Making Sense of Encounters With Violence | Episode 4 of The Essential Sam Harris

This episode centers around the specter of violence and surfaces
some of Sam’s most controversial positions and difficult
conversations.


We begin with author and former FBI hostage negotiator Chris
Voss, who delivers some potentially life-saving aspects of
“tactical empathy,” which can also be applied to less extreme
circumstances. Author and security expert Gavin de Becker then
lays out his thesis from The Gift of Fear, which recasts this
unfairly maligned emotion as an important attention-demanding,
evolved signal.


We then spend time with Sam’s position on “profiling” and the
moral and political complexities woven into it. This careful
consideration leads to a conversation with author and firearms
instructor Scotty Reitz, as they paint a stark picture of certain
extremes of violence and consider what responsible gun ownership
might look like.


Sam then answers questions directly on his often criticized and
often misunderstood position on gun ownership before we turn to
author and former Navy Seal Jocko Willink to apply pressure on
the philosophical stance of pacifism. We conclude with the
philosopher Tamler Sommers, who ponders the idea of “honor” in
society and inspects how third-party delegation of violence might
generate an illusive sense of justice.


 


About the Series


Filmmaker Jay Shapiro has produced The Essential Sam
Harris, a new series of audio
documentaries exploring the major topics that Sam has
focused on over the course of his career.


Each episode weaves together original analysis, critical
perspective, and novel thought experiments with some of the most
compelling exchanges from the Making Sense archive. Whether you
are new to a particular topic, or think you have your mind made
up about it, we think you’ll find this series fascinating.