Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchInside the CIA's Mind Control Experiments
Episode 521
This is the inside story of the CIA's secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves.
Sidne…
1 year, 3 months ago
Neanderthals and Us: A Complex Story of Coexistence and Hybridization
Episode 520
In this eye-opening episode, Michael Shermer chats with evolutionist Telmo Pievani about the surprising coexistence—and hybridization—of Neanderthals…
1 year, 3 months ago
AI, Trade Wars, Degrowth: What's Next for the Global Economy?
Episode 519
Amid rising concerns about AI, inequality, trade wars, and globalization, New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist John Cassidy takes a bo…
1 year, 3 months ago
Is Modern Life Making Us Miserable? What's Fueling the Mental Health Crisis & What Can Help?
Episode 518
What does your diet have to do with your mood? Is mercury in fish really dangerous? Psychiatrist Dr. Drew Ramsey joins Michael Shermer to discuss the…
1 year, 3 months ago
Free Speech Under Fire? From Campus Protests to Deportations
Episode 517
Jacob Mchangama, author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, joins Michael to examine the evolving landscape of free expression a…
1 year, 3 months ago
Is It Possible to Change Your Entire Personality?
Episode 516
Is it really possible to change your entire personality in a year? An award-winning journalist experiments with her own personality to find out—and r…
1 year, 4 months ago
The Trouble with Economic Data: Flawed Metrics, Flawed Decisions
Episode 515
The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940s, when the urgent economic problems were entirely differen…
1 year, 4 months ago
Did Shutting Down Schools Help or Hurt? A COVID-19 Postmortem
Episode 514
David Zweig's new book An Abundance of Caution (MIT Press) is an account of the decision-making process behind the extended closures of public school…
1 year, 4 months ago
What's Holding You Back? Scott Barry Kaufman on Resilience in the Age of Fragility
Episode 513
It's tempting to see ourselves as damaged or powerless—defined by past traumas, overwhelming emotions, and daily struggles. But is that really the mo…
1 year, 4 months ago
Why We Follow Orders: The Neuroscience of Compliance and Control
Episode 512
Why do ordinary people carry out extraordinary harm when simply told to do so? From the Holocaust to the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Cambodia, h…
1 year, 4 months ago