Friendly Atheist Podcast

Elizabeth Cavell graduated from Tulane University Law School in 2009 and worked for a while as a deputy public defender in southern Colorado. She currently works as a staff attorney with the Freedom From Religion Foundation. We spoke with Liz about which kind of complaints are the most numerous at FFRF, how persecution has become a way to protect privilege, and whether she ever speaks with her cultural counterparts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Monica Snyder is a representative from the group Secular Pro-Life, a group that seeks to unite pro-lifers, regardless of their religious beliefs or lack thereof. She has worked with the group since its inception in 2009. We spoke with Monica about where she fits in among both the pro-life and secular worlds, how she was rejected from volunteering at a crisis pregnancy center because of her beliefs, and why merely focusing on contraception access may not be a viable strategy. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Juhem Navarro-Rivera is a research associate at the Public Religion Research Institute. PRRI publishes some of the most important and credible surveys when it comes to tracking religious demographics in the United States. Before joining PRRI, Juhem was a research fellow at the Institute for the Study of Secularism in Society and Culture at Trinity College, where he served as the lead analyst for many studies, including the landmark American Religious Identification Survey. He also taught political science and Latino Studies at the Puerto Rican and Latino Studies Institute at the University of Connecticut. We spoke with him about how PRRI collects its data, whether the results themselves can draw criticism, and how to grow the diversity within the atheist movement. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jessica spoke with Vandy Beth Glenn, Beth Ann Erickson, and Rebecca Bradley from the Skeptic Ink network about blogging in the skeptic/atheist community and their favorite posts. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Conor Robinson graduated from Yale University, where he launched the Yale Humanist Society. He is a Teach for American alumnus. And last year, he began and took part in the Pathfinders Project, a year-long international service project for Humanists. Consider it a Mission Trip minus the religion. He visited Cambodia, Uganda, Ghana, and Haiti, among other places. (Full disclosure, I'm on the board of Foundation Beyond Belief, which helped sponsor this project.) We spoke with Conor about living with a group of strangers for a year, how he had to change his diet while living overseas, and how his life has changed since returning home. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jessica spoke with Skeptics Guide to the Universe host and neuroscientist Steven Novella and magician Jon Armstrong about skepticism and the brain, our faulty memories, and how the placebo effect is not what you may think. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dan Arel has written articles about religion, science, and politics for websites like Salon, AlterNet, and the Huffington Post. His first book, called Parenting Without God, was released in August. We spoke with Dan about how his religious teacher used to fast-forward through science videos, what it was like growing up in a Pentecostal Christian home, and why it's important to discuss parenting without religion. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jessica sat down with TAM emcee George Hrab and Psychology Professor Sheldon Helms to talk about their reflections on the conference and the importance of communication in the science community. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Pam Mueller may be best known as a frequent contestant on Jeopardy! where she has won more than $180,000 during her many, many episodes, including her run to become champion of the 2000 College Tournament. She also worked on Howard Dean's 2004 presidential campaign, graduated from Harvard Law School, and is now a grad student in Psychology at Princeton University. We spoke with Pam about her research into notetaking, the end of Howard Dean's campaign, and the oddest place she's been recognized. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dave Silverman is the President of American Atheists, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, and the inspiration for a popular meme. Paul Provenza is a stand-up comedian, director of The Aristocrats, and author of Satiristas! Kira Soltanovich is a stand-up comedian who has appeared on the Oxygen Network's "Girls Behaving Badly." Mike McShane is an actor and comedian who appeared on the British version of "Whose Line Is It Anyway?" Jessica spoke with them about attending Catholic schools and what it means to be an atheist. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Myq Kaplan is a comedian who has appeared on Last Comic Standing and every late night talk show you can think of. He's known for his brilliant wordplay as well as his self-deprecating humor. His albums "Vegan Mind Meld" and "Meat Robot" are absolutely hilarious, but his latest show "Small, Dork and Handsome" is, in my opinion, his best one yet. It's on Netflix right now and you're gonna want to watch it… after we're done with this interview. We spoke with Myq about why most comedians seem to be non-religious, whether his jokes are ever truly finished, and what he learned from Louis C.K. (Myq's photo taken by Mindy Tucker) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Daniel Dennett is a philosopher/professor at Tufts University and the author of Breaking the Spell. Jessica spoke with him about the term "atheist" and its alternatives, his project "Caught in the Pulpit" about preachers who no longer believe what they preach, and the culture of Americans who prefer to stay put instead of travel abroad. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein are the producers and directors of An Honest Liar, a documentary about James "The Amazing" Randi. Jessica spoke with them about the movie, the archival footage they found, and Randi "victims" psychic Uri Geller and televangelist Peter Popoff. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

