# PODCAST #800: Ask Natalie (almost) Anything

An episode of [TheThinkingAtheist](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/412308695), 22 Apr 2025, 1 h 05 min.

Audio: https://dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/mgln.ai/e/711/api.spreaker.com/download/episode/65572155/podcast800_asknatalie.mp3

On this milestone show, many listeners asked to see/hear Natalie in the guest chair. She kindly agreed to mark the occasion with us. VIDEO of this conversation: Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/thethinkingatheist--3270347/support.

## Transcript

[0:01] Speaker 1: Understand the thinking atheist. It's not a person, it's a symbol,
[0:09] Speaker 1: an idea.
[0:10] Speaker 2: The population of atheists this country is going through the.
[0:13] Speaker 1: Rule, rejecting faith, pursuing knowledge, challenging the sacred. If I
[0:19] Speaker 1: tell the truth, it's because I tell the truth, not because.
[0:22] Speaker 3: I put my hand on a book and made a wish.
[0:25] Speaker 1: And working together for a more rational world.
[0:29] Speaker 2: Take the risk of thinking. Feel so much more happiness.
[0:32] Speaker 2: Truth Fusian wisdom will come to you that way.
[0:35] Speaker 1: Assume nothing, question everything, and start thinking. This is the
[0:43] Speaker 1: Thinking Atheist podcast hosted by Seth Andrews.
[0:56] Speaker 2: So I was trying to figure out how to mark
[0:59] Speaker 2: this late milestone podcast number eight hundred. This broadcast had
[1:04] Speaker 2: been on the air off and on for fifteen years sixteen.
[1:08] Speaker 2: We started in twenty ten, so that's almost fifteen years.
[1:12] Speaker 2: And I went on Facebook and I made an informal
[1:16] Speaker 2: poll who would you like to hear or who should
[1:19] Speaker 2: I invite as a guest, And a surprising number of
[1:21] Speaker 2: people said, grab your wife because we want to ask
[1:25] Speaker 2: your questions. Okay, fine, that's what we did. FYI. About
[1:31] Speaker 2: five minutes into our discussion, we were talking about Linus
[1:34] Speaker 2: going to the vet, and we found out after the fact,
[1:39] Speaker 2: so I just want you to know. The doc said
[1:41] Speaker 2: it was arthritis, probably rooted to the injury that he
[1:45] Speaker 2: had when he broke his paw in a door a
[1:47] Speaker 2: couple of years ago, and so he is on medication
[1:51] Speaker 2: for that paw and he seems to be doing better.
[1:55] Speaker 2: So just havey I if you would like to watch
[1:59] Speaker 2: the interview instead of just listen. There was a YouTube
[2:02] Speaker 2: link in the description box of the show. Today's broadcast
[2:09] Speaker 2: is going to be really about what do you want
[2:12] Speaker 2: to ask? You can ask me, You can ask Natalie.
[2:15] Speaker 2: I throw myself at her disposal and the title I said,
[2:17] Speaker 2: ask Natalie almost anything. So there will be a boundary, right,
[2:22] Speaker 2: I mean if somebody gets inappropriate, right, Yeah? I mean
[2:27] Speaker 2: I trust you with that. Yeah.
[2:29] Speaker 4: Do I mean to be honest or you want me
[2:30] Speaker 4: to know what you'd be honest?
[2:32] Speaker 2: But I mean if somebody asked something that's kind of
[2:35] Speaker 2: you know, private or too private. We need a safe word.
[2:39] Speaker 2: What's the safe word?
[2:40] Speaker 4: Do you want to say? Our real safe work? It's pineapple?
[2:43] Speaker 2: Pineapple. We saw this on a show somewhere where when
[2:48] Speaker 2: somebody had a safe word. What was it? It was
[2:50] Speaker 2: Steve Irwin and there was a guy who was on
[2:54] Speaker 2: his show and he was handling an animal. He said,
[2:56] Speaker 2: how do I know you're genuinely afraid or when you're
[2:58] Speaker 2: just acting? We need a safe word, and the guy
[3:00] Speaker 2: I said, my safe word is pineapple, and so ever since,
[3:04] Speaker 2: our safe word is pineapple. So if anything happens, you
[3:07] Speaker 2: got to say the word pineapple. Okay, all right? So anyway,
[3:11] Speaker 2: I had a few questions on the Facebook page, and
[3:17] Speaker 2: they were, as I'm waiting for the switchboard to populate,
[3:26] Speaker 2: when Seth turned this is Daria. When Seth turns his
[3:29] Speaker 2: radio voice in your direction, what's he usually begging for?
[3:38] Speaker 2: All right? Hear me? Love me?
[3:39] Speaker 4: So we call this it is his radio voice, but
[3:42] Speaker 4: I also call it his working voice, his work in
[3:45] Speaker 4: it voice, And it's usually when he's trying to convince
[3:48] Speaker 4: me of his idea. He wants me to see the
[3:56] Speaker 4: things the way that he sees it, so he'll turn
[3:58] Speaker 4: on his work in a.
[3:59] Speaker 2: Voice, change my voice when I'm trying to be convincing.
[4:02] Speaker 4: Mm hmm, it goes a little bit lower, a little
[4:04] Speaker 4: bit softer, a little bit slower. They know what I'm
[4:09] Speaker 4: talking about, yet.
[4:10] Speaker 2: I mean, it's not that I'm being disingenuous, am I.
[4:12] Speaker 2: I mean, I'm speaking from a point of sincerity.
[4:16] Speaker 4: I think you're just trying to convince.
[4:18] Speaker 2: Well, that's true. Who wouldn't want to convince somebody else
[4:20] Speaker 2: at their point of view? But you're saying that I
[4:23] Speaker 2: go into performance some kind of a.
[4:25] Speaker 4: Mm hmmm, Yeah, there's a performance a little bit.
[4:30] Speaker 2: I'm all self conscious. I'm all self conscious. I'm having
[4:33] Speaker 2: to lean into the frame. We don't have a whole
[4:35] Speaker 2: lot of room in our chairs are bumping, so she
[4:37] Speaker 2: and I are getting a shoulder to shoulder. Let's see
[4:41] Speaker 2: how is Linus doing? Laurie, thank you for the question.
