The Michael Shermer Show

196. Annie Murphy Paul — The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain

31 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation about her new book, the acclaimed science writer Annie Murphy Paul explodes the myth that the brain is an all-powerful, all-purpo...

195. Jamy Ian Swiss — The Conjuror's Conundrum

27 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The most fundamental lesson that all magicians learn is that seeing is not believing. In episode 195, Michael speaks with internationally acclaimed sl...

194. John Mackey (Founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market) on Conscious Capitalism & Conscious Leadership

21 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Mackey says the treatment for the cancer of crony capitalism is conscious capitalism, grounded "in an ethical system based on value creation for ...

193. Chris Edwards on Educational Reform and Thought Experiments

17 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Shermer speaks with Chris Edwards about educational reform, his study and teaching of world history, the problems in K–12 education, the zip...

192. Lesley Newson & Peter Richerson — A New Look at Human Evolution

10 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a few decades, a torrent of new evidence and ideas about human evolution has allowed scientists to piece together a more detailed understanding of ...

191. Michael Gordin on the Fringe of Where Science Meets Pseudoscience

03 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Everyone has heard of the term "pseudoscience", typically used to describe something that looks like science, but is somehow false, misleading, or unp...

190. Jonathan Rauch — The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth

26 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent additions to our daily vocabulary appe...

189. Daniel Kahneman — Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment

19 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Imagine that two doctors in the same city give different diagnoses to identical patients. Now imagine that the same doctor making a different decision...

188. Legendary Undersea Explorer Robert Ballard — Into the Deep: A Memoir From the Man Who Found Titanic

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation about his memoir and National Geographicspecial on his life, Robert Ballard takes us along his many journeys to find the Titanic,...

187. Robert Cialdini — Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this dialogue, based on the new edition of his highly acclaimed bestseller (over 5 million copies sold in over 40 languages), Robert Cialdini — N...

186. William Nordhaus on the Economics of Global Warming, Pandemics, and Corporate Malfeasance

02 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation, based on the book The Spirit of Green: The Economics of Collisions and Contagions in a Crowded World, Nobel Prize-winning pionee...

185. Stephen Meyer — Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe (and why Shermer remains skeptical)

29 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Beginning in the late 19th century, many intellectuals began to insist that scientific knowledge conflicts with traditional theistic belief — that s...

184. Alexander Green on Money & Why It Matters

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of the show Shermer and Green discuss one of the most important and yet poorly understood concepts in modern society: money an...

183. Bari Weiss & Bion Bartning — The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism

22 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer, Weiss, and Bartning discuss: why we need the Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism (FAIR) when we have the ACLU, the SPLC, etc.; Richard Da...

182. A Conversation With UFOlogist Alan Steinfeld on How Believers and Skeptics Think About UFOs

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with explorer of consciousness and the emcee of Contact in the Desert (the largest UFO event in the country), ...

181. David Buss — When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault

15 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sexual conflict permeates ancient religions, from injunctions about thy neighbor's wife to the permissible rape of infidels. It is etched in written l...

180. Andy Norman — Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Astonishingly irrational ideas are spreading. COVID-19 denial, anti-vaxxers compromising public health, conspiracy thinking hijacking minds and inciti...

179. Niall Ferguson — Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe

08 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Disasters are inherently hard to predict. Pandemics, like earthquakes, wildfires, financial crises, and wars, are not normally distributed; there is n...

178. James Hunter & Paul Nedelisky on religious vs. secular morality — Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In their book Science and the Good, professional philosophers James Hunter and Paul Nedelisky trace the origins and development of the centuries-long,...

177. Angus Fletcher — 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature

01 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael speaks with neuroscientist and literature professor Dr. Angus Fletcher about 25 of the most powerful developments in the history of literatur...

176. Minouche Shafik — What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Shermer speaks with Nemat Talaat Shafik, Baroness Shafik DBE, known as Minouche Shafik, one of the leading policy experts of our time, about a...

175. Brian Keating — How it All Began: Cosmic Inflation, the Multiverse, and the Nature of Scientific Proof

24 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode, based on the cover story from Skeptic magazine 26.1 (2021), Michael speaks with University of California professor of physics Brian K...

174. Jordan Peterson — Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Join Michael Shermer and Jordan Peterson (bestselling author of 12 Rules for Life) for this extraordinary conversation based on Peterson's new book B...

173. Naomi Oreskes — Why Trust Science?

17 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this interview, based on her landmark book, Why Trust Science?, historian of science Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science,...

