Sam Harris speaks with Daniel Markovits about the problems with meritocracy. They discuss the nature of inequality in the United States, the disappearance of the leisure class, the difference between labor and capital as sources of inequality, the way the education system amplifies inequality, the shrinking middle class, deaths of despair, differing social norms among the elite and the working class, the ethics of taxation, scales of philanthropy, universal basic income, the need for a wealth tax, the relationship between meritocracy and political polarization, the illusion of earned advantages, 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.

Episode details and artwork are published by the show’s own feed. Sentinel plays short cited excerpts and links every episode back to its publisher.

← All episodes from Sam Harris

#205 — The Failure of Meritocracy

Search the Record

Sam Harris Episodes Around May 22, 2020

#190 — How Should We Respond to Coronavirus?

#191 — Early Thoughts on a Pandemic

#192 — A Conversation with Paul Bloom

#193 — Meditation in an Emergency

#194 — The New Future of Work

#195 — Social Cohesion is Everything

#196 — The Science of Happiness

#197 — A Conversation with Caitlin Flanagan

#198 — A Conversation with Paul Bloom

#199 — A Conversation with Caitlin Flanagan

#200 — Creatures of Habit

#201 — A Conversation with Yuval Noah Harari

#202 — A Conversation with Andrew Yang

#203 — A Conversation with Caitlin Flanagan

#204 — A Conversation with Jonathan Haidt

#205 — The Failure of Meritocracy

#206 — A Conversation with David Frum

#207 — Can We Pull Back From The Brink?

#208 — Existential Risk

#209 — A Good Life

#210 — The Logic of Doomsday

#211 — The Nature of Human Nature

#212 — A Conversation with Kathryn Paige Harden

#213 — The Worst Epidemic

#214 — A Conversation with Siddhartha Mukherjee

#215 — A Conversation with David Miliband

#216 — A Conversation with Graeme Wood

#217 — The New Religion of Anti-Racism

#218 — Welcome to the Cult Factory

#219 — The Power of Compassion

#220 - The Information Apocalypse

Summary