The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 336

The Sacred Depths of Nature — Ursula Goodenough on How to Find Sacred Scientific Spirituality

Shermer and Goodenough discuss: origins of her personal beliefs • origins life, RNA, DNA, consciousness, language, morality • myths and religions • what it means to be “religious” • religious naturalism • where the laws of physics came from • why the universe seems so strange • chance and evolution • fine tuning of the cosmos • autocatalysis and emergence • purpose of religion • ethics and morality without religion.

Released March 28, 2023

Topics: belief, ethics, fine-tuning, language, morality, mythology, origins of life, origins of morality, physics, religion, science, Science Salon, spirituality, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 335

Jennifer Michael Hecht on How to Find Meaning, Purpose, and Happiness in Everyday Life

Shermer and Hecht discuss: awe and wonder • science and religion • the new atheists • humanism and atheism • secular Judaism • replacing religion, with what? • the original meaning of liturgy and why it’s still important • rituals for atheists • how to cope with loss, death, and grief • what to say at weddings and funerals • Alvy’s Error (the universe is expanding but Brooklyn is not) • what we do in the hear-and-now matters, whether or not there is a hereafter (which there probably isn’t) • love.

Released March 25, 2023

Topics: coping with loss, grief, happiness, meaning, poetry, purpose, Science Salon, The Michael Shermer Show, wisdom

EPISODE # 334

The End of the World: Bart Ehrman on What the Bible Really Says About the End

Shermer and Ehrman discuss: Ehrman’s religious journey • Who wrote the Bible and why? • how to read the Bible and the book of Revelation • Who wrote Revelation and why? • why Jesus spoke in parables • why worry about climate change if the world is going to end soon? • David Koresh and Waco • Reagan and end times politics • how Jesus became a capitalist and militarist • faith healers, televangelists, and other Christian con artists • Christian ethics and what Jesus really said about the poor and needy.

Released March 21, 2023

Topics: apocalypse, Armageddon, Bible, Christianity, cults, ethics, parables, prophecy, religion, Science Salon, The Michael Shermer Show, violence

EPISODE # 333

Kevin Kelly — ChatGPT, OpenAI, and Excellent Advice for Living

Shermer and Kelly discuss: protopian progress • ChatGPT • artificial intelligence; an existential threat? • evolution • cultural progress • self-driving cars • innovation • social media • putting an end to war • compound interest and the long term effect of small changes • why you don’t want to be a billionaire • beliefs and reason • setting unreasonable goals • persistence as key to success • probabilities and statistics, not algebra and calculus • investing: buy and hold • how to fully become yourself.

Released March 18, 2023

Topics: advice, artificial intelligence, belief, chatgpt, economics, evolution, investing, openai, progress, reason, Science Salon, social media, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 332

Wrongfully Convicted, Ultimately Acquitted — Amanda Knox on Criminal Injustice and Why It Happens

Amanda Knox spent four years in an Italian prison for a crime she did not commit. In the fall of 2007, the 20-year-old college coed left Seattle to study abroad in Italy, but her life was shattered when her roommate was murdered in their apartment. After a controversial trial, Amanda was convicted and imprisoned.

Released March 14, 2023

Topics: anchoring bias, base rate fallacy, cognitive biases, confirmation bias, criminal injustice, framing effect, fundamental attribution bias, law, salience bias, Science Salon, selection bias, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 331

Paul Zak — Immersion: The Science of the Extraordinary and the Source of Happiness

Shermer and Zak discuss: neuroeconomics, neuromanagement, and neuromarketing • Zak’s work with the CIA and DARPA • immersion and how is it quantified (with a formula) • monotony of the mundane • the ordinary and extraordinary • peak-end storytelling • immersion in advertising, entertainment, education, attractions, marriage, and retail • what makes a great movie or successful unscripted TV show • novelty • sensitivity training programs • how to give a TED talk • immersion and political candidates • The Bachelor: Ben’s season • happiness, flourishing, meaningfulness, purposefulness and immersion.

Released March 11, 2023

Topics: extraordinary, happiness, immersion, meaning, monotony, purpose, Science Salon, storytelling, The Michael Shermer Show, training and sensitivity programs

EPISODE # 330

Jim Davies — How to Be a Better Person

Shermer and Davies discuss: • an operational definition of the “good life” or “happiness” or “well being” • utilitarianism vs. deontology vs. virtue ethics • effective altruism • marriage and children • objective moral values • Do we have a moral obligation to help those who cannot help themselves? • Does America have a moral obligation to help oppressed peoples in dictatorships? • immigration • abortion • the welfare state • prostitution • reparations.