172. Andrew Doyle — Free Speech: And Why it Matters

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Political Correctness has formed the basis for a new intolerant mindset, actively policing speech that is deemed offensive or controversial. Rather th...

171. John Mueller — The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency

10 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this conversation based on his new book, The Stupidity of War, political scientist John Mueller argues that American foreign policy since 1945 has ...

170. Michio Kaku — The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Synthesizing relativity and quantum theory would be the crowning achievement of science, a profound merging of all the forces of nature into one beaut...

169. Jeff Hawkins — A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

03 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Shermer speaks with Jeff Hawkins, cofounder of Numenta: a neuroscience research company, about his new book A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of...

168. Daniel Dennett & Gregg Caruso — Just Deserts: Debating Free Will (moderated by Michael Shermer)

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The concept of free will is profoundly important to our self-understanding, our interpersonal relationships, and our moral and legal practices. If it ...

167. Gary Taubes — The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For years, health organizations have preached the same rules for losing weight: restrict your calories, eat less, exercise more. So why doesn't it wor...

166. Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives (Michael Heller & James Salzman)

20 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Mine" is one of the first words babies learn. By the time we grow up, the idea of ownership seems natural. But who controls the space behind your air...

165. John McWhorter — The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and Their Threat to a Progressive America

16 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Shermer speaks with John McWhorter about his new online book on how the antiracism movement poses a threat to progressive America. Shermer and McW...

164. Neil deGrasse Tyson — Cosmic Queries: StarTalk's Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We're Going

13 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this thought-provoking conversation on life, the universe, and everything, Neil deGrasse Tyson tackles the world's most important philosophical que...

163. Helen Pluckrose — Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody

09 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Have you heard that language is violence and that science is sexist? Have you read that certain people shouldn't practice yoga or cook Chinese food? O...

162. Benjamin Friedman — Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

06 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In episode 162 of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael speaks with one of the nation's preeminent experts on economic policy, Benjamin Friedman, about hi...

161. Roy Richard Grinker — Nobody's Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness

02 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For centuries, scientists and society cast moral judgments on anyone deemed mentally ill, confining many to asylums. In episode 161 of The Michael She...

160. Abigail Shrier — Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters

27 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Until just a few years ago, gender dysphoria—severe discomfort in one's biological sex—was vanishingly rare. It was typically found in less than ....

159. Joshua Glasgow — The Solace: Finding Value in Death Through Gratitude for Life

23 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How can we find solace when we face the death of loved ones? How can we find solace in our own death? When philosopher Joshua Glasgow's mother was dia...

158. Jason D. Hill — We Have Overcome: An Immigrant's Letter to The American People

20 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode Michael Shermer speaks with Jason D. Hill, a black immigrant from Jamaica, about his eloquent appreciation of the American Dream, and ...

157. Avi Loeb — Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

16 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

According to the Harvard astronomer Avi Loeb, we have proof of alien existence, and more sightings are coming soon. In late 2017, scientists at a Hawa...

156. Ayaan Hirsi Ali — Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women's Rights

09 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Why are so few people talking about the eruption of sexual violence and harassment in Europe's cities? No one in a position of power wants to admit th...

155. Martin Sherwin — Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945–1962

02 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In episode 155, Dr. Shermer speaks with Martin Sherwin, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert...

154. David Sloan Wilson — Atlas Hugged: The Autobiography of John Galt III

26 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In episode 154, Michael speaks with renowned evolutionary theorist David Sloan Wilson about his new novel Atlas Hugged: The Autobiography of John Galt...

153. Kevin Dutton — Black-and-White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World

19 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In episode 153, Michael speaks with University of Oxford research psychologist Dr. Kevin Dutton about his new book Black-and-White Thinking: The Burd...

152. Politics & Truth — Michael Shermer Responds to Critics of His Commentary "Trump & Truth"

17 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Michael Shermer received a lot of interesting and constructive responses to episode 151, his commentary on the events of January 6, 2021 — the s...

151. Trump & Truth — A Commentary by Michael Shermer

12 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities." — Voltaire In this monologue commentary on the events of January 6, ...

150. Daniel Lieberman — Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding

05 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

"Nothing about the biology of exercise makes sense except in the light of evolution, and nothing about exercise as a behavior makes sense except in t...

149. The After Time: The Future of Civilization After COVID-19

29 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of the Science Salon podcast, the last of 2020, Dr. Michael Shermer offers some reflections on 2020, starting with race and th...

