The Michael Shermer Show
Episodes
Why We Cling to Certainty, Conspiracies, and Bad Predictions
19 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
We like to think the future can be figured out if we just gather enough information. Pick the right expert, read the right forecast, find the right fr...
Neil deGrasse Tyson on UFOs, Government Files, and the Physics of Alien Claims
16 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Neil deGrasse Tyson returns to The Michael Shermer Show to talk UFOs, aliens, government files, eyewitness testimony, and his new book Take Me to Your...
From Newspapers to Influencers: Who Controls Reality Now? (Ashley Rindsberg)
14 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Journalist and author Ashley Rindsberg returns to The Michael Shermer Show for a wide-ranging conversation about the new media world: influencers with...
The New War on Free Speech: Why Power Turns Everyone Into a Censor
11 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Free speech was supposed to be the great settled achievement of liberal democracy. Then came social media, cancel culture, campus speech battles, hate...
The UFO Files Were Declassified Today
08 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
The long-promised UFO files have finally been released. In this solo commentary, Michael Shermer examines the newly declassified documents, photograph...
Why Everything Falls Apart—And How to Keep It Going (Stewart Brand)
05 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Stewart Brand has spent a lifetime thinking about tools, systems, civilization, and the long future. Best known as the creator of the Whole Earth Cata...
The Scientist Who Tried to Prove Reincarnation
02 May 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Can memories survive death? It sounds like the kind of question skeptics usually dismiss before the conversation even starts. But Ian Stevenson was no...
Why Do We Exist? Hakeem Oluseyi
28 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Astrophysicist Hakeem Oluseyi has lived a life that sounds almost impossible: a childhood marked by poverty, violence, and constant upheaval; a teenag...
Shermer Says 9: The "Dead Scientists," Explained
24 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
A viral story is spreading across media: a mysterious string of scientists connected to UFOs, nuclear weapons, aerospace, and defense work have disapp...
Not Monsters. Not Madmen. Just Men.
21 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What kind of person helps build a regime like the Third Reich? A monster? A madman? Or something far more unsettling? Michael Shermer sits down with a...
Flourishing in the Age of Algorithms
18 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What actually makes a life feel meaningful? In this conversation, Daniel Coyle joins Michael Shermer to talk about why fulfillment rarely comes from o...
What Really Prevents Cognitive Decline
14 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What actually causes cognitive decline, and how much of it can we do something about? In this episode, Michael talks with neurologist and neuroscienti...
How Christianity Made America—and How America Remade Christianity
11 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why does religion still dominate American politics when so many other wealthy democracies secularized long ago? In this episode, Michael Shermer talks...
What Turns Sand Into Cells? How Nonliving Matter Becomes Alive
08 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How does something living emerge from something that isn't? In this episode, Lee Cronin pushes the question back even further: before cells, before ...
Shermer Says 8: Easter Without the Miracle
05 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
On Easter Sunday, Michael asks whether the resurrection should be understood as history, myth, or something deeper.
Debra Soh on Why Men and Women Are Drifting Apart, Dating Apps, and Gen Z
03 Apr 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Fewer people are having sex, fewer are forming lasting relationships, and many feel more isolated than ever. Why? Michael Shermer sits down with neuro...
The Psychology of Gaslighting, Bullying, Cults, and Coercion
31 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What do gaslighting, bullying, cults, and coercion have in common? In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with Jennifer Fraser about the psychology a...
Did Jesus Really Change Western Morality? Bart Ehrman
28 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
How much of what we call "basic morality" is actually inherited from Christianity? Bart Ehrman joins Michael Shermer for a wide-ranging conversation a...
Lionel Shriver on Immigration, Religion, and the Decline of the West
24 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer sits down with novelist and essayist Lionel Shriver for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens when old political labels stop ...
The Biggest Blind Spot of the Climate Movement: Nuclear Energy
17 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Zion Lights used to be deep inside the environmental movement: protests, arrests, road blockades, the whole thing. Then she started looking closely at...
