Person
Sam Harris books: every book Sam Harris wrote and recommended
Across 8 podcasts. Every show Sam Harris appears on, in one place — not just one.
Books by Sam Harris
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The End of Faith
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The Moral Landscape
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Waking Up
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Making Sense
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Islam and the Future of Tolerance
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Letter to a Christian Nation
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Lying
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Free Will
Sam Harris’s most recommended books
- Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom
- On Having No Head by Douglas Edison Harding
- A Guide to the Good Life by William B Irvine
- Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame by Will McGugan
- Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara
- Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti
- Marriage Is by Bill Irvin
- No One Left to Lie to by Christopher Hitchens
- Quran by Talal Itani
- The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker
Samuel Benjamin Harris is an American neuroscientist, philosopher, author, and podcast host. His work includes a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Harris came to prominence for his criticism of religion, and he is known as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism, along with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett. On podcast appearances, Harris advised listeners to read Ahmad Shah's The Biblical Characters, and Other Sages of the Quran to understand the core messages of the text. He recommended Douglas Edison Harding's On Having No Head as a primer on non-dual techniques for realizing headlessness, and he frequently referenced William Irvine's A Guide to the Good Life when discussing stoicism. Furthermore, he highlighted Siddharth Kara's Cobalt Red to address ethical concerns regarding electric vehicle battery supply chains, while hosts on programs like Modern Wisdom also mentioned his own book and app, Waking Up, alongside works by Robert Wright and Will Storr.
Books recommended by Sam Harris
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Superintelligence
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom is a foundational book exploring the future of artificial intelligence and the existential risks posed by the creation of superintelligent systems.
Discussed“because if this thing wipes us out the you know I think it's um Nick Bostrom the philosopher who wrote a great book on this entitled super intelligence I think he calls this the the Disneyland without children”
Where to get it
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Islam and the Future of Tolerance
Islam and the Future of Tolerance by Sam Harris and Maajid Nawaz is a dialogue-based book that explores the challenges of Islamic extremism, religious reform, and the possibility of fostering a more tolerant interpretation of the faith.
Recommended“um that the documentary is coming out on the our collaboration and it's it's out now it's it can be found out there it's what's called uh islam and the future of tolerance”
Where to get it
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On Having No Head
On Having No Head by Douglas Edison Harding is a spiritual guidebook introducing a non-dual method of meditation focused on looking inward and realizing headlessness.
Recommended“he wrote a book called on having no head which is quite it's this beautiful little primer on on his method”
Where to get it
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A Guide to the Good Life
A Guide to the Good Life by William B.
Recommended“Bill Irvin this philosophy Professor um who wrote a great book the guide to the good life um has attract has a series on waking up that is really great”
Where to get it
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Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame
Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame by Will McGugan serves as a practical, foundational technical guide for aspiring programmers and game developers looking to build interactive software utilizing Python.
Recommended“you know will store who wrote that great great book for status game you know does this tribe somewhere that grows yams”
Where to get it
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Cobalt Red
Cobalt Red is an investigative non-fiction book by Siddharth Kara that exposes the harsh ethical realities, human costs, and slave labor involved in cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to power modern electronics.
Recommended“he he's put his book coming out called Cobalt red but he just did a two-hour uh podcast with Rogan which was just this Litany of Horrors”
Where to get it
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Crowds and Power
Crowds and Power by Elias Canetti is a twentieth-century sociological and anthropological study that attempts to explain the entirety of human history through the behavior, transformation, and dynamics of crowds.
Recommended“it's you know there was a um philosopher um Elias kedy who wrote a book crowds and power which is very interesting on this topic”
Where to get it
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Marriage Is
Marriage Is is a concept explored by various thinkers in relation to philosophy and personal growth.
Recommended“I mean there's you know Bill Irvin this philosophy Professor um who wrote a great book the guide to the good life um has attract has a series on waking up that is really great”
Where to get it
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No One Left to Lie to
No One Left to Lie to by Christopher Hitchens is a sharp political critique examining the public career, policies, and political maneuvers of former US President Bill Clinton.
