skeptic

Michael Shermer (@michaelshermer) is the founder of Skeptic magazine and several books on the nature of belief. He’s the Director of The Skeptics Society, a non-profit dedicated to the promotion of science, reason, and critical thinking. He joins us to discuss why people believe weird things. [This is a rebroadcast that originally aired in 2016.]

What We Discuss with Michael Shermer:

• How do beliefs form and persist even when we know they’re wrong?
• Why do skeptics (and restaurant owners) scowl at the mention of Uri Geller?
• Why are smart people even more susceptible to faulty beliefs?
• How do our genes influence our political and religious beliefs?
• What’s the difference between a skeptic and a cynic?
• And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: jordanharbinger.com/492

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Justin Ramsdell is a clinical psychologist, an expert witness, an assistant professor of forensic psychology at George Mason University, and a veteran pseudoscience detector.

What We Discuss with Justin Ramsdell:

• Why stressed brains don't make great decisions (especially when there's no light visible at the end of the tunnel to indicate that there is an end).
• How pseudoscience preys on our cognitive biases to give us the answers we want with the scantest of unprovable "evidence."
• Why watching YouTube videos and ranting in Reddit threads doesn't count as "research" in the same way that work done by field-experienced scientists with doctorate degrees and peer-reviewed studies under their belts counts as research.
• Be wary of intellectual trespassers -- who might very well be field-experienced scientists with doctorate degrees and peer-reviewed studies under their belts, but make wild, pseudoscientific claims about areas outside their expertise (e.g., a chiropractor who claims to cure COVID-19 with massage).
• Why you don't have to be a field-experienced scientist with a doctorate degree and peer-reviewed studies under your belt to avoid being hoodwinked by pseudoscience charlatans.
• And much more...

Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://jordanharbinger.com/359

Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course!

Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider including your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Jordan (@JordanHarbinger) and Jason (@jpdef) are back to banter every week and take your comments and questions for Feedback Friday on The Jordan Harbinger Show!

If you want us to answer your question, register your feedback, or tell your story on one of our upcoming weekly Feedback Friday episodes, drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com. Now, let's dive in!

On This Week's Feedback Friday, We Discuss:

• Do you believe in fate?
• If you're asked your opinion about something, how do you avoid just repeating person one if you're person two?
• When you're in high school, how do you maintain rapport with your teachers outside of the classroom without making things awkward?
• How do you end a mismatched relationship for good and make the other person understand your reasons?
• Is there a reason not to testify anonymously in a big case if you have the option?
• Should we better preface the gender of who's writing the letters we read on the show?
• Recommendation of the Week: Survivor's Guide to Prison
• Quick shoutouts to Rana Batyske and John Raynaud, the GM at Pizza My Heart!
• Have any questions, comments, or stories you'd like to share with us? Drop us a line at friday@jordanharbinger.com!
• Connect with Jordan on Twitter at @JordanHarbinger and Instagram at @jordanharbinger.
• Connect with Jason on Twitter at @jpdef and Instagram at @JPD, and check out his other show: Grumpy Old Geeks.

Sign up for Six-Minute Networking -- our free networking and relationship development mini course -- at jordanharbinger.com/course! 

Like this show? Please leave us a review here -- even one sentence helps! Consider leaving your Twitter handle so we can thank you personally!

Full show notes and resources can be found here.