DOGE, Government Fraud, and AI Audits
14 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Jeremy Jones joins Michael Shermer to talk about DOGE AI, government fraud, and the strange reality that some of the biggest problems in public life a...
Heretics: The Scientists Who Were Mocked But Later Proven Right
12 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some world-changing ideas get ignored, attacked, or buried for years before anyone takes them seriously? Michael Shermer sits down with The Eco...
Shermer Says 7: Responding to Fan Mail … "Who Was Jesus?"
08 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer responds to a remarkable letter from a group of eighth graders at a Christian school in Texas who say they've been praying for him and...
Why the Same Childhood Doesn't Affect Everyone the Same Way
06 Mar 2026
Contributed by Lukas
For decades, developmental psychologist Jay Belsky has focused on one of the biggest questions in human development: how do early experiences shape th...
Who Gets to Edit Culture? Sensitivity Readers & Censorship in Book Publishing
26 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Publishing likes to imagine itself as a marketplace of ideas with a strong immune system: good arguments win, bad ones fade, and editors act as princi...
Filming Corey Feldman & "Corey's Angels": The Weird World Behind the Curtain
21 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Documentary filmmaker Marcie Hume (BBC alum; Magicians: Life in the Impossible) joins Michael Shermer to talk about her new verité film Corey Feldman...
Can a Skeptic Believe in God?
15 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Christopher Beha grew up Catholic in Manhattan, walked away during the New Atheist era, and spent years trying to build a secular worldview sturdy eno...
Shermer Says 6: Jeffrey Epstein and Me
07 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer recounts the moment he discovered his name in the Jeffrey Epstein files and uses it as a jumping-off point to tell a few unforgettable...
The Evolutionary Roots of Love, Sex, and Jealousy
03 Feb 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Why do people risk everything for love but treat sex like it's no big deal? Why is intimacy the most expensive thing in a brothel? And why do jealousy...
Truth Still Matters (And Here's Why)
27 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Michael Shermer walks through the core ideas behind his new book Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters, breakin...
Shermer Says 5: What Went Wrong in Minnesota? Protests, Panic, and Personal Responsibility
26 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this solo episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael Shermer responds to the shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old healthcare worker who was kil...
Government Transparency & UFOs: Inside Military Programs and Classified Briefings
21 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer sits down with attorney and bestselling author Kent Heckenlively for a tense, thoughtful, and surprisingly cordial conversation about ...
The Hardest UFO Cases to Dismiss: Something Is Flying Around and We Don't Know What It Is
18 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Michael Shermer talks with filmmaker James Fox, whose work has helped push UFOs, now often called UAPs, out of the tabloid shadows an...
Why Survival Isn't Enough: The Deep Human Need to Matter
14 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What if the deepest human drive isn't happiness, survival, or even love, but the need to matter? Philosopher and MacArthur Fellow Rebecca Newberger Go...
Shermer Says 4: Venezuela, ICE in Minnesota, UFOs & UAPs, and Social Norms Around Single-Sex Spaces
12 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
In this unscripted solo episode, Michael Shermer reflects on a dizzying start to the year and what it reveals about truth, power, and public judgment....
Mental Health: More Diagnoses, Fewer Answers?
10 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What if the way we approach mental health is quietly making things worse? Psychiatrist and psychotherapist Sami Timimi joins Michael Shermer to examin...
What Makes You "You" When Everything Is Just Atoms?
06 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
What is consciousness, really? Why does it not simply switch on at a single moment? Neuroscientist Niko Kukushkin explains how even single cells can s...
Rethinking the Discovery of DNA
03 Jan 2026
Contributed by Lukas
Francis Crick is best known as one of the figures behind the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, but the familiar story leaves out as much...
How One Black Man Dismantled the KKK, One Conversation at a Time
30 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What do you do when someone believes you shouldn't exist? Daryl Davis didn't protest. He didn't shout. He sat down, asked questions, and kept showing ...
