The Michael Shermer Show

Who Wrote the Qur'an, Why, and What Does it Really Say?

09 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over a billion copies of the Qur'an exist – yet it remains an enigma. Its classical Arabic language resists simple translation, and its non-linear s...

Purpose in the Eyes of a Psychiatrist

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Generations have been taught that evolution implies there is no overarching purpose to our existence, that life has no fundamental meaning. We are mer...

Does Humanity Function as a Single Superorganism?

02 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Could humans unknowingly be a part of a larger superorganism—one with its own motivations and goals, one that is alive, and conscious, and has the p...

The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even exciting relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaki...

China's Grip on Rare-Earth Elements and the Future of Global Energy Security

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, a...

mRNA Vaccines, Mask Mandates, and the COVID-19 Response (Paul Offit)

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee and a former member of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to the CDC, Dr. Paul Offit ...

Foster Care, Family, and Social Class

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. Whe...

How U.S. Public Health Has Strayed From Its Liberal Roots

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Covid-19 response was a crucible of politics and public health—a volatile combination that produced predictably bad results. As scientific exper...

Against the New Politics of Identity

10 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In Against the New Politics of Identity, philosopher Ronald A. Lindsay offers a sustained criticism of the far-reaching cultural transformation occurr...

What Determines Who Succeeds in the NBA?

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Former Google data scientist and bestselling author of Everybody Lies Seth Stephens-Davidowitz turns his analytic skills to the NBA. Shermer and Steph...

Transforming Mental Health: Little Treatments, Big Effects

03 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you've ever wanted mental health support but haven't been able to get it, you are not alone. In fact, you're part of the more than 50% of adults an...

Overcoming Self-Censorship in the Age of Outrage

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As a society we are self-censoring at record rates. Say the wrong thing at the wrong moment to the wrong person and the consequences can be dire. Thin...

One Couple's Vacation Caused 100,000 People to Die

27 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call ...

Head of TED Talks Shares a New Vision of Generosity

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world's boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them, he believ...

Are Parallel Universes and Extra Dimensions Real?

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Our books, our movies—our imaginations—are obsessed with extra dimensions, alternate timelines, and the sense that all we see might not be all the...

Michael Shellenberger Explains Government Censorship of Social Media

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Shellenberger explains the role of government agencies in social media censorship, his work on the Twitter files, and the differences between ...

Multiculturalism and Lessons From the Rwandan Genocide

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As it absorbs record numbers of new immigrants, the U.S. faces critical questions: is it better to promote a unifying, shared identity that transcends...

The Meaning of Life (A Message for the Holidays)

24 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The meaning of life is in the here and now.

A Trial by Media Ended Caylan Ford's Career in 4 Hours

19 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Caylan Ford is a documentary filmmaker, charter school founder, and a former political candidate. She holds a Bachelor's degree (Hons.) in Chinese his...

How Not to Age

16 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Dr. Michael Greger, founder of NutritionFacts.org, dove into the top peer-reviewed anti-aging medical research, he realized that diet could regul...

How to Cultivate Your Imagination as an Adult

12 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Imagination is commonly thought to be the special province of youth―the natural companion of free play and the unrestrained vistas of childhood. The...

Nobel Prize Winner Explains Inequality and Capitalism

05 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When economist Angus Deaton immigrated to the United States from Britain in the early 1980s, he was awed by America's strengths and shocked by the ext...

The Purpose of the Universe

02 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why are we here? What's the point of existence? On the 'big questions' of meaning and purpose, Western thought has been dominated by the dichotomy of ...

How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation

28 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why are so many of us wrong about so much? From COVID-19 to climate change to the results of elections, millions of Americans believe things that are ...

JFK 60th Anniversary of the Assassination

22 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A conversation with Warren Commission Assistant Counsel Burt W. Griffin, Case Closed author and Lee Harvey Oswald scholar Gerald Posner, and JFK consp...

The Scientific Search for Alien Life

18 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone is curious about life in the Universe, UFOs and whether ET is out there. Over the course of his thirty-year career as an astrophysicist, Adam...

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Converted to Christianity

15 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On November 11, 2023, my friend, colleague, and hero Ayaan Hirsi Ali released a statement explaining "Why I am Now a Christian". What follows is my re...

UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life

14 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Identity Politics and its Discontents

11 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Get tickets for our event: https://skeptic.com/event For much of history, societies have violently oppressed ethnic, religious, and sexual minorities....

