Ye Gods With Scott Carter

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...

Neuroscientist and host of the guided meditation app Waking Up Sam Harris returns to discuss tech’s effect on our psyches. And how the loss of “liminal” spaces may alter us as a culture. Since 2013, Harris has hosted the Making Sense podcast, which produced his 2020 book, Making Sense: Conversations on Consciousness, Morality, and the Future of Humanity . Sam’s 2014 book Waking Up: A Guide to Spir...

John Fuglesang is a comedian, actor, Sirius XM host, and author of Separation of Church and Hate: A Sane Person's Guide to Taking Back the Bible from Fundamentalists, Fascists, and Flock-Fleecing Frauds. In 2012, John performed in the Coexist Comedy tour. In 2015, he hosted the PBS documentary Dream On about the many faces of the American Dream, and he’s the longtime host of Sirius XM’s interview...

Susie Essman is best known as the foul-mouthed Susie Greene on HBO’s CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM. For 12 seasons her character berated her show biz manager husband, played by Jeff Garlin, and his client, played by Larry David, in expletive-laden tirades that remain masterclasses in verbally-castrating vulgarity. Actor Armin Shimerman is best known as the iconic Ferengi alien Quark on STAR TREK: DEEP SPAC...

David French is a New York Times columnist, who has called himself a “Reagan conservative,” a “pro-life classical liberal”, and an independent. In 2020, David published Divided We Fall: America's Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation . For The Times , David often writes about “friendship, marriage, parenting” and “the evangelical church".  In 2024, the fundamentalist wing of the Presbyter...

Scott talks with legendary documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, whose sweeping storytelling has turned history into something deeply human. From "The Civil War" to "Baseball", "Jazz", and "The U.S. and the Holocaust", his work has shaped how we see not just what happened, but who we are.  Raised in a family that valued both curiosity and conscience, Ken describes himself as a spiritual deist. He belie...

Scott talks with author Valarie Kaur, about her book "See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love", her activism, and some historical perspective on the Sikh faith. Valarie’s activism was sparked after the murder of a Sikh family friend in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. She began to document hate crimes against Sikh and Muslim Americans, out of which came her award-w...

Sam Harris is a  neuroscientist, philosopher, and bestselling author, who offers guided meditations on his Waking Up app, and a virtual Aristotle's Academy of Conversations and courses from Great Thinkers and Teachers. His book is Subtitled, A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion, and it is a map of the continents of spiritual practices it explores a no man's land between science and religion. H...

Scott Talks with actor, podcaster and voice-over artist Paul F. Tompkins. Paul has also acted on TV shows such as Bojack Horseman, Frasier, Weeds, The Sarah Silverman Program, Community and Curb Your Enthusiasm and in films, including Anchorman, Talladega Nights, and There Will Be Blood. Besides hosting the podcasts Threedom , Stay F. Homekins , and The Neighborhood Listen , Paul regularly guests...

Scott talks with Bret Stephens, New York Times opinion columnist and founder and editor-in-chief of SAPIR, a quarterly that covers issues of Jewish concern.  Starting in 2014, Brett co-authored, with fellow New York Times columnist Gail Collins, The Conversation, an edited transcript of a witty and substantive dialogue between two civilized colleagues from opposite ends of the political spectrum:...

Scott talks with Moon Unit Zappa, daughter of visionary musician Frank Zappa. Moon was just 26 when, in 1993 her father, then aged 52, died of prostate cancer. Two years later, Frank was posthumously inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame by the Velvet Underground’s Lou Reed. Moon's 2024 memoir Earth to Moon , which is an illuminating, often disillusioning, peak behind the Zappa family cur...

Patricia Heaton, two-time-Emmy winner for Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle , is a cradle Catholic whose sister is a nun. She talks with Scott about her spiritual and personal discovery developed after she her time on those series ended, and how it helped her through addiction. Julia Sweeney is best known for her androgynous alter ego Pat on SNL and her one woman shows God Said Ha! and Lettin...

Scott talks to Columbia Journalism School Dean and New Yorker staff writer Jelani Cobb.  His articles on race, the police and injustice won him the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize for Opinion and Analysis. And in 2018 he was a Pulitzer Prize finalist in for Commentary. Jelani has also received fellowships from the Fullbright and Ford foundations. When he became Journalism Dean in 2022, Jelani had been t...

Rainn Wilson, best known for playing Dwight Schrute on The Office , has leveraged that fame and wealth that came to him in his forties to better himself and, perhaps, the world.  Rainn talks with Scott about his 2023 book SOUL BOOM: WHY WE NEED A SPIRITUAL REVOLUTION, in which Rain makes a case for the radical re-conceiving of humanity.  Rainn also recounts his leaving and return to the Baháʼí fai...

Claire Hoffman is a journalist, author, and a journalism professor at the University of California, Riverside. Her new book, Sister, Sinner: The Miraculous Life and Mysterious Disappearance of Aimee Semple McPherson was hailed by The New Yorker’s Casey Cep as “magnificent,” “gripping”, and “wonderfully thorough, the type of biography in which you learn just the right amount of everything.”  In her...

Renowned American sportscaster, Bob Costas talks about growing up on Long Island, how his introduction to the world of sports was inextricably linked to his father’s addiction to gambling, how his Catholic upbringing shaped his world view, how he pursued his dream of becoming a sports broadcaster, the people he most admired and how he decided to retire from being the best play-by-play baseball ann...

Rabbi Sharon Brouse, named America's most influential Rabbi by Newsweek in 2013, shares her journey from an unaffiliated Jewish upbringing to co-founding the progressive IKAR Temple in Los Angeles. She delves into the profound wisdom of her 2024 bestseller, The Amen Effect: Ancient Wisdom to Heal Our Hearts, emphasizing ancient rituals and their relevance in modern times. The conversation highligh...

  ‘Humble comedy legend’ Martin Short has a distinguished career across five decades of work. But the jewel in the crown of Marty's career is his current mega hit Only Murders in the Building in which he stars and executive produces. It starts its fifth season on Hulu September 9, 2025. If Marty Short has lived a charmed life, it's because he's charming in life and because life charms him. He's a...

A look-ahead at the first season of Ye Gods, where host Scott Carter explores codes of religious, cultural and secular conduct with  his guests, including Martin Short, Bob Costas, Ken Burns, Patricia Heaton, Killer Mike, Sam Harris, Rabbi Sharon Brous, Moon Zappa, Rainn Wilson, Rabbi Steve Leder and Tim Gunn. Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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