The Collapse of Open Inquiry: Sacred Victims and Forbidden Questions
28 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Open inquiry depends on the ability to ask uncomfortable questions and follow evidence wherever it leads. Eric Kaufmann argues that this norm is now u...
The Future of Brain Implants: Restoring Speech, Regaining Mobility, Treating Pain
23 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Brain-computer interfaces are moving out of the lab and into real medical use. In this episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael Shermer talks with...
The Original Alien Craze: When People Believed in Martians
20 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At the turn of the 20th century, millions of Americans, including elite scientists, major newspapers, and cultural icons, were convinced that Mars was...
How AI Sees Science Differently Than We Do
16 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the great discoveries of science came in the "wrong" order? The Laws of Thermodynamics were discovered well after the creation of algebra, cla...
Can You Spot a Killer? The Dangerous Fantasy of Criminal Profiling
13 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Criminal profiling promises certainty in the face of horror: this is what a killer looks like, this is how they think, this is how we stop them. But w...
Why Wars Last Longer Than Experts Predict
08 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For nearly two centuries, international relations have been premised on the idea of the "Great Powers." As the thinking went, these mighty states—th...
The Emergent Mind: From Ant Colonies to Human Thought to Artificial Intelligence
06 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael sits down with two giants of mind and machine science: Jay McClelland, one of the founders of mod...
Are We Meant to Leave Earth? Why Humanity May Have No Choice but to Go to Space
02 Dec 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Astrobiologist Caleb Scharf joins Michael Shermer for a wide-ranging conversation about the past, present, and future of our relationship with space. ...
Cosmology, Creation, and the Evidence for God
29 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Michel-Yves Bolloré lays out his case for why modern cosmology, fine-tuning, and the limits of materialism point toward a creator. D...
Why Eastbound Flights Are Faster, and Other Strange Things About Wind (Simon Winchester)
22 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Have you ever thought about the science and history of … wind? In this episode, Simon Winchester explains why eastbound flights are usually faster t...
Logic, Creativity, and the Limits of AI: How Humans Think in Ways Machines Never Will
18 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Angus Fletcher explains why the human brain doesn't work like a computer and why our deepest strengths come not from logic or data pr...
The Psychology of War: Could YOU Make a Moral Choice in Wartime?
16 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
War begins in the human mind long before it unfolds on the battlefield. In this episode, Michael Shermer sits down with Nicholas Wright, a neurologist...
Tribes, Teams, and Cults: How Groups Shape What We Believe
11 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do smart people join dangerous cults, follow bad leaders, or stay silent when they know something's wrong? In this episode, Michael Shermer talks ...
Shermer Says 3: Weird Experiences, the Meaning of Dreams, and What Mark Twain Knew About Reality
08 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Michael Shermer explores anomalous experiences through personal anecdotes and historical examples. He reflects on how to balance heal...
A Former Spy Explains How AI is Changing Espionage
04 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A former senior intelligence officer explains how espionage is evolving in the age of AI and amid rising global tensions with China, and why the mass ...
Did Lost Civilizations Really Exist? An Archaeologist Explains
02 Nov 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Archaeologist Ken Feder sheds light on how archaeology separates evidence from wishful thinking and entertaining storytelling. He explains what rock a...
Charles Murray: Why I'm Taking Religion Seriously
25 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer sits down with Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve, Coming Apart, and now Taking Religion Seriously) for a riveting 100-minute co...
The Myth of Human Exceptionalism: Why Humans Aren't as Special as We Think
21 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Harvard primatologist Christine Webb challenges one of our deepest beliefs: that humans stand apart from the rest of nature. She trac...
Shermer Says: Why Secularists Are Turning to Religion, The Substitution Hypothesis, Sleep Paralysis
18 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Are we entering a Fifth Great Awakening—a cultural swing back toward religion? An increasing number of books and articles are calling for a religiou...
The Serial Killer Era of the 70s/80s: Lore, Patterns, and Plausible Explanations
15 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Pulitzer-winner Caroline Fraser maps the lives and crimes of Ted Bundy and his infamous peers—the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stal...
