Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about his new book, “Nexus,” and its application to current crises. They discuss humanity’s capacity for self-destruction, democracy and dictatorship as information networks, the “naive view of information,” the advantages of fiction over truth, trust in institutions, self-correction in a democracy, truth vs. power, truth vs. order, the suicide of conservatism, fixing social media, algorithms as editorial choices, efficiency vs. inefficiency, threats to democracy, the authoritarian character of Trump’s candidacy, the need for patriotism and nationalism, Israeli politics, the peaceful transfer of power, Putin and the war in Ukraine, the vulnerability of world order, the killing of Hassan Nasrallah, antisemitism and anti-colonialism, religious fanaticism among Israelis, the status of Arabs in Israeli society, biblical and post-biblical Judaism, whether a wider war in the Middle East is necessary, the danger of spirituality without ethics, and other topics.

Yuval Noah Harari is a historian, philosopher, and the bestselling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, the series Sapiens: A Graphic History and Unstoppable Us, and, most recently, Nexus: A Brief History of Information Networks from the Stone Age to AI. His books have sold over 45 million copies in 65 languages, and he is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today.

Website: https://www.ynharari.com/

Twitter: @harari_yuval

00:00 Introduction
01:12 Nexus
05:45 Why Having Too Much Information Can Be Dangerous
11:31 Loss of Trust in Institutions
17:53 The Importance of Fiction
24:43 The Ten Commandments vs. The U.S. Constitution
29:28 The Suicide of Conservative Parties
31:31 Free Speech on Social Media
39:21 Democratic Debate
41:41 The 2024 Presidential Election

October 7, 2024

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