What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things? (Dan Ariely)

07 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Tickets for our December event available now: https://skeptic.com/event Shermer and Ariely discuss: What is disinformation and what should we do about...

The Role of Iran in the Israel-Hamas Conflict

04 Nov 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In-person event next month: https://skeptic.com/event  Shermer and Taleblu discuss: • Iran and Hamas • Hamas and Israel • Does Iran really want...

The Secret History of Women at the CIA

31 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Skeptic event this December! Tickets available now: https://shop.skeptic.com/event Shermer and Mundy discuss: • CIA research methods • a brief his...

America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

27 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Journo discuss: who really owns land? • British Mandate • Theodore Herzl • Zionism, Judaism, and Israel • territorial disputes •...

Cancel Culture and What to Do About It (Greg Lukianoff & Rikki Schlott)

24 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Get your tickets to meet Peter Boghossian + Michael Shellenberger: https://skeptic.com/event Cancel Culture is a new phenomenon, and The Canceling of...

Robert Sapolsky on Free Will and Determinism

17 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Meet Jared Diamond and Michael Shermer: https://skeptic.com/event Robert Sapolsky is the author of A Primate's Memoir, The Trouble with Testosterone, ...

Armageddon in the Middle East? (David Wolpe)

13 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Wolpe discuss: what happened to Israel's vaunted security apparatus, intelligence agency and military readiness? • Zionism, Judaism, and...

Should Employers Pay For Emotional Labor?

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Get tickets for our event: https://www.skeptic.com/event/ A stranger insists you "smile more," even as you navigate a high-stress environment or grati...

Dan Dennett Looks Back on His Career

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Get tickets for our event: skeptic.com/event Daniel Dennett, preeminent philosopher and cognitive scientist, has spent his career considering the thor...

How the American Right Became Radicalized

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Book tickets for our event: skeptic.com/event At the height of the John Birch Society's activity in the 1960s, critics dismissed its members as a para...

BIG ANNOUNCEMENT

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Don't miss this! Michael SHELLENBERGER, Jared DIAMOND, Peter BOGHOSSIAN, and Michael SHERMER. LIVE & IN-PERSON, DEC. 1–3. "It's not a conference… ...

Ways of Thinking That Power Successful People

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Pompliano discuss: personal journey from college to Fortune to The Profile • what distinguishes the truly exceptional from the merely gr...

How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lee McIntyre is Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. Formerly Executive Director of the Institute...

The Law vs. Separation of Church and State

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Tabash discuss: the history of the relationship between church and state • the founding framers of the U.S. Constitution and their argum...

Based on DNA Testing, Only One Twin Was Granted U.S. Citizenship. Why?

01 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a conversation based on two of Nancy Segal's books The Twin Children of the Holocaust: Stolen Childhood and the Will to Survive and Ga...

Evidence of Aliens? Harvard Astronomer Avi Loeb

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Did Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb discover the remnants of an interstellar meteor in the form of spherules on the ocean floor? Could they be of alien or...

Slavery in the U.S. Analyzed by a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Lawyer and Historian (Ed Larson)

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New attention from historians and journalists is raising pointed questions about the founding period: was the American revolution waged to preserve sl...

Maybe "Good Enough" Is Actually Enough? When Perfectionism Backfires.

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

"Don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good." —anonymous "Perfection is man's ultimate illusion. It simply doesn't exist in the universe. If you...

Is a Human Life Worth $10 Million or Only $187,000? (Bjorn Lomborg)

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

World leaders have promised everything to everyone. But they are failing. Together with more than a hundred of the world's top economists, Bjorn Lombo...

Why We Get Fooled

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From phishing scams to Ponzi schemes, fraudulent science to fake art, chess cheaters to crypto hucksters, and marketers to magicians, our world brims ...

The Saad Truth About Happiness

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone wants to be happy. The question "How can I be happy?" drives countless decisions across the world, and billions of dollars are spent on marke...

Christopher Rufo Decodes Cultural Shifts in America

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation based on his new book, America's Cultural Revolution, Christopher Rufo exposes the inner history of the intellectuals and militan...

The Truth About Martin Luther King Jr.

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Vividly written and exhaustively researched, Jonathan Eig's King: A Life is the first major biography in decades of the civil rights icon Martin Luthe...

An Outsider's Perspective on American Culture Wars

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Right now, someone, somewhere is being cancelled. Off-the-cuff tweets or "harmless" office banter have the potential to wreck lives. The Left condemns...