[4:45] Speaker 2: You want to tell the story. Linus started to act
[4:48] Speaker 2: really funny a couple of days ago. He's a little
[4:51] Speaker 2: seven eight pound multi Pooh rescue and he is our world,
[4:55] Speaker 2: Linus and Gracie, and he all of a sudden started
[4:58] Speaker 2: to just glaze over. His eyes looked not right. I
[5:02] Speaker 2: don't know how would you describe his expression.
[5:04] Speaker 4: He looked like he was in pain. He was he
[5:06] Speaker 4: was standing on all four limbs, but he was kind
[5:09] Speaker 4: of hunched over, kind of like he had abdominal pain.
[5:12] Speaker 4: He just he's just not quite right.
[5:14] Speaker 2: He was he looked stiff, like he was using economy
[5:19] Speaker 2: with his movement. And when we were walking, he normally
[5:22] Speaker 2: he's bouncing around the neighborhood and he's sort of cock
[5:25] Speaker 2: of the walk and he's the biggest dog on the street,
[5:28] Speaker 2: even though he's a tiny little hairdresser dog. And this
[5:32] Speaker 2: time he was more. He was sort of one and done,
[5:35] Speaker 2: and you could tell he wasn't quite himself. We took
[5:37] Speaker 2: him to the vet. He's not quite back, but he's better.
[5:43] Speaker 2: I mean, that's fair right to me. He's but we're
[5:45] Speaker 2: still watching him really closely.
[5:47] Speaker 4: But okay, these questions are cracking me up. You got
[5:49] Speaker 4: to go back up to Colorado Biker. Yes, he is
[5:53] Speaker 4: trying to smooth talk.
[5:55] Speaker 2: I think you're going to be blushing in a few minutes.
[6:00] Speaker 4: Some of look pale. Pineapple on pizza for sure.
[6:04] Speaker 2: Does Natalie like pineapple on pizza?
[6:07] Speaker 4: Yes?
[6:08] Speaker 1: I do.
[6:08] Speaker 2: Why wouldn't it be a legitimatey? A it is A
[6:11] Speaker 2: it is, Katie says, manipulative Yello, Well, I'm not manipult
[6:17] Speaker 2: Well I'm not manipulating. I'm convincing, and I think there's
[6:20] Speaker 2: a difference. But thank you, kind of like begging smooth
[6:26] Speaker 2: talk smooth talking, says Colorado biker. Oh, there's a super chat,
[6:31] Speaker 2: and thank you for the support of this channel. With
[6:34] Speaker 2: your super chats, I will make sure and read all
[6:37] Speaker 2: of those. For that gorgeous wife of yours. She has
[6:40] Speaker 2: the better hair dye.
[6:44] Speaker 4: So I'll tell you something about Seth that he does
[6:47] Speaker 4: not understand. He does not understand the prices of women's hair,
[6:53] Speaker 4: expensive handbags, perfume, the girly things, the things that we like.
[6:58] Speaker 4: So I keep trying to tell them you need to
[7:00] Speaker 4: go get your hair colored. If you don't like the gray.
[7:02] Speaker 4: I like the gray. I think it looks smart.
[7:05] Speaker 2: People try to make you feel better because they say silver. Right,
[7:08] Speaker 2: it's silver, the silverfox.
[7:11] Speaker 4: You know it looks good. But he won't go get
[7:13] Speaker 4: it done.
[7:14] Speaker 2: Well, that's a slippery slope. First of all, once you
[7:17] Speaker 2: dye it, then you're dying it forever, and everybody knows
[7:20] Speaker 2: you dyet because all of a sudden your gray hair disappeared.
[7:23] Speaker 2: They're like, oh, yes, that dyed his hair. It's like
[7:26] Speaker 2: when somebody walks into a room with a bad two pay.
[7:28] Speaker 2: Who's that comedian Chris Porter who said, if you're wearing
[7:32] Speaker 2: a two pay, just know that no one has heard
[7:35] Speaker 2: a word you've said ever right, because they're looking at
[7:39] Speaker 2: your head. And I've always thought, well, I'm not that
[7:41] Speaker 2: self conscious. And secondly, what happens if you get the
[7:44] Speaker 2: color on? Because an unnatural color is just just a
[7:47] Speaker 2: big flashing no no, So how do I prevent that?
[7:50] Speaker 2: Because I'm not going to do the mail order.
[7:53] Speaker 4: No, I think you have to go to the salon.
[7:55] Speaker 4: I think you have to get it done professionally by
[7:57] Speaker 4: somebody who understands gray and his hair. It's going to
[8:01] Speaker 4: cost you more than ten dollars for the haircut.
[8:03] Speaker 2: Hi, I'm seth. I'm in a midlife crisis. Can you
[8:07] Speaker 2: make me look like Hugh Jackman? Here is my money?
[8:10] Speaker 2: Is that what you're saying.
[8:12] Speaker 4: I'm just going to say thank you, doctor Andy for
[8:14] Speaker 4: the kind compliment. Oh, it's really good, it's really nice.
[8:17] Speaker 2: He does give bored a lot.
[8:19] Speaker 4: I think he is somebody who is always has to
[8:24] Speaker 4: have input, so his brain is always kind of going,
[8:27] Speaker 4: and I'm in the exact opposite. I need a lot
[8:28] Speaker 4: of downtime. So I think I bore him sometimes when I, oh.
[8:32] Speaker 2: No, you don't bore me. It's not that I have
[8:35] Speaker 2: to be out and active you know those sanguine temperaments,
[8:38] Speaker 2: who are They have to always be in the company people,
[8:41] Speaker 2: and they have to have activities twenty four to seven,
[8:44] Speaker 2: and they're restless all the time. For me, it's more
[8:47] Speaker 2: like I kind of bounce in my chair. Even when
[8:50] Speaker 2: I'm all by myself in the house, I can keep
[8:52] Speaker 2: my own company. But mill of the night, right one
[8:54] Speaker 2: thirty two o'clock, he's up.
