How to Think Clearly in an Age of Distraction | Sam Harris

1. Sam Harris

   Mindfulness is, to talk about the style of meditation I tend to recommend, is just an ability to step back and notice thoughts as thoughts, as appearances in the mind. Perhaps only for brief moments, in the beginning to break the connection between the anxious thought and the physiology of anxiety.

2. Dr. Andy Galpin

   The science and practice of enhancing human performance for sport, play, and life. Welcome to Perform. I'm Dr. Andy Galpin, I'm a professor and scientist and the executive director of the Human Performance Center at Parker University. Today, I'm speaking with Dr. Sam Harris. Sam has a PhD in neuroscience, an extensive background in philosophy, and has spent over 20 years as a public intellect. In today's show, we talk a lot about critical thinking, logic, and reason.

3. We also get into Sam's current position on artificial intelligence and how that is impacting us in the short-term, as well as in the long-term. We also spent a lot of time talking about mindfulness and other tools and practices that you can use to have more control over both your emotions and logic. I know I personally picked up many things from our conversation that are going to help me in my thinking processes to be more decisive, to be more clear, to be more articulate, and to overall feel like I'm communicating more effectively as both someone speaking to the world, as well as someone who wants to listen and be more effective at those tools.

4. So with that in mind, please enjoy today's conversation with Dr. Sam Harris. Dr. Sam Harris, it's great to have you in here.

5. Sam Harris

   Great to meet you. Yeah. Thank you.

6. Dr. Andy Galpin

   I'm really interested in taking this conversation in a particular direction that I haven't seen you get the opportunity to spend as much time in recently, and that is thinking. And I know you cover a ton of topics, but given the fact that you've got terminal degrees in neuroscience, at least a graduate degree in philosophy or--

7. Sam Harris

   Undergraduate

8. Dr. Andy Galpin

   Undergraduate philosophy, and you've spent at the same time, much of your career helping people directly via your app or your teachings on meditation and whatnot. So you have this triangle of academic knowledge and kind of this intersection between the brain and the mind, as well as putting this into practice, how do we actually help people. And it's my opinion that right now, the world needs some help in thinking. And I think you're the perfect person to ask these set of questions with. So I want to actually start with what I hope is a simple question. And you can lay some groundwork and then we can dive in as far as possible.

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