with Sam Harris

Portrait by Jason Chatfield

In The Bittersweet Age, a new conversation, Sam Harris speaks with author Susan Cain about writing, creativity, and what AI means for human culture. They discuss the future of books and reading, the tells AI inherits from good writers, why the advent of AI may spark a revival of the humanities, following your bliss, the ethics of curing sadness, the therapeutic potential of psychedelics, and other topics.

About the Speaker

Susan Cain is the author of the global sensation and #1 New York Times bestseller Quiet, and the instant #1 New York Times bestseller Bittersweet, an Oprah Book Club selection. Susan's new children's book, Lucky & Norman, was published on June 2, 2026. She has spent the last twenty years exploring a particular realm of human nature: the quiet, the sensitive, the thoughtful, the bittersweet. It has always seemed clear to her—and to her millions of readers—that this way of being can lead to a richer, deeper form of happiness. Susan is the host of The Quiet Life Substack community, and her newsletter is read by people in all 193 countries and all 50 American states. Join her at TheQuietLife.net.