96 episodes
Life After God's tracks Life After God
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- Religion & Spirituality
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4.9 • 16 Ratings
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Writer and speaker, Ryan Bell, of A Year Without God, shares insightful commentary on religion and irreligion in North America and engaging interviews with believers, heretics and the uncertain.
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095 - Secular American Voices, feat. Juhem Navarro-Rivera
In this episode Ryan shares a few thoughts about the victory of Joe Biden in the presidential election, followed by an interview with Juhem Navarro-Rivera of Socioanalítica Research about the political views and values of secular Americans as compared to all Americans. These results are revealed in a new report by Socioanalítica Research entitled, Secular Voices Survey.
LINKS
Download the Secular Voices Survey | https://secularvoices2020.socioanalitica.com
Socioanalítica Research website | https://socioanaliticaresearch.com
Friendly Atheist guest post | https://friendlyatheist.patheos.com/2020/10/08/pay-attention-democrats-research-shows-secular-americans-are-a-voting-bloc
"NoneDecision 2020" (The Humanist) | https://thehumanist.com/commentary/nonedecision-2020-secular-voters-disagree-on-more-than-candidates
Socioanalítica Blog (Medium) | https://medium.com/storias/how-secular-voters-can-decide-the-election-f45d72b0285f
Follow Juhem on Facebook and Instagram, @Socioanalitica
Follow Juhem on Twitter @JuhemNR -
094 - Secular Day of the Dead, feat. Victoria de la Torre & Margaret Downey
On this episode I speak with Victoria de la Torre and Margaret Downey about Secular Day of the Dead, a secularized celebration of an ancient pre-Columbian Mesoamerican celebration that goes back some 3,000 years.
This year the Freethought Society is hosting International Secular Day of the Dead on Zoom, due to the pandemic. All are invited to join in this celebration of the lives of our dead loved ones and pets.
Learn more about Secular Day of the Dead and register to attend at http://www.ftsociety.org.
Reserve a 3-5-minute time slot to speak in celebration of your dead loved one by sending an email to SecularDayoftheDead@FtSociety.org.
KPCC coverage of the first Secular Day of the Dead in 2018—https://www.scpr.org/news/2018/11/02/86926/angelenos-celebrate-first-secular-day-of-the-dead -
093 - Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives, feat. Chris Stedman
On this episode I speak with Chris Stedman. Chris is a writer, speaker, and community organizer living in Minneapolis. His new book, out tomorrow from Broadleaf Books, is called "IRL: Finding Realness, Meaning, and Belonging in Our Digital Lives." The IRL in the title refers to the internet shorthand for “in real life,” in contrast to our online lives. But Chris thinks this designation is a mistake.
Much of the time, Chris says, we don’t think of our time on the internet as “real” and therefore don’t approach it with the same critical analysis that we might a different kind of engagement. How much thought do you put into an activity you don’t think is real? Chris argues that while our lives online are different than other relational spaces, it is no less real. As such he invites us to think deeply and critically about how we engage with the internet, how it is shaping us, and what it’s telling us about what is real and what is important.
::LINKS::
Visit Chris Stedman's website | https://chrisstedmanwriter.com
Buy the book | https://bookshop.org/books/irl-finding-realness-meaning-and-belonging-in-our-digital-lives/9781506463513
Follow Chris on Twitter | http://www.twitter.com/ChrisDStedman
Read “The Problem of Free Speech in an Age of Disinformation” | https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/magazine/free-speech.html -
092 - The Humanism of Albert Camus, feat. Jamie Lombardi
On this episode I speak with Jamie Lombardi about the humanistic philosophy of Albert Camus against the backdrop of our contemporary political situation: pandemic, wildfires on the west coast, police violence against black people, and the impending election.
LINKS
Reading "The Plague" During a Plague, with Jamie Lombardi, Greg Epstein, and Ryan Bell
https://youtu.be/EF5rsNl5QnE
"The Best Books by Albert Camus," recommended by Jamie Lombardi (interview by Nigel Warburton)
https://fivebooks.com/best-books/albert-camus-jamie-lombardi
Follow Jamie Lombardi on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/euthyphro
Become a member of Life After God
http://www.patreon.com/lifeaftergod
Visit our website at http://www.lifeaftergod.org -
091 - White Too Long, feat. Robert P. Jones
On this episode I speak with Robert P. Jones, founder and CEO of Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) about his new bombshell of a book, "White Too Long: The Legacy of White Supremacy in American Christianity."
Jones speaks about his growing up in the Southern Baptist Church in Texas and Mississippi, his growing awareness of the crisis festering within his faith community, and how he has come to understand the role that history and theology play in Christianity's support for white supremacy. Then he backs all that up by polling Americans about their attitudes about racial difference. What he found is not at all unexpected and yet somehow shocking all the same.
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LINKS
Buy "White Too Long" | https://www.indiebound.org/book/9781982122867
Visit PRRI's website | https://www.prri.org/
Read "Christianity Will Have Power" in the New York Times | https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/09/us/evangelicals-trump-christianity.html -
090 - We Are Not the Heroes, ft. Greg Epstein
On this episode I speak to Greg Epstein, humanist chaplain at Harvard University and MIT. In this wide ranging conversation, Greg and I talk about his upbringing and some of the events that led to where he is today at two of the most prestigious universities in the United States, working to build meaningful community among the non-religious and ask difficult questions about the ethics of technology.
We recorded this conversation in the immediate aftermath of the murder of George Floyd and the uprisings for racial and economic justice around the United States.
Mentioned in the episode:
Greg's book, Good Without God. https://www.amazon.com/Good-Without-God-Billion-Nonreligious/dp/006167012X
Greg's writing for TechCrunch | https://techcrunch.com/author/greg-epstein/
Is this sadness or anger? Is there a difference? by Ryan Bell
https://medium.com/radical-humanism/is-this-sadness-or-anger-is-there-a-difference-67cea83e3ee
Secular Student Alliance virtual conference | https://secularstudents.org/2020conference/
Customer Reviews
Seeking Goodness
The message on this show resonates so strongly. Ryan seems like such a good and relatable guy and I love listening to how his brain works.
Now is the time. Bring it Ryan!
Finally! This is the podcast our generation needs. We have a decade's worth of examination of religious thinking, of theological arguement and of rational reasoning in the podcast universe. It's time now to move from the abstract to the practical; time to move on to some workable advice, some encouragement and support for the generation that must navigate that execrated space between thier religously devout parents and grandparent and raising their reasoned rational kids. Five episodes in, this podcast shows promise, addressing some of the real world problems we face in our lives after god.
Insightful but disappointing
Well formatted, structured, and thorough. Ryan asks great questions but explains too much, concise interviewing would be a good improvement. I did hope Ryan would be a new kinder version of Hitchens. Good news is the fourth opening for the Horsemen is still open, if Penn hasn't accepted the job yet. Religion needs to close back into itself and stay in homes. There was a start with Life After God into promoting secularism as the basis for society however the dialogue here legitimizes too much what is dragging the world into chaos- religious flakey morality.