Podcast Episodes
Back to Search244. Johnjoe McFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the UniverseMcFadden — Life is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe
Episode 244
Centuries ago, the principle of Ockham's razor changed our world by showing simpler answers to be preferable and more often true. In Life Is Simple, …
4 years, 7 months ago
243. Sally Satel on Addiction, the Opioid Crisis, Deaths of Despair, and How Psychiatry Has Gone Woke
Episode 243
Shermer and Satel discuss: how political correctness has corrupted medicine; how wokeness and social justice activism has corrupted psychiatry; what …
4 years, 7 months ago
242. Jonathan Gottschall — The Story Paradox: How Our Love of Storytelling Builds Societies and Tears Them Down
Episode 242
Humans are storytelling animals. Stories are what make our societies possible. Countless books celebrate their virtues. But Jonathan Gottschall, an e…
4 years, 7 months ago
241. Jeff Maurer — I Might Be Wrong
Michael Shermer speaks with writer, comedian, and five-time Emmy winning Senior Writer for John Oliver's Last Week Tonight, Jeff Maurer, about the na…
4 years, 7 months ago
240. Leonard Mlodinow — Emotional: How Feelings Shape Our Thinking
Episode 240
xtraordinary advances in psychology and neuroscience have proven that emotions are as critical to our well-being as thinking. In this conversation, S…
4 years, 7 months ago
239. Richard Firth-Godbehere — A Human History of Emotion: How the Way We Feel Built the World We Know
Episode 239
We humans like to think of ourselves as rational creatures, who, as a species, have relied on calculation and intellect to survive. But many of the m…
4 years, 8 months ago
238. Brian Klass — Corruptible: Who Gets Power and How it Changes Us
Episode 238
Does power corrupt, or are corrupt people drawn to power? Are entrepreneurs who embezzle and cops who kill the result of poorly designed systems or a…
4 years, 8 months ago
237. David Wengrow on The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity
Episode 237
For generations, our remote ancestors have been cast as primitive and childlike — either free and equal innocents, or thuggish and warlike. Civilizat…
4 years, 8 months ago
236. Fernanda Pirie on The Rule of Laws: A 4,000-Year Quest to Order the World
Episode 236
Rulers throughout history have used laws to impose order. But laws were not simply instruments of power and social control. They also offered ordinar…
4 years, 8 months ago
235. Thomas Sowell: The Life and Work of the Legendary Social Theorist (Jason Riley)
Episode 235
Shermer speaks with Jason Riley about Maverick — the first-ever biography of Thomas Sowell, one of the great social theorists of our age. In a career…
4 years, 8 months ago