Podcast Episodes
Back to Search99. Bobby Duffy — Why We’re Wrong About Nearly Everything: A Theory of Human Misunderstanding
Episode 99
What percentage of the population are immigrants? How bad is unemployment? How much sex do people have? These questions are important and interesting…
6 years, 3 months ago
98. Robert Pennock — An Instinct for Truth: Curiosity and the Moral Character of Science
Episode 98
An exploration of the scientific mindset — such character virtues as curiosity, veracity, attentiveness, and humility to evidence — and its importanc…
6 years, 3 months ago
97. Amber Scorah — Leaving the Witness: Exiting a Religion and Finding a Life
Episode 97
In this revealing conversation Amber Scorah opens the box into the psychology of religious belief to show how, exactly, religions and cults convince …
6 years, 4 months ago
96. Catherine Wilson — How to Be an Epicurean: The Ancient Art of Living Well
Episode 96
In this wide-ranging conversation the philosopher Catherine Wilson makes the case that if the pursuit of happiness is the question, Epicureanism is t…
6 years, 4 months ago
95. John Martin Fischer — Death, Immortality and Meaning in Life
Episode 95
John Martin Fischer's Death, Immortality, and Meaning in Lifeoffers a brief yet in-depth introduction to the key philosophical issues and problems co…
6 years, 4 months ago
94. David Leiser — How We Misunderstand Economics and Why it Matters
Episode 94
This is the first book to explain why people misunderstand economics. From the cognitive shortcuts we use to make sense of complex information, to th…
6 years, 4 months ago
93. Geoffrey Miller — Virtue Signaling: Essays on Darwinian Politics & Free Speech
Episode 93
Michael Shermer talks with the polymathic polyamorous sapiosexual classically liberal evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller about:
virtue signal…6 years, 5 months ago
92. Tim Samuels — Future Man: How to Evolve and Thrive in the Age of Trump, Mansplaining, and #MeToo
Episode 92
If ever there was an urgent need for a frank understanding of what's going on with men, it is now. Male rage and frustration have driven resurgent po…
6 years, 5 months ago
91. James Traub — What Was Liberalism? The Past, Present, and Promise of a Noble Idea
Episode 91
In this wide-ranging conversation James Traub and Michael Shermer discuss:
the changing meaning of "liberalism" over the centuries and decades why t…6 years, 5 months ago
90. Melvin Konner — Believers: Faith in Human Nature
Episode 90
World renowned biological anthropologist Mel Konner examines the nature of human nature, including and especially in his new book the nature of relig…
6 years, 5 months ago