓️ 16 January 2024

⏱️ 63 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Harris speaks with Chris Anderson about generosity in the age of the Internet. They talk about the new spirit of cynicism in tech and finance, the problems with DEI, the Coleman Hughes controversy at TED, the norm of color blindness, the science of generosity, the leverage of the Internet, the false opposition between selfishness and selflessness, mixed motives in giving, results vs reward, the importance of intentions, looking for the good in people, digital business models, the economics of TED, TEDx, wealth inequality, the ethics of billionaires, philanthropy at scale, the power of pledges, the arguments of Peter Singer, the Sam Bankman-Fried scandal, problems with Effective Altruism, how to improve our digital lives, and other topics.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Making Sense Podcast, this is Sam Harris. Just a note to say that if you're hearing this you're not currently on our subscriber feed and will only be hearing the first part of this conversation. In order to access full episodes of the Making Sense Podcast, you'll need to subscribe at Sam Harris.org. There you'll also find our
0:24.9	scholarship program where we offer free accounts to anyone who can't afford one. We
0:29.0	don't run ads on the podcast and therefore it's made possible entirely through the support of our subscribers.
0:34.0	So if you enjoy what we're doing here, please consider becoming one. Today I'm speaking with Chris Anderson.
0:47.0	Chris has been the curator of the famous TED conference since 2001. The tagline of Ted is
0:56.2	ideas worth spreading, of which there have been many
1:00.1	first shared at TED. The title of his new book is Infectious Generosity, the ultimate idea worth
1:06.7	spreading. And that is in part the topic of today's conversation. We talk about the new spirit
1:12.2	of cynicism that seems to surround any notion of doing good in the world in tech and finance at the moment.
1:19.0	The problems with diversity, equity, and inclusion, DEI, the controversy that enveloped Coleman Hughes when he spoke
1:27.0	at TED last year.
1:29.2	And then we get into the topic of Chris's book, Proper.
1:31.6	We talk about the science of generosity, the leverage offered
1:34.9	by the internet, the false opposition between selfishness and selflessness, mixed
1:40.6	motives in giving, results versus reward,
1:44.0	trying to see the good in people,
1:46.0	digital business models,
1:48.0	including my own business model for this podcast,
1:51.0	the economics of TED, Ted X, wealth inequality, the ethics of
1:56.8	billionaires, philanthropy at scale, the power of pledges, the arguments of Peter Singer, the Sam Bankman-Freed scandal, and the problems
2:07.4	with effective altruism, how to improve our digital lives, and other topics.
2:14.3	Is there a more important topic
	...

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