[8:56] Speaker 4: Yeah, he'll get up, he'll me and er. He thinks
[8:59] Speaker 4: he's being really quiet. But Seth is a very loud person,
[9:01] Speaker 4: just by default. He breathes loud, he walks loud, cleans
[9:06] Speaker 4: the kitchen, he does clean the kitchen a lot. But
[9:08] Speaker 4: it's loud, so loud that the dogs will retreat because
[9:11] Speaker 4: they get scared of the noises. But really so he'll so,
[9:15] Speaker 4: he'll think he's being really quiet, and he'll try to
[9:17] Speaker 4: tiptoe out one thirty two o'clock in the morning and
[9:20] Speaker 4: he'll shut the door. Or maybe I'm just a really
[9:22] Speaker 4: light sleeper. Maybe that's gaybe that could be it.
[9:25] Speaker 2: It's me. I'm trying to be gentle. I'm trying to
[9:28] Speaker 2: close doors softly. I'm trying to tiptoe I lay the coffee.
[9:32] Speaker 2: I mean, I get up pre dawn often and I'll
[9:35] Speaker 2: lay the coffee cup just, you know, lightly on the countertop,
[9:39] Speaker 2: but very thoughtful sound carries. I'm not trying to be
[9:42] Speaker 2: loud or noisy. What she really hates is when I
[9:44] Speaker 2: eat tortilla chips, because apparently my head is like a
[9:47] Speaker 2: conk shell.
[9:48] Speaker 4: It's the loudest thing you will ever hear, Like, I
[9:52] Speaker 4: don't know. It has to be intentional or eating a banana,
[9:55] Speaker 4: like I'm one of those people. And it's not just
[9:58] Speaker 4: seth anybody eating a banana. Really, there's a word for that,
[10:04] Speaker 4: like noises, like chewing noises. I forget what it's called.
[10:08] Speaker 2: There's a it's not a disorder, it's a condition. I
[10:12] Speaker 2: have that condition characteristic. But yeah, it's true. I can
[10:15] Speaker 2: be in the kitchen, she's on the other side of
[10:17] Speaker 2: the house, and I'm just hungry for tortilla.
[10:19] Speaker 4: Chips, and I try not to even keep them in
[10:21] Speaker 4: the house.
[10:22] Speaker 2: After the third one, I just hear in the background,
[10:25] Speaker 2: Oh my god, I get no grace. I get no grace.
[10:31] Speaker 2: Let's see Bobby in Mississippi. We don't safe say Natalie,
[10:37] Speaker 2: it's net Lee. What do you cook when you want
[10:40] Speaker 2: something from.
[10:42] Speaker 4: Seth oh, not cake?
[10:47] Speaker 2: Tell them?
[10:47] Speaker 4: Okay. So yesterday was SE's birthday and we had this
[10:51] Speaker 4: plan we were going to go to it. I was
[10:52] Speaker 4: going to take him to a sushi dinner. I was
[10:54] Speaker 4: going to cook him at a three tier birthday cake.
[10:57] Speaker 4: I'm not a baker. I can cook very well, but
[10:59] Speaker 4: I cannot bake. I don't know why. It's an art form.
[11:02] Speaker 4: So I had this great white cake recipe and we
[11:06] Speaker 4: took all day to make it because you have to
[11:07] Speaker 4: cool the layers before you make the icing. And then
[11:11] Speaker 4: we're going to go to this dog show maybe that
[11:12] Speaker 4: we started talking about at the very beginning of the show.
[11:16] Speaker 4: So the cake turned out really bad. It was like
[11:21] Speaker 4: very very dense. The buttercream icing had split, and I
[11:27] Speaker 4: made like a strawberry preserve and it was too runny.
[11:30] Speaker 4: So as I'm layering the cake, I've got the red,
[11:35] Speaker 4: you know, strawberry in the middle, and I've got the
[11:37] Speaker 4: broken icing in the middle. I was making a naked cake,
[11:40] Speaker 4: if you guys know what that is. It's like where
[11:42] Speaker 4: it's just very limited icing on the outside, only on
[11:45] Speaker 4: the top. And so when I was finished, it looked
[11:48] Speaker 4: like the icing looked like vomit because it had split,
[11:52] Speaker 4: and then the red cherry looked like blood and it
[11:54] Speaker 4: was dribbling all over the side. It was like a
[11:56] Speaker 4: horrific cake.
[11:57] Speaker 2: It wasn't horrific, it just you know, some time.
[12:00] Speaker 4: It was really cood.
[12:01] Speaker 2: The science of baking his heart. I think it's hard
[12:04] Speaker 2: to put stuff agein. But we made it together. And
[12:07] Speaker 2: so it was time in the kitchen and we hung
[12:08] Speaker 2: out and we got to spend the day, and then
[12:12] Speaker 2: we went to the Movi. I mean, it was a
[12:13] Speaker 2: good day, but she beat herself off all freaking day
[12:16] Speaker 2: because of the case.
[12:17] Speaker 4: It was a bad cake. It was a sad movie.
[12:19] Speaker 2: It was It was not a sad movie.
[12:21] Speaker 4: He didn't make it to sushi. I made him a sandwich.
[12:23] Speaker 2: It was a melancholy movie.
[12:25] Speaker 4: He had a sandwich birthday.
[12:27] Speaker 2: Saying with themes about life and love and memory and
[12:30] Speaker 2: regret and see. I go to the movies and I
[12:32] Speaker 2: don't mind leaving a little melancholy as long as the
[12:36] Speaker 2: movie grabbed me by the heart. I want to take
[12:38] Speaker 2: a journey. I want to care, and so I don't.
[12:41] Speaker 2: But she's not that way. I think she wants to
[12:43] Speaker 2: leave more. You want to go and feel better.
[12:48] Speaker 4: It was a story about an owner's dog who had
[12:52] Speaker 4: passed away and he got rehomed and it's like this
[12:55] Speaker 4: one hundred and fifty pound dollar day and she didn't
[12:59] Speaker 4: know what to do with a dog, and it was just, yeah,
[13:02] Speaker 4: it was a little bit true real, like you think
[13:05] Speaker 4: about what would happen to Linus and Gracie if we died,
[13:09] Speaker 4: and how would they feel like waiting for us by
[13:12] Speaker 4: the door and we never came home, Like it was
[13:14] Speaker 4: that kind of.
[13:14] Speaker 2: Movie, or the fact that they won't live forever. I
[13:17] Speaker 2: had a moment there where I was like, oh my god,
[13:20] Speaker 2: Linus isn't feeling well, or or.
[13:22] Speaker 4: If you rescue a dog when they're four or five
[13:25] Speaker 4: years old, then you're looking at them once you fall
[13:27] Speaker 4: in love, like who is your friend when you were
[13:29] Speaker 4: a puppy? Who did you play with? Yeah, and we
[13:31] Speaker 4: have those conversations like I wonder what Gracie was like
[13:34] Speaker 4: as a puppy or yeah, yeah, the mortality of it
[13:37] Speaker 4: and then the price you pay a heavy price for
[13:39] Speaker 4: love and is it worth it?
[13:41] Speaker 2: And then we came home, we hugged our dogs.
[13:43] Speaker 4: I love you so much.
[13:46] Speaker 2: Uh. Miss Aphonia is the word when sounds drive you crazy,
[13:51] Speaker 2: Janet said, I'm a woman and don't understand all that
[13:54] Speaker 2: crap either. If you need it to feel like a
[13:56] Speaker 2: woman or feel good about yourself, you have deeper problem us. Janet. Probably,
[14:02] Speaker 2: so thanks for the kind words, Macho appreciate.
[14:05] Speaker 4: Blame it on my father.
[14:06] Speaker 2: Do either of you play musical instruments? Old uncle Bob says,
[14:11] Speaker 2: are you musical? Used to sing?
[14:14] Speaker 4: So, used to sing in a church choir. I was
[14:16] Speaker 4: back up. I sing just good. I probably couldn't carry
[14:19] Speaker 4: a tune on my own very well, but I can
[14:21] Speaker 4: do some harmony. Seth, and I was a drummer in
[14:25] Speaker 4: the Pride of Broken Ero.
[14:27] Speaker 2: I thought you were a eighty eight. I thought you
[14:29] Speaker 2: did the rifle.
[14:30] Speaker 4: I did, so I got bored with drums because I
[14:32] Speaker 4: was the only girl. I was first chair, so that
[14:34] Speaker 4: was cool. I come from a long line of drummers
[14:37] Speaker 4: in my family, so I didn't really read the music well,
[14:39] Speaker 4: but I could remember the you know, the rhythms pretty well,
[14:44] Speaker 4: so that whenever I had to go to try out,
[14:45] Speaker 4: I could, you know, my mom would teach me a
[14:49] Speaker 4: little bit of piano. I could play the chopsticks on
[14:51] Speaker 4: the piano. But Seth, you guys might already know he
[14:54] Speaker 4: plays the piano very beautifully. He can sing.
[14:59] Speaker 2: Yeah, No, I'm not a singer. I'm a speaker.
[15:02] Speaker 1: You know.
[15:02] Speaker 2: I tried to sing a long time ago, but I
[15:05] Speaker 2: just don't have that ability. I played a little bit
[15:07] Speaker 2: by ear. I didn't have the patience for music lessons.
[15:10] Speaker 2: I used to go to piano lessons and we were
[15:13] Speaker 2: looking at I was looking at the chords and you know,
[15:16] Speaker 2: the trouble cleft and the bass cleft and all of this,
[15:18] Speaker 2: and I didn't have patience. And again, I'm vibrating in
[15:20] Speaker 2: my chair, and I just wanted to play what I
[15:22] Speaker 2: wanted to play, freestyle, and I had not much discipline.
[15:25] Speaker 2: I do regret that. I do wish I could go
[15:27] Speaker 2: back and be, you know, a kid again and pay
[15:32] Speaker 2: more attention. Does that make sense? I probably like how
[15:35] Speaker 2: you would approach college if you blew off college when
[15:39] Speaker 2: you were nineteen, but then you were twenty nine and
[15:41] Speaker 2: you thought, wow, you know, I would do it differently now.
[15:44] Speaker 2: I mean that's fair, isn't it. Colorado Biker said, I
[15:47] Speaker 2: used to be a professional chef. I could give you lessons.
[15:50] Speaker 2: Baking is an art and a science. Don't be sad.
[15:54] Speaker 2: It takes years to get good at So you.
[15:58] Speaker 4: Know, when we were baking the cake, we were doing
[16:00] Speaker 4: the measurements. That's exact same that that we said. You know,
[16:03] Speaker 4: baking as a science, you had to get everything perfectly measured,
[16:07] Speaker 4: and it just felt like it was going so well.
[16:09] Speaker 4: The cake smelled amazing in the oven, and then when
[16:12] Speaker 4: it all came together, it was just I mean, the
[16:14] Speaker 4: cake went into the trash, that's how bad it was.
[16:16] Speaker 4: Wish I could share a picture.
[16:18] Speaker 2: I've got an open switchboard and if anybody wants to
[16:21] Speaker 2: dial in, the phone number is in the show notes
[16:23] Speaker 2: or the description box. You can also do a web
[16:25] Speaker 2: call with that link. I'm going to try Nancy at
[16:28] Speaker 2: every coach seven zero two. Nancy, are you with us?
[16:33] Speaker 5: Yes?
[16:33] Speaker 6: Hi, Seth Hi Natalie.
[16:35] Speaker 2: How are you both turned down your radio or whatever
[16:37] Speaker 2: it is? I'm hearing some delay there.
[16:40] Speaker 6: Yeah, hang on one moment.
[16:42] Speaker 2: You're fine, take your time?
[16:45] Speaker 6: Is that better?
[16:46] Speaker 2: It is better? Nancy? What's on your mind? What do
[16:48] Speaker 2: you want to talk about?
[16:51] Speaker 4: Oh?
[16:51] Speaker 6: I just wanted to say hi to Natalie. It's nice
[16:53] Speaker 6: to get the opportunity to speak with you, since we
[16:55] Speaker 6: don't get to hear from you. Too often.
[16:57] Speaker 3: Hi, I'm answer my question for you. How are you.
[17:03] Speaker 2: Every day's Christmas when you live with me? Nancy? I'm
[17:06] Speaker 2: just I just want to throw that out there.
