Friendly Atheist Podcast

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.