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Michael Shermer

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.

The Michael Shermer Show

What is consciousness, really? Why does it not simply switch on at a single moment? Neuroscientist Niko Kukushkin explains how even single cells can show primitive forms of memory and agency, why the human mind is not a mysterious force floating above biology, and why reducing it to "just neurons" misses what actually matters.
 
He also discusses the evolutionary gamble of complexity, why bacteria still dominate the planet, and how abstraction and memory together give rise to thought.
 
At the center of the conversation is an unsettling question: Why does it feel so special to be you when science says that you are nothing but a chemical reaction—a collection of atoms and molecules, like rocks, paperclips, and everything else in the physical universe?
 
Nikolay Kukushkin is a clinical associate professor at New York University and a research fellow at NYU's Center for Neural Science, where he studies how temporal patterns shape memory formation. He holds degrees from St. Petersburg State University and Oxford University, and completed postdoctoral training at Harvard Medical School. He is the author of a recent paper in Nature Communications demonstrating canonical memory in non-neural cells. His book is One Hand Clapping.

What Makes You "You" When Everything Is Just Atoms?

Francis Crick is best known as one of the figures behind the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA, but the familiar story leaves out as much as it explains. Historian of science Matthew Cobb looks closely at how Crick's life actually unfolded, revealing a career shaped less by inevitability than by luck, conflict, false starts, and a series of highly contingent moments.
 
The double helix itself may have been waiting to be found, but what followed was anything but predetermined. Crick's influence came from asking uncomfortable questions about what the structure of DNA implied for genetics, evolution, and life itself. Along the way, myths hardened around personalities, credit, and rivalries, especially in the case of Rosalind Franklin, whose role has been both misunderstood and oversimplified.
 
The conversation also traces Crick's later turn away from molecular biology toward the problem that fascinated him from the beginning: consciousness. From visual perception to the search for neural correlates of experience, his ambition was to push back against mystical explanations and insist that even the most elusive aspects of the mind belonged to the material world.
 
Matthew Cobb is a professor in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Manchester. He is the author of numerous works of science and history. His new book is Crick: A Mind in Motion, a biography of the legendary scientist Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

Rethinking the Discovery of DNA

What do you do when someone believes you shouldn't exist?
 
Daryl Davis didn't protest. He didn't shout. He sat down, asked questions, and kept showing up. Over decades, that approach has led more than 200 Ku Klux Klan members and white supremacists to walk away from their robes for good.
 
In this conversation, Davis explains why people radicalize, and what happens psychologically when prejudice collides with a real human being. He shares stories from inside Klan meetings, lessons learned from neo-Nazis, and why today's climate of polarization may actually be an opportunity rather than a dead end.
 
Daryl Davis earned his Bachelor of Music degree from Howard University and an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Post University. He is the author of Klan-Destine Relationships and the subject of the multi-award-winning documentary Accidental Courtesy, which chronicles his work in race reconciliation. A lifelong musician, he has performed with Chuck Berry and President Bill Clinton, and as an actor appeared in HBO's The Wire.

How One Black Man Dismantled the KKK, One Conversation at a Time

Open inquiry depends on the ability to ask uncomfortable questions and follow evidence wherever it leads. Eric Kaufmann argues that this norm is now under strain.
 
Drawing on history, survey data, and political theory, Kaufmann outlines how certain identity categories came to be treated as morally sacred—and how that shift has reshaped debates about equality, free speech, and academic inquiry. The conversation examines the long roots of today's culture conflicts, the move from equal opportunity to equal outcomes, and why disagreement is increasingly interpreted as moral transgression rather than intellectual difference.
 
At stake is what happens to liberal societies when some questions can no longer be asked, nd whether open inquiry can still be defended without abandoning concern for fairness and dignity
 
Eric Kaufmann is a professor of politics and Director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham. He has written for The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Newsweek, National Review, New Statesman, Financial Times, and other outlets. His new book is The Third Awokening.

The Collapse of Open Inquiry: Sacred Victims and Forbidden Questions

Brain-computer interfaces are moving out of the lab and into real medical use.
 
In this episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael Shermer talks with Dr. Matt Angle, founder and CEO of Paradromics, a neurotechnology company developing one of the most advanced high-data-rate brain implants in the world, similar to Neuralink. These devices record activity from individual neurons, making it possible to restore speech in people with paralysis, reconnect the brain to external devices, and potentially treat chronic pain and neurological disorders with far greater precision than existing approaches.
 
Angle explains why progress in neuroscience has been limited not by biology, but by data—how much information we can actually read from the brain, and how fast. He describes how patients who can no longer speak may soon communicate fluently using only brain signals, why invasive implants can sometimes be safer than long-term drug treatments, and what it takes to bring a brain implant through FDA approval and into the clinic.
 
The conversation also touches on the larger questions raised by this technology, including autonomy, consciousness, and what happens when the boundary between brain and machine begins to blur.
 
Matt Angle is the Founder and CEO of Paradromics, a neurotechnology leader developing the world's most advanced and clinically viable brain-computer interface (BCI) platform—bridging human thought and digital capability. Paradromics' BCI platform records brain activity with unmatched precision, capturing data at the level of individual neurons. This advanced technology enables the decoding of vast amounts of brain data, opening the door to next-generation treatments for paralysis, chronic pain, addiction, mental health conditions, and more. With the power of AI, this platform has the potential to radically shift how healthcare providers approach some of the most challenging medical conditions.
 
