“Everything we do is for the purpose of altering consciousness. We form friendships so that we can feel certain emotions, like love, and avoid others, like loneliness. We eat specific foods to enjoy their fleeting presence on our tongues. We read for the pleasure of thinking another person's thoughts.”

American neuroscientist, philosopher, author, and podcast host

Samuel Benjamin Harris is an American neuroscientist, philosopher, author, and podcast host. He became widely known for his criticism of religion and is often grouped with Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Daniel Dennett as one of the "Four Horsemen" of New Atheism. His work ranges across rationality, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. Much of his public writing and speaking returns to questions about how people think, what they believe, and how reason should shape public life.