Friendly Atheist Podcast

Parisa Tabriz is Google's self-described "Security Princess," a euphemism she created in part because "hired hacker" sounds kind of evil. Her job is to figure out the problems with Google Chrome and fix them before the bad guys do. That's a pretty amazing job for anyone, much less a 31-year-old woman, which isn't exactly the norm in the tech world. Last July, Elle magazine ran a long profile on her. (Full disclosure: I knew Parisa in high school and we had classes together, though we haven't talked much since graduating.) We spoke with Parisa about how she gets into the mind of a hacker, how we can get more women into this field, and how ignorance really isn't bliss in her world. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Marshall Brain is best known as the founder of the website HowStuffWorks.com. In 2007, Discovery Communications bought the site for a whopping $250 million. He has appeared on Oprah, National Geographic Channel, and CNN, and written several books. His latest one may be the most controversial one yet. It's called "How 'God' Works: A Logical Inquiry on Faith." We spoke with Marshall about how his book is different from those by the New Atheists, why he's risking his reputation by deconstructing God, and how he'll know if the book is successful. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Max Temkin is one of the creators of Cards Against Humanity, the "party game for horrible people." What began as a game Max played with his friends soon became a successful Kickstarter campaign in 2011, and it has turned into one of the most popular, entertaining, and sometimes controversial card games today. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Rabia Chaudry is an attorney who specializes in immigration law, a National Security Fellow at the New America Foundation, and President of the Safe Nation Collaborative, an organization that, among other things, consults with federal agencies about how to counter violent extremism. She writes at SplitTheMoon.com. But you may know her best because she's the person who brought the story of Adnan Syed to reporter Sarah Koenig, resulting in the Serial podcast phenomenon. Rabia's little brother was Adnan's best friend and their families were also close. (I should point out that we taped this episode the day before the final episode aired.) We spoke with Rabia about what she learned from Serial that she didn't know before, her relationship with Sarah Koenig, and whether she was compelled to respond to the misinformation about Adnan online. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Fred Clark is a progressive evangelical Christian blogger better known as Slacktivist. He's one of those Christians who defies all the stereotypes atheists tend to have of Christians. He's for gay marriage, critical of church leaders, and constantly frustrated with what his "tribe" does in the name of Jesus. We spoke with Fred about why he's still working on the longest-running book review ever, what will happen to the Christian church after gay marriage becomes legal everywhere, and how Christians can change church culture from the inside. Full disclosure: Fred writes for Patheos, the same network on which you can find the Friendly Atheist blog. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Horus Gilgamesh is a pen name for the author of The Awkward Moments Children's Bible. Which is really not for children. It features beautiful illustrations of the most disturbing biblical passages you're ever read. Volume 2 came out recently and I suspect we'll be seeing more volumes in the future because, well, there's so much source material. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Lucien Greaves is the spokesperson for The Satanic Temple. You know his organization because they've been very active recently regarding church/state separation issues. In Oklahoma, where there was a Ten Commandments monument near the Capitol building, Greaves' group requested putting up a statue of Baphomet… leading to all sorts of chaos. They've also tried to put up a Satanic display in the Florida Capitol building. And, my favorite, after a Florida school district allowed an outside group to do a Bible giveaway for students, they requested to distribute a Satanic coloring book… which may lead to an end to outside book distributions for good in that district. We spoke with Lucien about how he doesn't actually believe in Satan, what his group's relationship is like with other Satanic groups, and why they conducted a Pink Mass over the grave of Fred Phelps' mother. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Phil Zuckerman is a professor of sociology and secular studies – yes, secular studies – at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he lives with his wife and three children. He is the author of several books about atheism, including Society Without God and Faith No More: Why People Reject Religion. Next week, he'll be releasing a book called Living the Secular Life. We spoke with Phil about whether the rise of the "Unaffiliated" has hit its peak, why more atheists have come out of the closet over the past decade, and why that demographic shift is good for America. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Jeff Lewis is a board member of the Illinois Christian Home Educators (ICHE). ICHE is a group that promotes faith-based home-schooling and provides a variety of resources to Christian parents who want to do that. He's an attorney who specializes in topics including estate planning and guardianship issues. He and his wife have five children, all of whom have been home-schooled. We asked him to join us to give us an insight into a world we know little about, not to debate him on aspects of homeschooling. Still, the conversation will likely infuriate some listeners (you've been warned). We spoke with Jeff about whether homeschooling should be regulated by the state, why public schools are a problem for some Christians, and what to do about kids who fall through the cracks. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Our guest is a college football player from one of the top Division 1 programs in the country. He's not just a guy on the bench; he himself is one of the top players in the country for his position. At his request, we're maintaining his anonymity because he deserves to be recognized for his talent and not his atheism, and we don't want to ruin that for him. Rest assured, though, we know his real name. We've verified that he is who he says he is. We wanted to talk to him about faith, football, and his future. For the sake of this interview, we're going to call him "Patrick." We spoke with Patrick about how he became an atheist, what it's like being an atheist on a mostly religious team, and what those of us on the outside don't know about college football. (Image via Shutterstock) See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.