Ye Gods With Scott Carter

We’ll look at two American stories: The Christian Right and Muslim-American Immigrants. We’ll hear from former Senior Director at the Obama White House and Senior Advisor at the State Department, Nayyera Haq. The daughter of Pakistani Muslim parents, she describes how her 1980’s childhood on Staten Island led to her working to elect Barack Obama. But first: CBS News national correspondent for Sund...

Jonathan Alter: author, columnist, pundit, podcaster, filmmaker and lecturer. Jon executive-produced Amazon Prime’s 2013 satirical series ALPHA HOUSE, created by Pulitzer-Prize-winning Doonesbury cartoonist Gary Trudeau, and starred John Goodman. We discuss how religion influenced the founding fathers and why the “separation of church and state” is a controversial American idea, which doesn’t appe...

Scott talks with actor, activist, 4-time Grammy-winning rapper, and half of hip-hop supergroup, Run The Jewels, Killer Mike. In the episode, Mike talks about his admiration for - and friendship with - Civil Rights icon and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, growing up in the all-Black neighborhood of Atlanta’s Collier Heights, and his musical evolution. Learn more about spo...

Actress and comedian Susie Essman, who played Susie Green on CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, is poised to reteam with Larry David and an all star cast, including past YE GODS! guest Larry Wilmore, for HBO’s LIFE, LARRY AND THE PURSUIT OF UNHAPPINESS. Susie's 2009 memoir is "WHAT WOULD SUSIE SAY?: BS WISDOM ABOUT LOVE, LIFE AND COMEDY". She and bff Joy Behar appeared on stage together last year in Joy’s off-...

Danielle Crittenden is a journalist and author. Her new book is DISPATCHES FROM GRIEF: A MOTHER’S JOURNEY THROUGH THE UNTHINKABLE. Danielle’s Atlantic article "ON LOSING A DAUGHTER" and husband David Frum’s article "MIRANDA’S LAST GIFT", also for Atlantic, explore their sudden loss of their daughter Miranda at 32, the time they had with her, and how they both processed that loss.  Danielle also re...

Stephen Mitchell is an author, editor, and translator of classic and spiritual literature. His 1988 translation into English of the TAO TE CHING by Lao Tzu, and its accompanying audio book have been indispensable guides to millions of seekers.  We discuss how spiritual texts come to be written, the history of the translating and compiling of the Christian gospels, and why Stephen was compelled to...

Kevin Nealon is an Emmy-nominated writer and cast member on SNL, and host of Hiking with Kevin in addition to his many other TV and film appearances and his comedy specials, most recently, Loose in the Crotch . His new film Mermaid , starring opposite Robert Patrick and Johnny Pemberton, debuted in limited release on April 8th and will go wide on May 26th He also plays the banjo and has published...

Larry Wilmore has one of the most impressive resumes in TV from IN LIVING COLOR to the BERNIE MAC SHOW, THE DAILY SHOW to BLACKISH and INSECURE. His acclaimed podcast for The Ringer LARRY WILMORE: BLACK ON THE AIR, just wrapped up in December of 2025 after 289 episodes.  Larry will appear in Larry David’s new HBO mini series LIFE, LARRY AND THE PURSUIT OF UNHAPPINESS: AN ALMOST HISTORY OF AMERICA...

Rabbi Steve Leder - named by Newsweek Magazine twice as one of the ten most influential rabbis in America and over his 37 year tenure at Los Angeles’ oldest synagogue, Wilshire Boulevard Temple - has ushered thousands of families through life’s most joyous and heartbreaking moments. He's been a contributor to THE TODAY SHOW, CBS SUNDAY MORNING, CNN, and NPR. Steve’s Most recent book, New York Time...

Sharon Lawrence is a 6-time Emmy nominated actress – including three for her portrayal of Assistant D.A. Sylvia Costas on Steven Bochco and David Milch’s ground-breaking NYPD BLUE, for which she won the SAG AWARD for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. She was also nominated for her work on GREY’S ANATOMY. Sharon has appeared in hundreds of TV episodes and films, and starred...

Michael Patrick King is an Emmy-winning producer, writer, director, and prime mover behind the global cultural phenomena that is SEX IN THE CITY. He's also creator of the long-running sit-com TWO BROKE GIRLS on CBS and THE COMEBACK, starring Lisa Kudrow, now on HBO Michael talks about which vestiges of growing up Catholic have stayed with him. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoic...

Comedian, actor, and author John Hodgman is the host of the popular JUDGE JOHN HODGMAN podcast, and New York Times Magazine column. His 2017 memoir VACATION LAND: TRUE STORIES FROM PAINFUL BEACHES, chronicles the mishaps and triumphs of John’s quest to make sense of life. John’s childhood as a self-identifying outsider helped him create the knee-slappingly funny FX animated series DICKTOWN, The se...

