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.
- Update frequency
- every 4 days
- Average duration
- 90 minutes
- Episodes
- 550
- Years Active
- 2015 - 2025
225. Nancy Segal — Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart
In the early 1960s, the head of a prominent New York City Child Development Center and a psychiatrist from Columbia University launched a study designed to track the development of twins and triplets…
224. Bobby Duffy on The Generation Myth: Why When You’re Born Matters Less Than You Think
Boomers are narcissists. Millennials are spoiled. Gen Zers are lazy. We assume people born around the same time have basically the same values. But, do they? Michael Shermer speaks with social resear…
223. Paul Bloom on the pleasures of suffering and the meaning of life
We go to movies that make us cry, or scream, or gag. We poke at sores, eat spicy foods, immerse ourselves in hot baths, run marathons. Some of us even seek out pain and humiliation in sexual role-pla…
222. Suzanne O’Sullivan on psychosomatic disorders and other mystery illnesses
Michael Shermer speaks with award-winning Irish neurologist Suzanne O’Sullivan about her work exploring the complexity of psychogenic illness affecting people all around the world. Her book The Sleep…
221. Antonio Damasio — Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious
In recent decades, many philosophers and cognitive scientists have declared the problem of consciousness unsolvable, but Antonio Damasio is convinced that recent findings across multiple scientific d…
220. Charles Foster on Being a Human: Adventures in Forty Thousand Years of Consciousness
Drawing on psychology, neuroscience, natural history, agriculture, medical law and ethics, Charles Foster, in Being a Human, makes an audacious attempt to feel a connection with 45,000 years of huma…
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
In this conversation with Steven Pinker on his new book Rationality, the Harvard psychologist and Michael Shermer discuss how today humanity is reaching new heights of scientific understanding — and …
218. Craig Whitlock — The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War
Unlike the wars in Vietnam and Iraq, the US invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 had near-unanimous public support. At first, the goals were straightforward and clear: to defeat al-Qaeda and prevent a rep…
217. Mary Grabar on the 1619 Project, Howard Zinn, Historical Revisionism, and Pseudohistory
Michael Shermer speaks with Mary Grabar about her books Debunking the 1619 Project: Exposing the Plan to Divide America and Debunking Howard Zinn: Exposing the Fake History That Turned a Generation A…
216. Kathryn Paige Harden — The Genetic Lottery: Why DNA Matters for Social Equality
In recent years, scientists have shown that DNA makes us different, in our personalities and in our health — and in ways that matter for educational and economic success in our current society.
Micha…
215. Mary Eberstadt on God, Religion, Secularization, Sexual Revolution, and Identity Politics
In this conversation on two of the hottest social and cultural issues of our day — the decline of religion and the rise of identity politics, Mary Eberstadt presents her alternative theory for the “s…
214. Tom Nichols — Our Own Worst Enemy: The Assault From Within on Modern Democracy
Democracy is in trouble. Why? In Our Own Worst Enemy, Tom Nichols challenges the current depictions of the rise of illiberal and anti-democratic movements in the United States and elsewhere as the re…
213. Mike Rothschild — The Storm Is Upon Us: How QAnon Became a Movement, Cult, and Conspiracy Theory of Everything
Michael Shermer speaks with Mike Rothschild, a journalist specializing in conspiracy theories, about QAnon and its followers.
On October 5th, 2017, President Trump made a cryptic remark in the State …
212. Gale Sinatra & Barbara Hofer — Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It
Michael Shermer speaks with Gale Sinatra and Barbara Hofer about the key psychological explanations for science denial and doubt that can help provide a means for improving scientific literacy and un…
211. Ashley Rindsberg — The Gray Lady Winked: How the New York Times’s Misreporting, Distortions and Fabrications Radically Alter History
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 news outlet and flagship of the American news medi…
210. Leidy Klotz on doing more with less, based on his book Subtract: The Untapped Science of Less
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-improved ideas, but don’t prune the outdated one…
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
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 comfort are unparalleled, and yet our political landsc…
208. The Truth About 9/11 and Terrorism
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 changed our lives, 7 myths about terrorism that n…
207. John Petrocelli — The Life-Changing Science of Detecting Bullshit
Bullshit is the foundation of contaminated thinking and bad decisions that leads to health consequences, financial losses, legal consequences, broken relationships, and wasted time and resources. No …
206. Nichola Raihani — The Social Instinct: How Cooperation Shaped the World
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 genetic material, to nation states. But given what …