Shermer Says: Debate Skills, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Autism, Vaccines, ANTIFA, Bari Weiss & CBS News
13 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
First installment of our new series Shermer Says. Topics covered: Debate Skills Nobel Peace Prize 2025 Autism & Tylenol COVID Vaccines & Myocarditi...
When Rationality Becomes Irrational
11 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For many decision scientists, their starting point—drawn from economics—is a quantitative formula called Rational Choice Theory, allowing people t...
The Science of Revenge: Why Getting Even Feels So Good
07 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why do we crave revenge? And why can't we stop? In this episode, James Kimmel explains the neuroscience behind one of our most destructive urges. Draw...
Why No One Thinks They're in a Cult
05 Oct 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What really defines a cult—and why do smart, well-intentioned people get caught up in them? In this episode, Michael Shermer sits down with cult int...
Was Benjamin Franklin America's First Scientist?
30 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer sits down with economist and Franklin descendant Dr. Mark Skousen to explore the wit, wisdom, and modern relevance of Benjamin Frankli...
COVID-19: What We Learned (and Didn't) About Masks, Lockdowns, and Vaccines
27 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The COVID-19 pandemic was a devastating global event, killing more than seven million people, straining the fabric of societies, and shaking the found...
The Power of Common Knowledge: Steven Pinker on Language, Norms, and Punishment
23 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Common knowledge is necessary for coordination, for making arbitrary but complementary choices like driving on the right, using paper currency, and co...
Jim Lampley on Hosting the Super Bowl, Calling Tyson's Fights, and His Friendship with O.J.
20 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jim Lampley's story is a 50-year travelog of an unlikely career that catalogs the evolution of sports television—from his emergence as the first sid...
The Assassination of Charlie Kirk: Shermer Reflects on Political Violence
17 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this solo commentary, Michael Shermer reflects on the assassination of Charlie Kirk and places it in the larger context of political violence, the ...
The Fate of Nations: Why Ignoring Human Nature Dooms Politics
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Science writer Nicholas Wade explains how human nature continues to shape—and sometimes destabilize—modern civilization, and argues that ignoring ...
How to Protect Children from Social Media and AI
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Parenting today often feels like an uphill battle, with technology invading every corner of our kids' lives. From the rise of social media addiction t...
The Future of Space Exploration Amid NASA Mission Shutdowns
06 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael Shermer interviews Alan Stern, a prominent planetary scientist and astronaut. Stern discusses his...
Why Do Humans Speak?
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In a radical new story about the birth of our species, evolutionary biologist Madeleine Beekman argues that it was not hunting, fighting, or tool-maki...
Depopulation: The Silent Global Emergency
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Economist Dean Spears explains the forces driving global population change, from past fears of overpopulation to today's concerns about declining birt...
Brainwashing, Mind Control, and Hyper-Persuasion
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Because brainwashing affects both the world and our observation of the world, we often don't recognize it while it's happening―unless we know where ...
How Foreign Governments Influence U.S. Universities
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In an era of globalized education, where ideals of freedom and inquiry should thrive, an alarming trend has emerged: foreign authoritarian regimes inf...
Can We Prevent Aging? Eric Topol on Genes, Lifestyle, and AI in Healthcare
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this conversation, Michael Shermer and Dr. Eric Topol discuss the realties of aging, with particular focus on the role of AI in enhancing patient c...
Is Nuclear Energy Our Best Shot at Saving the Planet?
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Isabelle Boemeke explains how nuclear energy is our best option for ensuring the future of the planet—it can power cities, desalinate water, create ...
Why the Left Needs Its Own Reckoning
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In his new book Coming Clean, Eric Heinze rejects the idea that we should be less woke. In fact, we need more wokeness, but of a new kind. Yes, we mus...
Is Traditional Religion Doomed?
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Traditional religion in the United States has suffered huge losses in recent decades. The number of Americans identifying as "not religious" has incre...
