Skeptic Magazine founder and New York Times best-selling author Michael Shermer talks about Robert F. Kennedy Jr., climate change, doomer attitudes, the state of the media, and conspiracy theories, in the latest episode of Santa Barbara Talks.

Shermer, a Santa Barbara resident, founded the science-based magazine Skeptic 30 years ago, and has written New York Times bestsellers Why People Believe Weird Things and The Believing Brain, Why Darwin Matters, The Science of Good and Evil, The Moral Arc, Heavens on Earth, Giving the Devil His Due: Reflections of a Scientific Humanist and Conspiracy: Why the Rational Believe the Irrational. 

Shermer discusses Democratic presidential candidate Kennedy, and the candidate’s controversial views on autism and vaccines.

“This guy is pretty sharp. Why is he so wrong on other things, these vaccines, I don’t know,” Shermer said.

Shermer, who has appeared on the Joe Rogan podcast seven times, said that the 2024 presidential election will play out over podcasts because that is where candidates can speak on their issues for hours and not have to conform to soundbites on traditional news shows.

Kennedy has largely been snubbed by mainstream news shows, but has made the rounds on podcasts.

“He’s not doing any talk shows; they won’t have him,” Shermer said. “He’s doing podcasts. This is going to be the media platform for the 2024 election. The 2016 and 2020 was Twitter.”

Podcasts are a game-changer, Shermer said, because candidates can have longer time to appeal to their base. Shermer said even though Kennedy Jr. is wrong about a link between vaccines and autism, the long format allows him to talk on other topics such as climate change and then environment and national and foreign policy.

“I am disappointed, because in other areas he seems like a rational, smart guy” Shermer said.”I don’t know, some people have a thing in their head.”

Still, he said, the podcasts give listeners more content.

“I am a free speech fundamentalist,” Shermer said. “Just let people have their say.”

Toward the beginning of the podcast, Shermer addresses climate change and responds to recent SBT guest Eliot Jacobson, who said that it is too late to save the planet for humans.

“There are no solutions, just tradeoffs,” Shermer said. “You want this, you are going to have to get that. There’s no utopia. It’s just protopia. We make tomorrow slightly better than today. Three steps forward, two steps back. Every problem we find a solution to is going to generate more problems, then you have to find new solutions.”

Joshua Molina is journalist who currently writes for Noozhawk and teaches journalism at Santa Barbara City College and Cal State University, Northridge. He formerly covered City Hall for the San Jose Mercury News. Santa Barbara Talks is an independently owned podcast where Molina looks to bring together voices from all perspectives to discuss and provide solutions to the challenges related to housing, education, transportation and other community issues. Subscribe to his podcast here and consider a contribution here.