191. Michael Gordin on the Fringe of Where Sc...

We tend to explain success by looking at what people did right, while overlooking everyone who made the same choices and failed. Philosopher Duncan Pritchard joins Michael Shermer to discuss his book, Tempting Fate: A Philosophical Guide to Risk, Luck, and a Meaningful Life, and ...  Show more

Why does being alive feel like something? Neuroscientist Antonio Damasio argues that the answer begins with the body's need to stay alive. Hunger, thirst, pain, and pleasure tell us how we're doing and push us to act. These basic feelings, he says, are the foundation of conscious ...  Show more

Pseudoscience can sometimes be hard to distinguish from the real thing. Today we discuss how philosophers of science have thought about this problem.For ad free episodes and other exclusives, join us for just $3 a month on Patreon: https://patreon.com/whythisuniverseOur merch is ...  Show more

On hot-button topics such as climate change, vaccines and genetically modified foods, science denial is rampant – and it crosses party and ideological lines. What are the psychological forces that lead people to disbelieve scientific consensus? Is science denial worse than it’s e ...  Show more

Depending on who you ask, astrology is a science, an art, a form of therapy… or, a pseudo-science, fortune-telling, a scam. But astrology is way more than a horoscope. Check us out online, as well as on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit meg ...  Show more