Why You Believe Weird Things (Michael Shermer)

About this episode

Amanda Knox interviews Dr. Michael Shermer about truth, consciousness, and free will.

What is truth, and why does finding it actually matter? Amanda sits down with Dr. Michael Shermer, founding publisher of Skeptic Magazine, longtime Scientific American columnist, and author of Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters, for a conversation that starts with epistemology and ends in a full-throated debate about free will. They talk about why our brains evolved more like lawyers than scientists — to win arguments, not find facts. They get into the hard problem of consciousness, what meditation might reveal that neuroscience can't yet measure, and whether the legal system could ever be redesigned around actual truth-seeking. And then Amanda makes the case for hard determinism and nearly talks Shermer into it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Amanda Knox

Guest: Michael Shermer

Topics covered

• truth
• epistemology
• consciousness
• free will
• meditation
• determinism

Keywords

• truth
• epistemology
• consciousness
• meditation
• determinism
• Skeptic Magazine
• Scientific American

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Skeptic Magazine, Scientific American

Books & works: Truth: What It Is, How to Find It, and Why It Still Matters

More episodes of Hard Knox with Amanda Knox

• Old School: The Canceling of the American Mind (Greg Lukianoff) · June 2, 2026 · 53 min
• Married to the Work · May 26, 2026 · 1h 9m
• How To Be A Woman in Public (Sophie Gilbert) · May 19, 2026 · 1h 1m
• Walkie Talkies · May 12, 2026 · 15 min
• Old School: Monsters (Claire Dederer) · May 5, 2026 · 60 min
• The Myth of Confrontation · April 28, 2026 · 44 min