#492 — The Second Plane, 25 Years Later

Sam Harris reflects on the 25th anniversary of September 11th. He discusses how witnessing the second plane hit the World Trade Center crystallized what he would later articulate in The End of Faith, arguing that the failure to take religious belief seriously as a motivating force has been a persistent blind spot with severe geopolitical consequences. The episode traces a throughline from 9/11 to October 7th, critiques the intellectual confusion he calls 'Islamo-leftism' and the weaponization of the term 'Islamophobia,' and addresses the moral and strategic costs of the war on terror, including the abandonment of America's Afghan allies.