The Michael Shermer Show
The Michael Shermer Show is a series of long-form conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, philosophers, historians, scholars, writers and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.
How the Greatest Investors Win in Life and Markets
Evidence-Based Charity and Moral Psychology
The Suggestible Brain
Rationality, Science Fiction, and Humanity’s Future
Building a Wealthier, Fairer Society
Gareth Gore Investigates: Opus Dei, Dark Money, and Global Deception
The Current State of Atheism and Separation of Church and State
Paul Ehrlich on The Population Bomb, Climate Change, and the Ethics of Extinction
From the Big Bang to God: The Universe’s Biggest Mysteries
Inventing God: Psychology of Belief and the Rise of Secular Spirituality
2024 Election Postmortem
Fentanyl and the Opioid Epidemic
Stories From the Front Lines of Abortion Care (Dr. Warren Hern)
The Most Important Election of My Lifetime … Again (Michael Shermer)
The Future of Global Order and America’s Influence
Faith, Politics, and Power: Talia Lavin on the Christian Right’s America
The Social Reset: Big Tech, Mental Health, and the Future of Connection
Neal Stephenson on Predicting the Metaverse, Crypto, and AI Decades Ahead
The Future of AI: Consciousness and Ethical Dilemmas
Words, Actions, and Liberty: Tara Smith Decodes the First Amendment
Psychogenic Illness and the Nocebo Effect
How Religions Compete for Money, Power, and People
Why Ronald Reagan Wanted to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (Max Boot)
Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice
Gray Matters: Exploring the Frontiers of Neurosurgery
Biology vs. Gender Ideology: The Science Behind the Debate
Taming Silicon Valley: AI’s Perils and Promise
Matt Ridley, Steven Pinker, and Michael Shermer Challenge Conventional Narratives
Slavery, Enlightenment, and America’s Refounding
How to Think About Souls, UFOs, Time, Belief, and Everything
Pseudohistory Makes a Comeback on Tucker Carlson's Show
The Science of Disbelief: Understanding Atheism and the Evolution of Religion
The Road to Singularity: Ben Goertzel on AGI and The Fate of Humanity
Unmasking the Unknown: UFOs, Alien Tech, and Military Secrets?
Are We Confused About Social Justice? (Helen Pluckrose)
The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers
The Logic of Nuclear Policy: Deterrence and MAD Explained.
Why Men Are Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It
Bones, Bias, and Backlash: Elizabeth Weiss on the Politicization of Anthropology
The Physics of Life’s Emergence
Cryptomania: Hype, Hope, and the Fall of a Billion-Dollar Fintech Empire
Richard Dawkins on Genetic Insights Into the History of Life
UFO Sightings Around the World: A Comprehensive History
Parent-Child Estrangement: How Does Divorce Affect Children?
The Influence of Politics and Tribalism on Climate Science
Death and the Search for Meaning in the Afterlife
Division and Polarization in American Politics: Balancing Majority Rule and Minority Rights
Michael Shermer Reflects on the Trump Assassination Attempt
Thinking Critically About COVID: Conspiracies vs. Nuance and Facts (Jay Bhattacharya)
From Hippie to Whole Foods Mogul
Aella — From a Christian Upbringing to Sex Work
Hong Kong’s Turmoil: Insights from an Exiled Political Leader
Living Constitutionally: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Constitution’s Original Meaning
Lemuria: A True Story of a Fake Place
Born into a Cult (Michelle Dowd)
UFOs: What We Know (And Don’t Know)
Religion as Make-Believe: A Theory of Belief, Imagination, and Group Identity
Vulnerable Minds: The Harm of Childhood Trauma and the Hope of Resilience
How to Achieve Peace in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
How Likely Is War Over Taiwan?
Neuroscientist Explains Selective Memory (Charan Ranganath)
Metaracism: How Systemic Racism Devastates Black Lives
How to Think About Social Justice
Sean Carroll Explains Quantum Field Theory
Co-Founder of The Free Press reports on the Culture Wars (Nellie Bowles)
The Latest Research on Consciousness (Christof Koch)
Everything is Predictable: How Bayesian Statistics Explain Our World
The New Science of Planet Hunting in the Cosmos
The Science of Happines
How Rhetoric Shapes Your Opinions
Accomplishment and Happiness (Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker)
Should We Prepare for Nuclear War? (Annie Jacobsen)
An AI... Utopia? (Nick Bostrom, Oxford)
Life on Mars? (Robert Zubrin)
Robots and the People Who Love Them
The Formation, Diversification, and Extinction of World Religions
The Wisdom and Wonder of Being Uncertain
The End of Race Politics (Coleman Hughes)
How to Repair America’s Broken Democracy
Bad Therapy: Why the Kids Aren't Growing Up (Abigail Shrier)
An Unfinished History of the Holocaust
The Weirdness of the World
The Story of Female Empowerment & Getting Canceled: Elite Commando and Kickboxing World Champion Leah Goldstein
Who Wrote the Qur’an, Why, and What Does it Really Say?
