Podcast Episodes
Back to Search254. Ravi Gupta on the Lost Debate: Whatever Happened to Reasoned Discussion and Respectable Disagreement?
Episode 254
Shermer speaks with Ravi Gupta, the Founder and CEO of Lost Debate, a new non-profit media company that launched in October 2021 to fight polarizatio…
4 years, 5 months ago
253. Jennifer Sciubba on Putin, Russia, Ukraine, National & Global Security, and How Population Demographics Shape Our Future
Episode 253
Shermer speaks with political demographer, former demographics consultant to the United States Department of Defense, and author of The Future Faces …
4 years, 5 months ago
252. John Mueller on Putin's War: Russia, Ukraine, and NATO
Episode 252
In this conversation with the renowned Ohio State University political scientist John Mueller, author of The Stupidity of War, Retreat from Doomsday:…
4 years, 6 months ago
251. Kelly Weill on Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything
Episode 251
Since 2015, there has been a spectacular boom in a nearly 200-year-old delusion — the idea that we all live on a flat plane, under a solid dome, ring…
4 years, 6 months ago
250. Will Sanctions Work? War in Ukraine.
Episode 250
An analysis of Russia's war on Ukraine. Will sanctions work?
This episode is a reading from Michael Shermer's post on Substack entitled: "Putin's Pro…
4 years, 6 months ago
249. Barbara F. Walter on How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, including in the United States
Episode 249
Political violence rips apart several towns in southwest Texas. A far-right militia plots to kidnap the governor of Michigan and try her for treason.…
4 years, 6 months ago
248. Elizabeth Weiss on Woke Archaeology and Erasing the Past
Episode 248
Shermer and anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss discuss: fossil ownership; how anthropologists draw conclusions about past peoples through their study of …
4 years, 6 months ago
247. Jacob Mchangama on Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media
Episode 247
Hailed as the "first freedom," free speech is the bedrock of democracy, and it is subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and …
4 years, 7 months ago
246. Nick Pope on UAPs, UFOs, Conspiracies, and Cover-ups
Episode 246
Shermer speaks with author, journalist, and TV personality Nick Pope about: what it was like working for the Ministry of Defense as their UFO expert;…
4 years, 7 months ago
245. Frank Sulloway on How Lives Turn Out: Genes, Environment, Pluck, and Luck
Episode 245
Shermer and Sulloway discuss: relative roles of genes, environment, hard work, and luck in how lives turn out; 60s and 70s Harvard culture; his relat…
4 years, 7 months ago