Author and actress Annabelle Gurwitch tells tales of the “Itinerant, scam artists, and hucksters”, who hang from the branches of her family tree in her 2017 memoir WHEREVER YOU GO, THERE THEY ARE: STORIES ABOUT MY FAMILY YOU MIGHT RELATE TO. Most kids see their lives as normal and, only later, realize how absurd their homelife was. Her new memoir is THE END OF MY LIFE IS KILLING ME: THE UNEXPECTED...

Father Jim Martin is host of the America Media podcast, THE SPIRITUAL LIFE, honorary Chaplain of the Colbert Nation, and author of WORK IN PROGRESS: CONFESSIONS OF A BUSBOY, DISHWASHER, CADDY, USHER, FACTORY WORKER, BANK TELLER, CORPORATE TOOL, AND PRIEST. He talks about departing a career at General Electric and becoming a Jesuit priest, and why compassion is central to his reason d'etre. Learn m...

Phil Rosenthal is creator of Emmy-winning sit-com, EVERYBODY LOVES RAYMOND and star of the Netflix series SOMEBODY FEED PHIL. His new, old-timey diner, Max and Helen’s, opened November 18, 2025 to rave reviews and an 8 hour opening weekend line, the longest in LA history, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Miriam Udel is Director of Jewish studies and a professor at Emory University. The focus of her work can be summed up in the title of her new book, MODERN JEWISH WORLD-MAKING THROUGH YIDDISH CHILDREN’S LITERATURE, which tells how stories can help kids understand tough moral topics, like injustice, inequality and racism. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Father Greg Boyle, author of such bestselling books as TATTOOS ON THE HEART and CHERISHED BELONGING, explains how Homeboy Industries, which he founded in downtown Los Angeles in 1998, has become the world’s largest gang intervention, re-entry and recovery program. Greg has been finding, as he says, “the thorn underneath” gang violence since 1988. His work has helped thousands of formerly incarcera...

Choreographer Jacob Jonas, whose memoir CEMENTED BEAUTY is the intimate documentation of his 2-year battle with stage 4 cancer, told in stark, intimate, black-and-white photos and brutally honest and vulnerable journal entries, dictated to Jacob’s partner, Jill Wilson, who also provides an Afterword. Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist and culture critic. Her writing has appeared in Time Magazi...

George Saunders, often hailed as America’s greatest living short story writer, who's collections include THE TENTH OF DECEMBER and LIBERATION DAY. George discusses his new novel, VIGIL, as well as being raised Catholic in Chicago, growing away from the church and, joining his wife Paula to become a meditator, then an Episcopalian and, currently, practitioners of Buddhism. Learn more about sponsor...

Lee Hawkins is a journalist, musician, and author of I Am Nobody's Slave: How Uncovering My Family's History Set Me Free - which has been nominated for the NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in the nonfiction category.  A few weeks after sending his book to his publisher, Lee was contacted by the FBI. His DNA indicated that he was a distant cousin to a murdered unidentified woman. Dis...

Comedian and host of the podcast “You Made it Weird” Pete Holmes. Pete starred in the Judd Apatow-produced, HBO dramedy CRASHING, which ran from 2017 to 2019. We discuss his memoir COMEDY SEX GOD, his search for spiritual meaning, and what his religious upbringing means to him now Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Tim Gunn, who after many years as a fashion educator at Parsons School for Design was introduced to American televisions as the stern but encouraging mentor to designers on the reality competition show Project Runway. In 2020, he and Runway host Heidi Klum created a new fashion competition show for Amazon called MAKING THE CUT which ran for 3 seasons. Project Runway has since returned screens sans...

Hospitality entrepreneur, author, speaker, and host of the Midlife Chrysalis Podcast, Chip Conley. He discusses his time mentoring the founders of Air BnB, why he believes midlife is a great time to develop new skills, and how his Modern Elder Academy teaches people to find purpose, especially in a world of rapid technological change. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/ad...

A quick look ahead at some of the guest coming up at the beginning of 2026, including Tim Gunn, Chip Conley, Ana Marie Cox, and Larry Wilmore. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

David Melville, Managing Director and lead actor of Los Angeles’ Independent Shakespeare Company, is celebrating 20 years of portraying Charles Dickens reading A CHRISTMAS CAROL Stephen Turner reads an original, true, and heartfelt story about a chance encounter that led to an unlikely - and life-changing - friendship in his story, “You Blessed Me, I’ll Bless You.” A perfect holiday offering. Lear...