Michael Shermer

Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the Director of the Skeptics Society, a monthly columnist for Scientific American, the host of the Skeptics Lecture Series at Caltech, and the co-host and producer of the 13-hour Fox Family television series, Exploring the Unknown (1999). He is the author of "In Darwin's Shadow", about the life and science of the co-discoverer of natural selection, Alfred Russel Wallace. He also wrote "The Borderlands of Science", about the fuzzy land between science and pseudoscience, and "Denying History", on Holocaust denial and other forms of historical distortion. His book, "How We Believe: Science, Skepticism, and the Search for God", presents his theory on the origins of religion and why people believe in God. He is also the author of "Why People Believe Weird Things", a book that was widely and positively reviewed and landed on the Los Angeles Times bestseller list as well as the New Sciences science books bestseller list in England. Dr. Shermer is also the author of "Teach Your Child Science" and co-authored "Teach Your Child Math and Mathemagics". Dr. Shermer received his B.A. in psychology from Pepperdine University, M.A. in experimental psychology from California State Univesity, Fullerton, and his Ph.D. in the history of science from Claremont Graduate School. Since his creation of the Skeptics Society, Skeptic magazine, and the Skeptics Lecture Series at Caltech, he has appeared on such shows as 20/20 (1978), Dateline (1999), Charlie Rose (1991), Tom Snyder (1993), Donahue (2002), The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), Sally Jessy Raphael (1983), Leeza (1994), Unsolved Mysteries (1987) and other shows as a skeptic of weird and extraordinary claims, as well as on documentaries aired on A & E, Discovery, and The Learning Channel.