Released March 7, 2023

Topics: abortion, altruism, deontology, happiness, Is-Ought problem, morality, prostitution, purpose, religion, reparations, Science Salon, The Michael Shermer Show, utilitarianism, virtue ethics

EPISODE # 329

Marc Schulz — The Good Life: Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness

Shermer and Schulz discuss: an operational definition of the “good life” or “happiness” or “well being” • the reliability (or unreliability) of self-report data in social science • relative roles of genes, environment, hard work, and luck in how lives turn out • personality and to what extent it can be scientifically measured and studied • factors in early childhood that shape mental health in mid and late life • generational differences: • the impact of loneliness • misconceptions about happiness • what social fitness is and how to exercise it • what most people get wrong about achievement, and more…

Released March 4, 2023

Topics: emotions, friendship, genetics, happiness, loneliness, mental health, money, personality, psychology, religion, restorative justice, science, Science Salon, society, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 328

Paul Bloom — Psych: The Story of the Human Mind

How does the brain — a three-pound gelatinous mass — give rise to intelligence and conscious experience? Was Freud right that we are all plagued by forbidden sexual desires? What is the function of emotions such as disgust, gratitude, and shame? Renowned psychologist Paul Bloom answers these questions and many more in this conversation based on his riveting new book about the science of the mind: Psych.

Released February 28, 2023

Topics: cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, depression, emotions, human nature, intelligence, language, memory, mental illness, mind, neuroscience, psychology, Science Salon, sex, Sigmund Freud, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 327

Rachel Moran on Her Years in Prostitution, How She Got Out of It, and Why She Thinks It Is a Form of Sexual Exploitation

Shermer and Moran discuss: her dysfunctional family background • her boyfriend who pimped her • the women who sell sex and the men who buy it • why other prostitutes have attacked her • agency and volition in prostitution: women and men • why “prostituted” as something done to women (instead of choosing it)? • what she thought about when having prostituted sex • drugs, depression, and suicide as responses to prostitution • the myths of prostitution • feminism and prostitution • how she got out of prostitution • the harm in consenting adult women selling their bodies for sex • what should be done about prostitution, if anything?

Released February 25, 2023

Topics: depression, ethics, exploitation, feminism, laws, myths, pornography, prostitution, regulation, Science Salon, sex, sexual consent, The Michael Shermer Show, victimhood

EPISODE # 326

Naomi Oreskes — The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market

Shermer and Oreskes discuss: the myth of market magic • market fundamentalism • market absolutism • market essentialism • capitalism and democracy • well-regulated vs. poorly regulated capitalism • U.S. Constitution and capitalism • what the founding fathers believed about markets • what Adam Smith really said about markets and capitalism and how economists rewrote Adam Smith • why markets need regulation in the same way sports need rules and referees • rhetorical fallacies of market fundamentalists • child labor laws • bank failures • Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890 • Ludwig von Mises, Friedrich Hayek, Milton Friedman • religion and capitalism • think tanks • collective action problems.

Released February 21, 2023

Topics: capitalism, collective action problems, economics, free market economy, myths, regulation, Science Salon, The Michael Shermer Show, think tanks

EPISODE # 325

Heinrich Päs — The One: How an Ancient Idea Holds the Future of Physics

Shermer and Päs discuss: monism vs. dualism • What is time? • What is a field? • Is math all there is? Is math universal? • the double-slit experiment • superposition • metaphors in science • limitations of models and theories of reality • limitations of analogies between western physics and eastern mysticism • What banged the Big Bang? • Are we living in a matrix? • the Second Laws of Thermodynamics and directionality in nature • Model Dependent Realism • string theory, the multiverse, consciousness, the origin of the universe, and why there is something rather than nothing: are these soluble problems?

Released February 18, 2023

Topics: big bang, double-slit experiment, dualism, mathematics, monism, multiverse, philosophy, physics, reality, Science Salon, second law of thermodynamics, something rather than nothing, string theory, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 324

Andrew Gold on Exorcism, Abortion, Pedophilia, Sex & UFOs

Shermer and Gold discuss: diversity, equity, and inclusion in the media • social justice movements and their motivations • bias in STEM fields • why people believe weird things • exorcism • UFOs • faith healers • Derren Brown and how magic works on minds • hypnosis • sex and where to have an affair • Ashley Madison • female/male differences in sexual preferences and choices • non-offending pedophiles in Berlin • the curious case of Jimmy Seville: why didn’t anyone notice his pedophilia?

Released February 14, 2023

Topics: diversity, equity, exorcism, hypnosis, magic, Science Salon, sex differences, social justice, The Michael Shermer Show, UFOs, why people believe weird things

EPISODE # 323

Elle Hardy — Beyond Belief: How Pentecostal Christianity Is Taking Over the World

Shermer and Hardy discuss: Hardy’s religious journey (raised Catholic, now agnostic) • origin of Pentecostalism and its biblical basis Pentecostalism in Korea North and South, and Israel • the structure of the Pentecostal church and how it differs from other churches • Seven Mountain Mandate • how religions grow • pentecostalism and politics • the psychology of the believer • dispensationalism and the Rapture • prophecy • glossolalia • snake handling • eschatology and end-times theology • sin and redemption • prostitution • Jordan Peterson and secular religion.

