About this episode

Michael Shermer interviews Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger about his ban from the site and discusses topics ranging from Wikipedia's bias to the rationality of religious faith.

Michael Shermer speaks with Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger shortly after Sanger was permanently banned from editing the site he helped create. Sanger tells the story of Wikipedia's founding, how its ideal of open collaboration hardened into a system dominated by a relatively small group of powerful editors, and why he believes its rules on sourcing and "consensus" now produce political and religious bias. In the second half of the conversation, Shermer and Sanger shift gears completely and discuss whether religious faith can be rational, the philosophical case for God, the resurrection, the Trinity, repentance and salvation, and whether a future superintelligent AI could become indistinguishable from God.

People in this episode

Host: Michael Shermer

Guest: Larry Sanger

Topics covered

• Wikipedia
• bias
• open collaboration
• religious faith
• philosophy
• AI

Keywords

• Wikipedia
• Larry Sanger
• bias
• religious faith
• AI
• philosophy
• consensus

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Wikipedia

More episodes of The Michael Shermer Show

• Why Be Honest When Cheating Pays? · September 9, 2026 · 1h 45m
• Is the Future Unknowable? Uncertainty, Free Will, and the Limits of Science · September 1, 2026 · 1h 24m
• Why We Want to Believe in Aliens and Why We Still Haven't Found Them · August 25, 2026 · 1h 14m
• Is There a Second Arrow of Time? A New Law of Evolution, Information, and Complexity · August 18, 2026 · 1h 18m
• Why Good People Disagree About Right and Wrong · August 11, 2026 · 1h 57m
• Are We Building a God? AI, Superintelligence, and the Coming Singularity · August 5, 2026 · 1h 23m

Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the The Michael Shermer Show podcast page.