Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchTribes, Teams, and Cults: How Groups Shape What We Believe
Episode 561
Why do smart people join dangerous cults, follow bad leaders, or stay silent when they know something's wrong? In this episode, Michael Shermer talks…
9 months, 3 weeks ago
Shermer Says 3: Weird Experiences, the Meaning of Dreams, and What Mark Twain Knew About Reality
Episode 560
In this episode, Michael Shermer explores anomalous experiences through personal anecdotes and historical examples. He reflects on how to balance hea…
9 months, 3 weeks ago
A Former Spy Explains How AI is Changing Espionage
Episode 559
A former senior intelligence officer explains how espionage is evolving in the age of AI and amid rising global tensions with China, and why the mass…
9 months, 4 weeks ago
Did Lost Civilizations Really Exist? An Archaeologist Explains
Episode 558
Archaeologist Ken Feder sheds light on how archaeology separates evidence from wishful thinking and entertaining storytelling. He explains what rock …
10 months ago
Charles Murray: Why I'm Taking Religion Seriously
Episode 557
Michael Shermer sits down with Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve, Coming Apart, and now Taking Religion Seriously) for a riveting 100-minute c…
10 months, 1 week ago
The Myth of Human Exceptionalism: Why Humans Aren't as Special as We Think
Episode 556
In this episode, Harvard primatologist Christine Webb challenges one of our deepest beliefs: that humans stand apart from the rest of nature. She tra…
10 months, 1 week ago
Shermer Says: Why Secularists Are Turning to Religion, The Substitution Hypothesis, Sleep Paralysis
Episode 555
Are we entering a Fifth Great Awakening—a cultural swing back toward religion?
An increasing number of books and articles are calling for a religious…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
The Serial Killer Era of the 70s/80s: Lore, Patterns, and Plausible Explanations
Episode 554
Pulitzer-winner Caroline Fraser maps the lives and crimes of Ted Bundy and his infamous peers—the Green River Killer, the I-5 Killer, the Night Stalk…
10 months, 2 weeks ago
Shermer Says: Debate Skills, 2025 Nobel Peace Prize, Autism, Vaccines, ANTIFA, Bari Weiss & CBS News
Episode 553
First installment of our new series Shermer Says.
Topics covered:
Debate Skills Nobel Peace Prize 2025 Autism & Tylenol COVID Vaccines & Myocarditi…10 months, 2 weeks ago
When Rationality Becomes Irrational
Episode 552
For many decision scientists, their starting point—drawn from economics—is a quantitative formula called Rational Choice Theory, allowing people to c…
10 months, 3 weeks ago