Purpose in the Eyes of a Psychiatrist
Does Humanity Function as a Single Superorganism?
The Power of Noticing What Was Always There
China's Grip on Rare-Earth Elements and the Future of Global Energy Security
mRNA Vaccines, Mask Mandates, and the COVID-19 Response (Paul Offit)
Foster Care, Family, and Social Class
How U.S. Public Health Has Strayed From Its Liberal Roots
Against the New Politics of Identity
What Determines Who Succeeds in the NBA?
Transforming Mental Health: Little Treatments, Big Effects
Overcoming Self-Censorship in the Age of Outrage
One Couple’s Vacation Caused 100,000 People to Die
Head of TED Talks Shares a New Vision of Generosity
Are Parallel Universes and Extra Dimensions Real?
Michael Shellenberger Explains Government Censorship of Social Media
Multiculturalism and Lessons From the Rwandan Genocide
The Meaning of Life (A Message for the Holidays)
A Trial by Media Ended Caylan Ford’s Career in 4 Hours
How Not to Age
How to Cultivate Your Imagination as an Adult
Nobel Prize Winner Explains Inequality and Capitalism
The Purpose of the Universe
How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation
JFK 60th Anniversary of the Assassination
The Scientific Search for Alien Life
Ayaan Hirsi Ali Converted to Christianity
UFO: The Inside Story of the U.S. Government's Search for Alien Life
Identity Politics and its Discontents
What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things? (Dan Ariely)
The Role of Iran in the Israel-Hamas Conflict
The Secret History of Women at the CIA
America and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Cancel Culture and What to Do About It (Greg Lukianoff & Rikki Schlott)
Robert Sapolsky on Free Will and Determinism
Armageddon in the Middle East? (David Wolpe)
Should Employers Pay For Emotional Labor?
Dan Dennett Looks Back on His Career
How the American Right Became Radicalized
BIG ANNOUNCEMENT
Ways of Thinking That Power Successful People
How to Fight for Truth and Protect Democracy
The Law vs. Separation of Church and State
Based on DNA Testing, Only One Twin Was Granted U.S. Citizenship. Why?
Evidence of Aliens? Harvard Astronomer Avi Loeb
Slavery in the U.S. Analyzed by a Pulitzer Prize-Winning Lawyer and Historian (Ed Larson)
Maybe "Good Enough" Is Actually Enough? When Perfectionism Backfires.
Is a Human Life Worth $10 Million or Only $187,000? (Bjorn Lomborg)
Why We Get Fooled
The Saad Truth About Happiness
Christopher Rufo Decodes Cultural Shifts in America
The Truth About Martin Luther King Jr.
An Outsider’s Perspective on American Culture Wars
Children and Politics
The Future of Medicine: What You Need to Know
Michael Shellenberger on UFO Whistleblowers
Is the Government Hiding Aliens?
A Guide to Violence and Self-Defense.
Identity or Merit: What Matters More? (Heather Mac Donald)
Are We Risking Our Ability to Think?
Quantum Computers Will Change Everything (Michio Kaku)
What Happened to Women’s Rights?
My Final Lecture: What I Learned About Living a Good Life
Could the American Economy Collapse Like Venezuela’s? (Mark Skousen)
Scams and Frauds: A Skeptic's Survival Guide
What if You Were Born 50 Years Earlier?
How Can God Feel So Real?
Will We Ever Live in a Post-race World?
