Afleveringen
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Since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, capitalism has unleashed unimaginable growth in opportunity and prosperity. And yet, at key points in American history, economic disruption has led to a greater role for government, ostensibly to protect against capitalismâs excesses. Today, government regulates, mandates, subsidizes and controls a growing share of the American economy.
Today on the show, retired U.S. Senator Phil Gramm, one of Americaâs premier public policy advocates, and noted economist Donald J. Boudreaux look at the seven events and issues in American history that define, for most Americans, the role of government and how the 21st century world works. To many, these 5 periods of American historyâthe Industrial Revolution, Progressive Era, Great Depression, decline of Americaâs postwar preeminence in world trade, and the Great Recessionâalong with the existing levels of income inequality and poverty, represent strong evidence for expanding government in American life. Gramm and Boudreaux argue that the evidence might point to a contrary verdict.
Phil Gramm served six years in the U.S. House of Representatives and eighteen years in the U.S. Senate where he was Chairman of the Banking Committee. Gramm is a Visiting Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He was Vice Chairman of UBS Investment Bank and is now Vice Chairman of Lone Star Funds. He taught Economics at Texas A&M University and has published numerous articles and books.
Donald J. Boudreaux is an American economist, author, professor, and co-director of the Program on the American Economy and Globalization at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. His writings have appeared in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Investorâs Business Daily, The Washington Times, and many scholarly publications.
Their new book is The Triumph of Economic Freedom: Debunking the Seven Great Myths of American Capitalism.
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By most popular accounts, the universe started with a bang some 13.8 billion years ago. But what happened before the Big Bang? And how do we know it happened at all?
Cosmologist Niayesh Afshordi and science communicator Phil Halper offer a tour of the peculiar possibilities: bouncing and cyclic universes, time loops, creations from nothing, multiverses, black hole births, string theories, and holograms.
Incorporating insights from Afshordiâs cutting-edge research and Halperâs original interviews with scientists like Stephen Hawking, Roger Penrose, and Alan Guth, Afshordi and Halper compare these models for the origin of our origins, showing each theoryâs strengths and weaknesses and explaining new attempts to test these notions. But most of all, Afshordi and Halper show that this search is filled with wonder, discovery, and communityâall essential for remembering a forgotten cosmic past.
Niayesh Afshordi is professor in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Waterloo and associate faculty at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Ontario, Canada. His prize-winning research focuses on competing models for the early universe, dark energy, dark matter, black holes, holography, and gravitational waves.
Phil Halper is a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society and a science popularizer. He is the creator of the popular YouTube series Before the Big Bang, which has had several million views. His astronomy images have been featured in major media outlets including The Washington Post, the BBC, and The Guardian, and he has published several papers in peer-reviewed journals.
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In 2010, in a small New Hampshire town, next door to a copy center and framing shop, a ghost lab opened. The Kitt Research Initiativeâs mission was to use the scientific method to document the existence of spirits. Founder Andy Kitt was known as a straight-shooter; he was unafraidâperhaps eagerâto offend other paranormal investigators by exposing the fraudulence of their less advanced techniques. But when KRI started to lose money, Kitt began to seek funding from the paranormal community, attracting flocks of psychics, alien abductees, witches, mediums, ghost hunters, UFOlogists, cryptozoologists and warlocks from all over New England, and the world. And there were plenty of them around.
Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling, author of the new book The Ghost Lab, explains the wild ecosystem of paranormal profiteers and consumers through the astonishing story of what happened in this one small town. He also maps the trends of declining scientific literacy, trust in institutions, and the diffusion of a culture that has created space for armies of pseudoscientists to step into the minds of an increasingly credulous public.
Matthew Hongoltz-Hetling is a freelance journalist specializing in narrative features and investigative reporting. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. He is the author of A Libertarian Walks Into a Bearand It Sounds Like a Quack. His new book is The Ghost Lab: How Bigfoot Hunters, Mediums, and Alien Enthusiasts are Wrecking Science.
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This is the inside story of the CIAâs secret mind control project, MKULTRA, using never-before-seen testimony from the perpetrators themselves.
Sidney Gottlieb was the CIAâs most cunning chemist. As head of the infamous MKULTRA project, he oversaw an assortment of dangerousâeven deadlyâexperiments. Among them: dosing unwitting strangers with mind-bending drugs, torturing mental patients through sensory deprivation, and steering the movements of animals via electrodes implanted into their brains. His goal was to develop methods of mind control that could turn someone into a real-life âManchurian candidate.â
In conjunction with MKULTRA, Gottlieb also plotted the assassination of foreign leaders and created spy gear for undercover agents. The details of his career, however, have long been shrouded in mystery. Upon retiring from the CIA in 1973, he tossed his files into an incinerator. As a result, much of what happened under MKULTRA was thought to be lostâuntil now.
