The Michael Shermer Show
Episodes
214. Tom Nichols — Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on Modern Democracy
02 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Democracy is in trouble. Why? In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movem...
213. Mike Rothschild — The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything
28 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer speaks with Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, about QAnon and its followers. On October 5th, 2017, Pr...
212. Gale Sinatra & Barbara Hofer — Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It
25 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer speaks with Gale Sinatra and Barbara Hofer about the key psychological explanations for science denial and doubt that can help provide...
211. Ashley Rindsberg — The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times's Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History
21 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer speaks with Ashley Rindsberg about his book The Gray Lady Winked in which he pulls back the curtain on the the world's most powerful n...
210. Leidy Klotz on doing more with less, based on his book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less
18 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We pile on "to-dos" but don't consider "stop-doings." We create incentives for good behavior, but don't get rid of obstacles to it. We collect new-and...
209. Heather Heying & Bret Weinstein on Evolution and the Challenges of Modern Life, Based on Their New Book a Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century
14 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
We are living through the most prosperous age in all of human history, yet people are more listless, divided and miserable than ever. Wealth and comfo...
208. The Truth About 9/11 and Terrorism
10 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this special episode of the podcast Michael Shermer honors the 20th anniversary of 9/11 with a commentary on the truth about that event and how it ...
207. John Petrocelli — The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit
07 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Bullshit is the foundation of contaminated thinking and bad decisions that leads to health consequences, financial losses, legal consequences, broken ...
206. Nichola Raihani — The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World
04 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It's how we progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of ge...
205. Richard Dawkins on evangelizing for evolution, science, skepticism, philosophy, reason, and rationality, based on his book Books Do Furnish a Life: Reading and Writing Science
01 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 205, Michael Shermer speaks with Richard Dawkins, the author of The Selfish Gene, voted The Royal Society's Most Inspiring Science Book of ...
204. Carole Hooven on T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us
28 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In episode 204, Michael Shermer speaks with codirector of undergraduate studies in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University,...
203. Lee McIntyre — How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason
24 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
"Climate change is a hoax — and so is coronavirus." "Vaccines are bad for you." These days, many of our fellow citizens reject scientific expertise ...
202. Julia Galef — The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don't
21 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to what we believe, humans see what they want to see. We have what Julia Galef calls a "soldier" mindset: a drive to defend the ideas we...
201. Michael Shermer on Evolution, I.D. Theory, Consciousness, Morality, Gullibility, and Nothing (AMA # 7)
18 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this AMA Dr. Michael Shermer answers your questions about evolution and creationism, intelligent design theory, the hard problem of consciousness, ...
200. Philip Zimbardo on the Nature & Nurture of Good & Evil
15 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
August 15 marks the 50th anniversary of day one of the Stanford Prison Experiment — one of the most controversial studies in the history of social p...
199. David Potter — Disruption: Why Things Change
10 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
This conversation takes a deep dive into disruptions. How do things change? The question is critical to the historical study of any era but it is also...
198. Bernardo Kastrup on the Nature of Reality: Materialism, Idealism, or Skepticism
07 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In this expansive conversation, Michael Shermer speaks with Bernardo Kastrup, the executive director of Essentia Foundation. His work has been leading...
197. Yaron Brook on Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and Objectivism
03 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Michael Shermer speaks with entrepreneur, writer, and activist Yaron Brook about Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, Objectivism; individualism vs. collectivism...
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...