346. Kennon Sheldon — What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About Free Will, Determinism, and Self-Determinism
345. Matt Johnson — How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment
344. What is a Woman, Anyway?
343. Timothy Redmond — Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It
342. Valerie Fridland — Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English
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
340. Ben Alderson-Day — Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other
339. Gerald and Patricia Posner on Evil
338. AI SciFi — Physicist, Science Fiction Author, and AI Expert David Brin on ChatGPT and Whether AI Poses an Existential Threat
337. On the Origin of Time — Thomas Hertog on Stephen Hawking’s Final Theory
336. The Sacred Depths of Nature — Ursula Goodenough on How to Find Sacred Scientific Spirituality
335. Jennifer Michael Hecht on How to Find Meaning, Purpose, and Happiness in Everyday Life
334. The End of the World: Bart Ehrman on What the Bible Really Says About the End
333. Kevin Kelly — ChatGPT, OpenAI, and Excellent Advice for Living
332. Wrongfully Convicted, Ultimately Acquitted — Amanda Knox on Criminal Injustice and Why It Happens
331. Paul Zak — Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness
330. Jim Davies — How to Be a Better Person
329. Marc Schulz — The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness
328. Paul Bloom — Psych: The Story of the Human Mind
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
326. Naomi Oreskes — The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
325. Heinrich Päs — The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics
324. Andrew Gold on Exorcism, Abortion, Pedophilia, Sex & UFOs
323. Elle Hardy — Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World
322. Marty Klein — Sex Matters
321. William Magnuson — For Profit: A History of Corporations
320. Massimo Pigliucci — How to Live a Good Life and Create a Just Society
319. Steven Hassan — Combatting Cult Mind Control, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump
318. Suzie Sheehy — The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World
317. Dacher Keltner — Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life
316. Daniel Akst on the Pacifists of the Greatest Generation Who Revolutionized Resistance
315. David Bernstein — Classified: The Untold Story of Racial Classification in America
314. Martin Rees — Can Science Save Us?
313. Matthew Cobb — As Gods: A Moral History of the Genetic Age
312. Louise Perry — The Case Against the Sexual Revolution: A New Guide to Sex in the 21st Century
311. Meghan Daum — The Problem With Everything: My Journey Through the New Culture Wars
310. Todd Kashdan — The Art of Insubordination: How to Dissent and Defy Effectively
309. India Thusi on Sex Work, Critical Race Theory, and Moral Progress
308. Iris Berent — The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature
307. Nicholas Dirks on Science Denial, Distrust, and Skepticism
306. Stephon Alexander — Fear of a Black Universe: An Outsider’s Guide to the Future of Physics
305. Bethanne Patrick — Book World
304. Justin Gregg — If Nietzsche Were a Narwhal: What Animal Intelligence Reveals About Human Stupidity
303. Michael Shermer — Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational
302. Tim Palmer — The Primacy of Doubt
301. Alan Blinder — A Monetary and Fiscal History of the United States
300. Saleem Ali — Earthly Order: How Natural Laws Define Human Life
299. Richard Reeves — Of Boys and Men: Why the Modern Male Is Struggling, Why It Matters, and What to Do About It
298. Neil deGrasse Tyson — Starry Messenger: Cosmic Perspectives on Civilization
297. Andrew Doyle — How the Religion of Social Justice Captured the Western World
296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott’s Famous Experiment on Race and Brutality and What It Reveals About Today’s Racial Divide
295. Marian Tupy & Gale Pooley — Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet
294. Sabine Hossenfelder — Existential Physics: A Scientist’s Guide to Life’s Biggest Questions
293. Konstantin Kisin — An Immigrant’s Love Letter to the West
292. Gary Marcus — Rebooting AI: Building Artificial Intelligence We Can Trust
291. Rob Ashton — Silent Influence and the Science of Writing, Reading, and Communicating
290. Anastacia Marx de Salcedo — Eat like a Pig, Run Like a Horse
289. James Kirchick — Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington
288. Lucy Cooke — Bitch: On the Female of the Species
287. Bobby Azarian — Life, the Universe, and Cosmic Complexity
286. Kevin McCaffree — How Societies Change and Why
285. Helen Joyce — Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality
284. Yoram Hazony on Traditional Conservatism vs. Enlightenment Liberalism
283. Michael Strevens — The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science
282. Anil Seth on the Hard Problem of Consciousness, the Self, and the Essence of Volition
281. Moneyball For Your Life: Seth Stephens-Davidowitz on Using Data to Get What You Really Want
280. Sam Rosenfeld on Party Polarization in the Postwar United States
279. Ian Morris on Deep Time and Big History
278. “Big Historian” David Christian on Time, the Near and Far Future, Transhumanism, Interstellar Migrations, the Fate of Our Species, and the End of Time
