Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• There is a complete lack of global leadership
  • “There is no global plan of action either to fight the epidemic itself or to deal with the economic crisis” – Yuval Noah Harari
• In the Ebola epidemic and the financial crisis, the US acted as the global leader but now, “the US is kind of an anti-leadership position”
  • “America is first in the number of dead people and sick people” – Yuval Noah Harari
• “Global problems require a global solution” – Sam Harris
• There are fewer conflicts between countries, but more conflicts within countries
  • “I think it’s fair to say that today, Americans hate and fear each other far more than they hate and fear the Russians or the Chinese”– Yuval Noah Harari
• To hack a human being, you need 3 things:
  • A good understanding of biology
  • Enormous amounts of data
  • A lot of computing power
    • “Until today, nobody in history had any of these things…now for the first time in history, it is becoming feasible for the new Stalins of the 21st century” – Yuval Noah Harari
• “The COVID-19 crisis is not a health crisis, it’s above all a political crisis. We can deal with the virus, again it’s not the Black Death. We have some scientific knowledge and the technological tools to overcome the epidemic itself. The real problems are in the realm of economics and politics.” – Yuval Noah Harari
• People who have tunnel vision will look at the crisis as an opportunity to gain more of what they want 
  • “If the only thing you care about in life is getting more power or getting more money, this is a perfect opportunity for you” – Yuval Noah Harari
• The media needs to report on what’s changing in the world today, not after the crisis is over
  • “If you wait until 2021, it’s basically like coming to a party after a party is over and the only thing left to do is to wash the dirty dishes. I mean trillions are being divided, distributed right now. In 2021, there will be nothing left to distribute.” – Yuval Noah Harari
• The government can easily track its people, the people should be able to easily track the government

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Yuval Noah Harari about the Covid-19 pandemic and its future implications. They discuss the failures of global leadership, the widespread distrust of institutions, the benefits of nationalism and its current unraveling in the U.S., politics as a way of reconciling competing desires, the consequences of misinformation, the enduring respect for science, the future of surveillance, the changing role of religion, and other topics.

SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all content on samharris.org/subscribe