Children and Politics

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

According to conservative commentator Bethany Mandel, "the Left is waging an all-out battle on the American family, particularly the youngest members....

The Future of Medicine: What You Need to Know

20 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We are on the cusp of a major transformation in healthcare. Using information gleaned from our blood and genes and tapping into the data revolution ma...

Michael Shellenberger on UFO Whistleblowers

14 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Shellenberger discuss: the original article in Debrief • the authors Leslie Kean and Ralph Blumenthal • why this story was not covered...

Is the Government Hiding Aliens?

08 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A commentary on the latest UAP/UFO story about the whistleblower and the government UFO retrieval program. In this special episode of The Michael She...

A Guide to Violence and Self-Defense.

06 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Thornton discuss: aggression: passive, proactive, reactive, relational • moralistic punishment and the game theory analysis of the logic...

Identity or Merit: What Matters More? (Heather Mac Donald)

30 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Mac Donald discuss: race as America's original sin • civil rights • equality vs. equity • disparate impact • overt racism vs. syst...

Are We Risking Our Ability to Think?

27 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How humans transfer knowledge through time might affect our ability to think. With the advent of the internet, any topic we want to know about is inst...

Quantum Computers Will Change Everything (Michio Kaku)

25 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The quantum computer, which harnesses the power and complexity of the atomic realm, promises to be every bit as revolutionary as the transistor and mi...

What Happened to Women's Rights?

23 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

My guest today is Inga Thompson, one of the most decorated cyclists in American history. You might ask, besides being aware I'm something of a bike ge...

My Final Lecture: What I Learned About Living a Good Life

18 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the final minutes of the final lecture of Dr. Shermer's final semester at Chapman a student asked what practical lessons for life he might share wi...

Could the American Economy Collapse Like Venezuela's? (Mark Skousen)

16 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Skousen discuss: whether economics is politicized • Adam Smith and what he really said • how the economy really works • fiat mone...

Scams and Frauds: A Skeptic's Survival Guide

13 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Have you ever wondered why Bernie Madoff thought he could brazenly steal his clients' money? Or why investors were so easily duped by Elizabeth Holmes...

What if You Were Born 50 Years Earlier?

09 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The United States is currently home to six generations of people. With her clear-eyed and insightful voice, Twenge explores what the Silents and Boome...

How Can God Feel So Real?

06 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people — as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents ev...

Will We Ever Live in a Post-race World?

04 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of the podcast, Michael Shermer talks about: why race still matters why race shouldn't matter racism BLM (Black Lives Matter)...

346. Kennon Sheldon — What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About Free Will, Determinism, and Self-Determinism

02 May 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It's become fashionable to argue that free will is a fiction: that we humans are in the thrall of animal urges and unconscious biases and only think t...

345. Matt Johnson — How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment

29 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Christopher Hitchens was for many years considered one of the fiercest and most eloquent left-wing polemicists in the world. But on much of today's le...

344. What is a Woman, Anyway?

26 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of the Michael Shermer Show Dr. Shermer comments on current events surrounding trans matters and reads his in-depth essay on t...

343. Timothy Redmond — Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It

25 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The democratic ideal demands that the citizenry think critically about matters of public import. Yet many Democrats and Republicans in the United Stat...

342. Valerie Fridland — Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English

22 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Paranoid about the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper your presentations? Bewildered by "hella" or the meteoric rise of "so"? Can the word "dude" help people...

341. Secret Scientists & Real Conspiracies — John Lisle on Stanley Lovell, the OSS precursor to the CIA, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare

18 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D...

340. Ben Alderson-Day — Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other

15 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Alderson-Day discuss the psychologist's journey to understand the phenomenon of sensed-presence: the disturbing feeling that someone or so...

339. Gerald and Patricia Posner on Evil

11 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and the Posners discuss: the nature and banality of evil • Are we all potential Nazis? • Mengele, Eichmann, Himmler, Hitler • The Pharma...

338. AI SciFi — Physicist, Science Fiction Author, and AI Expert David Brin on ChatGPT and Whether AI Poses an Existential Threat

08 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Brin discuss: AI and AGI • are they existential threats? • the alignment problem • Large Language Models • ChatGPT, GPT-4, GPT-5...

337. On the Origin of Time — Thomas Hertog on Stephen Hawking's Final Theory

01 Apr 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Perhaps the biggest question Stephen Hawking tried to answer in his extraordinary life was how the universe could have created conditions so perfectly...