277. Michel Gagné — How to Think About Conspiracy Theories
276. Andrew Yang — Not Left. Not Right. Forward.
275. The Disrupted Mind: Noga Arikha on What Happens to Identity When the Brain Is Assaulted by Disease and Injury
274. Frans De Waal on Sex and Gender Across the Primate Spectrum
273. Cathy Young — The Russian Riddle Wrapped in a Ukrainian Mystery Inside an American Enigma
272. Stuart Vyse — The Uses of Delusion: Why It’s Not Always Rational to Be Rational
271. Peter Ward — The Price of Immortality: The Race to Live Forever
270. Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrationality (Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli)
269. Richard Dawkins — Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
268. Douglas Murray on The War on the West: Race, Politics, and Culture
267. Louis Theroux on Neo-Nazis, Jimmy Savile, UFO Cults, and Scientology
266. Jesse Singal on Why Fad Psychology Can’t Cure Our Social Ills
265. Christopher Blattman on Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace
264. Adam Levin on Identity Theft and How to Protect Yourself from Scammers, Phishers, and Fraudsters of All Types
263. Dave Rubin — Left, Right, and Woke, based on his book Don’t Burn This Country: Surviving and Thriving in Our Woke Dystopia
262. Oliver Stone on Ukraine, Putin, and the Military-Industrial Complex
261. Jim Al-Khalili on the Joy of Science
260. Batya Ungar-Sargon — Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy
259. Ogi Ogas — Journey of the Mind: How Thinking Emerged from Chaos
258. Jacek Kugler — Putin & Power Transition Theory: China, Russia, and Ukraine
257. Simon Conway Morris on Design in Evolution & the Possibility of Purpose in the Cosmos
256. Imagining the Future with Reality Game Designer and Futurist Jane McGonigal
255. David Chalmers — Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy
254. Ravi Gupta on the Lost Debate: Whatever Happened to Reasoned Discussion and Respectable Disagreement?
253. Jennifer Sciubba on Putin, Russia, Ukraine, National & Global Security, and How Population Demographics Shape Our Future
252. John Mueller on Putin’s War: Russia, Ukraine, and NATO
251. Kelly Weill on Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything
250. Will Sanctions Work? War in Ukraine.
249. Barbara F. Walter on How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, including in the United States
248. Elizabeth Weiss on Woke Archaeology and Erasing the Past
247. Jacob Mchangama on Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media
246. Nick Pope on UAPs, UFOs, Conspiracies, and Cover-ups
245. Frank Sulloway on How Lives Turn Out: Genes, Environment, Pluck, and Luck
244. Johnjoe McFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the UniverseMcFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam’s Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe
243. Sally Satel on Addiction, the Opioid Crisis, Deaths of Despair, and How Psychiatry Has Gone Woke
242. Jonathan Gottschall — The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
241. Jeff Maurer — I Might Be Wrong
240. Leonard Mlodinow — Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking
239. Richard Firth-Godbehere — A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know
238. Brian Klass — Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us
237. David Wengrow on The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
236. Fernanda Pirie on The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World
235. Thomas Sowell: The Life and Work of the Legendary Social Theorist (Jason Riley)
234. Matt Ridley on the Search for the Origin of COVID-19
233. Goodbye Pat Linse, Skeptic Co-founder and My Best Friend…
232. Amishi Jha on Learning How to Pay Attention to Your Attention
231. Jason Hill on What White Americans Owe Black People
230. Bart Ehrman — Did the Christmas Story Really Happen? The Birth of Jesus in History & Legend
229. Fritjof Capra on Patterns of Connection: Is there a Tao of physics? Is life a web? Is humanity at a turning point?
228. Steven Koonin on what climate science tells us, what it doesn’t, and why it matters, based on his book Unsettled
227. Richard Nisbett on Thinking & Reason
226. Suzanne Nossel on defending free speech for all, based on her book Dare to Speak
225. Nancy Segal — Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart
224. Bobby Duffy on The Generation Myth: Why When You’re Born Matters Less Than You Think
223. Paul Bloom on the pleasures of suffering and the meaning of life
222. Suzanne O’Sullivan on psychosomatic disorders and other mystery illnesses
221. Antonio Damasio — Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious
220. Charles Foster on Being a Human: Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness
219. In-Person Conversation (in Shermer’s Home) with Steven Pinker on Rationality: What it is, Why it Seems Scarce, Why it Matters in Shermer’s Home
218. Craig Whitlock — The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War
217. Mary Grabar on the 1619 Project, Howard Zinn, Historical Revisionism, and Pseudohistory
216. Kathryn Paige Harden — The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality
215. Mary Eberstadt on God, Religion, Secularization, Sexual Revolution, and Identity Politics
214. Tom Nichols — Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on Modern Democracy
213. Mike Rothschild — The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything
212. Gale Sinatra & Barbara Hofer — Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It
211. Ashley Rindsberg — The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History
210. Leidy Klotz on doing more with less, based on his book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less
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
208. The Truth About 9/11 and Terrorism
207. John Petrocelli — The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit
206. Nichola Raihani — The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World
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
204. Carole Hooven on T: The Story of Testosterone, the Hormone that Dominates and Divides Us
203. Lee McIntyre — How to Talk to a Science Denier: Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason
202. Julia Galef — The Scout Mindset: Why Some People See Things Clearly and Others Don’t
201. Michael Shermer on Evolution, I.D. Theory, Consciousness, Morality, Gullibility, and Nothing (AMA # 7)
200. Philip Zimbardo on the Nature & Nurture of Good & Evil
199. David Potter — Disruption: Why Things Change
198. Bernardo Kastrup on the Nature of Reality: Materialism, Idealism, or Skepticism
197. Yaron Brook on Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, and Objectivism
196. Annie Murphy Paul — The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
195. Jamy Ian Swiss — The Conjuror’s Conundrum
194. John Mackey (Founder and CEO of Whole Foods Market) on Conscious Capitalism & Conscious Leadership
193. Chris Edwards on Educational Reform and Thought Experiments
192. Lesley Newson & Peter Richerson — A New Look at Human Evolution
191. Michael Gordin on the Fringe of Where Science Meets Pseudoscience
190. Jonathan Rauch — The Constitution of Knowledge: A Defense of Truth
189. Daniel Kahneman — Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment
188. Legendary Undersea Explorer Robert Ballard — Into the Deep: A Memoir From the Man Who Found Titanic
187. Robert Cialdini — Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion
186. William Nordhaus on the Economics of Global Warming, Pandemics, and Corporate Malfeasance
185. Stephen Meyer — Return of the God Hypothesis: Three Scientific Discoveries that Reveal the Mind Behind the Universe (and why Shermer remains skeptical)
184. Alexander Green on Money & Why It Matters
183. Bari Weiss & Bion Bartning — The Foundation Against Intolerance & Racism
182. A Conversation With UFOlogist Alan Steinfeld on How Believers and Skeptics Think About UFOs
181. David Buss — When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault
180. Andy Norman — Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think
179. Niall Ferguson — Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe
178. James Hunter & Paul Nedelisky on religious vs. secular morality — Science and the Good: The Tragic Quest for the Foundations of Morality
177. Angus Fletcher — 25 Most Powerful Inventions in the History of Literature
176. Minouche Shafik — What We Owe Each Other: A New Social Contract for a Better Society
175. Brian Keating — How it All Began: Cosmic Inflation, the Multiverse, and the Nature of Scientific Proof
174. Jordan Peterson — Beyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life
173. Naomi Oreskes — Why Trust Science?
172. Andrew Doyle — Free Speech: And Why it Matters
171. John Mueller — The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency
170. Michio Kaku — The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything
169. Jeff Hawkins — A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence
168. Daniel Dennett & Gregg Caruso — Just Deserts: Debating Free Will (moderated by Michael Shermer)
167. Gary Taubes — The Case for Keto: Rethinking Weight Control and the Science and Practice of Low-Carb/High-Fat Eating
166. Mine! How the Hidden Rules of Ownership Control Our Lives (Michael Heller & James Salzman)
165. John McWhorter — The Elect: Neoracists Posing as Antiracists and Their Threat to a Progressive America
164. Neil deGrasse Tyson — Cosmic Queries: StarTalk’s Guide to Who We Are, How We Got Here, and Where We’re Going
163. Helen Pluckrose — Cynical Theories: How Activist Scholarship Made Everything About Race, Gender, and Identity—and Why This Harms Everybody
162. Benjamin Friedman — Religion and the Rise of Capitalism
161. Roy Richard Grinker — Nobody’s Normal: How Culture Created the Stigma of Mental Illness
160. Abigail Shrier — Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters
159. Joshua Glasgow — The Solace: Finding Value in Death Through Gratitude for Life
158. Jason D. Hill — We Have Overcome: An Immigrant’s Letter to The American People
157. Avi Loeb — Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth
156. Ayaan Hirsi Ali — Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights
155. Martin Sherwin — Gambling with Armageddon: Nuclear Roulette from Hiroshima to The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1945–1962