[17:08] Speaker 4: I did have that in my notes he gave me, So.
[17:12] Speaker 2: Go ahead, what's your question?
[17:16] Speaker 6: No, I just wanted to know. I wanted to know
[17:19] Speaker 6: what was the biggest surprise about getting to know Seth.
[17:27] Speaker 2: I'm interested in this A good question.
[17:29] Speaker 4: I'm gonna have to think about that for a minute.
[17:31] Speaker 4: The biggest surprise about getting to know him, So Seth
[17:35] Speaker 4: and I before we got married, we had lived together.
[17:40] Speaker 4: Can I say that, you guys aren't going to judge.
[17:43] Speaker 4: We live together for many many years because we had
[17:46] Speaker 4: the divide of belief systems and just making sure that
[17:50] Speaker 4: we could coexist and be respectful of each other's, you know,
[17:55] Speaker 4: life choices and thoughts and ideas. I think the biggest
[18:02] Speaker 4: thing that surprised me the most was so we played
[18:08] Speaker 4: tennis together, and when we first met, we met on
[18:12] Speaker 4: the tennis court. He was a pretty good tennis player,
[18:15] Speaker 4: still is. But I think the biggest thing that surprised
[18:18] Speaker 4: me was, you know, he had tennis elbow surgery and
[18:22] Speaker 4: then when he came back from that he wasn't very good.
[18:27] Speaker 2: So and I'm a.
[18:30] Speaker 4: Little bit competitive, like when it comes to board games
[18:33] Speaker 4: and cards and tennis un less so now because my name,
[18:37] Speaker 4: my game's not that very not good anymore either.
[18:39] Speaker 2: But really, this is the thing. She's waiting for, some
[18:43] Speaker 2: deep relational revelation. And you're like, he sucked after he
[18:47] Speaker 2: had his elbow operated.
[18:49] Speaker 4: At but I'm telling you it was it was like
[18:51] Speaker 4: a big it was a big change. And so he
[18:55] Speaker 4: he and I would play, you know, for for a
[18:58] Speaker 4: tennis team, for like a ust A tennis team together,
[19:02] Speaker 4: and he started out and like, you know how big
[19:04] Speaker 4: a tennis court is, Like all you have to hit
[19:07] Speaker 4: at the spot this big in the tennis court. Really
[19:10] Speaker 4: and kind of he would go through this we call
[19:12] Speaker 4: him Bunch, We would he would go through this thing
[19:14] Speaker 4: where every ball was out like and so finally I'd
[19:18] Speaker 4: be like, you just need to pick one little spot
[19:21] Speaker 4: in this big blue field. Like it's harder to hit
[19:24] Speaker 4: the ball out than it would be to hit So
[19:28] Speaker 4: that was kind of surprising.
[19:29] Speaker 2: See, I was waiting for some that's some really rich insight.
[19:34] Speaker 2: And you're like, you're talking about my tennis game. I
[19:37] Speaker 2: just didn't expect that.
[19:38] Speaker 4: So so honestly, when when Seth and I first met,
[19:41] Speaker 4: he did not he did not not disclose that he
[19:44] Speaker 4: was an atheist. And you have to remember back at
[19:47] Speaker 4: that time, I, you know, years before, I was at
[19:53] Speaker 4: a big megachurch in our local town and you know,
[19:57] Speaker 4: we taught there. We very very involved and you know,
[20:02] Speaker 4: we were taught atheist eight babies and like we didn't
[20:06] Speaker 4: know any I'm in the Bible belt of Oklahoma. There
[20:09] Speaker 4: are no atheists, right, and so he was. I remember
[20:13] Speaker 4: we were talking and he was telling me, you know,
[20:18] Speaker 4: and Seth to know him personally, he's very kind, very generous,
[20:22] Speaker 4: very thoughtful, very encouraging. He does not display the ideas
[20:28] Speaker 4: of what a lot of people think an atheist would be,
[20:31] Speaker 4: you know, the angry, the whatever stereotypes that somebody might
[20:36] Speaker 4: have until they know one. And so I think that
[20:39] Speaker 4: was that was the thing that I learned most because
[20:43] Speaker 4: twenty years ago I wouldn't have been a friend with
[20:45] Speaker 4: an atheist because it was scary. I was taught to
[20:48] Speaker 4: fear that didn't know anybody. And so I think the
[20:51] Speaker 4: thing that I was most surprised and the thing that
[20:54] Speaker 4: Seth honestly has taught me a lot about is that
[21:00] Speaker 4: atheists are good people, and they're people like me, and
[21:04] Speaker 4: sometimes have better morals and better people's skills and better
[21:07] Speaker 4: humanitarian ideas. So in truth, that's probably the thing that
[21:12] Speaker 4: has surprised me the most, or has made me grow
[21:16] Speaker 4: beyond where I was just by having met him. So
[21:20] Speaker 4: I would say, I would say that.
[21:22] Speaker 2: All right, Nancy, did you have anything else for us?
[21:27] Speaker 3: No, that's excellent. I like it.
[21:28] Speaker 6: I got some of the humor I left the tennis,
[21:30] Speaker 6: and then I got the meat of it.
[21:33] Speaker 3: Yeah. I think that's great.
[21:34] Speaker 6: Thank you so much. This is okay, and I both
[21:37] Speaker 6: hope that both of you have a great team.
[21:39] Speaker 2: Thank you, Nancy, much appreciated. Lots more to talk about
[21:43] Speaker 2: with your chats and your calls, comments, questions. It's Natalie
[21:49] Speaker 2: helping me Mark. Show number eight hundred will continue after this.
[22:00] Speaker 2: A lot of people have only recently discovered this broadcast,
[22:04] Speaker 2: and I've got some who've been with me since day
[22:07] Speaker 2: one in the summer of twenty ten, and they've been
[22:12] Speaker 2: partners of me in the show for eight hundred episodes.
[22:16] Speaker 2: So regardless of whether you are new or whether you
[22:19] Speaker 2: are a longtime veteran listener, thank you so much for
[22:23] Speaker 2: getting us to this point. The show is a conversation
[22:28] Speaker 2: between you and my wife, and already I hope, I
[22:33] Speaker 2: hope it has proven interesting for you. So this is related.
