Friendly Atheist Podcast

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: -- The rise of the Religious Left. -- Ken Ham is now blaming atheists for the failures of Ark Encounter and the local economy. -- Tim Farron, the Liberal Democrat leader in the UK who resigned saying he couldn't reconcile his Party's platform with his evangelical faith. -- The V...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. But because the audio crashed after we recorded (oh, computers...), I recorded this brief episode to bring up two important events from the week. They included: -- Sen. Bernie Sanders' misguided questioning of an evangelical nominee to a major government position. -- A New York high school tha...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: -- Donald Trump's irresponsible decision to back out of the Paris climate agreement, and the conservatives who don't care because of Jesus. -- Trump's decision to allow religious employers, then all employers, to block birth control coverage for their employees. -- The evangelic...

If you've followed the articles, movies, and TV shows about the Church of Scientology recently, you're probably familiar with the name David Miscavige, the man who runs the Church. His father is Ron Miscavige, and he joined the church in 1970. David was 10 at the time. It wasn't until 2012 that Ron escaped. Since then, he's worked hard to undo some of the damage caused by the Church, including the...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: -- The high school student punished by her Christian school for not having an abortion. -- How Ark Encounter has been bad for the local economy in Kentucky. -- The Manchester mayor calling the suicide bomber a terrorist who isn't a Muslim. -- Greg Gianforte, the violent Creation...

Maggie Rowe grew up as an evangelical Christian in the suburbs of Chicago. And for reasons we'll get into, when she was 19, she landed in a Christian mental health center where she spent three months. While parts of that experience were disturbing, some of it actually helped her eventually walk away from Christianity. She's now a comedy writer who has worked on the show Arrested Development and cu...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: - The resignation of the atheist State Rep. from New Hampshire who created Reddit's "Red Pill" forum. - The Virginia atheist who painted an "offensive" Bible verse on his truck. - Why you should be skeptical anytime you hear about an African pastor who drowns while trying to wal...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: - Comedian Stephen Fry's blasphemy ordeal and what it says about blasphemy laws. - The Missouri Republican who thinks there's a difference between being gay and just being human. - Whether circumcision should be banned? - If banning a method for animal slaughter is religious dis...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: - What was the point of the Johnson Amendment executive order? (And why did Trump lie about the military ban on Bibles?) - What was Trump's reaction after the Access Hollywood tape? - Why did Franklin Graham blame Kate Middleton for an invasion of her privacy? - Is it okay to sa...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics. They included: - The atheist politician who created a "men's rights" subreddit - Is the star of The Handmaid's Tale avoiding the word "feminist" because she's a Scientologist? - Did a Christian homeless shelter actually make a wise strategic decision when it rejected money from a gay chorus to...

- Why did Arizona Republicans oppose an atheist invocation delivered by State Rep. Athena Salman? - Is it ethical to tell a dying man that Donald Trump was impeached? - Would you vote for a Democrat who once ran a psychic network? - When your child narrowly averts tragedy, is it reasonable for religious parents to thank God? - Is Christianity a religion or something else? We discuss all these stor...

- Should you protest a Chick-fil-A on campus? - What effect will Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch have on a major church/state separation case? - Should a church be allowed to have a police force? - Why isn't the media talking about how the San Bernardino shooter was an outspoken Christian? - What do you have to believe in to be a True Christian? - Why do we still have blue laws? - Do atheists n...

Susan Gerbic is a photographer and skeptical activist from California. She contributes to the Skepticality podcast and Skeptical Inquirer magazine. In addition to co-founding the Monterey County Skeptics, she leads a group called Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia. We've spoken before about her group, but we spoke this time about how to spread our ideas beyond our bubble, how to support other athei...

Why does Vice President Mike Pence have to eat alone? Why can't ultra-Orthodox Jews handle looking at a picture of Smurfette? Who fears death more: Atheists or the devoutly religious? We discuss all these stories and more in this episode. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Anne Bouleanu is a freelance journalist from Chicago. She has worked in digital media and television covering a range of topics including U.S. politics, women's rights, conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, political tensions in South America, and police brutality and race relations in the United States. She covered the primaries during the 2016 U.S. presidential race, focusing on policy...

Bart Campolo is the Humanist Chaplain at the Univ. of Southern California, the host of a fantastic podcast called "Humanize Me," and the author of a new book written with his evangelical father Tony Campolo called Why I Left, Why I Stayed. Bart, if you haven't figured it out already, is the one who left Christianity. The book is all about that conflict, and their love for each other, and how they...

In Louis Theroux's new film, My Scientology Movie, the Church of Scientology doesn't give him access to the key leaders or buildings themselves... That sounds like quite the obstacle for a documentarian, so Theroux does the next best thing: He hires actors to recreate well-documented scenes in Scientology's history. All the while, the actual Church seems to be keeping tabs on him. Theroux has work...

Richard Hatch is the winner of the first season of Survivor, where he basically created the whole concept of an alliance. He also competed on the 8th season of the show (Survivor: All-Stars) in 2004. In 2011, he was on Celebrity Apprentice, and last year, he appeared on The Biggest Loser: Temptation Nation. Along the way, he spent time in jail over unpaid taxes, though he maintains his innocence i...

Jessica and I sat down to talk about some of the biggest stories from the week involving religious and politics. They included: - A Danish man charged with blasphemy. - Death threats to a mother who fought to take down a Ten Commandments monument outside her daughter's public school. - The Broken Windows Theory of Church/State Separation - How Christians still feel persecuted despite having all th...

Alex J. O'Connor is a YouTuber who makes videos on the Cosmic Skeptic channel. He also runs a blog of the same name. I've really enjoyed his work in the few months since he began posting content and this was my first opportunity to talk to him. We spoke about advice he would offer aspiring YouTubers, why anyone interested in becoming the next Richard Dawkins should start now, and whether there's a...

Dr. Daniel Dennett is a philosopher, professor at Tufts University, and author of several books including Breaking the Spell and Darwin's Dangerous Idea. His research also led to the formation of The Clergy Project, an online forum for closeted religious leaders who no longer believe in God. His latest book is called From Bacteria to Bach and Back, and it's all about how our minds evolved. I spoke...

Jack Moline is President of Interfaith Alliance. In his long career, he's become a powerful voice fighting for religious freedom for all Americans, regardless of their faith or belief system. As a rabbi, he has worked to create common ground between people of diverse religious and secular backgrounds. He's advocated for a number of issues, including services for this disabled, affordable housing,...

In our latest podcast, Jessica and I discussed the first week of the Donald Trump presidency. We spoke about the Women's March (and whether they were right to push aside anti-abortion groups), whether religious pandering still matters in politics, and what Trump did in his first week in office. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/priva...

Maggie Garrett is the Legislative Director for Americans United for Separation of Church and State. She leads the National Coalition for Public Education (NCPE), which opposes school voucher legislation, and is the chair of the Coalition Against Religious Discrimination (CARD), the national coalition fighting to repeal the Bush Faith-Based Initiative. On the day of Donald Trump's inauguration, we...

Rebecca Hensler is the founder of Grief Beyond Belief, a Facebook group devoted to faith-free grief support for those who have just lost a loved one. We spoke about how honesty about death can be comforting for atheists, what she would say to religious people who want to help atheists grieve but say the wrong things, and her go-to resources for secular people coping with loss. See Privacy Policy a...