Historian John Lisle has uncovered dozens of depositions containing new information about MKULTRA, straight from the mouths of its perpetrators. For the first time, Gottlieb and his underlings divulge what they did, why they did it, how they got away with it, and much more. Additionally, Lisle highlights the dramatic story of MKULTRAâs victims, from their terrible treatment to their dogged pursuit of justice.
The consequences of MKULTRA still reverberate throughout American society.
John Lisle is a historian of science and the American intelligence community. He was on the show for his previous book, The Dirty Tricks Department, about Stanley Lovell, the OSS precursor to the CIA, and the Masterminds of World War II Secret Warfare. In Vol. 25, No. 2 of Skeptic he wrote about MKULTRA, the CIA program in search of mind control technology. His new book is Project Mind Control: Sidney Gottlieb, the CIA, and the Tragedy of MKULTRA.
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In this eye-opening episode, Michael Shermer chats with evolutionist Telmo Pievani about the surprising coexistenceâand hybridizationâof Neanderthals and Homo sapiens.
They discuss recent scientific discoveries, the evolving understanding of race and biology, and the crucial role of serendipity in advancing scientific knowledge.
This episode offers a nuanced perspective on how unexpected findings continue to reshape our understanding of human origins and the scientific process itself.
Telmo Pievani is Full Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Padua, where he covers the first Italian chair of Philosophy of Biological Sciences. A leading evolutionist, science communicator, and columnist for Corriere della Sera, he is the author of The Unexpected Life, Creation Without God, and Imperfection (MIT Press). His new book is Serendipity: The Unexpected in Science.
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Amid rising concerns about AI, inequality, trade wars, and globalization, New Yorker staff writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist John Cassidy takes a bold approach: he tells the story of capitalism through its most influential critics.
From the Luddites and early communists to the Wages for Housework movement and modern degrowth advocates, Cassidyâs global narrative features both iconic thinkersâSmith, Marx, Keynesâand lesser-known voices like Flora Tristan, J.C. Kumarappa, and Samir Amin.
John Cassidy has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1995. He writes a regular column, The Financial Page. He holds degrees from Oxford, Columbia, and New York Universities. His new book is Capitalism and Its Critics: A History from the Industrial Revolution to AI.
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What does your diet have to do with your mood? Is mercury in fish really dangerous? Psychiatrist Dr. Drew Ramsey joins Michael Shermer to discuss the science behind nutritional psychiatry and how food, sleep, exercise, and social habits influence brain health. They explore why mental health issues are risingâespecially among teensâand what role parenting, social media, and modern lifestyles play.
The conversation also covers the effectiveness of SSRIs and other treatments, the role of inflammation in mental health, and the importance of sleep and tracking sleep quality.
Drew Ramsey, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, author, and leading voice in Nutritional Psychiatry and integrative mental health. He is a Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association. For twenty years, he served as an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University. He has authored four books, including the international bestseller Eat to Beat Depression and Anxiety. His new book is Healing the Modern Brain.
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Jacob Mchangama, author of Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media, joins Michael to examine the evolving landscape of free expression amid rising political and cultural tensions. They discuss how far governments, universities, and tech platforms should go in regulating speech, and whatâs at stake when they do.
In this episode:
Should non-citizens have the same speech protections as citizens? Social media, mental health, radicalization, and the âmoderation dilemmaâ The global shift toward stricter regulation of speech How todayâs most divisive issues test the limits of free expressionJacob Mchangama is the founder and executive director of the Future of Free Speech, professor at Vanderbilt University, and senior fellow at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE).
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Is it really possible to change your entire personality in a year? An award-winning journalist experiments with her own personality to find outâand reveals the science behind lasting change.
Research shows that you can alter your personality traits by behaving in ways that align with the kind of person youâd like to beâa process that can make you happier, healthier, and more successful. Olga embarked on an âexperimentâ to see whether itâs possible to go from dwelling in dread to radiating joy. For one year, she clicked âyesâ on a bucket list of new experiencesâfrom meditation to improv to sailingâthat forced her to at least act happy. With a skepticâs eye, Olga brings you on her journey through the science of personality, presenting evidence-backed techniques to help you change your mind for the better.
Olga Khazan is a staff writer for The Atlantic and the author of Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World. She has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and other publications. Her new book is Me, But Better: The Science and Promise of Personality Change.
