Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens, The Power of Awareness, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show

ℹ️ EPISODE INFO

Released

October 30, 2020

Duration

1h 45m

Channel

Tim Ferriss

Watch on YouTube

▶ Open ↗

📝 EPISODE DESCRIPTION

Interview with Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens, The Power of Awareness, and The Brilliance of Bone-Conduction Headphones | Brought to you by LinkedIn Jobs (http://linkedin.com/tim), Pique Tea (http://piquetea.com/tim), and Allform (http://allform.com/tim). Show notes: https://tim.blog/2020/10/27/yuval-noah-harari/#more-53423 Prof. Yuval Noah Harari (@harari_yuval) is a historian and bestselling author who is considered one of the world’s most influential public intellectuals today. His popular books—Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow, and 21 Lessons for the 21st Century— have sold 27.5 million copies in 60 languages. They have been recommended by Barack Obama, Chris Evans, Janelle Monáe, Bill Gates, and many others. The Guardian has credited Sapiens with revolutionizing the nonfiction market and popularizing “brainy books.” He is also behind Sapiens: A Graphic History, a new graphic novel series in collaboration with comics artists David Vandermeulen (co-writer) and Daniel Casanave (illustrator). This beautifully illustrated series is a radical reworking of his book Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. The series will be published in four volumes starting in fall 2020 with Volume 1, The Birth of Humankind, which is out now. Please enjoy! SUBSCRIBE: http://bit.ly/1dSzTkW LINK TO ALL SHOW TRANSCRIPTS: https://tim.blog/2018/09/20/all-transcripts-from-the-tim-ferriss-show/ About Tim Ferriss: Tim Ferriss is one of Fast Company’s “Most Innovative Business People” and an early-stage tech investor/advisor in Uber, Facebook, Twitter, Shopify, Duolingo, Alibaba, and 50+ other companies. He is also the author of five #1 New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestsellers: The 4-Hour Workweek, The 4-Hour Body, The 4-Hour Chef, Tools of Titans and Tribe of Mentors. The Observer and other media have named him “the Oprah of audio” due to the influence of his podcast, The Tim Ferriss Show, which has exceeded 500 million downloads and been selected for “Best of Apple Podcasts” three years running. Connect with Tim Ferriss: Sign up for "5-Bullet Friday" (Tim's email newsletter): https://go.tim.blog/5-bullet-friday-1/ Visit the Tim Ferriss PODCAST: https://tim.blog/podcast/ Visit the Tim Ferriss BLOG: https://tim.blog/ Follow Tim Ferriss on TWITTER: https://twitter.com/tferriss/ Follow Tim Ferriss on INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/timferriss/ Like Tim Ferriss on FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TimFerriss/ Start [00:00] Does Yuval live on a moshav? [06:34] A 2-hour/day vipassana meditation practice [07:39] The unexpected success of Sapiens [14:45] On developing a book from lecture notes [18:53] Suffering in the larger picture of human history [21:16] Sorting the real from the imaginary stories [26:15] Money is really a story about trust. [31:20] Fame and obscurity [35:40] Superpowers [38:57] Advice and friends [41:23] Happiness, suffering, and misery [44:46] Privacy [47:15] Influences [51:01] Art and understanding ourselves [52:41] Books [55:42] Black Mirror [1:02:23] The film Her + AI [1:04:05] AI and how we think about understanding [1:08:06] Sapiens: A Graphic (novel) History [1:10:40] Scientific objectivity and political correctness [1:16:03] Yuval’s mission statement [1:24:29] The future of humanity [1:26:40] Of our possible fates, which worry Yuval the most? [1:34:12] What keeps Yuval going? [1:35:56] Parting thoughts [1:38:01]

🎤 SPEAKERS

• Tim Ferriss

  host

  Host of The Tim Ferriss Show and author/investor known for long-form interviews on performance, learning, and lifestyle design.

• Yuval Noah Harari

  guest

  Historian and bestselling author of Sapiens, known for work on human history, collective myths, and future risks from technology and AI.

🧾 EPISODE SUMMARY

In this episode of Tim Ferriss, featuring Tim Ferriss and Yuval Noah Harari, Yuval Noah Harari on The Story of Sapiens, The Power of Awareness, and More | The Tim Ferriss Show explores Harari on meditation, collective fictions, and the risks of technology Yuval Noah Harari describes how beginning Vipassana meditation revealed to him how little control he had over attention and how easily the mind replaces reality with self-generated stories.

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