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PODCAST

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

The Michael Shermer Show is a series of long-form conversations between Dr. Michael Shermer and leading scientists, philosophers, historians, scholars, writers and thinkers about the most important issues of our time.

science natural sciences

All Episodes

01:27:13

What Turns Sand Into Cells? How Nonliving Matter...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/04/08

How does something living emerge from something that isn't? In this episode, Lee Cronin pushes the question back even further: before cells, before DNA, before biology as we usually think of it, what kind of process could make matter start organizing itself into something alive? He and Michael Shermer get into assembly theory, RNA, autocatalysis, and the deeper puzzle of whether causation and selection may already be at work long before the first organism appears. The conversation also branches

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19:10

Shermer Says 8: Easter Without the Miracle

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/04/05

On Easter Sunday, Michael asks whether the resurrection should be understood as history, myth, or something deeper.

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01:30:26

Debra Soh on Why Men and Women Are Drifting Apart,...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/04/03

Fewer people are having sex, fewer are forming lasting relationships, and many feel more isolated than ever. Why? Michael Shermer sits down with neuroscientist and author Debra Soh to discuss her new book Sextinction: The Decline of Sex and the Future of Intimacy. They talk about the so-called sex recession, why modern dating feels so broken, and how social media, pornography, AI companions, and changing expectations between men and women are reshaping intimacy. The discussion also touches on Gen Z

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01:17:04

The Psychology of Gaslighting, Bullying, Cults, and...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/31

What do gaslighting, bullying, cults, and coercion have in common? In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with Jennifer Fraser about the psychology and neuroscience of manipulation, the recurring structure of abuse cultures, and the way authority can distort perception. Their discussion looks at fear, humiliation, retaliation, favoritism, empathy deficits, and the warning signs that distinguish legitimate leadership from coercive control across schools, workplaces, sports, relationships, and

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01:12:20

Did Jesus Really Change Western Morality? Bart Ehrman

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/28

How much of what we call "basic morality" is actually inherited from Christianity? Bart Ehrman joins Michael Shermer for a wide-ranging conversation about one of the biggest moral questions in history: why do we feel obligated to care for strangers at all? Drawing from his new book Love Thy Stranger, Ehrman argues that the idea of helping people outside your tribe, family, or nation was not a moral given in the ancient world. Greek and Roman ethics made room for loyalty, friendship, and civic duty,

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01:25:08

Lionel Shriver on Immigration, Religion, and the...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/24

Michael Shermer sits down with novelist and essayist Lionel Shriver for a wide-ranging conversation about what happens when old political labels stop making sense. Shriver reflects on the strange moral and political confusions that now shape debates over immigration, identity, religion, and the meaning of tolerance. They discuss why immigration has become, in Shriver's view, the central political issue of this century; why support for illiberal ideas is often framed as compassion; why the culture

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01:08:49

The Biggest Blind Spot of the Climate Movement:...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/17

Zion Lights used to be deep inside the environmental movement: protests, arrests, road blockades, the whole thing. Then she started looking closely at the evidence around nuclear power and found that much of what she'd been told about energy, risk, and climate solutions didn't hold up. In this conversation with Michael Shermer, she explains why anti-nuclear politics has done real damage, and why reliable energy matters far beyond moral posturing. She speaks from experience about Extinction

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01:28:56

DOGE, Government Fraud, and AI Audits

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/14

Jeremy Jones joins Michael Shermer to talk about DOGE AI, government fraud, and the strange reality that some of the biggest problems in public life are both widely known and somehow never fixed. Jones explains how his team uses AI to sort through enormous government datasets, isolate suspicious billing patterns, and surface waste at a scale that would be almost impossible to catch by hand. They also get into Jones's own background—growing up in Luxembourg, landing in Chicago, and seeing firsthand

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01:02:36

Heretics: The Scientists Who Were Mocked But Later...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/12

Why do some world-changing ideas get ignored, attacked, or buried for years before anyone takes them seriously? Michael Shermer sits down with The Economist science correspondent Matt Kaplan to discuss the scientists who got there first and paid the price. They talk about why institutions resist new ideas, why careers can depend on defending the status quo, and why being right is often not enough. They discuss figures like Katalin Karikó, whose work on mRNA was dismissed long before it helped

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52:36

Shermer Says 7: Responding to Fan Mail … "Who Was...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/08

Michael Shermer responds to a remarkable letter from a group of eighth graders at a Christian school in Texas who say they've been praying for him and want to talk about Christianity, Jesus, and the Bible.

