Friendly Atheist Podcast

David Diskin is the President of Camp Quest West. Camp Quest is a summer camp for children that embraces science, natural wonder, and humanist values. David has worked with the group since 2010. He has been a long-time activist in California, co-founding the Stockton Area Atheists and Freethinkers and Sunday Assembly Sacramento. He also serves on the boards of California Freethought Day, the Secul...

John de Lancie is an actor best known for his portrayal of Q on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. He's also appeared on Breaking Bad and The West Wing. In September, he filmed a video for the Openly Secular campaign. So what happens when two people who have never watched Star Trek get a chance to interview him on extremely short notice? We talk abo...

Dr. Elizabeth Loftus is a cognitive psychologist who specializes in the malleability of human memory. She has done groundbreaking research into why our memories are not always reliable and how we might create false memories that we fully accept as real. Since earning her Ph. D. in Psychology from Stanford University, Dr. Loftus has published 23 books, more than 500 scientific articles, and is curr...

Dr. Jerry Coyne is a now-retired Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago. He has written over 115 refereed scientific papers; 130 additional articles, book reviews, and columns; and a scholarly book about his field (Speciation, co-authored with H. Allen Orr). He may be most familiar to listeners for his books Why Evolution is True (which spawned his blog o...

Katherine Ozment is the author of "Grace Without God: The Search for Meaning, Purpose, and Belonging in a Secular Age." She has worked for National Geographic and Boston magazine and been published in the New York Times. She lives in Chicago with her husband and three children. For years now, she has been exploring how the ever-growing segment of non-religious parents raise their children. They're...

Julia Sweeney may be best known for her years on Saturday Night Live, where she famously played the androgynous character Pat. But she has since written multiple one-woman shows and books which speak to her experiences as a cancer survivor (God Said, Ha!), atheist (Letting Go of God), and mother (If It's Not One Thing, It's Your Mother). Speaking of which, if you haven't heard Letting Go of God ye...

Dr. Elizabeth Drescher is a professor of Religious Studies at Santa Clara University and the author, most recently, of Choosing Our Religion: The Spiritual Lives of America's Nones. We spoke with her about what atheist "spirituality" really means, the problem with the language we use to talk about faith, and how religion is no longer being passed down generation after generation. See Privacy Polic...

At the American Humanist Association conference in Chicago recently, we had a chance to speak with a number of incredible people and we'll be posting those interviews over the next few weeks. Today, we're posting our conversation with Margaret Downey, a life-long atheist activist and a member of the Reason Rally Coalition Board of Directors. She is also founder and President of the Freethought Soc...

Chrystine Trooien is an eco-conscious, secular, vegan mother based out of Hawaii. About a year ago, she launched a Kickstarter campaign for a book called Christian Mythology for Kids. It's essentially a book that explains the stories of the Bible as just that: Stories. They don't disparage religion, and they don't pretend any of it is real, either. They read just like Greek mythology -- with beaut...

Dr. Wynne LeGrow spent two years as a physician in the Army, where he was promoted to major, and then nearly three decades in private practice. For most of his career, he practiced internal medicine. In 2010, after he retired, he decided to run for Congress from Virginia's 4th District, which was represented then (and now) by Republican Randy Forbes. Forbes is so conservative, he founded the Congr...

David Smalley, host of the show Dogma Debate, was in my area a few days ago and took some time to chat with me about his new series of children's books, the most effective ways to talk with people who disagree with us, and all things politics (Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and atheist candidates for office). Smalley is a former Christian musician who became an atheist after studying psychology,...

Kelly Carlin is the author of A Carlin Home Companion: Growing Up with George, an autobiography and one-woman show that talks about growing up with her famous father, comedian George Carlin. She's also host of the podcast Waking from the American Dream and a speaker at the upcoming Reason Rally. We spoke with Kelly about what her father was like off the stage, how being the daughter of a world fam...

