Sam Harris

Birth Name: Samuel Benjamin Harris

Place of Birth: Los Angeles, California, United States

Date of Birth: April 9, 1967

Ethnicity:
*father – English, distant Scots-Irish/Northern Irish and French
*mother – Ashkenazi Jewish

Sam Harris is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on religion, ethics, meditation, free will, rationality, terrorism, neuroscience, psychedelics, mind philosophy, politics, and artificial intelligence. He has often been a critic of religion, and is described as a member of the “intellectual dark web.” He has written seven books. He hosts the Making Sense podcast, originally Waking Up; and has released a meditation app, Waking Up with Sam Harris.

Sam is the son of actor Berkeley Harris (Elliott Berkeley Harris, Jr.) and television producer and writer Susan Harris (born Susan Spivak). His father appeared in many Western productions, and his mother created the sitcoms Soap and The Golden Girls. His father was from North Carolina, and was a Quaker, of mostly English, along with more distant Scots-Irish/Northern Irish and French, ancestry. His mother was from New York, and is Ashkenazi Jewish. Sam had a secular upbringing, and is a prominent atheist. He is married to writer Annaka Harris, with whom he has two children.

Sam’s paternal grandfather was Elliott Berkeley Harris, Sr. (the son of Lewis Henry Harris and Gertrude Elizabeth Brown). Lewis was the son of James Edgar Harris and Hattie Mildred Norris. Gertrude was the daughter of Thomas Harris Brown and Elizabeth Marshall Hamner.

Sam’s paternal grandmother was Rebecca Wilson Land (the daughter of William Raines Land, Sr. and Mary Gregory LeGrande). Rebecca was born in North Carolina. William was the son of John Webb Land and Augusta Clarke. Mary Gregory was the daughter of James Terry Legrand and Rebecca Gregory Wilson. Sam’s paternal second great-grandmother, Abigail Blackburn, was born in Loughgall, Northern Ireland.

Sam’s maternal grandfather was named Benjamin D. Spivak. Benjamin was born in New York.

Sam’s maternal grandmother was Bertha M. Schneider (the daughter of Samuel Schneider and Anna Bradman/Brandman). Bertha was born in New York. Samuel was born in Russia, the son of Abraham Schneider and Sara. Anna was born in Warsaw, Poland, the daughter of Juan/Jonathan Bradman and Jennie Szendel Siemiatycki.

Sources: http://www.tabletmag.com

Genealogy of Sam Harris – http://www.geni.com