SKEPTIC: Reality-based. Really.
From ChatGPT to AGI: Terrence Sejnowski on the Future of AI
Terrence Sejnowski, a leading cognitive neuroscientist, delves into the evolving world of AI, focusing on large language models like ChatGPT. Explore AI’s intelligence, consciousness, and ethics while uncovering the future of human-AI interactions. This discussion will leave you questioning what it truly means to think.
Words, Actions, and Liberty: Tara Smith Decodes the First Amendment
Explore the complexities of free speech with First Amendment scholar Tara Smith. Delve into historical perspectives, contemporary challenges, and the nuanced distinctions between speech and action. Unpack crucial concepts like censorship, freedom, and rights in this thought-provoking discussion that examines the very foundations of our discourse on liberty and expression.
Michael Bernstein on Psychogenic Illness and the Nocebo Effect
Explore how the power of belief can make you feel sick in this intriguing episode. Michael Bernstein delves into the nocebo effect, where negative expectations create the perception of harm, from mysterious workplace outbreaks to the debated Havana Syndrome. Learn how psychology, biology, and ethics converge in understanding the mind’s role in creating illness perceptions.
Competing for Souls: Paul Seabright Explores Religion’s Economic Power
Explore how religions compete like businesses, accumulating wealth and power as platforms for communities. Economist Paul Seabright discusses the economic aspects of religious movements, their role in modern society, and how they can be forces for both good and harm. Discover insights on religion’s evolution, its future, and its complex relationship with secular society.
Max Boot — Why Ronald Reagan Wanted to Abolish Nuclear Weapons
Shermer and Boot discuss Reagan’s early life, his political evolution from a liberal to a conservative, his presidency, and the impact of his policies on modern conservatism. Boot provides insights into Reagan’s views on social issues, nuclear weapons, and his relationships with key figures like Gorbachev. The discussion also touches on the current state of the Republican Party and the challenges it faces today.
Adam Kirsch — Settler Colonialism: Ideology, Violence, and Justice
Shermer and Kirsch discuss settler colonialism and its implications for current events, particularly in Israel. Kirsch explains the ideology behind labeling Israel a settler colonial state, tracing its roots to historical colonization. They explore anti-Semitism on college campuses, the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and settler colonialism’s critique of Western civilization. The conversation delves into the broader implications of this ideology, including how it complicates discussions of justice and historical accountability.
Theodore Schwartz — Gray Matters: Exploring the Frontiers of Neurosurgery
Dive into the fascinating world of neurosurgery with Dr. Theodore Schwartz. Explore the intricacies of brain surgery, from historical breakthroughs to cutting-edge techniques. Uncover famous cases, sports-related brain injuries, and ponder philosophical questions about consciousness and free will. A mind-bending journey through one of medicine’s most challenging and lifesaving specialties.
Colin Wright — Biology vs. Gender Ideology: The Science Behind the Debate
At FreedomFest 2024, Michael Shermer interviews biologist Colin Wright on the contentious topic of biological sex and gender. Wright, an expert in animal behavior and evolutionary biology, explores concepts like biological sex, gender identity, and gender dysphoria. He examines changing societal definitions of manhood and womanhood, considering how these evolving perspectives align with established biological principles. The discussion delves into one of today’s most debated scientific and social issues.
Expelled! The True Story Behind Ben Stein’s Anti-Evolution/Pro-Intelligent Design Film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed revealed a supposed conspiracy to suppress Intelligent Design (ID) within academia. The article reflects on the film’s production, its controversial use of deception, and the author’s shift from supporting ID to embracing open scientific inquiry. It emphasizes the importance of dialogue over division in the science versus religion debate.
Identity Politics and Its Discontents
This article features two thought-provoking interviews with Christopher Rufo and Yascha Mounk, both critiquing identity politics and its effects on modern society. Rufo explores the rise of Critical Race Theory (CRT), its Marxist roots, and the growing influence of DEI policies. Mounk discusses the dangers of cultural appropriation debates, identity politics in institutions, and the risks of left-wing authoritarianism.
Blue, Green, Black, and White: Identity Politics in History, from Byzantium to Sri Lanka
Explore how ancient sporting rivalries in Byzantium and modern identity politics in Sri Lanka reveal the deep dangers of tribalism. This historical analysis sheds light on how seemingly trivial divisions can fuel violence and highlights the consequences of identity politics in shaping society, governance, and conflict.
Cancelling the Pop Culture of Yesteryear
John D. Van Dyke examines how modern standards are applied to older entertainment, often leading to censorship. From Disney films to 1980s comedies, the article argues that removing offensive scenes erases history, making it harder to understand societal evolution. It promotes contextual viewing as a tool for learning rather than censorship.