Recommended“hitch wrote a great book um no one left to lie to the triangulations of William Jefferson Clinton where he just took him down hard”
Where to get it
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Quran
Talal Itani's accessible translation of the "Quran" presents the sacred text of Islam for modern readers.
Recommended“and it's not the meek shall inherit the earth right it's that you know the the the the principal message of the Quran and I invite all of your listeners to just read the book you can this is not like the Bible that would take you a month and a half to read If You Know cover to cover”
Where to get it
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The Better Angels of Our Nature
The Better Angels of Our Nature by Steven Pinker is a comprehensive historical study arguing that violence has steadily declined throughout human history.
Recommended“he wrote This truly Landmark book on the decline of violence in the last century that the better angels of our nature came out a few years ago it was like 800 pages on this topic”
Where to get it
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Waking Up
Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion by Sam Harris is an insightful exploration of meditation, consciousness, and the secular aspects of spiritual practice, bridging scientific rationality with inner awareness.
Recommended“and I I think that you make it very well in waking up which I told you before we'd started I think I've gifted my mum every Christmas for the last three years which has been a great assistance in me being able to get something delivered digitally the Night Before Christmas I highly highly recommend that everyone go and”
Where to get it
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Why Buddhism is True
Why Buddhism is True by Robert Wright is an exploration of evolutionary psychology and ancient Buddhist philosophy that examines how the human mind creates suffering and how mindfulness can alter our perception of reality.
Recommended“I really enjoyed Robert Wright's book yeah yeah why Buddhism is true”
Where to get it
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9-11
Discussed“the example I I dealt with in my first book the end of Faith was uh and this was in reaction to a short book he did right after 9/11 called 911”
Where to get it
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Among the Thugs
Among the Thugs by Bill Buford is a journalistic exploration of British soccer hooliganism and the psychological and social dynamics of crowd violence.
Discussed“uh among the thugs by Bill Buford he um it's probably 20 25 years ago”
Where to get it
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Be Here Now
Be Here Now by Ram Dass is a classic spiritual guide and bestselling phenomenon that blends ancient Eastern teachings with countercultural mindfulness.
Discussed“he wrote this book be here now which was you know a huge bestseller back in I think probably came out in 19771 maybe”
Where to get it
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Being and Nothingness
Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness is a foundational philosophical text of existentialism that explores human consciousness, freedom, and the anxiety of self-determination.
Discussed“you just actually Jean Paul SAR the the existential philosopher in his book I think it was being and nothingness he describes the what he considers the Primal circumstance of the Voyer”
Where to get it
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Being there
Being There by Jerzy N.
Discussed“I don't know if you remember the book or the film "Being There" with Peter Sellers”
Where to get it
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Closing of the American Mind
Closing of the American Mind by Allan Bloom is a prominent and enduring critique of higher education, moral relativism, and cultural shifts within American universities.
Discussed“I was just reading the closing of the American mind which came out in 8 7 I think and so much of what alss US was was winged about in that book by Alan Bloom”
Where to get it
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Enchiridion
Epictetus's Enchiridion is a concise handbook of practical Stoic philosophy summarizing the ancient thinker's core ethical teachings on perception, resilience, and personal control.
Discussed“Actually, Epictetus talks about this. He says, 'You know, someone’s working out, they’re lifting weights.' You don’t say, 'Show me your muscles.'”
Where to get it
The other 15 books Sam Harris recommended or discussed, ranked
- Human Compatible by Stuart Russell
- Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris
- Meditations by Aurelius Marcus
- The beginning of infinity by Deutsch, David
- The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein, Charles Murray
- The Book of Mormon by Joseph Smith
- The Conscious Universe by Dean I. Radin
- The Double Helix by James D. Watson
- The End of Faith by Sam Harris
- The Fabric of Reality by David Deutsch
- The Fast by Lou Engle
- The Madness of Crowds by Douglas Murray
- The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris
- The Only Dance There Is by Ram Dass
- The Professor in the Cage by Jonathan Gottschall
Questions about Sam Harris’s book recommendations
What book does Sam Harris recommend most?
Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom. Sam Harris recommended it in 3 episodes, with 2 explicit recommendations.
How many books has Sam Harris recommended on podcasts?
We have found 35 books Sam Harris recommended or discussed, across 15 episodes of 8 podcasts. Ad reads and passing mentions are not counted.
What books are on Sam Harris's reading list?
The books Sam Harris has recommended most on podcasts are Superintelligence by Nick Bostrom, On Having No Head by Douglas Edison Harding, A Guide to the Good Life by William B Irvine, Beginning Game Development with Python and Pygame by Will McGugan and Cobalt Red by Siddharth Kara. The full book list below has all 35.
What books has Sam Harris written?
The End of Faith (2004), Letter to a Christian Nation (2006), The Moral Landscape (2010), Free Will (2012), Lying (2013), Waking Up (2014), Islam and the Future of Tolerance (2015) and Making Sense (2020).
What did Sam Harris recommend on The Joe Rogan Experience?
Superintelligence, Islam and the Future of Tolerance and On Having No Head, among 13 books in all.
What is the latest book Sam Harris recommended?
Quran, recommended on EconTalk (2024-07-29).
People who recommend the same books
Appearances
Other mentions (20: passing, ad reads, own books)
“this is a point I made long ago in my first book the end of Faith”
“so I had that book which you're holding waking up which is the um uh which is where I talk about my experience in meditation and just how I fit it into a a scientific secular worldview”
“so I had that book which you're holding waking up which is the um uh which is where I talk about my experience in meditation and just how I fit it into a a scientific secular worldview”
“I mean that's why many people you I you know I've titled my book and my app waking up”
“In the beginning when you're practicing, what I tend to teach in 'Waking Up' is a technique called mindfulness, which most people engage dualistically at first.”
“I wrote my first book, The End of Faith, and that proved so controversial and the the conversation around those issues was so rich and interesting that uh I quickly wrote a second book in response to the pushback there, A Letter to a Christian Nation”
“I wrote my first book, The End of Faith, and that proved so controversial and the the conversation around those issues was so rich and interesting that uh I quickly wrote a second book in response to the pushback there, A Letter to a Christian Nation”
“I think I talk about it in my book Free Will, but I I often talk about it when I I talk about this subject.”
“that was literally the most common question I got in response to my book line it's like what about Santa Claus”
“Well, so I I did write the book version of this content or or certainly most of this content. So I I have a book waking up”
“this is something I did in the end of faith as a as a parlor trick just because I wanted to prove this point is that I literally walked into a bookstore”
“the example I I dealt with in my first book the end of Faith was uh and this was in reaction to a short book he did right after 9/11 called 911”
“Actually, that was the the thesis of my last book or the book before last, the moral landscape where I talk about how we can understand strong claims of right and wrong and good and evil in the context of science.”
“This is a um this is really in my view a completion of the project I started with the end of faith where you know I I started by just noticing how divisive and unnecessary and and ultimately dangerous our our incompatible religious ideas are”
“And so so the moral landscape was my argument that we can have a strong conception of ethics without believing any [ __ ]”
“Uh why was it unpleasant? Is he angry at you? Well what yeah, I mean what happened is I so I wrote this very short book free will uh which uh was actually there was a short section in in my book the moral landscape”
“Uh why was it unpleasant? Is he angry at you? Well what yeah, I mean what happened is I so I wrote this very short book free will uh which uh was actually there was a short section in in my book the moral landscape”
“it was one of my books Hoodwinked was it letters to a Christian Nation I don't know it was either that or the end of Faith”
“it was one of my books Hoodwinked was it letters to a Christian Nation I don't know it was either that or the end of Faith”
“there’s actually a story I I think I had told in an end note of the end of faith I knew some guys who brought out a guru from India”