Drowning in Decisions: Do We Have Too Many Choices?
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with historian Sophia Rosenfeld about how modern notions of personal choice—from Amazon shopping to Tinder s...
Are We Alone? Martin Rees on Aliens, The Fermi Paradox & The Fate of Humanity
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What can a lifetime of scientific discovery teach us about the universe—and ourselves? In this wide-ranging conversation, Michael Shermer sits down ...
The True Cost of Conviction
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you are faced with a decision, do you consider the best outcome, or do you consider your deepest values about which actions are appropriate? Stev...
Debra Soh and Michael Shermer at FreedomFest 2025
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer in conversation with Debra Soh at FreedomFest 2025 in Palm Springs, CA. Video courtesy of FreedomFest. Additional FreedomFest videos c...
Douglas Murray on Hamas, Iran, and the Collapse of the Two-State Solution
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Drawing from intensive on-the-ground reporting in Israel, Gaza, and Lebanon, Douglas Murray places the latest violence in its proper historical contex...
Can Politics and Truth Coexist?
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Do any of us really care about truth when it comes to politics? Should we? In a world of big lies, denialism, and conspiracy theories, democracies are...
Michael Egnor X Christof Koch X Michael Shermer | A Debate on the Mind, Soul, and the Afterlife
25 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
A debate on the mind, soul, consciousness, and the afterlife. Michael Egnor, MD, is Professor of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics at the Renaissance School...
The Science Behind Menopause
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When award-winning science writer Amy Alkon was blindsided by her first hot flash, it kicked off a cascade of symptoms—drenching night sweats, insom...
Andrew Doyle: Trapped Between Woke Dogma and Right-Wing Populism
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What began as a call for justice has, in many cases, become an engine of conformity. In this searching conversation, Andrew Doyle (author, satirist, a...
The Myths of American Capitalism Explained
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, capitalism has unleashed unimaginable growth in opportunity and prosperity. And yet, at key points in Ame...
The Big Bang Wasn't the Beginning? Exploring Cosmic Origins
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
By most popular accounts, the universe started with a bang some 13.8 billion years ago. But what happened before the Big Bang? And how do we know it h...
Believing Is Seeing: Inside the Modern Paranormal Movement
24 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2010, in a small New Hampshire town, next door to a copy center and framing shop, a ghost lab opened. The Kitt Research Initiative's mission was to...
Inside the CIA's Mind Control Experiments
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This is the inside story of the CIA's secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves. Sidney...
Neanderthals and Us: A Complex Story of Coexistence and Hybridization
17 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In this eye-opening episode, Michael Shermer chats with evolutionist Telmo Pievani about the surprising coexistence—and hybridization—of Neanderth...
AI, Trade Wars, Degrowth: What's Next for the Global Economy?
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amid rising concerns about AI, inequality, trade wars, and globalization, New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist John Cassidy takes a bol...
Is Modern Life Making Us Miserable? What's Fueling the Mental Health Crisis & What Can Help?
10 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does your diet have to do with your mood? Is mercury in fish really dangerous? Psychiatrist Dr. Drew Ramsey joins Michael Shermer to discuss the ...
Free Speech Under Fire? From Campus Protests to Deportations
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Jacob Mchangama, author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, joins Michael to examine the evolving landscape of free expression am...
Is It Possible to Change Your Entire Personality?
03 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Is it really possible to change your entire personality in a year? An award-winning journalist experiments with her own personality to find out—and ...
The Trouble with Economic Data: Flawed Metrics, Flawed Decisions
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940s, when the urgent economic problems were entirely different...
Did Shutting Down Schools Help or Hurt? A COVID-19 Postmortem
26 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
David Zweig's new book An Abundance of Caution (MIT Press) is an account of the decision-making process behind the extended closures of public schools...
What's Holding You Back? Scott Barry Kaufman on Resilience in the Age of Fragility
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's tempting to see ourselves as damaged or powerless—defined by past traumas, overwhelming emotions, and daily struggles. But is that really the m...