154. David Sloan Wilson — Atlas Hugged: The Autobiography of John Galt III
153. Kevin Dutton — Black-and-White Thinking: The Burden of a Binary Brain in a Complex World
152. Politics & Truth — Michael Shermer Responds to Critics of His Commentary “Trump & Truth”
151. Trump & Truth — A Commentary by Michael Shermer
150. Daniel Lieberman — Exercised: Why Something We Never Evolved to Do is Healthy and Rewarding
149. The After Time: The Future of Civilization After COVID-19
148. Have Archetype — Will Travel: The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon
147. David Barash — On the Brink of Destruction
146. Donald Prothero — Weird Earth: Debunking Strange Ideas About Our Planet
145. Greg Lukianoff — How Free is Free Speech?
144. Agustín Fuentes — Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being
143. Nicholas Christakis — Apollo’s Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live
142. Philip Goff — Galileo’s Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness
141. Richard Kreitner — Break it Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America’s Imperfect Union
140. Rebecca Wragg Sykes — Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art
BONUS: James Randi—A Report from the Paranormal Trenches (1992)
139. Shelby Steele — Shame: How America’s Past Sins Have Polarized Our Country & the film What Killed Michael Brown?
138. Douglas Murray — The Madness of 2020
137. Marta Zaraska — Growing Young: How Friendship, Optimism, and Kindness Can Help You Live to 100
136. Gad Saad — The Parasitic Mind: How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense
135. Paul Halpern — Synchronicity: The Epic Quest to Understand the Quantum Nature of Cause and Effect
134. Joe Henrich — The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous
133. Michael E. McCullough — The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code
132. Leonard Mlodinow — Stephen Hawking: A Memoir of Friendship and Physics
131. Stuart Ritchie — Science Fictions: How Fraud, Bias, Negligence, and Hype Undermine the Search for Truth
130. Debra Soh — The End of Gender: Debunking the Myths About Sex and Identity in Our Society
129. Mona Sue Weissmark — The Science of Diversity
128. Michael Shellenberger — Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
127. William Perry and Tom Collina — The Button: The New Nuclear Arms Race and Presidential Power from Truman to Trump
126. Sarah Scoles — They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers
125. Bjorn Lomborg — False Alarm: How Climate Change Panic Costs Us Trillions, Hurts the Poor, and Fails to Fix the Planet
124. David J. Halperin — Intimate Alien: The Hidden Story of the UFO
123. Gerald Posner — Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America
122. Walter Scheidel — Escape from Rome: The Failure of the Empire and the Road to Prosperity
121. Maria Konnikova — The Biggest Bluff: How I Learned to Pay Attention, Master Myself, and Win
120. Andrew Rader — Beyond the Known: How Exploration Created the Modern World and Will Take Us to the Stars
119. Howard Bloom — Einstein, Michael Jackson, and Me: A Search for the Soul in the Power Pits of Rock and Roll
118. Stuart Russell — Human Compatible: Artificial Intelligence and the Problem of Control
117. Matt Ridley — How Innovation Works: and Why It Flourishes in Freedom
116. Howard Steven Friedman — Ultimate Price: The Value We Place on Life
115. Matthew Cobb — The Idea of the Brain: The Past and Future of Neuroscience
114. Katherine Stewart — The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism
113. Dave Rubin — Don’t Burn This Book: Thinking for Yourself in an Age of Unreason
112. Ann Druyan — Cosmos: Possible Worlds
111. Scott Barry Kaufman — Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization
110. Bart Ehrman — Heaven and Hell: A History of the Afterlife
109. Neil Shubin — Some Assembly Required: Decoding Four Billion Years of Life, from Ancient Fossils to DNA
108. Brian Greene — Until the End of Time: Mind, Matter, and Our Search for Meaning in an Evolving Universe
107. Fred Kaplan — The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War
106. Daniel Chirot — You Say You Want a Revolution? Radical Idealism and its Tragic Consequences
105. Diana Pasulka — American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
104. Judith Finlayson — You Are What Your Grandparents Ate: What You Need to Know About Nutrition, Experience, Epigenetics and the Origins of Chronic Disease
