Michael Shermer: Conspiracy Thinking, Wokeness, and the Future of Free Thought

The Reason Interview With Nick Gillespie

"Even paranoids have real enemies," said the poet Delmore Schwartz, who was both clinically paranoid and definitely on to something, according to today's guest: Michael Shermer, the founder of Skeptic magazine, Substack superstar, and author of many best-selling books about rationalism, the evolution of morality, and pseudoscience.

He quotes Schwartz in his latest book, Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational, to drive home the point that big, world-changing secret plots happen all the time, but there are reliable ways for us to decide whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, 9/11 was an inside job, or vaccines cause autism. For the record, Shermer says yes, no, and no on those counts.

Reason's Nick Gillespie talks with Shermer about whether conspiracy thinking is on the rise, whether it's coded left or right, how wokeness poisons science, and whether the reelection of Donald Trump means free thought is ascendant. This interview was recorded at a live event in New York City in January. Sign up for invites to and news about Reason's New York events here.

Previous appearances:

• "Michael Shermer: How Scientific American Got Woke," by Nick Gillespie
• "The Future of Science: Podcast," by Matt Welch
• "Michael Shermer on Why Even Scientists, Transhumanists, and Atheists Want To Believe in Heaven," by Nick Gillespie
• "Reason and Science Make Us Moral: Michael Shermer on The Moral Arc," by Zach Weissmueller
• "Michael Shermer: Evolutionary Economics and the Google Theory of Peace," by Dan Hayes

• Video Editor: Ian Keyser

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