Episode 701: Shiny Happy People Review

Seth Andrews is a broadcaster, storyteller, author, activist, and public speaker best known as host of the popular website, podcast, and online community, The Thinking Atheist.
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Originally the product of Christian fundamentalism, today Seth is an advocate, not for religion, but for people, and while he - as a storyteller - loves the distraction of supernatural fiction (like the annual Halloween "Ghost Stories" broadcast and new audiobook), he ultimately encourages everyone to root their pursuit of the truth in reason and evidence, and to pursue a Personal Relationship With Reality.

Seth lives in Oklahoma with his wife Natalie and his unofficial mascots, Linus and Kat. He enjoys movies, sushi (no tentacles), tennis, referencing "Hitchhiker's Guide," casual gaming, 80s music, piano by ear, and constantly flipping his pillow to the cool side.
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enneth Camargo Jr., Ph.D – Associate Professor at the Institute for Social Medicine at the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ). Dr. Camargo Jr. is associate editor of the American Journal of Public Health and editor of a Brazilian journal of Collective Health (Physis journal). Honorary Vice-president of the Latin American and Caribbean chapter of the American Public Health Association.

Cara Santa Maria is a Los Angeles Area Emmy and Knight Foundation Award winning journalist, science communicator, television personality, author, and podcaster.

Cara is the science correspondent on National Geographic's popular television series Brain Games as well as the creator and host of the weekly science podcast Talk Nerdy with Cara Santa Maria. In addition to co-hosting the long-standing Skeptics' Guide to the Universe podcast, she also coauthored the Skeptics Guide to the Universe book. Cara is the spokesperson for National Geographic’s Almanac 2019 and Almanac 2020, a founding member of the Nerd Brigade, and cofounded the annual science communication retreat #SciCommCamp.

Previously, Cara was a correspondent on National Geographic’s Explorer, Netflix's Bill Nye Saves the World, TechKnow on Al Jazeera America, and Real Future on Fusion. She also cohosted TakePart Live on Pivot TV, America's Greatest Makers on TBS, Brain Surgery Live on National Geographic Channel, and FabLab on Fox. Before that, she was the Senior Science Correspondent for The Huffington Post and costarred in Hacking the Planet and The Truth About Twisters on The Weather Channel.

Prior to her career in media, Cara was the laboratory manager and chief cell culture technician at the Center for Network Neuroscience. She also taught biology and psychology courses at the high school and undergraduate level. Her published research has spanned various topics, including clinical psychological assessment, the neuropsychology of blindness, neuronal cell culture… Read More

Michael Marshall is the project director of the Good Thinking Society and president of the Merseyside Skeptics Society. He is the co-host of the Skeptics with a K podcast, interviews proponents of pseudoscience on the Be Reasonable podcast, has given skeptical talks all around the world, and has lectured at several universities on the role of PR in the media. He became editor of The Skeptic in August 2020.

Host of InKredulous and all around skeptical legend.

Noah Lugeons is the host and producer of The Scathing Atheist, one of the world's most popular atheist podcasts. With his co-hosts Heath Enwright and Eli Bosnick, Noah has performed live recordings at the largest atheist conferences in the US, the UK, and Australia. His shows have also played to sold out audiences from coast to coast in more than a dozen US cities.

Noah has been happily married to his wife, Lucinda, for over 20 years. They live with a clowder of cats in South Georgia, and spend much of their time being asked what church they go to by everyone they meet.

Heath Enwright is a veteran American podcaster. He serves as host of the Puzzle in a Thunderstorm family of podcasts including God Awful Movies, The Scathing Atheist, The Skepticrat, and also Citation Needed. His notable career includes Cooking Ramen with Heath. In addition, he is a Williams College alumnus.

Eli Bosnick is a comedian and podcaster with two shows. God Awful Movies, in which Eli, Heath Enwright and Noah Lugeons team up for a weekly, Mystery Science Theater 3000-like dive into bad religious movies in a misguided attempt to prove that if god existed, his PR couldn’t possibly be this bad.

Eli’s second show, The Scathing Atheist, delves into theistic attempts to intrude on the secular world in an unflinching expose on just how juvenile the whole god thing is.

In his spare time, he does magic tricks.

Thomas Smith has MANY famous podcasts, (Serious Inquiries Only, Opening Arguments, Philosophers in Space just to name all of them) but he's also famous for nothing else.

Jordan is currently a stand-up comedian working out of Chicago. He has no prior experience with Alex Jones' brand of conspiracy theories, but is uniquely qualified to fight it. Jordan's birth was prophesied by the leader of the cult his parents were in (editor's note: this is factually accurate), little did they know his destiny was to fight against cults, not for them.

Dan is a podcaster and comedian who is taking a break from comedy, working out of Chicago.

George Joseph Hrab is a drummer, guitarist, composer and podcaster known for performing rock, funk and jazz and for exploring atheist, skeptic and science themes in his work. He has released six albums as a solo artist. Hrab was born in Belleville, New Jersey and grew up speaking Ukrainian and surrounded by Ukrainian culture. He graduated from Montclair Kimberley Academy in 1989.

MIKE ROTHSCHILD is a journalist, author, and the foremost expert in this ever-changing QAnon conspiracy theory. He is a contributing writer for the Daily Dot, where he explores the intersections between internet culture and politics through the lens of conspiracy theories

Geoffrey Blackwell joined American Atheists in September 2016. As litigation counsel, he responds to reports of possible violations of the separation between religion and government, works with government officials to find mutually acceptable solutions to potential issues, and manages litigation if issues cannot be resolved amicably.

Prior to joining the staff of American Atheists, Geoffrey served as Associate Counsel in a New Jersey civil litigation firm. Since May of 2014, he has hosted All Too Common Law, a news podcast with a legal perspective. Every year, he volunteers as a judge for the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, in which law students from 87 countries compete in a simulation of a fictional dispute between countries before the International Court of Justice. He previously served as a member of the Board of Directors of the New Jersey Humanist Network.

While earning his JD from Rutgers School of Law, he participated in the school’s Human Rights Advocacy and Litigation Clinic, served as the President of the Rutgers-Camden International Law Society, and independently researched religious discrimination in employment. Prior to law school, he received a Bachelor’s degree in political science from Columbia College.

Hey. You ever feel like the only rational, thinking person in the room? You ever get the sense that 99% of the people in your area are complete idiots willing to believe anything they’re told as long as someone says god says so?

Good news! It’s really only about 85%! The other 13% – 16% are actually atheists like you (higher in Canada and Europe)! Smart, thinking people who, at some point or other, realized that the concept of a magic daddy in the sky who grants wishes to good little boys and girls is every bit as stupid as it sounds, and turned to a life of godlessness.

Well, kids, that’s what this site is all about. Celebrating rational thought, enjoying intelligent and reasoned discourse, and gently pointing out the gaping logical holes and utterly ridiculous notions inherent in theistic belief.

So here’s how this works: If you love Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, you’re probably going to HATE this site. If you love Jesus or Mohammad more than you love your parents and take it personally if nobody says “god bless you” after you sneeze, I’m guessing it won’t be for you, either.

If, however, you have a sense of humor and enjoy a bit of good-natured ribbing of the believing set, then you’ve come to the right place. We’re going to put the fun in fundamentalists (they already put the mental in)!