Sam Harris · 2026-11-03

The Performance of Empathy (Ep. 501)

A Conversation with Sherry Turkle

By Sam Harris · paywall preview

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The Performance of Empathy (Ep. 501)

A Conversation with Sherry Turkle

Sam Harris

Nov 03, 2026

∙

Paid

Sam Harris speaks with Sherry Turkle about her new book,

Artificial Intimacy.

They discuss the early optimism of the internet, the attention economy, the loss of solitude and boredom, the decline of empathy, whether the performance of empathy can ever be enough, AI as therapist, the first-person pronoun as the “original sin” of generative AI, humanoid robots and consciousness, loneliness among older people, and other topics.

Sherry Turkle

is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She is

The New York Times

bestselling author of

Alone Together

Reclaiming Conversation

and

The Empathy Diaries

Turkle’s most recent book is

Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines.

Website:

sherryturkle.com

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Already a paid subscriber?

Making Sense Podcast

Join neuroscientist, philosopher, and five-time New York Times best-selling author Sam Harris as he explores important and controversial questions about the mind, society, current events, moral philosophy, religion, and rationality—with an overarching focus on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live.

Sam is also the creator of the Waking Up app. Combining Sam’s decades of mindfulness practice, profound wisdom from varied philosophical and contemplative traditions, and a commitment to a secular, scientific worldview, Waking Up is a resource for anyone interested in living a more examined, fulfilling life—and a new operating system for the mind.

Waking Up offers free subscriptions to anyone who can’t afford one, and donates a minimum of 10% of profits to the most effective charities around the world. To learn more, please go to WakingUp.com.

Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

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What did you think?

Your reaction is separate from the prediction. It won’t change your rule.

PREDICTED REACTION

LikeStale result

Why this might be for you

This podcast episode featuring Sam Harris and Sherry Turkle explores nuanced topics about technology and human agency, including empathy, intimacy, attention, and the impact of AI and the internet on relationships and solitude. These themes align well with the reader's preference for thoughtful essays on agency, conversation, and technology, especially with a focus on concrete examples and original analysis. While the article preview is limited due to the paywall, the detailed description indicates a reflective, substantive conversation rather than superficial coverage. The reader has shown appreciation for nuanced, meaningful takes on human connection and technology (as in the 'Erotics of Understanding'), and while this is an interview/dialogue format, it is expected to offer intellectual substance and clear prose. The presence of a well-regarded expert and the exploration of mechanisms (like the attention economy and AI's role in therapy) further match the reader's interest in explanations beyond headlines or hype. Considering these points and the pattern of positive feedback for deep, reflective content on related themes, this article is likely to be appreciated as a 'Like.'

Matching preferences

Thoughtful essays about agency and how people build a life
Focus on learning, feedback loops, creative work, relationships, conversation
Literary criticism, art, design, history, institutional analysis
AI, technology, startups, product strategy, venture investing
Explanations of mechanisms and concrete examples
Original reporting or analysis
Arguments acknowledging uncertainty
Clear, distinctive prose and intellectual substance
Reflective personal writing and technically detailed analysis

Potential mismatches

Podcast interview format rather than traditional essay
Limited available text due to paywall preview, making in-depth evaluation harder

