#372 — Life & Work

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

🗓️ 24 June 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Sam Harris speaks with George Saunders about his creative process. They discuss George’s involvement with Buddhism, the importance of kindness, psychedelics, writing as a practice, the work of Raymond Carver, the problem of social media, our current political moment, the role of fame in American culture, Wendell Berry, fiction as way of exploring good and evil, The Death of Ivan Ilyich, missed opportunities in ordinary life, what it means to be a more loving person, his article “The Incredible Buddha Boy,” the prison of reputation, Tolstoy, and other topics.

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Learning how to train your mind is the single greatest investment you can make in life. That’s why Sam Harris created the Waking Up app. From rational mindfulness practice to lessons on some of life’s most important topics, join Sam as he demystifies the practice of meditation and explores the theory behind it.

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 George Saunders. George is the author of 12 books, including Lincoln and
0:51.5	the Bardo, which won the 2017 Man Booker Prize for Best Fiction in English,
0:58.0	and was a finalist for the Golden Man Booker, in which one Booker winner is selected to represent each decade.
1:05.8	His short stories have appeared regularly in the New Yorker since 1992, and his short story
1:10.7	collection the 10th of December was a finalist for the National Book Award.
1:15.0	George has received MacArthur and Guggenheim fellowships, the Penn Malamud Prize for excellence in the short story,
1:22.0	and he is a member of the American Academy of Arts and
1:24.3	Letters and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
1:27.8	In 2013 he was named one of the world's hundred most influential people by Time magazine, and for the last 25 years or so he has taught
1:36.0	in the creative writing program at Syracuse University. As you'll hear today George and I
1:41.7	almost completely ignore his fiction but we do talk about life
1:45.2	and work we discuss his involvement with Buddhism the importance of kindness
1:51.2	psychedelics writing as a practice, his creative process, the work of Raymond Carver,
1:58.0	the problem of social media, our current political crisis, the role of fame in American culture, Wendell Berry,
2:05.6	fiction is a way of exploring good and evil, the death of Ivan Illich,
2:09.8	missed opportunity is in ordinary life, what it means to be a more loving person,
2:14.6	his article titled The Incredible Buda Boy, The Prison of Reputation, Tolstoy, and other topics. Anyway, it was great to talk to him. I very much enjoyed this.
2:25.8	And now I bring with George Saunders. George, thanks for joining me.
2:38.0	Thank you for having me. What pleasure?
	...

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