The Michael Shermer Show Creators & Guests

Michael Shermer is a science writer, Historian of Science, Founder of The Skeptics Society, editor-in-chief of Skeptic magazine, producer, and co-host of the Exploring the Unknown.

Terrence Joseph Sejnowski is the Francis Crick Professor at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies where he directs the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory and is the director of the Crick-Jacobs center for theoretical and computational biology. He has performed pioneering research in neural networks and computational neuroscience.

Tom Nichols is an author and Professor at the Naval War College.

Tali Sharot is a writer, author, and professor of cognitive neuroscience in the Department of Experimental Psychology at University College London.

Kathryn Paige Harden is a psychologist and behavior geneticist. She is an associate professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin.

Colin Wright is an evolutionary biologist, scientist, and assistant editor at Quillette.

Dr. Nicholas Christakis is a sociologist and physician.

John Mackey is a businessman. He is the current CEO of Whole Foods Market, which he co-founded in 1980.

Nichola Raihani is a psychologist and Professor of Evolution and Behaviour at the University College London.

Kelsey Johnson teaches students both inside and outside of the classroom, using astronomy as a gateway science to nurture curiosity and support science literacy. As a child, Johnson spent countless nights outside under the stars, where she developed a love for "big picture" questions about the nature of reality and the universe. Johnson's curiosity about the cosmos - and everything in it - has been the primary driver of her career, leading her to devote her life to learning, exploration, and teaching. She is a professor at the University of Virginia and founding director of the award-winning Dark Skies Bright Kids program. She has won numerous awards for her research, teaching, and promotion of science literacy. Her TED talk on the importance of dark skies has more than 2 million views, and her writing has appeared in nationwide publications, including the New York Times, Scientific American, and Washington Post. Her children’s book Constellations for Kids in consistently in the top 10 children’s astronomy books. Johnson is the past-president of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and president-elect of the American Astronomical Society.She earned her BA in physics from Carleton College, and her MS and PhD in astrophysics from the University of Colorado. She lives in rural Virginia with her family, including three cats and two very large dogs.

Dr. Heather Heying is an author, educator, evolutionary biologist, and Professor in Exile.

Lawrence Krauss is a theoretical physicist and cosmologist who is a professor in the School of Earth and Space Exploration at Arizona State University.

Suzanne O’Sullivan is a neurologist.

Dr. Scott Barry Kaufman is a cognitive scientist and humanistic psychologist.

Tim Palmer is Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics, and a Senior Fellow at the Oxford Martin Institute.

Helen Pluckrose is an author and cultural writer known for critiques of critical social justice and promotion of liberal ethics.

Dr. Rachel Kleinfeld is a researcher and consultant on troubled democracies facing problems such as polarized populations, violence, corruption, and poor governance in the United States and internationally. Currently, she is a senior fellow in Carnegie’s Democracy, Conflict, and Governance Program.Prior to joining Carnegie, Kleinfeld co-founded and directed the Truman National Security Project.Kleinfeld's writing has appeared in the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and the Atlantic to the Journal of Democracy and the Annual Review of Political Science. Her first book, "Let There Be Light: Electrifying the Developing World with Markets and Distributed Energy," co-authored with Drew Sloan, was published in 2011. Her second book, "Advancing the Rule of Law Abroad: Next Generation Reform," was published in 2012. Her third book, "A Savage Order: How the World’s Deadliest Countries Can Forge a Path to Security," was published in 2018. Her TED talk on improving violent democracies has been translated into 17 languages and viewed over a million times.Kleinfeld received her B.A. in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University, and her M. Phil and D. Phil in International Relations from the University of Oxford.

Jonathan Gottschall is an American literary scholar specializing in literature and evolution. He teaches at Washington & Jefferson College in Pennsylvania, where he is a distinguished fellow in the English department. He is the author or editor of seven books.

Meghan Daum is an author, essayist, and journalist.