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Today I sat down for a chat with Michael Shermer to discuss how Thomas Sowell’s ideas have impacted his thinking and his work. We met in person at Michael’s office in the foothills of the San Gabriel mountains, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Michael is the Founder and Publisher of Skeptic Magazine and the host of his own podcast, The Michael Shermer Show. He teaches a course called Skepticism 101 at Chapman University in California. From 2001 until 2019 he wrote a monthly column for Scientific American magazine called “Skeptic.”

He has written numerous books since the 1980’s including:

• Why People Believe Weird things, in 1997

• The Science of Good and Evil, in 2004

• The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice and Freedom, in 2015, and most recently,

• Giving the Devil His Due: reflections of a Scientific Humanist, in 2020.

I first discovered Michael from his podcast. I continue to be amazed by the quality of the intellectuals who come on his show to discuss their books and ideas. His podcast is a who’s who of the best and brightest thinkers of our age, here are some examples since he started podcasting 6 years ago: 

Richard Dawkins, Deepak Chopra, Ben Shapiro, Gad Saad, Jonathan Haidt, Heather Mac Donald, Steven Pinker, Daniel Kahneman, Bari Weiss, David Buss, Niall Ferguson, Jordan Peterson, the list goes on and on over 226 podcast episodes to date. 

When I arrived at Michael’s office for this interview, he was decked out in his cycling gear and wearing one of those thick waist belts; I’m not sure if he had just gotten back from a 50 mile ride or had just helped to unload 100 cases of Skeptic Magazine from a delivery truck. Either way, Michael is not just a man of the mind, he’s also a man of the body, which is further evidence of his polymath status.

Here's a LINK to Michael's personal website. His twitter is @michaelshermer.

Here's the Justice Alito Letter mentioned in the episode.

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