“My day job is editing and publishing Skeptic magazine, but I do a few other things on the side, such as teaching a course at Chapman University called Skepticism 101: How to Think Like a Scientist, and I like to talk to people whose books I’ve read and enjoyed, which is now a podcast called The Michael Shermer Show (original, uh?), I write a weekly column called Skeptic, which for 18 years was published in Scientific American and is now on Substack, and I like to write books, such as Why People Believe Weird Things, The Believing Brain, The Moral Arc, Heavens on Earth, and Giving the Devil His Due. My next book is on conspiracy theories and why people believe them (titled, simply Conspiracy), in which I disclose that I am the 13th member of the Illuminati—we’ve been trying to run the world for centuries, but as you can see we’re not very good at it. They’re hoping I can help them achieve global domination, but I’m skeptical…”
Since reading The Believing Brain nearly 10 years ago, Michael Shermer’s work has deeply influenced the way I think about the world and my place within it. Michael can be relied on to provide clarity and searing logic to every topic he cares to touch. I’m thrilled he agreed to do this with me.
Michael is a human mammal, here are his thoughts:
What brings you the most joy in life?
My family first, then writing, and finally cycling, hiking, and working out in general, mostly outdoors in the sun and wind and open environments. I pretty much need to mix in all three every day or else I feel like I’m a lazy slacker. If I can hang out with my family, write a couple of hundred words on my next article or book, and ride my bike and/or hike with my dog, Hitch (yes, named after the late great Christopher Hitchens), my day is made. Bonus points if I can watch Jeopardy! in the evening while having dinner. Extra bonus if I know around half the answers in the quiz show.
What does success mean to you?
Happy family, financial stability (defined by my having what many billionaires do not appear to have—enough), and the respect of my peers.
What do you see as your greatest achievement so far?
Raising my children and giving them a loving stable home, living a healthy life so that I can provide for my family and be there for them physically and mentally regardless of age, continuing to publish Skeptic magazine after 30 years, and my books. People often ask me what my best book is. My best book is whichever one I just wrote.
What are you most grateful for?
Being alive and healthy after 67 years. Living in a country where I feel mostly safe and secure. Not being overly burdened by physical or mental health issues. Multiple bests, such as having more than one thing I’m grateful for.
What is something most people don’t know about you?
People in the cycling world who knew me back in the 1980s when I was bike racing have no idea that I now publish a magazine and write books. And, vice versa: people who know me through my magazine and books usually have no idea that I was once a professional bicycle racer. It’s amusing when people put them together.
Who or what has had the biggest influence on your life?
My parents first. Many peers second. Teachers and mentors in college and after third. Intellectually, in no particular order: Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Martin Gardner, Paul Kurtz, Richard Dawkins, Jared Diamond, Steven Pinker, Daniel Dennett, Frank Sulloway, and others.
What do you regret?
Not continuing the piano from my youth. Not pursuing a career as a professional baseball player when I spent years dreaming of doing that. Taking up cycling rather late in life (age 25). Working more than I should have to the detriment of relationships with women.
Has there been a defining moment in your life? Can you tell us about it?
Riding from L.A. to New York in the 1982 Great American Bike Race (now Race Across America). You can watch the entire race on ABC’s Wide World of Sports if you google the race name. There you will see my many struggles to make it from the Santa Monica Pier to the Empire State Building, and my many doubts that I would. In fact, until I crossed the George Washington Bridge into Manhattan I wasn’t sure I would make it. After that, I felt like I could accomplish almost anything. A second example is attending a lecture by Carl Sagan in Pasadena in 1987 called “The Burden of Skepticism,” which inspired me to go back to graduate school and earn a Ph.D. and subsequently co-found (with Pat Linse) Skeptic magazine.
If you could pick one thing to be an expert at instantly, what would you choose?
Statistical analysis.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t get married too early. Don’t invest in the stock market too late.
What is the most important thing we can teach kids in school?
How to think.
