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The Michael Shermer Show

by Michael Shermer
Natural SciencesScience

Today: #187 in Science, Ireland on our combined chart.

If you like The Michael Shermer Show, try…

Ranking history · Ireland

Latest daily rankings: Oct 22. New rankings will appear after the next update.

Position on the Science, Ireland combined chart over the last 7 days. Toggle platforms to compare their positions. Lower rank numbers are better.

#36#76#117#157#197Chart rankOct 19Oct 20Oct 21Oct 22#187
View as table
DateCombined RankApple PodcastsPocket CastsCastbox
Oct 22#187#188——
Oct 21#103#108—#94
Oct 20#71#73—#48
Oct 19#46#46#46#45

Latest episodes

  • Why Consciousness Needs a Body

    October 17, 2026 · 1 hr 20 min

    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. These basic feelings…

  • Racism and White Guilt: Has America Changed More Than We Admit? | Shelby Steele & Eli Steele

    October 10, 2026 · 42 min

    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 Americans as…

  • Would You Want to Know If You Were Wrong?

    September 28, 2026 · 1 hr 38 min

    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 to discuss his new…

  • Does Consciousness Break the Laws of Physics?

    September 22, 2026 · 46 min

    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 the laws of physics…

  • Jared Diamond: How Much Can One Person Change History?

    September 15, 2026 · 1 hr 29 min

    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 discoveries to the rise of…

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  • Why America Failed to Stop 9/11 | Gerald Posner & Michael Shermer

    September 11, 2026 · 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 left America…

  • Why Be Honest When Cheating Pays?

    September 9, 2026 · 1 hr 45 min

    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 Honesty Crisis and the…

  • Is the Future Unknowable? Uncertainty, Free Will, and the Limits of Science

    September 1, 2026 · 1 hr 24 min

    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 deterministic—and…

  • Why We Want to Believe in Aliens and Why We Still Haven't Found Them

    August 25, 2026 · 1 hr 14 min

    UFOs were once the stuff of tabloids and conspiracy theories. Today they're the subject of congressional hearings, Pentagon investigations, mainstream news coverage, and a new wave of claims about government cover-ups and alien technology…

  • Is There a Second Arrow of Time? A New Law of Evolution, Information, and Complexity

    August 18, 2026 · 1 hr 18 min

    Why does the universe produce ever more elaborate forms, from atoms and minerals to cells, organisms, brains, technology, and civilization? The familiar laws of physics can explain much of what happens in nature, but Robert Hazen and…

  • Why Good People Disagree About Right and Wrong

    August 11, 2026 · 1 hr 57 min

    Why do reasonable people disagree so strongly about right and wrong? And why are we so quick to assume that people on the other side of a moral or political issue are irrational, selfish, ignorant, or simply bad? Michael Shermer speaks…

  • Are We Building a God? AI, Superintelligence, and the Coming Singularity

    August 5, 2026 · 1 hr 23 min

    Robert Wright joins Michael Shermer to discuss his new book, The God Test: Artificial Intelligence and Our Coming Cosmic Reckoning, and why he thinks the AI revolution may be moving much faster than most people realize. Wright argues that…

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

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.