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01:37:56

Why the Same Childhood Doesn't Affect Everyone the...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/03/06

For decades, developmental psychologist Jay Belsky has focused on one of the biggest questions in human development: how do early experiences shape the lives we go on to live? In this conversation with Michael Shermer, he explains why childhood adversity can leave deep marks, why some children are far more affected by experience than others, and why averages often hide the most important part of the story. Belsky revisits the old nature-versus-nurture debate, but pushes past the usual framing

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01:31:24

Who Gets to Edit Culture? Sensitivity Readers &...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/02/26

Publishing likes to imagine itself as a marketplace of ideas with a strong immune system: good arguments win, bad ones fade, and editors act as principled gatekeepers. In practice, it's also an industry with thin margins, status anxiety, and a constant fear of reputational damage. Adam Szetela argues that a lot of what gets called "cancel culture" in books is better understood as risk management under social media conditions. Outrage compresses timelines, collapses context, and turns interpretation

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01:32:36

Filming Corey Feldman & "Corey's Angels": The Weird...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/02/21

Documentary filmmaker Marcie Hume (BBC alum; Magicians: Life in the Impossible) joins Michael Shermer to talk about her new verité film Corey Feldman vs. the World—shot over a decade, starting in the "Corey's Angels" era and following a tour that unravels in real time. It goes to some uncomfortable places: how celebrity can create cult-ish dynamics (not just with fans, but with the people working around them as well), how "truth" becomes a slogan—used to frame criticism as persecution and to keep

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01:16:37

Can a Skeptic Believe in God?

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/02/15

Christopher Beha grew up Catholic in Manhattan, walked away during the New Atheist era, and spent years trying to build a secular worldview sturdy enough to live inside. It didn't hold. So he kept reading—Hume, Kant, Russell, the existentialists—and kept chasing the questions that don't let you sleep: what counts as evidence, what belief even is, and what you do when reason can't answer the things you still have to decide. In this conversation with Michael Shermer, Beha makes a case that skepticism

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15:12

Shermer Says 6: Jeffrey Epstein and Me

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/02/07

Michael Shermer recounts the moment he discovered his name in the Jeffrey Epstein files and uses it as a jumping-off point to tell a few unforgettable stories about con men he's encountered over the years, and how their tactics work.

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01:33:01

The Evolutionary Roots of Love, Sex, and Jealousy

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/02/03

Why do people risk everything for love but treat sex like it's no big deal? Why is intimacy the most expensive thing in a brothel? And why do jealousy, infidelity, and heartbreak push otherwise rational people into behavior they later can't explain? Evolutionary biologist and sex researcher Justin Garcia, executive director of the Kinsey Institute and author of The Intimate Animal, joins Michael Shermer for a candid conversation about the biology of sex, the evolutionary logic of pair bonding, and

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55:42

Truth Still Matters (And Here's Why)

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/01/27

In this episode, Michael Shermer walks through the core ideas behind his new book Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters, breaking down how humans confuse meaning with reality, stories with facts, and confidence with correctness. He also explains why changing your mind is a strength, not a flaw; why extraordinary claims really do require extraordinary evidence; and why "just asking questions" isn't as innocent as it sounds. BUY THE BOOK Amazon Shop Skeptic (autographed)

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28:07

Shermer Says 5: What Went Wrong in Minnesota?...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/01/26

In this solo episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael Shermer responds to the shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old healthcare worker who was killed by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis during protests over enforcement of immigration law. As political debate intensifies, Shermer asks a tough question that most discussions are avoiding: What role does personal responsibility play in emotionally charged, high-risk situations? He separates the facts we can reasonably assert from what

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01:10:40

Government Transparency & UFOs: Inside Military...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/01/21

Michael Shermer sits down with attorney and bestselling author Kent Heckenlively for a tense, thoughtful, and surprisingly cordial conversation about UFOs, government secrecy, and the idea of "catastrophic disclosure." Heckenlively argues that something real is being hidden. Not necessarily aliens, but information powerful enough to disrupt energy markets, military spending, and political authority. But beyond stories and secondhand testimony, where is the kind of evidence that would settle the

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01:24:11

The Hardest UFO Cases to Dismiss: Something Is Flying...

The Michael Shermer Show ·

2026/01/18

In this episode, Michael Shermer talks with filmmaker James Fox, whose work has helped push UFOs, now often called UAPs, out of the tabloid shadows and into congressional hearings, radar logs, and sworn testimony. Fox has spent three decades interviewing fighter pilots, radar operators, intelligence officials, scientists, and firsthand witnesses. His conclusion is not that we know what these objects are, but that dismissing them no longer works. Around 90 to 95 percent of sightings collapse under

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606 results

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