251. Kelly Weill on Flat Earthers, Conspiracy Culture, and Why People Will Believe Anything
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, ringed by an impossible wall of ice. It is the ultimate...
1 Mar 20221h 42min
250. Will Sanctions Work? War in Ukraine.
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 Problem: The outlawry of war has forced tyrants to con...
25 Feb 202222min
249. Barbara F. Walter on How Civil Wars Start and How to Stop Them, including in the United States
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. An armed mob of Trump supporters and conspiracy th...
22 Feb 20221h 44min
248. Elizabeth Weiss on Woke Archaeology and Erasing the Past
Shermer and anthropologist Elizabeth Weiss discuss: fossil ownership; how anthropologists draw conclusions about past peoples through their study of skeletons and mummies; why continued curation of hu...
15 Feb 20222h 7min
247. Jacob Mchangama on Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media
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 authoritarian states around the world, it is on the...
8 Feb 20221h 49min
246. Nick Pope on UAPs, UFOs, Conspiracies, and Cover-ups
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; The Believer's Paradox; separating two questions: ...
1 Feb 20221h 45min
245. Frank Sulloway on How Lives Turn Out: Genes, Environment, Pluck, and Luck
Shermer and Sulloway discuss: relative roles of genes, environment, hard work, and luck in how lives turn out; 60s and 70s Harvard culture; his relationship and work with E. O. Wilson, who was recentl...
29 Jan 20222h 41min
244. 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
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, scientist Johnjoe McFadden traces centuries of disc...
25 Jan 20221h 57min
