Podcast Episodes
Back to Search148. Have Archetype — Will Travel: The Jordan Peterson Phenomenon
Episode 148
In this special episode of the Science Salon podcast Dr. Michael Shermer reflects on the recent resurrection of Jordan Peterson, the resurgent critic…
5 years, 4 months ago
147. David Barash — On the Brink of Destruction
Episode 147
In a conversation based on the book Threats: Intimidation and its Discontents, Shermer and Barash discuss:
2020 as the most momentous year of the pa…5 years, 4 months ago
146. Donald Prothero — Weird Earth: Debunking Strange Ideas About Our Planet
Episode 146
Shermer and Prothero discuss:
flat earth theories and how we know the earth is round, hollow earth theories and how we know it's not hollow, the ret…5 years, 4 months ago
145. Greg Lukianoff — How Free is Free Speech?
Episode 145
In this wide ranging conversation focused on Greg Lukianoff's co-authored (with Jonathan Haidt) book The Coddling of the American Mind, and his new d…
5 years, 5 months ago
144. Agustín Fuentes — Why We Believe: Evolution and the Human Way of Being
Episode 144
Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered ex…
5 years, 5 months ago
143. Nicholas Christakis — Apollo's Arrow: The Profound and Enduring Impact of Coronavirus on the Way We Live
Episode 143
Apollo's Arrow offers a riveting account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic as it swept through American society in 2020, and of how the recov…
5 years, 5 months ago
142. Philip Goff — Galileo's Error: Foundations for a New Science of Consciousness
Episode 142
Understanding how brains produce consciousness is one of the great scientific challenges of our age. Some philosophers argue that consciousness is so…
5 years, 5 months ago
141. Richard Kreitner — Break it Up: Secession, Division, and the Secret History of America's Imperfect Union
Episode 141
The provocative thesis of Break It Up is simple: The United States has never lived up to its name—and never will. The disunionist impulse may have fo…
5 years, 6 months ago
140. Rebecca Wragg Sykes — Kindred: Neanderthal Life, Love, Death and Art
Episode 140
The common narrative of Neanderthals is that they were a group of dullard losers whose extinction 40,000 years ago was due to smarter competition and…
5 years, 6 months ago
BONUS: James Randi—A Report from the Paranormal Trenches (1992)
This classic lecture on skepticism was given by James Randi on March 22, 1992 at the inaugural session of the Distinguished Science Lecture Series ho…
5 years, 6 months ago