In virtually every way that can be measured, Gen Z’s mental health is worse than that of previous generations. Youth suicide rates are climbing, antidepressant prescriptions for children are common, and the proliferation of mental health diagnoses has not helped the staggering number of kids who are lonely, lost, sad and fearful of growing up. What’s gone wrong with America’s youth? In Bad Therapy , bestselling investigative journalist Abigail Shrier argues that the problem isn’t the kids—it’s t...
Mar 23, 2024•1 hr 8 min•Ep 416•Transcript available on Metacast The Holocaust is much discussed, much memorialized, and much portrayed. But there are major aspects of its history that have been overlooked. Spanning the entirety of the Holocaust, this sweeping history deepens our understanding. Dan Stone—Director of the Holocaust Research Institute at Royal Holloway, University of London—reveals how the idea of “industrial murder” is incomplete: many were killed where they lived in the most brutal of ways. He outlines the depth of collaboration across Europe,...
Mar 19, 2024•2 hr 37 min•Ep 415•Transcript available on Metacast Do we live inside a simulated reality or a pocket universe embedded in a larger structure about which we know virtually nothing? Is consciousness a purely physical matter, or might it require something extra, something nonphysical? According to the philosopher Eric Schwitzgebel, it’s hard to say. In The Weirdness of the World , Schwitzgebel argues that the answers to these fundamental questions lie beyond our powers of comprehension. We can be certain only that the truth—whatever it is—is weird....
Mar 16, 2024•2 hr 3 min•Ep 414•Transcript available on Metacast A conversation with Leah Goldstein on becoming a kickboxing world champion, ultra-endurance cyclist, and an elite commando combating terrorism. For this she was to be honored at the International Women's Day event… until she was disinvited and canceled. This is her story.
Mar 12, 2024•1 hr 28 min•Ep 413•Transcript available on Metacast Over a billion copies of the Qur’an exist – yet it remains an enigma. Its classical Arabic language resists simple translation, and its non-linear style of abstract musings defies categorization. Moreover, those who champion its sanctity and compete to claim its mantle offer widely diverging interpretations of its core message – at times with explosive results. Building on his intimate portrait of the Qur’an’s prophet in Muhammad the World-Changer , Mohamad Jebara returns with a vivid profile of...
Mar 09, 2024•2 hr 36 min•Ep 412•Transcript available on Metacast Generations have been taught that evolution implies there is no overarching purpose to our existence, that life has no fundamental meaning. We are merely the accumulation of tens of thousands of intricate molecular accidents. Some scientists take this logic one step further, suggesting that evolution is intrinsically atheistic and goes against the concept of God. With respect to our evolution, nature seems to have endowed us with competing dispositions, what Wilkinson calls the dual potential of...
Mar 05, 2024•2 hr 39 min•Ep 411•Transcript available on Metacast Could humans unknowingly be a part of a larger superorganism—one with its own motivations and goals, one that is alive, and conscious, and has the power to shape the future of our species? This is the fascinating theory from author and futurist Byron Reese, who calls this human superorganism “Agora.” In We Are Agora , Reese starts by asking the question, “What is life and how did it form?” From there, he looks at how multicellular life came about, how consciousness emerged, and how other superor...
Mar 02, 2024•2 hr 35 min•Ep 410•Transcript available on Metacast Have you ever noticed that what is thrilling on Monday tends to become boring on Friday? Even exciting relationships, stimulating jobs, and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is most wonderful in their own lives. They also stop noticing what is terrible. They get used to dirty air. They stay in abusive relationships. People grow to accept authoritarianism and take foolish risks. They become unconcerned by their own misconduct, blind to inequalit...
Feb 27, 2024•2 hr 35 min•Ep 409•Transcript available on Metacast To build electric vehicles, solar panels, cell phones, and millions of other devices means the world must dig more mines to extract lithium, copper, and other vital building blocks. But mines are deeply unpopular, even as they have a role to play in fighting climate change and powering crucial technologies. Shermer and Scheyder discuss: • How much rare earth metals will we need by 2050, 2100, and beyond? • How do lithium-ion batteries work compared to lead-acid? What are the alternatives? • Will...
Feb 24, 2024•1 hr 5 min•Ep 408•Transcript available on Metacast As a member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee and a former member of the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices to the CDC, Dr. Paul Offit has been in the room for the creation of policies that have affected hundreds of millions of people. Four years after the outbreak of COVID-19, he reflects on our response to the pandemic: what went well and what didn't. Shermer and Offit discuss: mRNA vaccines • loss of trust in medical and scientific institutions • overall assessment of what went...