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The ways that statisticians and governments measure the economy were developed in the 1940s, when the urgent economic problems were entirely different from those of today. Diane Coyle argues that the framework underpinning todayâs economic statistics is so outdated that it functions as a distorting lens, or even a set of blinkers. When policymakers rely on such an antiquated conceptual tool, how can they measure, understand, and respond with any precision to what is happening in todayâs digital economy?
Coyle argues that to understand the current economy, we need different data collected in a different framework of categories and definitions, and she offers some suggestions about what this would entail.
Diane Coyle is a Professor of Public Policy at the University of Cambridge and author of The Soulful Science: What Economists Really Do and Why it Matters and GDP: A Brief but Affectionate History. Her new book is The Measure of Progress: Counting What Really Matters.
Read Diane Coyleâs new article for Skeptic.
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David Zweigâs new book An Abundance of Caution (MIT Press) is an account of the decision-making process behind the extended closures of public schools during the pandemic. In fascinating and meticulously reported detail, Zweig shows how some of the most trusted members of societyâfrom Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists to eminent health officialsârepeatedly made fundamental errors in their assessment and presentation of evidence.
By fall 2020, many students in Europe were already back in classroomsâand so were their peers in private schools in America and in public schools across mostly âredâ states and districts. Yet millions of other children across the U.S. remained under extended school closures.
Whatever inequities that existed among American children before the pandemic, the selective school closures exacerbated them, disproportionately affecting the underprivileged. Deep mental, physical, and academic harmsâamong them, depression, anxiety, abuse, obesity, plummeting test scores, and rising drop-out ratesâwere endured for no discernible benefit.
The story of American schools during the pandemic serves as a prism through which to approach fundamental questions about why and how individuals, bureaucracies, governments, and societies act as they do in times of crisis and uncertainty. Ultimately, this book is not about COVID; itâs about being ill-equipped to make decisions under duress.
David Zweig is a writer, lecturer, and journalist. His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Free Press, and his newsletter, Silent Lunch. He is the author of Invisibles, about the power of embracing anonymous work in a culture obsessed with praise and recognition. His new book is An Abundance of Caution: American Schools, the Virus, and a Story of Bad Decisions.
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Itâs tempting to see ourselves as damaged or powerlessâdefined by past traumas, overwhelming emotions, and daily struggles. But is that really the most helpful way to understand ourselves? Does seeing ourselves as victims lead to growth?
Psychologist and author Scott Barry Kaufman joins us to examine how popular narratives around sensitivity, self-esteem, and emotional regulation may be holding us back. He unpacks the psychological costs of coddling (vs. empowerment), the rise of risk aversion, and how modern parenting, education, and therapy shape our sense of self.
With insight, empathy, and humor, Kaufman offers a timely look at what it really takes to build resilience, choose meaning over comfort, and unlock the full potential of the human spirit.
Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive psychologist who is among the top 1% most cited scientists in the world for his groundbreaking research on intelligence, creativity, and human potential. He is the host of The Psychology Podcast, which has received more than 30 million downloads and is frequently ranked the #1 psychology podcast in the world. His new book is Rise Above: Overcome a Victim Mindset, Empower Yourself, and Realize Your Full Potential.
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Why do ordinary people carry out extraordinary harm when simply told to do so? From the Holocaust to the genocides in Rwanda, Bosnia, and Cambodia, history shows how obedience to authority can lead to unimaginable acts. But whatâs happening in the brain when we follow ordersâeven ones that conflict with our morals?
In this episode, we speak with neuroscientist Emilie Caspar, whose groundbreaking research explores how authority influences cognition and behavior. Drawing from real-life accounts of genocide perpetrators and cutting-edge neuroscience, Caspar reveals how obedience can short-circuit independent decision-makingâoften without us realizing it.
Emilie Caspar is a professor at Ghent University, Belgium, where she leads the Moral and Social Brain Lab. She specializes in social neuroscience. Her main research areas focus on obedience and how restricting oneâs autonomy and choice options impacts the brain. Her new book is Just Following Orders: Atrocities and the Brain Science of Obedience.
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Amanda Knox spent nearly four years in prison and eight years on trial for a murder she didnât commitâand became a notorious tabloid story in the process. Though she was exonerated, itâs taken more than a decade for her to reclaim her identity and truly feel free.
Amandaâs new book, Free recounts how she survived prison, the mistakes she made and misadventures she had reintegrating into society, culminating in the untold story of her return to Italy and the extraordinary relationship sheâs built with the man who sent her to prison.
Amanda tells the story of her personal growth and hard fought wisdom, recasting her public reckoning as a private reflection on the search for meaning and purpose that will speak to everyone persevering through hardship.