336. The Sacred Depths of Nature — Ursula Goodenough on How to Find Sacred Scientific Spirituality

28 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For many of us, the great scientific discoveries of the modern age — the Big Bang, evolution, quantum physics, relativity — point to an existence ...

335. Jennifer Michael Hecht on How to Find Meaning, Purpose, and Happiness in Everyday Life

25 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We have calendars to mark time, communal spaces to bring us together, bells to signal hours of contemplation, official archives to record legacies, th...

334. The End of the World: Bart Ehrman on What the Bible Really Says About the End

21 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You'll find nearly everything the Bible has to say about the end in the Book of Revelation: a mystifying prophecy filled with bizarre symbolism, viole...

333. Kevin Kelly — ChatGPT, OpenAI, and Excellent Advice for Living

18 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On his 68th birthday, Kevin Kelly began to write down for his young adult children some things he had learned about life that he wished he had known e...

332. Wrongfully Convicted, Ultimately Acquitted — Amanda Knox on Criminal Injustice and Why It Happens

14 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Amanda Knox spent four years in an Italian prison for a crime she did not commit. In the fall of 2007, the 20-year-old college coed left Seattle to st...

331. Paul Zak — Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness

11 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The world is rapidly transforming into an experience economy as people increasingly crave extraordinary experiences. Experience designers, marketers, ...

330. Jim Davies — How to Be a Better Person

07 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why do we feel like in order to be productive, happy, or good, we must sacrifice everything else? Is it possible to feel all three at once? Without ev...

329. Marc Schulz — The Good Life: Lessons from the World's Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

04 Mar 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Schulz discuss: an operational definition of the "good life" or "happiness" or "well being" • the reliability (or unreliability) of self...

328. Paul Bloom — Psych: The Story of the Human Mind

28 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How does the brain — a three-pound gelatinous mass — give rise to intelligence and conscious experience? Was Freud right that we are all plagued b...

327. Rachel Moran on Her Years in Prostitution, How She Got Out of It, and Why She Thinks It Is a Form of Sexual Exploitation

25 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Moran discuss: her dysfunctional family background • her boyfriend who pimped her • the women who sell sex and the men who buy it • ...

326. Naomi Oreskes — The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

21 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Oreskes discuss: the myth of market magic • market fundamentalism • market absolutism • market essentialism • capitalism and democ...

325. Heinrich Päs — The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics

18 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Päs discuss: monism vs. dualism • What is time? • What is a field? • Is math all there is? Is math universal? • the double-slit e...

324. Andrew Gold on Exorcism, Abortion, Pedophilia, Sex & UFOs

14 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Gold discuss: diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media • social justice movements and their motivations • bias in STEM fields •...

323. Elle Hardy — Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World

11 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Hardy discuss: Hardy's religious journey (raised Catholic, now agnostic) • origin of Pentecostalism and its biblical basis Pentecostalis...

322. Marty Klein — Sex Matters

07 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Klein discuss: sex therapist and the reasons people seek therapy • self-help sex books • sexual orientation • asexuality • sex abu...

321. William Magnuson — For Profit: A History of Corporations

04 Feb 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism has only grown more intense in recent years. Meanwhile, corporations continue ...

320. Massimo Pigliucci — How to Live a Good Life and Create a Just Society

31 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Michael Shermer speaks with the stoic philosopher and evolutionary biologist Massimo Pigliucci on how to apply the ancient wisdom of s...

319. Steven Hassan — Combatting Cult Mind Control, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump

28 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation, based on a leading cult expert Steven Hassan's books (Combatting Cult Mind Control, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump) you ...

318. Suzie Sheehy — The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World

24 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Physics has always sought to deepen our understanding of the nature of matter and the world around us. But how do you conduct experiments with the fun...

317. Dacher Keltner — Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

21 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Awe is mysterious. How do we begin to quantify the goose bumps we feel when we see the Grand Canyon, or the utter amazement when we watch a child walk...

316. Daniel Akst on the Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance

17 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Pacifists who fought against the Second World War faced insurmountable odds — but their resistance, philosophy, and strategies fostered a tradition ...

315. David Bernstein — Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America

14 Jan 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Bernstein discuss: the SCOTUS case on affirmative action and race preferences at Harvard and elsewhere • Elizabeth Warren (Cherokee ance...