How this was scored

Rule: María’s reading compass · v2
Provider / model: openai / gpt-4.1-mini
Scored: 2026-11-04T05:30:58+00:00
Source text: Revision 513 · paywall_preview
Text selection: All available text
Prompt / schema: reader-2-feedback / reaction-1
Settings: {"feedback_examples":[{"article_id":161,"authors":"Helen Higgins","excerpt":"The Erotics of Understanding\n\nAre we being seen as we intended, rather than as we are assumed to be?\n\nHelen Higgins\n\nOct 12, 2026\n\n241\n\n25\n\n98\n\nShare\n\nPhoto by\n\nErol Ahmed\n\non\n\nUnsplash\n\n“I know\n\nexactly\n\nwhat you mean.”\n\nI can think of few other sentences that are more intimate than that. It’s not necessarily about romance, or signalling attraction, or even because they guarantee agreement in some way. No. It’s intimate because it offers something that feels precious and rare: recognition.\n\nMost of us spend our lives trying to bridge the distance between ourselves and other people, and we don’t realise how much of our lives are spent translating ourselves.\n\nWe soften opinions so they won’t sound arrogant.\n\nWe explain ambitions so they won’t sound unrealistic.\n\nWe carefully clarify jokes, intentions, boundaries, and vulnerabilities because we have learned from experience just how easily they can be misunderstood. We’re capable of constructing entire identities out of language and gesture, hoping that someone, somewhere, will understand not only what we’re saying, but what we’re trying to say.\n\nThese aren’t always the same thing.\n\nThe philosopher Martin Buber wrote that “all real li","note":"Really enjoyed the nuanced argument, beautiful prose, and insightful but not contrived messaging - also appreciated the twist in Erotic. Liked how it went beyond the argument into how it’s particularly relevant in today’s world ","publication":"Helen Higgins","reaction":"Love","title":"The Erotics of Understanding"},{"article_id":135,"authors":"ayushi thakkar","excerpt":"the philosophical rabbit hole of meaning and peace\n\nayushi thakkar\n\nOct 16, 2026\n\n131\n\n7\n\n30\n\nShare\n\ni’ve been thinking about how absurd it is that we can spend so much of our lives trying to build a life we’re happy with and still have remarkably little idea what we’d do if we finally got there. there’s always another ambition to pursue or something about ourselves that could use a little work. even on perfectly pleasant days, i can find an extraordinary number of reasons to believe that life would be better once a few outstanding matters were resolved. the trouble is that i’ve been resolving outstanding matters for most of my adult life, and the list has shown no reasonable interest in getting shorter.\n\nSubscribe\n\ni suppose the larger question is whether a good life should feel good while we’re living it. i want to do meaningful work and make something worthwhile of my time, but i’d also like to experience the satisfaction of being alive without constantly evaluating how well i’m doing at it. ambition gives me a reason to get out of bed in the morning, although it can also make an otherwise lovely afternoon feel dramatically unproductive. contentment sounds wonderful until i star","note":"I am biased because I tend to be drawn towards hard things and view difficulty and the pain associated as signs of growth (which I optimize for as it somewhat equates to living more) so I was kind of turned off when she said she saw difficult things as a bad sign or sign that she was on the wrong path. I enjoyed the references to philosophy though ","publication":"milk and cookies","reaction":"Dislike","title":"the philosophical rabbit hole of meaning and peace"},{"article_id":155,"authors":"hasif 💌","excerpt":"the intimacy of being known and the fear of being seen\n\nOn privacy, trust, and the strange expectation that loving someone means letting them know everything about us.\n\nhasif 💌\n\nOct 17, 2026\n\n60\n\n2\n\n13\n\nShare\n\nI think one of the strangest things about being loved is realizing that someone can know you so well and still not know everything about you. They can know what makes you laugh, what keeps you awake at night, the things you regret, the people who hurt you, and the little habits you have when you’re comfortable around them. They can be the person you call when something goes wrong and the first person you want to tell when something goes right, and still, there might be a part of you that you haven’t figured out how to explain to them. I don’t think we talk enough about that part of being close to someone, because we have somehow come to believe that intimacy means eventually becoming an entirely open book.\n\nSomewhere along the way, we started treating privacy as though it were suspicious. If your partner doesn’t tell you something, you wonder what they’re hiding. If someone needs time alone, you wonder whether you’ve done something wrong. If a person you love has a world that","note":"I like the concept but didn’t love the writing style ","publication":"postcards by hasif","reaction":"Like","title":"the intimacy of being known and the fear of being seen"}],"max_output_tokens":800,"store":false}
Tokens in / out: 3238 / 341
Estimated cost: $0.001841
Run: #10