Angle earned his PhD in Neuroscience from the University of Heidelberg, followed by postdoctoral research at Stanford University. Paradromics engineered its first clinical product, the Connexus® BCI, received two FDA Breakthrough Device Designations, and performed the first-in-human neural recording in May 2025. The company is now preparing to launch a clinical trial in early 2026, pending regulatory approval.

The Future of Brain Implants: Restoring Speech, Regaining Mobility, Treating Pain

At the turn of the 20th century, millions of Americans, including elite scientists, major newspapers, and cultural icons, were convinced that Mars was home to an advanced civilization.
 
In this episode, Michael Shermer speaks with award-winning science journalist David Baron about one of the most astonishing episodes in scientific-cultural history. Blurry telescopes, mistranslated words, and persuasive personalities transformed speculation into accepted fact, while more cautious scientists struggled to be heard.
 
The discussion covers Percival Lowell's Martian canals, Nikola Tesla's claim to have detected signals from another planet, and the role of mass media and early science fiction in fueling public belief.
 
The episode also connects this forgotten moment to present-day debates about UFOs, alien megastructures, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, raising broader questions about how scientific ideas spread and why some claims capture the public imagination.
 
David Baron is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and author. A former science correspondent for NPR, he has also written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Scientific American, and other publications. David recently served as the Baruch S. Blumberg NASA/Library of Congress Chair in Astrobiology, Exploration, and Scientific Innovation. His new book is The Martians: The True Story of an Alien Craze that Captured Turn-of-the-Century America.

The Original Alien Craze: When People Believed in Martians

What if the great discoveries of science came in the "wrong" order? The Laws of Thermodynamics were discovered well after the creation of algebra, classical physics, and chemistry, but are perhaps much more important to our basic understanding of the universe.
 
Chris Edwards argues that AI will be able to understand science outside of the traditional chronological developments of the sciences, unlocking entirely new potentials and perspectives on the universe. If human scholars are to understand how AI interprets the universe, we will first need to understand the scientific narrative in a "new order."
 
Chris Edwards teaches history, English, and mathematics at a public school in the Midwest. He is a frequent contributor to Skeptic magazine and the author of Thought Experiments: History and Applications for Education, Beyond Obsolete: How to Upgrade Classroom Practice and School Structure, Femocracy: How Educators Can Teach Democratic Ideals and Feminism, and most recently of The New Order: How AI Rewrites the Narrative of Science. His background is in world history.

How AI Sees Science Differently Than We Do

Criminal profiling promises certainty in the face of horror: this is what a killer looks like, this is how they think, this is how we stop them. But what if that promise is mostly an illusion?
 
In this episode, Michael Shermer is joined by journalist and author Rachel Corbett to dismantle the myths behind criminal profiling, from the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit to our obsession with serial killers, mindhunters, and "psychological fingerprints."
 
Corbett explains why randomness is harder to accept than evil, and how our hunger for neat explanations can actually make us less safe.
 
Plus, the legacy of MKUltra and Ted Kaczynski, the seductive appeal of true crime, and the uncomfortable truth behind the "Jekyll and Hyde" problem: monsters rarely look like monsters.
 
Rachel Corbett is a features writer at New York magazine, and her writing has also appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Atlantic. She is the author of You Must Change Your Life, which won the Marfield Prize, the National Award for Arts Writing. Her new book is The Monsters We Make: Murder, Obsession, and the Rise of Criminal Profiling.

Can You Spot a Killer? The Dangerous Fantasy of Criminal Profiling

For nearly two centuries, international relations have been premised on the idea of the "Great Powers." As the thinking went, these mighty states—the European empires of the nineteenth century, the United States and the USSR during the Cold War—were uniquely able to exert their influence on the world stage because of their overwhelming military capabilities. But this conception of power fails to capture the more complicated truth about how wars are fought and won. 
 
Our focus on the importance of large, well-equipped armies and conclusive battles has obscured the foundational forces that underlie military victories and the actual mechanics of successful warfare.
 
Phillips O'Brien suggests a new framework of "full-spectrum powers," taking into account all of the diverse factors that make a state strong—from economic and technological might, to political stability, to the complex logistics needed to maintain forces in the field. 
 
Drawing on examples ranging from Napoleon's France to today's ascendant China, he offers a critical new understanding of what makes a power truly great.
 
Phillips Payson O'Brien is a professor of strategic studies and head of the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland. He is the author of six books, including his latest War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why.

Why Wars Last Longer Than Experts Predict

In this episode of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael sits down with two giants of mind and machine science: Jay McClelland, one of the founders of modern neural networks, and Gaurav Suri, computational neuroscientist and director of the RAD Lab.
 
Drawing from decades of research, they walk us through the revolution from behaviorism to cognitive psychology to modern neuroscience, and why simple interacting units can give rise to astonishingly complex behaviors. 
 
From why we perceive letters differently in context to how memory works, why consciousness remains baffling, and what AI is (and isn't) actually doing, this episode dives deep into the mechanics of all levels of thought, mind, and even consciousness.
 
Jay McClelland is a professor of psychology and of computer science and linguistics at Stanford University. He is one of the most influential and well-known cognitive scientists of the past century. He is the founder of the study of artificial neural networks, and his publications have been cited more than 100,000 times. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy.
 
Gaurav Suri is an associate professor of psychology at San Francisco State University. He is a computational neuroscientist and an experimental psychologist. He is the director of RADLab, where he studies the mechanisms that shape motivated action and decision making. He is the co-author of the prize-winning novel A Certain Ambiguity and several dozen influential research papers. 
 
Their new book is The Emergent Mind: How Intelligence Arises in People and Machines.

Rethinking the Discovery of DNA

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