If you could have a conversation with anyone, living or dead, who would you choose and why?
Thomas Jefferson. David Hume. Harry Houdini. Bertrand Russell. Isaac Asimov.
What do you doubt most?
My own abilities.
Is lying ever justified?
Of course! The classic case is when the Nazi comes to your door and demands to know if you’re hiding Jews and you are, should you lie? Of course you should! As well, little white lies to spare people’s feelings are justified on many occasions, as are lies of commission—it isn’t necessary to blurt out everything you’re thinking, especially if it hurts other people.
When did you last have a significant change of mind?
About a decade ago I changed my mind on anthropogenic global warming, which I was once skeptical of but now accept; also, about 5 years ago, on gun control, coming to believe that some control measures are necessary to reduce gun violence.
What is the role of luck in our lives?
Massive. I’ve written about this extensively, but in short, the luck of where in the world you happened to have been born, and when (what time in history), along with the good fortune (if you have it) of being raised in a loving and stable family in an environment/neighborhood that is safe, plus the good luck of having genes for intelligence and a balanced personality. None of these things are chosen by any of us. We’re just born with them and should be grateful.
Do you have a favourite quote? What is it? Why do you like it?
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
What would you do with your life if you had unlimited financial resources?
Exactly what I’m doing now, only I would fly private instead of commercial.
If you could have the definitive answer to a single question, what would you ask?
What caused the Big Bang? Why is there something rather than nothing?
What concept/fact/idea should every human on the planet understand?
How to determine what is true.
Do human beings have free will?
Yes, of course we do. Compatibilist free will, or volition, not libertarian free will. The universe is determined, but we are one of the determining causes ourselves and can choose to act in a way that changes outcomes; so the universe is determined but it is not pre-determined.
Do you believe in God?
No.
Could we be living in a simulated universe?
Very very very unlikely (despite the Bayesian argument that it is more than 50% likely). I would put it at 99% unlikely.
Will the continual development of technology have a net positive or negative influence on humanity?
Net positive, absolutely positively.
What is the single greatest achievement of humanity?
Science.
What do you see as the biggest existential threat to humanity?
Nuclear weapons.
What does it mean to live a good life?
To thine own self be true.
What is a good death?
A good life.
What question should I have asked you?
What is the last question? This one.
Thanks for your time, Michael!
Twitter: @michaelshermer
Website: michaelshermer.com
Podcast: https://www.skeptic.com/michael-shermer-show/
Skeptic column:
Ilhan Omar (D-MN) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) have every right to say what they like about Israel and the genocide of Palestinians as elected members of the US House of Representatives; they never took an oath to serve Israel . . .
I voted for Ron Desantis (R-FL) to be governor of Florida, not ambassador to Israel.
The recently ousted Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Congressman Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who took at least a dozen votes to get elected speaker, traveled to Israel immediately upon his election, declaring to the Israeli Knesset that the USA is steadfastly committed to supporting Ukraine in their war against Russia . . .
Was he running for speaker of the Israeli Knesset too?
Following his ouster . . . McCarthy (R-CA) traveled abroad again, this time to England, and expressed his open contempt for the white Republicans who make up the majority of the GOP and praised Democrats for their diversity during a debate at Oxford in the wake of his ouster as House Speaker . . .
Is he now running for the Prime Minister of the U.K.?
Nevertheless, he is free to go on media tours bashing white people and lobbying for Israel, because he has now resigned from the US House of Representatives . . . I can only conclude that the collective RINO butthurt over former Speaker McCarthy is all about the Israelis who have hijacked the American deep state war machine.
It has become so painfully obvious, especially where you have someone like Nikki Haley wagging her finger and shouting down Vivek Ramaswamy in a presidential debate on live national television when the questions of this Ukrainian war against Russia and any mention of Israel are concerned, that the United States government has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Israeli Political Action Committee.
https://cwspangle.substack.com/i/138320669/fight-your-own-wars-you-kikesucking-zionist-ass-whores