[22:38] Speaker 2: I'll let you go as deep as you want. From
[22:40] Speaker 2: former two free XJW. You've mentioned a mixed faith relationship.
[22:45] Speaker 2: How do you navigate belief versus non belief between you two?
[22:48] Speaker 2: You'd call yourself probably spiritual more than anything else.
[22:52] Speaker 4: I would. I have definitely changed. I mean, I'm the girl.
[22:57] Speaker 4: I have a voodoo doll downstairs that I'm not afraid
[22:59] Speaker 4: to use. I have garlic, I have a Buddha in
[23:03] Speaker 4: the in the bathroom. I've got an atheist as a partner.
[23:05] Speaker 4: I mean, I feel like I'm just all encompassing. I'm inclusive. Yeah,
[23:09] Speaker 4: what about myself?
[23:10] Speaker 2: Just throw the rock out and let it hit every
[23:13] Speaker 2: every possibility. And you know, she she believed like, I'm
[23:17] Speaker 2: going in a ghost time at the end of May
[23:21] Speaker 2: at a haunted hotel in Kansas, and I'm gonna take
[23:26] Speaker 2: video cameras and we're gonna you know, I've got the
[23:28] Speaker 2: instruments and I'm doing it. Natalie would say, my mind
[23:32] Speaker 2: is already closed, but I am doing it with some tools.
[23:36] Speaker 2: I've got the uh, the electrometer and the you know,
[23:39] Speaker 2: divining rod. I mean, I'm gonna the black light and
[23:42] Speaker 2: the temperature gauge.
[23:43] Speaker 4: You know what you're gonna. You're gonna piss them off,
[23:45] Speaker 4: is what's going about.
[23:46] Speaker 2: You're going to be mocking.
[23:48] Speaker 4: You're going to piss off the spirits, and then you
[23:49] Speaker 4: are going to come after me.
[23:51] Speaker 2: Do you think so?
[23:52] Speaker 5: So?
[23:53] Speaker 2: Anyway? But she would say, you've already made up your mind. Well,
[23:56] Speaker 2: I am conditioned from seeing a whole lit of ghost
[24:01] Speaker 2: claims totally unsubstantiated and or debunked. But if a ghostly
[24:06] Speaker 2: thing happened, I would want to know that. And I've
[24:09] Speaker 2: invited her to go on a ghost thing with me.
[24:12] Speaker 2: I want to stay at the Stanley Hotel in Colorado,
[24:14] Speaker 2: which is where Stephen King got inspiration for the Shining Honey,
[24:18] Speaker 2: would you like to stay at the Stanley? And she says,
[24:21] Speaker 2: I'm good, But I have.
[24:23] Speaker 4: Been to the Saint Anthony Hotel and that's haunted.
[24:26] Speaker 2: San Antonio, Texas. She's convinced it's It was where the
[24:29] Speaker 2: walls bleeding, they.
[24:30] Speaker 4: Were weeping in the bathroom. They were not kidding, So
[24:37] Speaker 4: we so we went to. It was a work trip
[24:41] Speaker 4: to the Saint Anthony Hotel years and years ago, not
[24:44] Speaker 4: seth but yeah, how long. It's been a long time
[24:47] Speaker 4: ago before really cell phones had, you know, been a
[24:51] Speaker 4: big thing. Not everybody had them. This business meeting was
[24:56] Speaker 4: planned by other people. So I just went not knowing
[24:59] Speaker 4: where we were going or what it was about. And
[25:01] Speaker 4: I immediately walked in with my husband and my two
[25:03] Speaker 4: small children. I was like, this place is haunted. Because
[25:05] Speaker 4: I was very spiritual. I was like, I could feel it,
[25:08] Speaker 4: you know. And comes to find out, everybody thought I
[25:11] Speaker 4: was crazy, but they started digging, and yes, that hotel
[25:14] Speaker 4: is known for being haunted, and there were some weird
[25:17] Speaker 4: things that happened that we still talk about to this day.
[25:20] Speaker 2: So I'm good.
[25:21] Speaker 4: I think I've been there, done that.
[25:22] Speaker 2: I wasn't even looking for it. I wasn't it marketed
[25:24] Speaker 2: as being haunted. It was, but it.
[25:26] Speaker 4: Wasn't marketed that way to me because I didn't know
[25:28] Speaker 4: anything about it. So I walked in.
[25:30] Speaker 2: You're intuition, said my women.
[25:32] Speaker 4: Intuition said, you're about to die in this place.
[25:37] Speaker 2: Did you piss off the spirits?
[25:38] Speaker 4: I think we did piss off the spirits. I ended
[25:40] Speaker 4: up getting sick, like I never I'm a person that
[25:43] Speaker 4: never gets like food poisoning. I guess I got some
[25:46] Speaker 4: kind of food poisoning. I was up in the weeping
[25:48] Speaker 4: bathroom in the middle of the night, throwing up, got
[25:51] Speaker 4: freaked out on the and there they had a pole
[25:54] Speaker 4: on the tenth floor that my young daughter and I
[25:56] Speaker 4: went to and we were both like really really scared
[25:59] Speaker 4: that we to leave and we went home and looked
[26:02] Speaker 4: at there was a story of a haunting at that pool,
[26:05] Speaker 4: and yeah, so have fun with that.
[26:08] Speaker 2: All right, Well, I mean you can see I've probably
[26:10] Speaker 2: lost everybody. You can see.
[26:12] Speaker 4: I'm a little bit woo. I like the wu. I
[26:14] Speaker 4: like the this, you know, I feel like watchmaker. I
[26:18] Speaker 4: think that's what I'm probably a watchmaker person.
[26:20] Speaker 2: Like something set it all in motion, and there's the unexplained.
[26:24] Speaker 2: Maybe I just beyond the natural thing.
[26:27] Speaker 4: Just just yeah, I just probably a higher power somewhere,
[26:30] Speaker 4: do you think, somewhere somewhere?
[26:32] Speaker 2: But if a higher power is not involved in our
[26:34] Speaker 2: lives in a meaningful way, like then it's all academic, right,
[26:39] Speaker 2: because really mostly then we're we only have each other.