Released February 11, 2023

Topics: anti-Semitism, Christianity, Pentecostalism, prostitution, psychology, religion, rise of the Nones, Science Salon, secularism, The Michael Shermer Show, theology

EPISODE # 322

Marty Klein — Sex Matters

Shermer and Klein discuss: sex therapist and the reasons people seek therapy • self-help sex books • sexual orientation • asexuality • sex abuse • infidelity • monogamy • polyamory • trans • homosexuality • sex education • the case against the sexual revolution • sex addiction • pornography • the anti-pornography movement • prostitution • obscenity and censorship • pedophilia.

Released February 7, 2023

Topics: addiction, censorship, homosexuality, monogamy, polyamory, pornography, prostitution, Science Salon, sexual abuse, sexual orientation, sexuality, The Michael Shermer Show, transgender

EPISODE # 321

William Magnuson — For Profit: A History of Corporations

Shermer and Magnuson discuss: corporations and what they are for • LLCs • Roman corporations • medieval economics • banks • guilds • Credit Mobilier scandal • Dutch and British East India Companies • stocks, bonds, joint stock companies • monopolies, duopolies • assembly lines • multinationals • raiders • private equity firms • start-ups • antitrust, trustbusting • bankruptcy • bitcoin, cryptocurrency • Adam Smith’s critique of corporations • profit and market efficiency • slavery and economics • unions.

Released February 4, 2023

Topics: corporations, cryptocurrency, economics, history, Science Salon, skepticism, slavery, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 320

Massimo Pigliucci — How to Live a Good Life and Create a Just Society

Shermer and Pigluicci discuss: his journey from Rome to New York • evolutionary biology • stoic philosophy • can there be a science of meaning and morality? • ultimate questions • desire, action, depression, suicide, anger, anxiety, love, and friendship • practical spiritual exercises • how to react to situations • teaching virtue to politicians • philosophy and politics • character and leadership • the nature of evil.

Released January 31, 2023

Topics: emotions, evil, evolutionary biology, human behavior, leadership, morality, philosophy, science, Science Salon, search for meaning, spirituality, stoicism, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 319

Steven Hassan — Combating Cult Mind Control, Freedom of Mind, and The Cult of Trump

Shermer and Hassan discuss: types of cults, their characteristics • cult leader profiles • the influence continuum • mind control • brainwashing • Project MK-ULTRA • Scientology • NXIVM • strip search hoax • social media mind control • neuroscience of mind control • authoritarian mindset • Trump’s mind-control techniques • breaking free of cults.

Released January 28, 2023

Topics: authoritarianism, brainwashing, cults, Donald Trump, gullibility, hoaxes, human behavior, influence, mind control, MK-ULTRA, neuroscience, psychology, rationality, Science Salon, Scientology, skepticism, social media, The Michael Shermer Show

EPISODE # 318

Suzie Sheehy — The Matter of Everything: How Curiosity, Physics, and Improbable Experiments Changed the World

Shermer and Sheehy discuss: what it’s like being a female physicist in a mostly male field • Does science progress through falsification, confirmation, consensus, or Bayesian reasoning? • atoms, light, Higgs Boson, time, gravity, dark energy, dark matter, string theory, radioactivity • Gold Foil Experiment • cloud chambers • particle accelerators • splitting the atom • Is there a place for God in scientific epistemology? • Is math all there is? Is math universal? • other universes, dimensions, and the multiverse.

Released January 24, 2023

Topics: concensus, consensus science, epistemology, gravity, Higgs boson, mathematics, multiverse, physics, science, Science Salon, something rather than nothing, string theory, The Michael Shermer Show, time

EPISODE # 317

Dacher Keltner — Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life

Shermer and Keltner discuss: the death of his brother and how this led to his study of awe • an operational definition of awe • the reliability (or unreliability) of self-report data in social science • how to quantify and measure the experience of awe • What are emotions and how can they be measured? • How has the scientific understanding of emotions changed? • predictors of awe: nature, music, art, dance, movement/exercise, love & friendships • awe in moral beauty • how to train yourself to experience awe • how awe helps heal traumas, grief, and loneliness • mystical experiences, spirituality, and awe restorative justice and awe.

Released January 21, 2023

Topics: art, emotions, friendship, loneliness, love, music, mysticism, nature, nature versus nurture, neurobiology, neuroscience, restorative justice, science, Science Salon, spirituality, The Michael Shermer Show