What podcasts say about Sam Harris

Every statement, with the speaker, the exact quote and the moment it was said.

What Sam Harris has said on podcasts

27 statements · 12 positive · 11 negative · 4 neutral

on Meditative selfNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
The meditative sense of self is an illusion.
“this self is an illusion”
Listen at 0:45
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Self-illusion recognitionPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Recognizing the self as illusory can produce psychological freedom.
“there's a psychological freedom that can be experienced on the other side of discovering it to be”
Listen at 0:48
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Meditation benefitsNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Evidence for many claimed meditation benefits remains provisional.
“the science for many of them is quite provisional”
Listen at 3:22
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Separate thinkerNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditative examination cannot conclusively find a separate thinker.
“you won't find that thing and you cannot find it in a way that's conclusive”
Listen at 3:38
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Nondual experiencePositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditation can reveal no separation between oneself and experience.
“you ultimately learn to recognize that there's no separation from you, between you and your experience”
Listen at 6:34
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on MeditationPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditation reveals how attention creates apparent separation from experience.
“what I'm calling meditation is a way of simply understanding the mechanics of attention”
Listen at 8:17
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Human evolutionNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Human evolution did not optimize people for maximum happiness.
“We are not set up by evolution to be as happy as we possibly can be”
Listen at 10:45
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Self-talkNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Human evolution did not provide a mechanism for voluntarily stopping self-talk.
“there was never a reason to give you this ability to say, wouldn't it be nice to have four hours of quiet now? Like no self talk.”
Listen at 12:21
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Felt selfNeutralJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
The felt self consists of thinking without awareness that thinking is occurring.
“the self is what it feels like to be thinking without knowing that you're thinking”
Listen at 12:53
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Unrecognized thoughtsNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Unrecognized thoughts can define a person's mood, including through self-hatred.
“it could be a thought of self hatred. It could be a thought that unrecognized, totally defines your mood.”
Listen at 14:33
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Untrained sustained attentionNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Without training, people cannot sustain 30 seconds of attention without thought distraction.
“no one would be able to do it”
Listen at 15:52
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Meditation retreatsNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditation retreats reveal greater distractibility than beginners initially realize.
“what they're discovering is just how distractible they are”
Listen at 18:07
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Attention trainingPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Attention training increases the amount of experience people notice.
“there's a kind of frame rate change in the data stream where you really are just, you're just noticing much, much more”
Listen at 18:33
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Nondual mindfulnessNeutralJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Nondual mindfulness reveals that attention has no separate observing source.
“there is no place from which to aim attention”
Listen at 19:17
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on MeditationNeutralJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditation ultimately involves ceasing distraction rather than adding activity.
“Ultimately, meditation is not a practice that you're adding to your life. It's not doing more of anything. It's actually ceasing to do something.”
Listen at 21:23
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on ConcentrationPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Greater concentration produces focus, calm, and smoother emotional states.
“all the focus and the calm and the. And the kind of smoothness of emotional states. I mean all of that comes with greater concentration”
Listen at 23:26
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Anger and fearNeutralJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Anger and fear appropriately signal emergencies or potential emergencies.
“anger and fear are appropriate as salience cues”
Listen at 26:52
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Emotional state during emergenciesPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Calmness is preferable to anger or fear while handling an emergency.
“It's better to actually be calm in an emergency.”
Listen at 27:05
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on MindfulnessPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Mindfulness enables people to disengage from anger when they choose.
“Mindfulness, even dualistic mindfulness, gives you this capacity to just observe the mechanics of this and then get off the ride whenever you want.”
Listen at 28:52
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on psychedelicsPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Psychedelics initially convinced Harris that introspective investigation was worthwhile.
“psychedelics were indispensable in the beginning in proving to me that a first person interrogation of the mind was worth doing”
Listen at 30:20
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Psychedelic experiencesPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Psychedelic experiences can reveal psychologically healthier ways of being.
“It is different in ways that are obviously better and psychologically more healthy.”
Listen at 31:13
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Unconditional lovePositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Psychedelic experiences can demonstrate that unconditional love is possible.
“You know that unconditional love is a possibility.”
Listen at 31:34
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Psychedelic peak experiencesNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Peak experiences produced by psychedelics are inherently impermanent.
“Every one of which, by definition, is going to be impermanent.”
Listen at 31:53
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Goal achievementNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Fulfillment from achieving goals is brief and quickly fades.
“the moment at which the goal is fully conquered. That is just, I mean that has a tiny duration and it has a very short half life.”
Listen at 36:20
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on Material successNegativeJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
People can remain miserable despite possessing wealth, fame, and desired life circumstances.
“it's possible to be absolutely miserable having everything anyone could seemingly want”
Listen at 37:34
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on MeditationPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditation can produce fulfillment before external events occur.
“meditation very directly does this. It reverses the causality and lets you actually change state such that you can be fulfilled before anything happens.”
Listen at 39:44
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris
on MeditationPositiveJul 23, 2026· Huberman Lab Essentials
Meditation can make happiness less dependent on future positive events.
“Your happiness is no longer predicated on the next good thing happening.”
Listen at 39:58
Open the episode · Essentials: Using Meditation to Focus, View Consciousness & Expand Your Mind | Dr. Sam Harris

Statements are attributed to the speaker as said on the episode and reflect their view at the time, not PodLume's. They are not advice.