Feb 20, 2024•1 hr 13 min•Ep 407•Transcript available on Metacast Rob Henderson was born to a drug-addicted mother and a father he never met, ultimately shuttling between ten different foster homes in California. When he was adopted into a loving family, he hoped that life would finally be stable and safe. Divorce, tragedy, poverty, and violence marked his adolescent and teen years, propelling Henderson to join the military upon completing high school. His greatest achievements — a military career, an undergraduate education from Yale, a PhD from Cambridge — f...
Feb 17, 2024•2 hr 8 min•Ep 406•Transcript available on Metacast The Covid-19 response was a crucible of politics and public health—a volatile combination that produced predictably bad results. As scientific expertise became entangled with political motivations, the public-health establishment found itself mired in political encampment. It was, as Sandro Galea argues, a crisis of liberalism: a retreat from the principles of free speech, open debate, and the pursuit of knowledge through reasoned inquiry that should inform the work of public health. Across fift...
Feb 13, 2024•1 hr 25 min•Ep 405•Transcript available on Metacast In Against the New Politics of Identity , philosopher Ronald A. Lindsay offers a sustained criticism of the far-reaching cultural transformation occurring across much of the West by which individuals are defined primarily by their group identity, such as race, ethnicity, gender identity, and sexual orientation. Driven largely by the political Left, this transformation has led to the wholesale grouping of individuals into oppressed and oppressor classes in both theory and practice. He warns that ...
Feb 10, 2024•1 hr 29 min•Ep 404•Transcript available on Metacast Former Google data scientist and bestselling author of Everybody Lies Seth Stephens-Davidowitz turns his analytic skills to the NBA. Shermer and Stephens-Davidowitz discuss: why some countries produce so many more NBA players than others • the greatest NBA players adjusted for height • why tall NBA players are worse athletes than short NBA players • How much do NBA coaches matter and what do they do? • In a population of 8 billion today compared to centuries past, where are all the Mozarts, Beet...
Feb 06, 2024•1 hr 23 min•Ep 403•Transcript available on Metacast If you’ve ever wanted mental health support but haven’t been able to get it, you are not alone. In fact, you’re part of the more than 50% of adults and more than 75% of young people worldwide with unmet psychological needs. Maybe you’ve faced months-long waiting lists, or you’re not sure if your problems are ‘bad enough’ to merit treatment? Maybe you tried therapy but stopped due to costs or time constraints? Perhaps you just don’t know where to start looking? The fact is, there are infinite rea...
Feb 03, 2024•1 hr 7 min•Ep 402•Transcript available on Metacast As a society we are self-censoring at record rates. Say the wrong thing at the wrong moment to the wrong person and the consequences can be dire. Think that everyone should be treated equally regardless of race? You’re a racist. Argue that people should be able to speak freely within the bounds of the law? You’re a fascist. When the truth is no defense and nuance is seen as an attack, self-censorship is a rational choice. Yet, when we are too fearful to speak openly and honestly, we deprive ours...
Jan 30, 2024•2 hr 11 min•Ep 401•Transcript available on Metacast If you could rewind your life to the very beginning and then press play, would everything turn out the same? Or could making an accidental phone call or missing an exit off the highway change not just your life, but history itself? How did one couple’s vacation cause 100,000 people to die? Brian Klaas explores how our world really works, driven by strange interactions and apparently random events. Drawing on social science, chaos theory, history, evolutionary biology, and philosophy, he provides...
Jan 27, 2024•2 hr 54 min•Ep 400•Transcript available on Metacast As head of TED, Chris Anderson has had a ringside view of the world’s boldest thinkers sharing their most uplifting ideas. Inspired by them, he believes that it’s within our grasp to turn outrage back into optimism. It all comes down to reimagining one of the most fundamental human virtues: generosity. What if generosity could become infectious generosity? Chris offers a playbook for how to embark on our own generous acts—whether gifts of money, time, talent, connection, or kindness—and to prime...
Jan 23, 2024•1 hr 18 min•Ep 399•Transcript available on Metacast Our books, our movies—our imaginations—are obsessed with extra dimensions, alternate timelines, and the sense that all we see might not be all there is. In short, we can’t stop thinking about the multiverse. As it turns out, physicists are similarly captivated. In The Allure of the Multiverse , physicist Paul Halpern tells the epic story of how science became besotted with the multiverse, and the controversies that ensued. The questions that brought scientists to this point are big and deep: Is ...
Jan 17, 2024•1 hr 16 min•Ep 398•Transcript available on Metacast Michael Shellenberger explains the role of government agencies in social media censorship, his work on the Twitter files, and the differences between independent and mainstream journalism. PLUS: how to deal with the opioid epidemic, what we can do about homelessness, his take on January 6, George Floyd, UFOs and UAPs, and more. Recorded live in Santa Barbara, CA at the Skeptics Society 2023 conference.