Jeremy Runnells was raised in the Church of Latter Day Saints as a 6th generation Mormon. He went on his two year mission. He graduated from BYU. He was an Eagle Scout. But in 2012, he began doubting some of his beliefs. He was asked by a Church Educational System (or CES) director to share his concerns. Jeremy did that in what became known as the Letter to a CES Director, or the CES letter. It is...

Dr. Dawn Eden was born into a Jewish family, became an Agnostic during her teenage years, and then found God and became a Catholic in her 30s. Along the way, she was a rock journalist and worked as an editor for the New York Post and Daily News. Since her conversion, she's written several books including The Thrill of the Chaste and Remembering God's Mercy: Redeem the Past and Free Yourself from P...

Monica Miller is Senior Counsel at the American Humanist Association's Appignani Humanist Legal Center. If the AHA is involved in a lawsuit, she's the person doing the legwork, and that involves everything from letters to city councils to amicus briefs for the U.S. Supreme Court. We spoke with her about when anonymity can be used in a case, the surprising number of religious people who complain ab...

Reddit Atheism may be the largest online community in the world for atheists. Whenever you have an anonymous group of that size, bad things may happen. And the site certainly has a reputation for low-brow memes, smugness, anger, and a disdain for the religious. But they've also used their power for good, raising money for groups like Doctors Without Borders. We spoke with two of the moderators of...

Teresa MacBain is a former Methodist pastor and the first female member of the Clergy Project to publicly "come out" as a nonbeliever. She did that at the 2012 American Atheists convention. She's now the director of the Hotline Project, which offers callers who are grappling with their faith a chance to talk (anonymously) with an atheist about any questions or concerns. Their number is 1-84-I-Doub...

We're talking about the presidential race and how religion plays a role in it. We discuss our primary votes, which Republican candidate would be the worst case scenario for atheists, and the openly atheist candidates running for state and federal office. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

We're celebrating our 100th episode with the conversation we never get to have because we're always talking to other people. Our goals for the near future are having more in-person interviews, talking to big-name guests, and making sure we're always asking the questions you want answered. Thank you for sticking with us and we hope you continue listening! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/pri...

Anthony Magnabosco is best known as a Street Epistemologist. He's like a preacher you might run across on your college campus, except he's not trying to convert you. He just wants to ask you questions about religion and get you to think. He posts videos of these interactions on YouTube and they're fascinating to watch, in part because he deconstructs what went right and wrong each time. We spoke w...

Phil Torres is a philosopher and author who writes extensively about the intersection of religion and technology. He's a regular contributor at the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies. His latest book is called The End: What Science and Religion Tell Us About the Apocalypse. We spoke with him about why super-intelligence could come back to haunt us, how religious thinking mixed with wea...

Kate Shellnutt is an associate editor at Christianity Today magazine. She helps run their social media accounts and she also edits their popular site for women, cleverly called Her.meneutics. Before this, she worked as a web producer for the Houston Chronicle's religion site. She's a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, where she earned her masters in reporting and on...

Stephen Prothero is a professor in the department of religion at Boston University and the author of several books, including Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know -- and Doesn't. You may have seen him on his appearances on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report. His latest book is called Why Liberals Win the Culture Wars (Even When They Lose Elections). We spoke with him about why c...

Jeffrey Tayler is an author of several books all about different parts of the world, but you may know him best for his wonderful articles defending atheism and atheists, and criticizing the Religious Right on Salon.com . He's also the Russia correspondent for the Atlantic. His latest book is called "Topless Jihadis: Inside Femen, the World's Most Provocative Activist Group." I spoke with Jeffrey a...

Lyz Liddell is the Executive Director of the Reason Rally Coalition. Before that, she worked with the Secular Student Alliance and played a large role in the Openly Secular campaign, which got celebrities like Bill Maher, Arian Foster, and Barney Frank to talk about how they're not religious and encouraged others to join them. I spoke with Lyz about the newest slate of speakers at the Rally, how s...