[26:43] Speaker 2: Like does a higher power jump in and I don't.
[26:46] Speaker 4: Feel like the higher power is going to jump in.
[26:48] Speaker 4: I think the world is spinning. So you're still on it.
[26:51] Speaker 4: You haven't been flung off.
[26:52] Speaker 2: There's probably there may be something out there.
[26:54] Speaker 4: They've already done everything that they're going to do.
[26:56] Speaker 2: We've got to solve each other's problems, right.
[26:59] Speaker 4: Oh yeah, sure, yeah, it's going to take it. But
[27:02] Speaker 4: who knows?
[27:02] Speaker 2: I mean, And I think that's interesting for a lot
[27:05] Speaker 2: of people who are like, how does an atheist and
[27:09] Speaker 2: a spiritual person share the same space? And I think
[27:11] Speaker 2: it's because we share values and we have we have
[27:15] Speaker 2: had plenty of conversations over the many many years we've
[27:18] Speaker 2: been together about really and what do you think of that?
[27:21] Speaker 2: And I don't buy that? And these have been spirited exchanges.
[27:24] Speaker 4: And this is when the work in a voice comes in.
[27:26] Speaker 2: No, I'm not working it, but I am saying that
[27:30] Speaker 2: at the then when it's all over. We care about
[27:33] Speaker 2: the same things, and we want the same things. We
[27:37] Speaker 2: love people, we have the same we have shared interest
[27:40] Speaker 2: despite our very different personalities. And she's my person. I
[27:45] Speaker 2: know she's got my back, and she's the person that
[27:48] Speaker 2: I want to share my life with. And it's hard
[27:49] Speaker 2: for a lot of people to understand, and then other
[27:51] Speaker 2: people will say, well, I'm a non believer married to
[27:54] Speaker 2: a Buddhist or even a Christian or something else, and
[27:57] Speaker 2: somehow they're able to make it work.
[27:59] Speaker 4: I have I have friends here.
[28:01] Speaker 2: Hang on, I try. Hang on. I'm just gonna have
[28:03] Speaker 2: to go through some of these. If you're on the switchboard,
[28:06] Speaker 2: be patient with me. Sherry said, I'm all about the
[28:08] Speaker 2: wu as a psychic and medium. Sherry, you're killing me,
[28:13] Speaker 2: killing me, We've done. I wrote a book with a
[28:17] Speaker 2: chapter on psychics and who they are.
[28:19] Speaker 4: So we went to We went to a psychic once
[28:22] Speaker 4: and I was really disappointed in Seth because he wouldn't
[28:25] Speaker 4: take the journey. This woman had a brand new crystal wall.
[28:29] Speaker 4: It was sitting She's like, look into.
[28:30] Speaker 2: It, pat in the lobby in the gift shop.
[28:33] Speaker 4: Yeah, it's awesome. And he just wouldn't go. He would
[28:36] Speaker 4: not take the journey. Oh wa payment reasons.
[28:40] Speaker 2: It was from my birthday in twenty fifteen in San
[28:43] Speaker 2: Diego and Ocean Beach. I knew. I know, like I've
[28:49] Speaker 2: read enough James Randy and enough of the work of
[28:51] Speaker 2: the debunkers like Darren Brown to know what psychics do.
[28:56] Speaker 2: Hot reading, cold reading, shotgunning. There's so many tactics that
[29:01] Speaker 2: are used by mentalists and suppose it's psychic. So when
[29:05] Speaker 2: I was there, it's a forensic experiment. So she's totally
[29:08] Speaker 2: in shotgun mode. But bing ba boom up. And then
[29:12] Speaker 2: she realizes when I started to push back and ask questions, well,
[29:15] Speaker 2: wait a minute, you just reference this, is this a
[29:17] Speaker 2: druid thing from the Festival of Sowen, And how do
[29:20] Speaker 2: you relate that to so and so? And she just
[29:21] Speaker 2: totally blanked and she said, do you believe in you
[29:24] Speaker 2: don't believe in God? And I said no. So she
[29:26] Speaker 2: took the God card, the tearot card off the table
[29:29] Speaker 2: and stuck it over here, and then she continued without
[29:31] Speaker 2: it and kind of adjusted. And then she said, there
[29:34] Speaker 2: will be a woman that enters your professional life.
[29:37] Speaker 4: Yeah, and now that's where we got a fight.
[29:40] Speaker 2: What my fault? She said, there will be a woman
[29:43] Speaker 2: in your professional life and you will engage in a
[29:47] Speaker 2: romantic I don't know.
[29:48] Speaker 4: If it was romantic. It just said that she would
[29:50] Speaker 4: be like, you're very.
[29:52] Speaker 2: Like a confidante or something.
[29:54] Speaker 4: I was like, oh, who's so.
[29:56] Speaker 2: Yeah, she's in the back and.
[29:58] Speaker 4: A woman has a dream about their husband doing something
[30:01] Speaker 4: and you wake up and you're like, how could you
[30:03] Speaker 4: it was?
[30:03] Speaker 2: I'm like, thank you very much for that. Well, it's
[30:06] Speaker 2: been ten years. I have no confidants who were coming
[30:09] Speaker 2: in here and snooping around, all right, But anyway, she
[30:12] Speaker 2: wishes I had just surrendered to the experience, and maybe
[30:16] Speaker 2: I could have. And I'm going to try to do
[30:18] Speaker 2: that a little more during the ghost hunt. I'm not
[30:20] Speaker 2: going to walk in and be a total asshole about it.
[30:22] Speaker 4: You'll miss some of the fun that way. It's just
[30:26] Speaker 4: for entertainment.
[30:27] Speaker 2: Well, I'm glad I buy that. If you're going to
[30:29] Speaker 2: be entertained, and I think people are really good at
[30:31] Speaker 2: scaring themselves. You throw me in a dark castle, dungeon,
[30:35] Speaker 2: you throw me in an abandoned hospital with the lights off,
[30:38] Speaker 2: and say spend the night here. I will. I can
[30:41] Speaker 2: freak myself out pretty easy, right, I don't need ghosts
[30:44] Speaker 2: to do it. I would hear every rustle, every sound,
[30:46] Speaker 2: every breath of wind, So I mean I can do that.