The Moral Arc: How Thinking Like a Scientist Makes the World More Moral
In this, the final lecture of his Chapman University Skepticism 101 course, Dr. Michael Shermer pulls back to take a bigger picture look at what science and reason have done for humanity in the realm of moral progress. Watch The Moral Arc: How Thinking Like a Scientist Makes the World More Moral.
What is Truth, Anyway?
In this lecture Dr. Michael Shermer addresses one of the deepest questions of all: what is truth? How do we know what is true, untrue, or uncertain?
Is Freedom of Speech Harmful for College Students?
In this lecture, Dr. Michael Shermer addresses the growing crisis of free speech in college and culture at large, triggered as it was by the title lecture, which he was tasked to deliver to students at California State University, Fullerton, after a campus paroxysm erupted over Taco Tuesday.
What are Science & Skepticism?
In this lecture, Dr. Michael Shermer presents descriptions of skepticism and science and how they work, along with a discussion of the difference between science and pseudoscience, and some very practical applications of how to test claims and evaluate evidence.
Evolution & Creationism, Part 2: Who says evolution never happened, why do they say it, and what do they claim?
Dr. Michael Shermer continues the discussion of evolution and creationism, focusing on the history of the creationism movement and the four stages it has gone through.
Evolution & Creationism, Part 1
In this lecture on Evolution and Creationism (Part 1), Dr. Michael Shermer takes viewers to the Galápagos Islands to retrace Darwin’s footsteps and show that, in fact, Darwin did not discover natural selection when he was there in September of 1835. He worked out his theory when he returned home, and Shermer shows exactly how Darwin did that, along with the story of the theory’s co-discoverer, Alfred Russel Wallace.
Holocaust Denial
In this lecture on Holocaust Denial, Dr. Shermer employs the methods of science to history, showing how we can determine truth about the past.
Pathways to Evil, Part 2
In his lecture on Pathways to Evil (Part 2), Dr. Michael Shermer fleshes out the themes of Part 1 by exploring how the dials controlling our inner demons and better angels can be dialed up or down depending on circumstances and conditions. Are we all good apples but occasionally bad barrels turn good apples rotten, or do we all harbor the capacity to turn bad?
Pathways to Evil, Part 1
In his Skepticism 101 lecture on Pathways to Evil (Part 1), Dr. Michael Shermer considers the nature of evil in his attempt to answer the question of how you can get normal civilized, educated, and intelligent people to commit murder and even genocide.
How to Think About the Bermuda Triangle
Dr. Michael Shermer examines the claims about the Bermuda Triangle using the tools of skepticism, science, and rationality to reveal that there is no mystery to explain.
Politics of Belief
Dr. Michael Shermer explains how we arrived at the Left-Right spectrum, both historically and evolutionarily, and the numerous metaphors used to wrap our minds around such complex systems as politics and economics.
Deities for Atheists, Skygods for Skeptics: UFOs & ETIs
Dr. Michael Shermer distinguishes between two questions: (1) Are extraterrestrial intelligences (ETIs) out there somewhere in the cosmos? and (2) Have aliens come here? Evidence for both questions is considered in the larger context of why the issue so compels us to answer it almost religiously.
Cults, Myths, and Religion
Dr. Michael Shermer considers the characteristics of cults, how they differ from sects, religions, and myths, the role that myths and religions play in culture and people’s lives, and what Scientologists really believe.
Cognitive Biases & How Thinking Goes Wrong
Dr. Michael Shermer reviews the many ways that our attempts to understand the truth about the world are derailed by cognitive biases, including the anchoring bias, the representative bias, the availability bias, the confirmation bias, the hindsight bias, the self-serving bias, and even the bias bias.
Conspiracies & Conspiracy Theories
Dr. Michael Shermer explains the difference between conspiracies and conspiracy theories, who is more likely to believe which conspiracy theories, the social, political, cultural, and psychological conditions in which conspiracy theories flourish, real conspiracies, and who really killed JFK.
JAN. 15–26, 2025
Expedition to Antarctica with Richard Dawkins
Join Richard Dawkins on a 12-day Antarctic expedition aboard Swan Hellenic’s Vega in January 2025. Explore pristine wilderness, observe wildlife, and attend lectures while cruising the Antarctic Peninsula.
Research Center
REPORT (PADS-009)
Being “Liberal” in America
Ninth report in the Political Accuracy & Divisions Study
Analysts have recognized for decades now that the world is becoming more liberal. It seems that the more removed people are from basic survival concerns, the more liberal their worldviews become, in the sense of being more accepting of cultural differences and more protective of civil rights. Some analysts have noted how paradoxically intolerant and dogmatic this trend has become in Western societies (i.e., the societies most removed from basic survival concerns): amongst many Western progressives, for example, all group disadvantages are assumed to always be a result of oppression, with oppression always being driven by white people (and usually men) … Thus, it would seem that at the extremes, liberalism and the human tendency towards tribalism interact to produce both a demand for equality and justice as well as …
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