148. Have Archetype — Will Travel: The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon

22 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of the Science Salon podcast Dr. Michael Shermer reflects on the recent resurrection of Jordan Peterson, the resurgent critici...

147. David Barash — On the Brink of Destruction

15 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In a conversation based on the book Threats: Intimidation and its Discontents, Shermer and Barash discuss: 2020 as the most momentous year of the pas...

146. Donald Prothero — Weird Earth: Debunking Strange Ideas About Our Planet

08 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Shermer and Prothero discuss: flat earth theories and how we know the earth is round, hollow earth theories and how we know it's not hollow, the retu...

145. Greg Lukianoff — How Free is Free Speech?

01 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this wide ranging conversation focused on Greg Lukianoff's co-authored (with Jonathan Haidt) book The Coddling of the American Mind, and his new do...

144. Agustín Fuentes — Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being

24 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered e...

143. Nicholas Christakis — Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live

17 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Apollo's Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the reco...

142. Philip Goff — Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness

09 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that consciousness is s...

141. Richard Kreitner — Break it Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union

02 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The provocative thesis of Break It Up is simple: The United States has never lived up to its name—and never will. The disunionist impulse may have f...

140. Rebecca Wragg Sykes — Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art

27 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The common narrative of Neanderthals is that they were a group of dullard losers whose extinction 40,000 years ago was due to smarter competition an...

BONUS: James Randi—A Report from the Paranormal Trenches (1992)

25 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This classic lecture on skepticism was given by James Randi on March 22, 1992 at the inaugural session of the Distinguished Science Lecture Series hos...

139. Shelby Steele — Shame: How America's Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country & the film What Killed Michael Brown?

20 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The United States today is hopelessly polarized; the political Right and Left have hardened into rigid and deeply antagonistic camps, preventing any...

138. Douglas Murray — The Madness of 2020

16 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this special episode of the Science Salon Podcast, Michael Shermer catches up with Douglas Murray one year after the publication of his bestselli...

137. Marta Zaraska — Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism, and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100

13 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the day her daughter was born, science journalist Marta Zaraska fretted about what she and her family were eating. She fasted, considered adoptin...

136. Gad Saad — The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense

06 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

There's a war against truth and if we don't win it, intellectual freedom will be a casualty. The West's commitment to freedom, reason, and true libera...

135. Paul Halpern — Synchronicity: The Epic Quest to Understand the Quantum Nature of Cause and Effect

29 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Does the universe have a speed limit? If not, some effects could happen at the same instant as the actions that caused them — and some effects, ludi...

134. Joe Henrich — The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous

22 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

WEIRD: Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic. Unlike much of the world today, and most people who have ever lived, WEIRD people are ...

133. Michael E. McCullough — The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code

15 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this sweeping psychological history of human goodness — from the foundations of evolution to the modern political and social challenges humanity ...

132. Leonard Mlodinow — Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics

08 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

One of the most influential physicists of our time, Stephen Hawking touched the lives of millions. Recalling his nearly two decades as Hawking's colla...

131. Stuart Ritchie — Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth

01 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Science is how we understand the world. Yet failures in peer review and mistakes in statistics have rendered a shocking number of scientific studies u...

130. Debra Soh — The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society

25 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Is our gender something we're born with, or are we conditioned by society? In The End of Gender, neuroscientist and sexologist Dr. Debra Soh uses a re...

129. Mona Sue Weissmark — The Science of Diversity

18 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The Science of Diversity uses a multidisciplinary approach to excavate the theories, principles, and paradigms that illuminate our understanding of ...

128. Michael Shellenberger — Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All

11 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world's last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the pred...

127. William Perry and Tom Collina — The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump

04 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From authors William J. Perry, Secretary of Defense in the Clinton administration and Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering in the Ca...

126. Sarah Scoles — They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers

28 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More than half a century since Roswell, UFOs have been making headlines once again. On December 17, 2017, the New York Times ran a front-page story ab...

125. Bjorn Lomborg — False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet

21 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Hurricanes batter our coasts. Wildfires rage across the American West. Glaciers collapse in the Artic. Politicians, activists, and the media espouse a...

124. David J. Halperin — Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO

14 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

UFOs are a myth, says David J. Halperin — but myths are real. The power and fascination of the UFO has nothing to do with space travel or life on ot...

123. Gerald Posner — Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America

07 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Pharmaceutical breakthroughs such as antibiotics and vaccines rank among some of the greatest advancements in human history. Yet exorbitant prices for...