James Randi is the legendary investigator of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims and the namesake of the James Randi Educational Foundation. Banachek is the mentalist who created the "bullet catch" trick made famous by Penn & Teller and the director of JREF's One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge. Jessica spoke with them about the difficulties of testing so-called supernatural powers, performing mentalism and fooling people, and what they still love about watching magic shows. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Billy Hallowell is the faith editor for TheBlaze.com, perhaps better known as Glenn Beck's website. He has also written pieces for The Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, and several other websites, and he is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel. His interest in politics and social issues goes far back, though. He used to be the CEO of VoterWatch, a non-partisan nonprofit focusing on government transparency, and even began a website in high school encouraging students to make a difference in their communities. We spoke with Billy about what he's learned from working under Glenn Beck, what conservatives do poorly, and how we share a surprising bond involving actor Nicolas Cage. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dale is the author of a number of excellent books about atheism. His books Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers are all about bringing up children without religion. He's the author of Atheism for Dummies, a book that surprisingly didn't exist until 2013. He began Foundation Beyond Belief to encourage atheists to give to charity. He's the manager of the Atheist Channel on Patheos.com (full disclosure: that's where I blog). And his latest book, In Faith and In Doubt, is all about relationships between atheists and believers. We spoke with Dale about how to make mixed-faith marriages work, the biggest surprise he uncovered during his search, and the importance of a hand squeeze between loved ones. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Joe Jervis is the prolific blogger at Joe. My. God. (joemygod.com), quite possibly the most popular personal blog about LGBT issues in the world. He's been writing on the site for more than 10 years – a lifetime in the Internet world. His site has received multiple awards from groups like GLAAD, CBS News and The Village Voice. We spoke with Joe about how he manages to cover seemingly *everything* in the LGBT world, his unique vacation habits, and the biggest problems in his community. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Peter Montgomery is a senior fellow at People for the American Way, where he also contributes to their brilliant Right Wing Watch blog. We spoke with Peter about how the team at Right Wing Watch maintain their sanity while watching The 700 Club, who the most influential Christian Right leader is, and what Rick Santorum's new movie (yep) is like. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Seth Andrews was not just a Christian for more than 30 years, he was a religious broadcaster and professional video producer as well. Since becoming an atheist, he has put those talents to use on The Thinking Atheist YouTube channel (if you haven't seen his videos, they're just inspiring and beautiful). His podcast of the same name is currently the most popular show on Blog Talk Radio. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Sarah Pulliam Bailey is a national correspondent for Religion News Service. Before that she served as online editor of Christianity Today, where she interviewed people like Barack Obama in the midst of his 2008 campaign, Mike Huckabee, Malcolm Gladwell, Condoleezza Rice, and Tim Tebow. She's also a former contributor to the excellent Get Religion blog on Patheos, a site that critiques stories about religion in the media. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Amy Dickinson is the syndicated columnist behind "Ask Amy," which is in over 150 newspapers nationwide. You can also hear her on NPR's "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" where she is a regular panelist. She has written for Time, Esquire, and O magazines and is the author of the bestselling memoir The Mighty Queens of Freeville. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Stephanie Drury is the hilarious mind behind Stuff Christian Culture Likes (@StuffCCLikes on Twitter). We spoke with Stephanie about why Christian culture can be cringe-worthy, why Christian men often feel the need to talk about how hot their wives are, Pastor Mark Driscoll, and the healing abilities of letting all that frustration out online. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dave Silverman is the President of American Atheists, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, and the inspiration for a popular meme. In a very spirited conversation, we spoke with Dave about Mormons who secretly attended his convention, where to draw the line in criticizing religious beliefs, and whether the leader of an atheist group can really be married to a religious spouse. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Dr. Karen Stollznow is a linguist with a background in history and anthropology. She is also the author of God Bless America, Haunting America, and her newest books Language Myths, Mysteries and Magic and Not What The Dr. Ordered. She has contributed to several publications including Psychology Today and Skeptic, and she is a research fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation. We spoke with Karen about "foreign accent syndrome," speaking in tongues, and her exploration of different kinds of believers (from Quakers to Satanists). See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You know Zach Weinersmith from his brilliant and hilarious webcomic Saturday Morning Breakfast Cereal. In our debut episode, we talk to Zach about where he draws his inspiration from, why there's so much interest in his Kickstarter projects, and why on earth he learns math for fun. You can check out Zach's latest book, Augie and the Green Knight: A Children's Adventure Book, right here. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.