103. Robert Frank — Under the Influence: Putting Peer Pressure to Work
102. Christopher Ryan — Civilized to Death: The Price of Progress
101. Hugo Mercier — Not Born Yesterday: The Science of Who We Trust and What We Believe
100. Episode Special: Ask Me Almost Anything
99. Bobby Duffy — Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding
98. Robert Pennock — An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science
97. Amber Scorah — Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life
96. Catherine Wilson — How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well
95. John Martin Fischer — Death, Immortality and Meaning in Life
94. David Leiser — How We Misunderstand Economics and Why it Matters
93. Geoffrey Miller — Virtue Signaling: Essays on Darwinian Politics & Free Speech
92. Tim Samuels — Future Man: How to Evolve and Thrive in the Age of Trump, Mansplaining, and #MeToo
91. James Traub — What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea
90. Melvin Konner — Believers: Faith in Human Nature
89. Richard Dawkins — Outgrowing God: A Beginner’s Guide
88. Daniel Oberhaus — Extraterrestrial Languages
87. Douglas Murray — The Madness of Crowds: Gender, Race, and Identity
86. Neil deGrasse Tyson — Letters from an Astrophysicist
85. Deepak Chopra — Metahuman: Unleashing Your Infinite Potential
84. Christof Koch — The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness is Widespread but Can’t Be Computed
83. Peter Boghossian — How to Have Impossible Conversations: A Very Practical Guide
82. Phil Zuckerman — What it Means to be Moral: Why Religion is Not Necessary for Living an Ethical Life
81. Bruce Hood — Possessed: Why We Want More Than We Need
80. Bryan Walsh — End Times: A Brief Guide to the End of the World
79. Anthony Kronman — The Assault on American Excellence
78. Dr. Donald Hoffman — The Case Against Reality: Why Evolution Hid the Truth From Our Eyes
77. Dr. Lee McIntyre — The Scientific Attitude: Defending Science from Denial, Fraud, and Pseudoscience
76. William Poundstone — The Doomsday Calculation: How an Equation that Predicts the Future is Transforming Everything We Know About Life and the Universe
75. Charles Fishman — One Giant Leap: The Impossible Mission that Flew us to the Moon
74. Shaili Jain, M.D. — The Unspeakable Mind: Stories of Trauma and Healing from the Frontlines of PTSD Science
73. Andrew Seidel — Busting the Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism is Un-American
72. Robert Zubrin — The Case for Space: Spaceflight Revolution
71. Dr. Michael Shermer — What is Truth?
70. Dr. Brian Keating — Losing the Nobel Prize: A Story of Cosmology, Ambition, and the Perils of Science’s Highest Honor
69. Dr. Barbara Tversky — Mind in Motion: How Action Shapes Thought
68. Dr. Michael Ruse — A Darwinian Meaning to Life
67. Dr. Christian Smith — Atheist Overreach: What Atheism Can’t Deliver
66. Dr. Christian List — Why Free Will is Real: A response to Sam Harris, Jerry Coyne, and Other Determinists
65. Jared Diamond — Upheaval: Turning Points for Nations in Crisis
64. Michael Tomasello — Becoming Human
63. Dr. Hector A. Garcia — Sex, Power, and Partisanship: How Evolutionary Science Makes Sense of Our Political Divide
AMA-5. Dr. Michael Shermer — “Are the Miracles of Jesus Unbelievable?” Debate Postmortem
62. Dr. Mark Moffett — The Human Swarm: How Our Societies Arise, Thrive, and Fall
61. Dr. Richard Wrangham — The Goodness Paradox: The Strange Relationship Between Virtue and Violence in Human Evolution
60. Nicholas A. Christakis — Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society
59. Cass R. Sunstein — On Freedom
58. Ben Shapiro — The Right Side of History: How Reason and Moral Purpose Made the West Great
57. Dr. Frans de Waal — Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves
56. Dr. Tyler Cowen — How an Economist Views the World
AMA-4. Dr. Michael Shermer — The Problem of Evil
55. Dr. David Sloan Wilson — This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution
54. Dr. Michele Gelfand — Rule Makers, Rule Breakers: How Tight and Loose Cultures Wire Our World
53. Adam Higginbotham — China Syndrome II: The True Story of What Happened at Chernobyl
52. Bruce Schneier — Hacked! Security and Survival in a Hyper-Connected World
51. Gregg Hurwitz — Into the Light: Myths, Narratives, Archetypes, and Trump
AMA-3. Dr. Michael Shermer — Ask Me Anything!
50. Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld — A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security
AMA-2. Dr. Michael Shermer: Ask Me Anything!
49. Dr. Gad Saad — Doing Gad’s Work
48. Sir Martin Rees — On the Future: Prospects for Humanity
47. Dr. Susan Blackmore — Altered States and Conscious Beings
46. Zac Sechler interviews Michael Shermer about Why People Believe in God
45. Daniel de Visé — On Comebacks in Sports and Life
44. Dr. David P. Barash — Human Nature Through a Glass Brightly
43. Dr. Jonathan Haidt — Coming Apart
42. Dr. Clay Routledge — The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything
40. Dr. Kwame Anthony Appiah — Who Am I? Who Are You? The Lies That Bind: Rethinking Identity
39. Heather Mac Donald — The Diversity Delusion: How Race and Gender Pandering Corrupt the University and Undermine Our Culture
38. Dr. Yuval Noah Harari — 21 Lessons for the 21st Century
37. Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson — Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military
36. Dr. Jonathan Haidt — The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas are Setting Up a Generation for Failure
35. Dr. Tali Sharot — The Influential Mind: What the Brain Reveals About our Power to Change Others
34. Colin McGinn — Paradoxes, Puzzles, and Philosophy
33. David Quammen — The Tangled Tree: A Radical New History of Life
32. Nina Teicholz — The Big Fat Surprise About Diet and Nutrition
31. Amy Alkon — Unf*ckology: A Field Guide to Living with Guts and Confidence
30. Dr. Ralph Lewis — Finding Meaning in a Meaningless Universe
29. Colin McGinn — Mysterianism, Consciousness, Free Will, and God
AMA-1. Dr. Michael Shermer — Ask Me Anything!
28. Edward J. Larson — On Faith and Science
27. Charles S. Cockell — The Equations of Life: How Physics Shapes Evolution
26. Dr. Stephen T. Asma — Why We Need Religion
25. Richard Rhodes — Energy: A Human History
24. Dr. Alan Stern and Dr. David Grinspoon — Chasing New Horizons: Inside the Epic First Mission to Pluto
23. Dr. Kenneth R. Miller — The Human Instinct: How We Evolved to Have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will
22. Dr. Gregory Berns — What It’s Like to Be a Dog…and Other Adventures in Animal Neuroscience
21. Dr. Leonard Mlodinow — Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change
20. Dr. Michael Shermer — Heavens on Earth: The Scientific Search for the Afterlife, Immortality, and Utopia
19. Bill Nye the Science Guy Saves the World on Netflix
18. Dr. Bart Ehrman — How a Forbidden Religion (Christianity) Swept the World
17. Dr. Kip Thorne — Gravitational Waves, Black Holes, Time Travel, and Hollywood
16. Dr. Robert Trivers — Evolutionary Theory & Human Nature
15. Donald Prothero & Timothy Callahan — UFOs, Chemtrails, and Aliens: What Science Says
14. Dr. Nancy Segal — Twin Mythconceptions: False Beliefs, Fables, and Facts about Twins
13. Dr. Walter Scheidel — The Great Leveler: Violence and the History of Inequality from the Stone Age to the 21st Century
12. Derren Brown — Magic, Happiness, and Skepticism
11. Dr. Andrew Shtulman — Scienceblind: Why Our Intuitive Theories About the World Are So Often Wrong
10. Dr. Carol Tavris — Mistakes Were Made (But Not by Me)
9. Gary Taubes — The Case Against Sugar
8. Dr. Priyamvada Natarajan — Mapping the Heavens: The Radical Scientific Ideas That Reveal The Cosmos
7. Dr. Benjamin Bergen — What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves
6. Dr. Stephon Alexander — The Jazz of Physics: The Secret Link Between Music and the Structure of the Universe
5. Dr. Janna Levin — Gravitational Waves, Black Holes and the Nature of the Cosmos
4. Dr. Sean B. Carroll — The Serengeti Rules: The Quest to Discover How Life Works and Why It Matters
3. Dr. Arthur Benjamin — The Magic of Math: Solving for x and Figuring Out Why
2. Michelle Feynman — The Quotable Feynman & His Van