Exact rule used

This is an editable starter reading profile inferred from my existing subscriptions and a set of articles shared with me. Treat the examples as exploratory positive signals, not as confirmed favorite articles or evidence that I agree with their arguments. Prioritize thoughtful essays about agency and how people build a life: learning, feedback loops, creative work, finding one's craft, relationships, friendship, conversation, and attention. Look for specific lived experience that develops into an interesting, useful idea. Make room for literary criticism, art, design, history, institutional analysis, and substantial book reviews. Also consider AI, technology, startups, product strategy, and venture investing, reflecting my subscription mix. Favor explanations of mechanisms, concrete examples, original reporting or analysis, and arguments that acknowledge uncertainty. A piece should offer more than a headline, a trend summary, or a promotional pitch. Do not infer my political views or endorsement from the sources I follow. Reward clear, distinctive prose and real intellectual substance. Both reflective personal writing and technically detailed analysis can fit. Length is fine when it earns its space. As an initial hypothesis, downrank repetitive advice, vague inspiration, generic hot takes, and hype unsupported by evidence. These style preferences are provisional and can be corrected with my feedback. Evaluate English and Spanish writing on substance without preferring one language. When explaining a prediction, identify the specific connection to these themes and any mismatch. Do not give a high score solely because an author appears in my subscriptions or examples. Evaluate only the supplied article text; a title or paywall preview is not proof of the full argument. Reference titles (sample signals; not actual ratings): - For a long time, nothing. Then, suddenly one has the right eyes. - Love is to be invested in someone’s continual expansion - How to walk through walls - Book Review: From Bauhaus To Our House - half the world's writing should remain unpublished - We think better when our minds are entwined - The Hacking Will Continue While Market Morale Improves - the delight of specificity - Why we ended up homeschooling - Bangers from Gibbon - searching for your life's work is a multi-turn endeavor - Why I Changed My Mind About AI Risk - The hyperlocal - The Specter Of Neuralese - Your Book Review: Lee Kuan Yew's Memoirs - Agentic fragments - Average moments of a long-term meditator - a case for sharing your dreams with friends - the best conversations help you hear yourself - First we shape our feedback loops; then they shape us - timing

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The Performance of Empathy (Ep. 501)

A Conversation with Sherry Turkle

Sam Harris

Nov 03, 2026

∙

Paid

Sam Harris speaks with Sherry Turkle about her new book,

Artificial Intimacy.

Sherry Turkle

is the Abby Rockefeller Mauzé Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at MIT and the founding director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self. She is

The New York Times

bestselling author of

Alone Together

Reclaiming Conversation

and

The Empathy Diaries

Turkle’s most recent book is

Artificial Intimacy: Who We Become When We Talk to Machines.

Website:

sherryturkle.com

This post is for paid subscribers

Already a paid subscriber?

Making Sense Podcast

Sam Harris received a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.

Listen on

Substack App

RSS Feed

Appears in episode

Sam Harris

Recent Episodes

The Playing Animal (Ep. 500)

Oct 30

•

Sam Harris

The Birth of AGI (Ep. 499)

Oct 20

•

Sam Harris

More From Sam: Bond Villains, Useful Idiots, Firing Squads, and More (Ep. 498)

Oct 14

•

Sam Harris

The Confidence Man: A Conversation with Alex Gibney (Ep. 497)

Oct 9

•

Sam Harris

The Oldest Lie: A Conversation with Dara Horn FULL EPISODE (Ep. 496)

Oct 8

•

Sam Harris

Foreign Policy for Sale: A Conversation with Anne Applebaum (Ep. 495)

Oct 1

•

Sam Harris

PSA Update - New Podcast Episode: A Coin Toss for the Future (Ep. 494)

Sep 24

•

Sam Harris

Input metadata

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Recommendation history

María’s reading compass · v2Stale · 2026-11-04Like María’s reading compass · v2Current · 2026-11-03Like