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Albert Einstein remains renowned around the world for revolutionizing our understanding of the cosmos, but very few realize that the celebrated scientist had a deep spiritual side. Einstein believed that one wondrous force was woven through all things everywhereâand this sense of the pervasive sacred influenced every aspect of his existence, from his marvelous science to his passionate pacifism.
Kieran Fox studied medicine at Stanford University and holds a doctorate in cognitive neuroscience from the University of British Columbia. He is a physician-scientist at the The University of California, San Francisco, where his research centers on the neural mechanisms and therapeutic potential of meditation practices and psychedelic medicines. His new book is I Am a Part of Infinity. More information: https://www.iamapartofinfinity.com/
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Outside of the academics and activists whose ideology came to dominate the West in the second decade of the twenty-first century, arguably no group influenced public discourse as much as the Intellectual Dark Web.
Challenging the intellectual and cultural orthodoxies that engulfed universities, the media, and big tech, this groupâa loose collective of politically diverse intellectuals, commentators, and scholars critical of political correctness, identity politics, and cancel cultureârelied on alternative platforms like podcasts, digital magazines, and YouTube to promote free speech, universal rights, and individual liberty.
While the term is most commonly identified with Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro, Jordan Peterson, Bret and Eric Weinstein, and Joe Rogan, the groupâs concerns and philosophy extended more broadly to include a wide range of individuals who helped mainstream critiques of âwokeâ culture and a robust defense of free speech, including Steven Pinker, Michael Shermer, Jonathan Haidt, Dave Rubin, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Stephen Fry.
The Intellectual Dark Webâs coherence began to unravel in the early 2020s due to internal differences (such as over the response to COVID-19 and climate change), and its full legacy and historical impact are yet to be determined.
Jamie Roberts is a lecturer in the Department of Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney. His new book is The Intellectual Dark Web: A History (and Possible Future).
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In all animals, mating is a deal. But few creatures behave as if sex is a simple, even mutually beneficial, transaction. Many more treat it with reverence, suspicion, angst, and violence.
Matt Ridley revisits Darwinâs revelatory theory of mate choice through the close study of the peculiar rituals of birds, and considers how this mating process complicates our own view of human evolution.
Ridley also explores the scientific research into the evolution of bright colors, exotic ornaments, and elaborate displays in birds around the world. Charles Darwin thought the purpose of such displays was to âcharmâ females. Though Darwinâs theory was initially dismissed and buried for decades, recent scientific research has proven him newly rightâthere is a powerful evolutionary force quite distinct from natural selection: mate choice. In Birds, Sex and Beauty, Ridley reopens the history of Darwinâs vexed theory, laying bare a century of disagreement about an idea so powerful, so weird, and so wonderful, we may have yet to fully understand its implications.
Matt Ridley is the bestselling author of The Rational Optimist and Viral: The Search for the Origin of COVID-19 (with Alina Chan). His books have sold over a million copies. Ridley served in the House of Lords from 2013 to 2021 and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, the Academy of Medical Sciences, and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. His latest book is Birds, Sex and Beauty: The Extraordinary Implications of Charles Darwinâs Strangest Idea.
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Phil Tinline, author of the new book Ghosts of Iron Mountain, explores the origins of the infamous Report from Iron Mountain, its role in conspiracy culture, and its lasting influence on perceptions of the military-industrial complex. The conversation also examines Holocaust denial, nativism, and the evolution of deep state conspiracies, highlighting the power of narratives in shaping democracy and public trust.
Tinline is a British freelance writer and documentarian. His book The Death of Consensus: 100 Years of British Political Nightmares was named The Times (London) Politics Book of the Year. Over two decades at the BBC, he has produced and presented acclaimed documentaries on the impact of political history on contemporary life.
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A few reflections on religion following The Free Press debate in Austin, TX on February 27, 2025.
Michael Shermer and Adam Carolla (atheists) faced off against Ayaan Hirsi Ali and Ross Douthat (Christians).
You can watch the debate here: https://www.thefp.com/p/watch-does-the-west-need-a-religious
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Michael and Katherine Stewart discuss the rise of religious nationalism in America, its impact on public education, and the broader implications for democracy. They explore the strategies employed by religious groups to infiltrate public schools, the culture wars surrounding education, and the divisive nature of the New Right.
Katherine Stewart is the author of The Power Worshippers: Inside the Dangerous Rise of Religious Nationalism, the award-winning book upon which the documentary feature, God & Country, produced by Rob Reiner, is based. She has covered the intersection of faith and politics for over 15 years. Her new book is Money, Lies, and God.
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