[30:50] Speaker 2: Would you stay the night in an abandoned hospital? Not me?
[30:53] Speaker 3: No?
[30:54] Speaker 2: Twenty thousand dollars, no fifty thousand dollars, no.
[30:58] Speaker 4: Keep going?
[31:00] Speaker 2: Really, maybe is it Jerome or Jeremy at sixty zero?
[31:07] Speaker 7: Hi?
[31:07] Speaker 2: How do I pronounce your name? It is Jerome, Jerome. Welcome.
[31:12] Speaker 2: You're on with Natalie and her husband. That's what we
[31:15] Speaker 2: should call today's broadcast, Natalie and her husband.
[31:18] Speaker 5: Hello, Natalie and Natalie's husband.
[31:21] Speaker 2: What's up? What's on your mind? What do you want
[31:22] Speaker 2: to talk about?
[31:23] Speaker 5: What you talked about Linus your dog? And I hear
[31:28] Speaker 5: the affection in your voice when you talk about Linus
[31:31] Speaker 5: all the time, and that's very sweet. Whenever I hear
[31:35] Speaker 5: the name Linus, I think of my childhood because I
[31:38] Speaker 5: grew up Catholic. And you may not know this, but
[31:41] Speaker 5: they have a Eucharistic prayers number one, two, three, and four.
[31:45] Speaker 5: In an Eucharistic prayer number one, they rattle off the
[31:49] Speaker 5: litany of saints. So they say Lionus, Cletus, Clement, Sixtus, Cornelius, Carsogonist, John, Paul, Cosmos,
[31:55] Speaker 5: and Damien and we honor this that, And they go
[31:58] Speaker 5: through all these names, and but Linus heads up the names.
[32:02] Speaker 5: And it always makes me think of my childhood when
[32:05] Speaker 5: you mentioned Linus.
[32:06] Speaker 2: So there's a saint Linus.
[32:11] Speaker 5: Apparently interesting. You know he's going to the Catholics. They
[32:17] Speaker 5: know all these things.
[32:19] Speaker 4: So Linus, if you ever watched like the Charlie Brown,
[32:23] Speaker 4: the Little Linus character that carried his blanket, Linus has
[32:27] Speaker 4: a blanket that he choose on.
[32:28] Speaker 2: So that's what I think. We needed a different name
[32:31] Speaker 2: when we rescued him, because when we got him from
[32:34] Speaker 2: the Humane Society, he was named Santa. Yeah, they called
[32:39] Speaker 2: him Santa, And I get it. If you work for
[32:41] Speaker 2: a rescue, you're having to try to name thousands of dogs,
[32:45] Speaker 2: and I think they were just grasping. And it was
[32:46] Speaker 2: around the holidays when they rescued him, so he was
[32:49] Speaker 2: Santa and we're like, no, that's not going to work.
[32:52] Speaker 2: And so we went through a litany of names. I
[32:54] Speaker 2: think it was your daughter that came up with Linus
[32:56] Speaker 2: and we were like, yes, yes, and he totally looks
[32:59] Speaker 2: like a Linus and he's my son and I need
[33:02] Speaker 2: him to live forever. I'm going to look up Linus
[33:04] Speaker 2: the Saint Jerome and see what the Internet has to
[33:08] Speaker 2: say about that. Was there anything else?
[33:11] Speaker 5: No, that's it. I just thought you might enjoy knowing
[33:14] Speaker 5: that Linus was the head of a long list of
[33:17] Speaker 5: saint names they get thrown out by then the Catholic
[33:20] Speaker 5: eucharistic prayer.
[33:21] Speaker 2: Love it, love it. Thanks for the infol appreciate you.
[33:25] Speaker 5: Take care.
[33:26] Speaker 2: All right, we'll see Pope Linus. I found this. I
[33:30] Speaker 2: don't know if this is what they're talking about. I'm
[33:32] Speaker 2: guessing if it's a Catholic icon, it's gotta be. Pope
[33:36] Speaker 2: Linus was the Bishop of Rome. That would be what
[33:40] Speaker 2: sixty eight CE to EIGHTYCEE generally regarded as the second
[33:44] Speaker 2: Bishop of Rome after Saint Peter, and he was canonized
[33:50] Speaker 2: as a saint. According to Arenaeus, Linus is the same
[33:55] Speaker 2: person as the one mentioned in the New Testament, mentioned
[33:59] Speaker 2: in the Valediction and up the Second Epistle to Timothy
[34:02] Speaker 2: two Timothy four twenty one as being with Paul the
[34:05] Speaker 2: Apostle in Rome near the end of Paul's life. So
[34:09] Speaker 2: this family has more than one biblical name. I'll cover
[34:12] Speaker 2: the Old Testament, and apparently Linus covers the New I
[34:18] Speaker 2: just don't remember ever seeing the word Linus in the Bible.
[34:21] Speaker 2: Doesn't sound like a biblical name. Let's talk the wait
[34:24] Speaker 2: hang on. Drew Zilla said, there's a lot of Christians
[34:27] Speaker 2: that wouldn't be able to be together because they have
[34:30] Speaker 2: different views. I would guess a lot of those would
[34:33] Speaker 2: be in terms of their values, what they care about.
[34:37] Speaker 2: But I feel like you and I share values about
[34:40] Speaker 2: the world.
[34:42] Speaker 6: You know.
[34:43] Speaker 2: It's like when I'm allied with religious people who are
[34:46] Speaker 2: humanist activists on the front line against Christian nationalism. Some
[34:51] Speaker 2: people don't understand why I stand shoulder to shoulder with Christians, Jews, Hindu, Sikhs, Buddhist,
[34:57] Speaker 2: et cetera, and they stand shoulder to shoulder with me,
[34:59] Speaker 2: And I'm like, it's because they're wonderful people and because
[35:02] Speaker 2: we share values. We can discuss theology all day long,
[35:05] Speaker 2: but as long as underneath the more academic stuff, we
[35:10] Speaker 2: line up in terms of what's important and to tell
[35:14] Speaker 2: the truth and to be moral and how to treat
[35:16] