Michael Shermer

Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the podcast The Michael Shermer Show and a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University where he teaches Skepticism 101. For 18 years, he was a monthly columnist for Scientific American. He writes a weekly Substack column. He is the author of New York Times bestsellers "Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain", "Why Darwin Matters", "The Science of Good and Evil", "The Moral Arc", "Heavens on Earth" and "Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist".

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Michael regularly contributes opinion editorials, essays and reviews to the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, Science, Nature and other publications. He wrote 214 consecutive monthly columns for Scientific American. He appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Oprah and Larry King Live. He has been interviewed in countless documentaries aired on PBS, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, The Science Channel and The Learning Channel. Dr. Shermer was the co-host and co-producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown. His two TED talks, seen by millions, were voted in the top 100.

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Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State University, Fullerton and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University. He has been a college professor since 1979, also teaching at Occidental College, Glendale College and Claremont Graduate University, where he taught a transdisciplinary course for Ph.D. students on Evolution, Economics and the Brain.