Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchHow Can God Feel So Real?
Episode 348
How do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people — as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents eve…
2 years, 11 months ago
Will We Ever Live in a Post-race World?
Episode 347
In this special episode of the podcast, Michael Shermer talks about:
why race still matters why race shouldn't matter racism BLM (Black Lives Matter…3 years ago
346. Kennon Sheldon — What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About Free Will, Determinism, and Self-Determinism
It's become fashionable to argue that free will is a fiction: that we humans are in the thrall of animal urges and unconscious biases and only think …
3 years ago
345. Matt Johnson — How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment
Episode 345
Christopher Hitchens was for many years considered one of the fiercest and most eloquent left-wing polemicists in the world. But on much of today's l…
3 years ago
344. What is a Woman, Anyway?
Episode 344
In this special episode of the Michael Shermer Show Dr. Shermer comments on current events surrounding trans matters and reads his in-depth essay on …
3 years ago
343. Timothy Redmond — Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It
Episode 343
The democratic ideal demands that the citizenry think critically about matters of public import. Yet many Democrats and Republicans in the United Sta…
3 years ago
342. Valerie Fridland — Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English
Episode 342
Paranoid about the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper your presentations? Bewildered by "hella" or the meteoric rise of "so"? Can the word "dude" help peopl…
3 years ago
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
Episode 341
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, …
3 years ago
340. Ben Alderson-Day — Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other
Episode 340
Shermer and Alderson-Day discuss the psychologist's journey to understand the phenomenon of sensed-presence: the disturbing feeling that someone or s…
3 years ago
339. Gerald and Patricia Posner on Evil
Episode 339
Shermer and the Posners discuss: the nature and banality of evil • Are we all potential Nazis? • Mengele, Eichmann, Himmler, Hitler • The Pharmacist …
3 years ago