
Michael B. Shermer, PhD
Founding Fellow
Altadena, California, USA
Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Skeptic magazine and the Director of The Skeptics Society. He is a Visiting Associate at the California Institute of Technology, and hosts the Skeptics Lecture Series at Cal Tech. He has authored several popular books on science, scientific history, and the philosophy and history of science. Dr Shermer is also a radio personality and the host of the Fox Family Channel’s Exploring the Unknown. He writes a monthly column for Scientific American.
Since his creation of the Skeptics Society, Dr Shermer has appeared on such shows as The Colbert Report, 20/20, Dateline, Charlie Rose, Larry King Live, Tom Snyder, Donahue, Oprah, Leeza, Unsolved Mysteries, and been interviewed for countless documentaries aired on PBS, A&E, Discovery, The History Channel, The Science Channel, and The Learning Channel. Shermer was the co-host and co-producer of the 13-hour Family Channel television series, Exploring the Unknown.
Dr Shermer received his BA in psychology from Pepperdine University, in experimental psychology from California State University at Fullerton, and his PhD in the history of science from Claremont Graduate University (1991). He was a college professor for 20 years (1979–1998), teaching psychology, evolution, and the history of science at Occidental College (1989–1998), California State University at Los Angeles, and Glendale College.
Magazine:





Selected Writings:
- “Nash Equilibrium, the Omerta Rule, and doping in cycling,” Skeptiblog, 2010 Jul 13.
- “The pattern behind self-deception,” Skeptiblog, 2010 Jun 15.
- “A skeptical triumph over medical flim-flam,” Skeptiblog, 2009 Nov 3.
- “An open letter to Bill Maher on vaccinations,” Huffington Post, 2009 Oct 16.
- “Darwinian psychology goes mainstream,” Skeptiblog, 2009 Jun 2.
- “Wheatgrass juice & folk medicine: why subjective anecdotes often trump objective data,” Scientific American Magazine, 2008 Aug.
- “Airborne baloney: the latest fad in cold remedies is full of hot air,” Scientific American Magazine, 2007 Jan.
- “Cures and cons: natural scams ‘he’ doesn’t want you to know about,” Scientific American Magazine, 2006 Mar.
- “Full of holes: the curious case of acupuncture,” Scientific American Magazine, 2005 Aug.
- “Hope springs eternal: can nutritional supplements, biotechnology and nanotechnology help us live forever?” Scientific American Magazine, 2005 Jul.
- “Skeptic: death by theory,” Scientific American Magazine, 2004 June.
- “Magic water & Mencken’s Maxim,” Scientific American Magazine, 2004 Apr.
- “What’s the harm? Alternative medicine is not everything to gain and nothing to lose,” Scientific American Magazine, 2003 Dec.
- “Fools & the wise of heart,” Scientific American Magazine, 2001 Jan.
Selected Books:
Science Friction: Where the Known Meets the Unknown (Macmillan, 2005). In each of fourteen essays, Dr Shermer explores the very personal barriers and biases that plague and propel science, especially when scientists push against the unknown. What do we know and what do we not know? How does science respond to controversy, attack, and uncertainty? When does theory become accepted fact?

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, (Holt, 1997; revised & expanded, 2002). In an age of supposed scientific enlightenment, many people still believe in mind reading, past-life regression theory, New Age hokum, and alien abduction. An assault on popular superstitions and prejudices, this book debunks these nonsensical claims and explores the very human reasons people find otherworldly phenomena, conspiracy theories, and cults so appealing. In an entirely new chapter for the revised edition, “Why Smart People Believe in Weird Things,” Dr Shermer takes on science luminaries like physicist Frank Tippler and others, who hide their spiritual beliefs behind the trappings of science.
Selected Presentations:
- “On the threat of pseudoscience” (with DH Gorski & B Goldacre), Lorne Trottier Public Science Symposium on “Confronting pseudoscience: a call to action,” McGill University, 2010 Oct 18. [Webcast] [MP3]
Watch Michael Shermer:
TED, 2010: Dr Shermer talks about an upcoming book, The Believing Brain:
Dr Shermer on The Colbert Report, 2007 Aug 21:
Testing Acupuncture, 2007:
One of the oldest forms of so-called alternative or complementary medicine is the ancient Chinese art of acupuncture, now claimed by many to be a science. Dr Shermer goes in search of what is behind acupuncture through interviews and getting himself poked.
TED, 2006: “Why people believe strange things”
The Online Michael Shermer:





