Finally…The Truth with Michael Shermer

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**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:45)
So Gary, are you objectively true?

**Gary O'Reilly** (0:47)
Maybe. But then again, there's your truth, my truth and Chuck's truth.

**Chuck Nice** (0:52)
And I know for a fact that mine's a lie.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (0:54)
Oh, coming up, StarTalk Special Edition. All about truth, is it still there? Coming up. Welcome to StarTalk, your place in the universe where science and pop culture collide. StarTalk begins right now.
This is StarTalk Special Edition, which means we got Gary O'Reilly right here next to me.

**Gary O'Reilly** (1:22)
Hi, Neil.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:23)
Gary.

**Gary O'Reilly** (1:23)
Yes.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:24)
I love having you.

**Gary O'Reilly** (1:26)
No, I love being here.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:27)
Yeah. Chuck, how you doing, man?

**Chuck Nice** (1:28)
Oh, doing great.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (1:29)
So, you cooked up an episode, you and your producers cooked up an episode today that, oh my gosh, this is an eternal subject, and take us in.

**Gary O'Reilly** (1:40)
The truth.
Is it out there? Yes. So apparently, it's trust, but do you trust the teller of the truth?

**Chuck Nice** (1:50)
Everyone trusts me. I'm the most truthy person that you'll ever meet. I make up the truth, I'm so good at it.

**Gary O'Reilly** (2:00)
Is it noise? Is it biased?
Is it fake news? Are they alternative facts? But then stop and think for a second and ask, do we actually examine the truth differently for, say, science, or then for history or politics, even religion? How about UAPs and aliens? Yeah, might talk about them as well. What if there was a toolbox of sorts that could help you build a skill set that could get you closer to what you might call the true, true?

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:33)
Instead of the fake truth, the true truths.

**Gary O'Reilly** (2:35)
There we go. So, Neil, I think let's bring in our guest.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:38)
All right. Well, I am delighted and honored to bring in someone who I can claim as a friend for decades.
It is the one and only Michael Shermer. Michael, welcome back to StarTalk.

**Gary O'Reilly** (2:49)
Nice to see you all.

**Michael Shermer** (2:50)
Will we not go back to a previous life?

**SPEAKER_3** (2:51)
Oh, maybe, maybe.

**SPEAKER_9** (2:53)
That's a different episode.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (2:55)
And welcome to my office here at the Hayden Planetarium. And you're author of a dozen books, each one trying to get people to think straight in a different way.
You are a founder of the Skeptic Society, is that correct? And there's a magazine called The Skeptic, sensibly titled.

**Gary O'Reilly** (3:14)
That was a focus group.

**Chuck Nice** (3:17)
I like to call it, fake news.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:21)
So, and you are also a host of, I encourage him.
You're also a host of the Michael Shermer Show, it's your own podcast. And how did you come up with that name for it?

**Michael Shermer** (3:32)
It was original, huh?

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:36)
No, we're good. And your latest book, oh my gosh, because this could have almost written itself in the time and the place that this needs to appear.
It's just called Truth.

**Chuck Nice** (3:47)
That is an ambitious title, I gotta say.

**Michael Shermer** (3:50)
No, no, no, here's the problem.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:52)
The real problem is that this book is even necessary.

**Chuck Nice** (3:55)
Well.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (3:56)
Who would have thought?

**Chuck Nice** (3:58)
You know, yeah, I mean, in this day and age, it's far more necessary, though.

**Neil deGrasse Tyson** (4:03)
That's what I'm saying. I'm just saying, I'm sad that you had to write this book.

**Michael Shermer** (4:07)
Well, thank you, yes. Well, that's the problem. So I start with the idea that there is no truth when we're living in a post-truth world, which the moment somebody opens their mouth and says that, it can't be true because they're making an argument, which is searching for truth. Wow!