Dr. Michael Shermer: Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the Executive Director of the Skeptics Society, and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, and Heavens on Earth.

His new book is Conspiracy: Why The Rational Believe The Irrational.

Michael Shermer's Website: - https://michaelshermer.com

In this episode, we cover:

Why The Rational Believe The Irrational.
Conspiracies During The 2024 Presidential Election.
Are We Heading Towards a Civil War?
Sports and Trans Rights.

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Highlights

00:00 Intro

01:23 Michael’s Trajectory

04:30 Defining Skepticism

06:06 Can Science Answer the Question of Meaning?

09:57 What Are the Key Challenges We Face Today.

14:28 How Much Can We Trust Our Modern Scientific Tools?

19:20 The Emergence of Ideology Becoming Identity.

22:44 Why The Rational Believe The Irrational.

27:17 The Twitter Files Conspiracy.

34:30 How To Distinguish Signal From Noise on Twitter.

37:03 Conspiracies During The 2024 Presidential Election.

43:10 Are We Heading Towards a Civil War?

47:52 Sports and Trans Rights.

51:20 What is Epistemic Humility?

52:50 One Conspiracy Theory That Blew Michael’s Mind?

55:35 What Are Some Conspiracy Theories That Michael is Keeping a Mind On?

59:30 Closing Remarks.

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