Making Sense with Sam Harris

#459 — More From Sam: Corruption, Immigration, The End of White-Collar Work, and More

February 13, 2026

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  • The initial segment of the *Making Sense with Sam Harris* episode, #459 — More From Sam: Corruption, Immigration, The End of White-Collar Work, and More, highlights the positive reception of Sam Harris's recent conversation with conservative commentators from The Bulwark, suggesting a widespread desire for decency and sanity across political divides. 
  • The host and guest discussed recent reports alleging that Donald Trump's cryptocurrency firm sold a major stake to an Emirati royal family member shortly before his inauguration, followed by the U.S. supplying the UAE with advanced AI chips, framing this as a corrupt act undermining national security. 
  • The CEO of Microsoft AI predicts that professional-grade Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), capable of performing most white-collar tasks, could be fully automated within the next 12 to 18 months, posing a significant and surprising threat to high-status jobs first. 

Segments

Podcast Access and Support
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(00:00:10)
  • Key Takeaway: Full episodes of the Making Sense Podcast are exclusively available to subscribers, as the show runs ad-free and relies entirely on listener support.
  • Summary: Listeners hearing only the first part must subscribe at SamHarris.org to access the full conversation. The podcast does not run advertisements, making subscriber support the sole means of production. Becoming a subscriber grants access to all full-length episodes.
Substack Live Experience
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(00:00:36)
  • Key Takeaway: Live interactions, such as the recent Substack Live event, offer a unique, thrilling experience due to the inability to retract spoken words, differentiating them from standard recorded content.
  • Summary: The host and guest reflected positively on a recent Substack Live event, noting the difference in energy when speaking live versus recording. They plan to give subscribers more advance notice for future live events. Treating these events like exclusive live happenings, rather than just recorded content, was considered beneficial.
Appreciation for Bulwark Guests
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(00:01:55)
  • Key Takeaway: Conversations with conservative commentators like Sarah Longwell and Tim Miller generate audience relief because they prioritize decency, decorum, and sanity over partisan policy differences.
  • Summary: The audience response to the previous conversation with The Bulwark hosts indicated a strong desire for mutual understanding, even among progressives who disagree on policy. These guests are valued for seeing how Trumpism distorted the political right and for being trustworthy and likable. A suggestion was made to potentially make these crossover discussions a quarterly event.
Trump Crypto and UAE Dealings
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(00:04:20)
  • Key Takeaway: Donald Trump’s cryptocurrency firm reportedly sold a $500 million stake to an Emirati royal family member just before his inauguration, months before the Trump administration supplied the UAE with critical American-made AI chips.
  • Summary: This transaction is characterized as corrupt, self-serving, and dangerous because the AI chips supplied are precisely those the U.S. does not want China to possess, given the UAE’s military exercises with China. The implication is that national safety concerns were relaxed to facilitate massive personal profit for the former President and his family.
AI White-Collar Automation Timeline
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(00:06:28)
  • Key Takeaway: Microsoft AI’s CEO predicts that AI will achieve human-level performance on most professional tasks, leading to the full automation of white-collar work within 12 to 18 months.
  • Summary: This rapid timeline suggests the imminent cancellation of the need for human cognition in roles like law, accounting, and project management, impacting many high-status jobs first. The irony noted is that robots are targeting college-educated professions before manual labor roles like janitors or plumbers. This development threatens to evaporate the career ladder built upon traditional higher education.