#475 — The Hard Problem of Consciousness
From Making Sense with Sam Harris by Sam Harris
May 12, 2026 · 26 min
About this episode
Sam Harris speaks with Michael Pollan about consciousness, the mind, and the self.
Sam Harris speaks with Michael Pollan about consciousness, the mind, and the self. They discuss Pollan's new book, the relationship between consciousness and intelligence, whether consciousness is a product of evolution, the role of psychedelics in consciousness research, AI and the question of machine consciousness, the illusion of the self, and other topics. If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe .
People in this episode
Host: Sam Harris
Guest: Michael Pollan
Topics covered
- consciousness
- mind
- self
- psychedelics
- AI
- evolution
Keywords
- consciousness
- intelligence
- evolution
- psychedelics
- machine consciousness
- illusion of the self
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Pollan's new book
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