Jan 09, 2024•1 hr 27 min•Ep 397•Transcript available on Metacast As it absorbs record numbers of new immigrants, the U.S. faces critical questions: is it better to promote a unifying, shared identity that transcends ethnic differences or to foster a multicultural salad of distinct group identities? Is it better to minimize ethnic distinctions or to accentuate them with diversity initiatives and ethnic preferences? Out of the Melting Pot, Into the Fire takes a global, historical perspective to address these questions, examining how societies, from ancient Rome...
Jan 03, 2024•48 min•Ep 396•Transcript available on Metacast The meaning of life is in the here and now.
Dec 24, 2023•2 min•Transcript available on Metacast Caylan Ford is a documentary filmmaker, charter school founder, and a former political candidate. She holds a Bachelor’s degree (Hons.) in Chinese history from the University of Calgary, a Master’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a Master’s in International Human Rights Law from the University of Oxford. She spent many years in the international human rights field, including by increasing access to anti-surveillance and censorship tools in Iran, China, ...
Dec 19, 2023•2 hr 22 min•Ep 395•Transcript available on Metacast When Dr. Michael Greger, founder of NutritionFacts.org, dove into the top peer-reviewed anti-aging medical research, he realized that diet could regulate every one of the most promising strategies for combating the effects of aging. We don’t need Big Pharma to keep us feeling young―we already have the tools. In How Not to Age , the internationally renowned physician and nutritionist breaks down the science of aging and chronic illness and explains how to help avoid the diseases most commonly enc...
Dec 16, 2023•2 hr 3 min•Ep 394•Transcript available on Metacast Imagination is commonly thought to be the special province of youth―the natural companion of free play and the unrestrained vistas of childhood. Then come the deadening routines and stifling regimentation of the adult world, dulling our imaginative powers. In fact, Andrew Shtulman argues, the opposite is true. Imagination is not something we inherit at birth, nor does it diminish with age. Instead, imagination grows as we do, through education and reflection. The science of cognitive development...
Dec 12, 2023•2 hr 35 min•Ep 393•Transcript available on Metacast When economist Angus Deaton immigrated to the United States from Britain in the early 1980s, he was awed by America’s strengths and shocked by the extraordinary gaps he witnessed between people. In this conversation based on his new book, Economics in America , the Nobel Prize-winning economist explains in clear terms how the field of economics addresses the most pressing issues of our time—from poverty, retirement, and the minimum wage to the ravages of the nation’s uniquely disastrous health c...
Dec 05, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep 392•Transcript available on Metacast Why are we here? What’s the point of existence? On the ‘big questions’ of meaning and purpose, Western thought has been dominated by the dichotomy of traditional religion and secular atheism. In his pioneering work, Philip Goff argues that it is time to move on from both God and atheism. Through an exploration of contemporary cosmology and cutting-edge philosophical research on consciousness, Goff argues for cosmic purpose: the idea that the universe is directed towards certain goals, such as th...
Dec 02, 2023•2 hr 57 min•Ep 391•Transcript available on Metacast Why are so many of us wrong about so much? From COVID-19 to climate change to the results of elections, millions of Americans believe things that are simply not true―and act based on these misperceptions. In Wrong: How Media, Politics, and Identity Drive Our Appetite for Misinformation , expert in media and politics Dannagal Goldthwaite Young offers a comprehensive model that illustrates how political leaders and media organizations capitalize on our social and cultural identities to separate, e...
Nov 28, 2023•2 hr 41 min•Ep 390•Transcript available on Metacast A conversation with Warren Commission Assistant Counsel Burt W. Griffin , Case Closed author and Lee Harvey Oswald scholar Gerald Posner , and JFK conspiracy theory debunker Michel Gagné . Shermer, Griffin, Posner, and Gagné discuss: the nostalgic myth of “Camelot” • Lee Harvey Oswald and why he killed Kennedy • Cuba, Castro, the Bay of Pigs debacle • the CIA and why it is rational to be skeptical of their activities • the “magic bullet,” pristine or predictably damaged? • James Hosty and the FB...
Nov 22, 2023•2 hr 56 min•Ep 389•Transcript available on Metacast Everyone is curious about life in the Universe, UFOs and whether ET is out there. Over the course of his thirty-year career as an astrophysicist, Adam Frank has consistently been asked about the possibility of intelligent life in the universe. We’ve long been led to believe that astronomers spend every night searching the sky for extraterrestrials, but the truth is we have barely started looking. Not until now have we even known where to look or how. In The Little Book of Aliens , Frank, a leadi...
Nov 18, 2023•2 hr 38 min•Ep 388•Transcript available on Metacast 
