AccentExplorer #12: Michael Shermer on Conspiracy Theories, Real Conspiracies, and How to Distinguish Them
Release Date: 07/16/2023
Explorer #24: Ramesses II "The Great" and 19th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt w/ Peter Brand
The Accent Podcast
Dr. Peter Brand is an ancient historian and Egyptologist specializing in history and culture of ancient Egypt during its imperial age (ca. 1550–1100 BCE). He is author of The Monuments of Seti I and their Historical Significance: Epigraphic, Historical and Art-Historical Analysis (Brill, 2000), and has written numerous articles on Egyptian kingship, monumental art and construction, history, popular religion, warfare, and diplomacy during the late Eighteenth Dynasty and Ramesside period. Since 2001, Dr. Brand has served as director of the Karnak Hypostyle Hall Project, which is recording,...
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Explorer #23: The Civil War Never Fully Ended w/Jeremi Siri
The Accent Podcast
Jeremi Suri holds the Mack Brown Distinguished Chair for Leadership in Global Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a professor in the University's Department of History and the LBJ School of Public Affairs. Professor Suri is the author and editor of eleven books on politics and foreign policy, most recently: Civil War By Other Means: America’s Long and Unfinished Fight for Democracy (which we discuss in the interview). SELECT BOOKS BY JEREMI SURI: - Civil War by Other Means: - The Impossible Presidency: - Liberty’s Surest Guardian: SUPPORT THE ACCENT ON...
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Explorer #22: Searching for Planet Nine with Dr. Konstantin Batygin
The Accent Podcast
Dr. Konstantin Batygin is a Professor of Planetary Science at the California Institute of Technology. Professor Batygin and his colleague, Michael Brown, have found evidence of a giant planet tracing a bizarre, highly elongated orbit in the outer solar system. The object, which they have nicknamed Planet Nine, has a mass about 10 times that of Earth and orbits about 20 times farther from the sun on average than does Neptune (which orbits the sun at an average distance of 2.8 billion miles). In fact, it would take this new planet between 10,000 and 20,000 years to make just one full orbit...
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Explorer #21: Overdiagnosis of Mental Illness with Dr. Allen Frances
The Accent Podcast
Dr. Allen Frances is a Chairman Emeritus of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine. He is best known for serving as chair of the American Psychiatric Association task force overseeing the development and revision of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV). Dr. Frances is the founding editor of two well-known psychiatric journals: the Journal of Personality Disorders and the Journal of Psychiatric Practice. During the development of the current diagnostic manual, DSM-5, Dr. Frances became...
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Explorer #20: Early Humans, First Civilizations, and Fall of Civilizations with Dr. Brian Fagan
The Accent Podcast
Brian Fagan is an Archeologist, Author, and Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at UC Santa Barbara. He has written a number of books on archeology, humans, and, most recently, climate change. We discussed Early Humans, the history of hunting, the most influential civilizations, and the effects of localized climate change, which by the way, has nothing to do with politics but rather the history of the phenomena. TIMESTAMPS 01:10 Did humans evolve from apes 04:25 Hunting of early humans 12:45 Neanderthals 14:40 Humans walked out from Africa 20:50 Most important...
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AccentWealth: Invest like a Family Office with James Pan
The Accent Podcast
James Pan is a former Hedge Fund manager who, a decade ago, returned funds to outside investors and converted his firm into a family office. If you search for CP&E Partners' letters, you will see the phenomenal performance that James has achieved, and he did it as a one-man-shop. In this interview, we discussed James' investment philosophy, investment process, current holdings, and many other things. Books James is Ayn Rand's fan, so don't forget to read Atlas Shrugged: Support the Accent on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theaccentpodcast TIMESTAMPS 02:05 Absorbing...
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Explorer #19: Quantum Computers and Artificial Intelligence w/ Scott Aaronson
The Accent Podcast
Dr. Scott Aaronson is Schlumberger Centennial Chair of Computer Science at The University of Texas at Austin, and director of its Quantum Information Center. His research interests center around the capabilities and limits of quantum computers and computational complexity theory more generally. For the 2022-2023 and 2023-2024 academic years, he is on leave to work at OpenAI on the theoretical foundations of AI safety. In this interview, Dr. Aaronson discussed a quantum computer, its comparison to classical computers, and its use cases. He also shared his take on the potential role of quantum...
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Explorer #18: The Rise and Fall of ISIS, with Pulitzer Prize-winning author Joby Warrick
The Accent Podcast
Joby Warrick is a best-selling author and a national security correspondent for The Washington Post. A two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, he served for 24 years with the Post’s national and investigative staffs, reporting from Washington and scores of cities around the world. He is the author of three two nonfiction books, including “The Triple Agent”, a New York Times best-seller about a CIA operation in Afghanistan; "Red Line", and “Black Flags”, a narrative account of the personalities and events that gave rise to the Islamic State. “Black Flags” was listed as one of the best...
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Explorer #17: Climate Change, Repercussions, and Solutions - W/ Dr. Tapio Schneider
The Accent Podcast
Tapio Schneider is a climate scientist and a professor of environmental science and engineering at the California Institute of Technology. His research is focused on understanding how the turbulent dynamics of the atmosphere, from clouds to large-scale weather systems, shape Earth's climate. Ultimately, his goal is to develop a set of physical laws that govern climate. SUPPORT THE ACCENT ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theaccentpodcast TIMESTAMPS 01:20 Climate Change or Global Warming? 04:25 Greenhouses and their effects 07:25 The worst-case scenario 12:30 Genesis...
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AccentWealth: Tim Staermose, Founder of African Lions Fund, on Investing in African Markets
The Accent Podcast
Tim Staermose is the founder of the African Lions Fund, which invests in sub-Saharan African “Frontier” economies, excluding South Africa. Tim is also an investment writer, and his website - www.GlobalValueHunter.com - is full of global value investing ideas. SUPPORT THE ACCENT ON PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/theaccentpodcast TIMESTAMPS 01:10 Perception of Africa (Factfulness book) 08:25 Long or Short-term opportunity: Main Thesis 13:25 Asian model will not work in Africa 16:10 Leading Industries 18:35 Valuations in Africa 21:55 Investment...
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Dr. Michael Shermer is the Founding Publisher of Skeptic magazine, the host of the podcast The Michael Shermer Show, a Presidential Fellow at Chapman University, and the author of numerous New York Times bestsellers. Watch this episode with visual aid at www.YouTube.com/theaccentpodcast, and enjoy many more unpublished episodes.
Dr. Shermer's books: Conspiracy: https://amzn.to/43cPsll
Why People Believe Weird Things: https://amzn.to/45bkRX4
The Believing Brain: https://amzn.to/3MquA4c
Support The Accent on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/theaccentpodcast
TIMESTAMPS
01:35 The First Recorded Conspiracy Theory
04:05 Defining Conspiracy Theory and Who Falls for Them
12:40 The Umbrella Man – JFK Conspiracy
15:15 The 9/11 Conspiracy
17:20 Types of Conspiracy Theories (OJ Simpson)
22:25 Where there is smoke, there is fire
26:55 The Deep State
30:35 Changing Mind on Conspiracy Theories and UFOs pictures
35:15 The Skeptic Society
37:25 ChatGPT
39:25 Backward Masking
42:50 How to think like a Scientist
47:40 Social Media’s Role in Conspiracy Theories
49:50 Being Michael Shermer