Podcast Episodes
Back to Search274. Frans De Waal on Sex and Gender Across the Primate Spectrum
Episode 274
What is gender? How different are men and women? Are differences due to biological sex or to culture? How do they compare with what is known about ou…
4 years, 3 months ago
273. Cathy Young — The Russian Riddle Wrapped in a Ukrainian Mystery Inside an American Enigma
Episode 273
Shermer and Young discuss: Florida's "Don't say 'gay'" law • What is the appropriate age to discuss sex and gender issues with children? • sex, gende…
4 years, 3 months ago
272. Stuart Vyse — The Uses of Delusion: Why It's Not Always Rational to Be Rational
Episode 272
Shermer and Vyse discuss: What is a delusion? • veridical perception • perceptual illusions and irrationalities • Kahneman vs. Gigerenzer: rationalit…
4 years, 3 months ago
271. Peter Ward — The Price of Immortality: The Race to Live Forever
Episode 271
Shermer and Ward discuss: religious immortality • Church of Perpetual Life in Florida • what it means to live forever • why lives have doubled in len…
4 years, 3 months ago
270. Surprising Power of Game Theory to Explain Irrationality (Moshe Hoffman and Erez Yoeli)
Episode 270
Shermer, Hoffman, and Yoeli discuss: the problems game theory was developed to solve • How rational or irrational an animal are we? • the evolutionar…
4 years, 4 months ago
269. Richard Dawkins — Flights of Fancy: Defying Gravity by Design and Evolution
Episode 269
Do you sometimes dream you can fly like a bird? Gliding effortlessly above the treetops, soaring and swooping, playing and dodging through the third …
4 years, 4 months ago
268. Douglas Murray on The War on the West: Race, Politics, and Culture
Episode 268
Shermer and Murray discuss: what it takes to become a successful writer • Is this "war" on Western civilization just a necessary course correction fr…
4 years, 4 months ago
267. Louis Theroux on Neo-Nazis, Jimmy Savile, UFO Cults, and Scientology
Episode 267
Shermer and Theroux discuss: how documentary films are made • religious fanaticism and why people believe • UFO cults, end-times sects, and cognitive…
4 years, 4 months ago
266. Jesse Singal on Why Fad Psychology Can't Cure Our Social Ills
Episode 266
Michal Shermer and Jesse Singal discuss: how social scientists determine causality • Primeworld: cognitive priming and how it works (and doesn't work…
4 years, 4 months ago
265. Christopher Blattman on Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Paths to Peace
Episode 265
Shermer and Blattman discuss: Putin, Russia, and Ukraine • game theory and violent conflict • 5 Reasons for conflict and war • common elements of con…
4 years, 4 months ago