Will We Ever Live in a Post-race World?
In this special episode of the podcast, Michael Shermer talks about: why race still matters why race shouldn't matter racism BLM (Black Lives Matter), CRT (Critical Race Theory), DEI (Diversity, Equi...
4 Maj 202342min
346. Kennon Sheldon — What the New Psychology of the Self Teaches Us About Free Will, Determinism, and Self-Determinism
It's become fashionable to argue that free will is a fiction: that we humans are in the thrall of animal urges and unconscious biases and only think that we are choosing freely. In Freely Determined, ...
2 Maj 20231h 26min
345. Matt Johnson — How Hitchens Can Save the Left: Rediscovering Fearless Liberalism in an Age of Counter-Enlightenment
Christopher Hitchens was for many years considered one of the fiercest and most eloquent left-wing polemicists in the world. But on much of today's left, he's remembered as a defector, a warmonger, an...
29 Apr 20231h 39min
344. What is a Woman, Anyway?
In this special episode of the Michael Shermer Show Dr. Shermer comments on current events surrounding trans matters and reads his in-depth essay on the subject, originally published as one of his reg...
26 Apr 202336min
343. Timothy Redmond — Political Tribalism in America: How Hyper-Partisanship Dumbs Down Democracy and How to Fix It
The democratic ideal demands that the citizenry think critically about matters of public import. Yet many Democrats and Republicans in the United States have fallen short of that standard because poli...
25 Apr 20232h 3min
342. Valerie Fridland — Like, Literally, Dude: Arguing for the Good in Bad English
Paranoid about the "ums" and "uhs" that pepper your presentations? Bewildered by "hella" or the meteoric rise of "so"? Can the word "dude" help people bond across social divides? Why are we always try...
22 Apr 20232h 2min
341. Secret Scientists & Real Conspiracies — John Lisle on Stanley Lovell, the OSS precursor to the CIA, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare
In the summer of 1942, Stanley Lovell, a renowned industrial chemist, received a mysterious order to report to an unfamiliar building in Washington, D.C. When he arrived, he was led to a barren room w...
18 Apr 20231h 46min
340. Ben Alderson-Day — Presence: The Strange Science and True Stories of the Unseen Other
Shermer and Alderson-Day discuss the psychologist's journey to understand the phenomenon of sensed-presence: the disturbing feeling that someone or something is there when we are alone. Using contempo...
15 Apr 20231h 40min