122. Walter Scheidel — Escape from Rome: The Failure of the Empire and the Road to Prosperity

30 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What has the Roman Empire ever done for us? Fall and go away. That is the striking conclusion of historian Walter Scheidel as he recounts the gripping...

121. Maria Konnikova — The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win

23 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

It's true that Maria Konnikova had never actually played poker before and didn't even know the rules when she approached Erik Seidel, Poker Hall of Fa...

120. Andrew Rader — Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take Us to the Stars

16 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For the first time in history, the human species has the technology to destroy itself. But having developed that power, humans are also able to leave ...

119. Howard Bloom — Einstein, Michael Jackson, and Me: A Search for the Soul in the Power Pits of Rock and Roll

09 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Howard Bloom — called "the greatest press agent that rock and roll has ever known" by Derek Sutton, the former manager of Styx, Ten Years After, and...

118. Stuart Russell — Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control

02 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In the popular imagination, superhuman artificial intelligence is an approaching tidal wave that threatens not just jobs and human relationships, bu...

117. Matt Ridley — How Innovation Works: and Why It Flourishes in Freedom

26 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Innovation is the main event of the modern age, the reason we experience both dramatic improvements in our living standards and unsettling changes i...

116. Howard Steven Friedman — Ultimate Price: The Value We Place on Life

19 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

How much is a human life worth? Individuals, families, companies, and governments routinely place a price on human life. The calculations that underli...

115. Matthew Cobb — The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience

12 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For thousands of years, thinkers and scientists have tried to understand what the brain does. Yet, despite the astonishing discoveries of science, we ...

114. Katherine Stewart — The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism

05 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marr...

113. Dave Rubin — Don't Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason

28 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The left is no longer liberal. Once on the side of free speech and tolerance, progressives now ban speakers from college campuses, "cancel" people who...

112. Ann Druyan — Cosmos: Possible Worlds

21 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this sequel to Carl Sagan's beloved classic and the companion to the hit television series hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson, the primary author of all...

111. Scott Barry Kaufman — Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

14 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

When psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman first discovered Maslow's unfinished theory of transcendence, sprinkled throughout a cache of unpublished journa...

110. Bart Ehrman — Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife

31 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

According to a recent Pew Research poll, 72% of Americans believe in a literal heaven and 58% in a literal hell (more evidence of the over-optimism bi...

109. Neil Shubin — Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA

24 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

The author of the best-selling Your Inner Fish gives us a lively and accessible account of the great transformations in the history of life on Earth —...

108. Brian Greene — Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe

17 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Until the End of Time is Brian Greene's breathtaking new exploration of the cosmos and our quest to find meaning in the face of this vast expanse. ...

107. Fred Kaplan — The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War

10 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

From the author of the classic The Wizards of Armageddon and Pulitzer Prize finalist comes the definitive history of American policy on nuclear war —...

106. Daniel Chirot — You Say You Want a Revolution? Radical Idealism and its Tragic Consequences

03 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Why have so many of the iconic revolutions of modern times ended in bloody tragedies? What lessons can be drawn from these failures today, in a wor...

105. Diana Pasulka — American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology

25 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

More than half of American adults and more than 75 percent of young Americans believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. This level of belief rival...

104. Judith Finlayson — You Are What Your Grandparents Ate: What You Need to Know About Nutrition, Experience, Epigenetics and the Origins of Chronic Disease

18 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this wide ranging conversation Judith Finlayson reviews the research she writes about in her new book that takes conventional wisdom about the orig...

103. Robert Frank — Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work

11 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Psychologists have long understood that social environments profoundly shape our behavior, sometimes for the better, often for the worse. But social i...

102. Christopher Ryan — Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress

04 Feb 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Most of us have instinctive evidence the world is ending — balmy December days, face-to-face conversation replaced with heads-to-screens zomboidism,...

101. Hugo Mercier — Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe

28 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

Not Born Yesterday explains how we decide who we can trust and what we should believe — and argues that we're pretty good at making these decision...

100. Episode Special: Ask Me Almost Anything

21 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

In this 100th episode of the Science Salon podcast Dr. Shermer gives a brief overview and history of the salon and how it evolved from the Distinguish...

99. Bobby Duffy — Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding

14 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

What percentage of the population are immigrants? How bad is unemployment? How much sex do people have? These questions are important and interesting,...

98. Robert Pennock — An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science

07 Jan 2020

Contributed by Lukas

An exploration of the scientific mindset — such character virtues as curiosity, veracity, attentiveness, and humility to evidence — and its impo...