The Michael Shermer Show

Long-form conversations on science, philosophy, history and ideas AI summary

Michael Shermer Visit website › Science · EN · 647 episodes · latest 2026-11-07

Rank 3400

0 upvotes, 0 downvotes

Embed a widget with this podcast’s standing on your website

What it is about

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.

Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.
The Skeptics Society. All rights reserved.

Listen

Available at these services — the RSS feed works in any podcast app.

Apple Podcasts Deezer

Latest episodes

Could World War II Have Ended Without the Atomic Bomb?

2026-11-07 · 1 hr 22 min · Episode 641

By the summer of 1945, Japan's cities were burning, its people were starving, and its military leaders were preparing for a final battle on home soil. Even the destruction of Hiroshima did not bring an immediate…
How Much Credit Do You Deserve for Your Life?

2026-10-31 · 1 hr 11 min · Episode 640

We tend to explain success by looking at what people did right, while overlooking everyone who made the same choices and failed. Philosopher Duncan Pritchard joins Michael Shermer to discuss his book, Tempting Fate: A…
Why Consciousness Needs a Body

2026-10-17 · 1 hr 20 min · Episode 638

Why does being alive feel like something? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio argues that the answer begins with the body's need to stay alive. Hunger, thirst, pain, and pleasure tell us how we're doing and push us to act.…
Racism and White Guilt: Has America Changed More Than We Admit? | Shelby Steele & Eli Steele

2026-10-10 · 42 min · Episode 637

Can fighting racism end up reinforcing it? Shelby Steele grew up under segregation and became a Black militant in the 1960s. Today, he argues that White guilt has created a different racial problem: treating Black…
Would You Want to Know If You Were Wrong?

2026-09-28 · 1 hr 38 min · Episode 636

What do you make of an experience you can't explain? A strange light in the sky, a book flying off a desk, a coincidence that feels too improbable to be chance? Social psychologist Barry Markovsky joins Michael Shermer…
Does Consciousness Break the Laws of Physics?

2026-09-22 · 46 min · Episode 635

If we could explain everything happening in your brain, would there still be something left to explain about you? Physicist Avshalom Elitzur thinks so—and argues that accounting for consciousness may require changing…
Jared Diamond: How Much Can One Person Change History?

2026-09-15 · 1 hr 29 min · Episode 634

Would World War II have happened without Hitler? Would someone else have built Apple without Steve Jobs? Jared Diamond joins Michael Shermer to ask how much history depends on particular people. From Darwin's…
Why America Failed to Stop 9/11 | Gerald Posner & Michael Shermer

2026-09-11 · 43 min

How did 19 hijackers evade the world's most advanced intelligence apparatus despite years of warnings? Twenty-five years after 9/11, journalist Gerald Posner joins Michael Shermer to explain the security failures that…
Why Be Honest When Cheating Pays?

2026-09-09 · 1 hr 45 min · Episode 632

Most of us think of ourselves as honest. But would we still tell the truth if lying got us what we wanted—and nobody would ever find out? Philosopher Christian Miller joins Michael Shermer to discuss his new book The…
Is the Future Unknowable? Uncertainty, Free Will, and the Limits of Science

2026-09-01 · 1 hr 24 min · Episode 631

What if uncertainty isn't a temporary problem science will eventually solve, but a fundamental feature of reality? Neuroscientist Stuart Firestein joins Michael Shermer to make the case that the universe may be far less…

Episode details from the publisher’s feed. Playback happens at the publisher.

Publisher details

Oldest episode in feed: 11/2015 · over 10 years
Typical length: 1 hr 28 min
Format: Episodic Newest first, episodes stand alone

The Michael Shermer Show in the rankings

The best Science podcasts The best English-language podcasts All rankings ›

For podcasters

Is this podcast yours? Verify it — afterwards you can correct details, get the widget for your website, and we let you know when your podcast is nominated or wins.

Without an account you can use an email address on your show’s own domain — we create the account along the way. The other methods need a login.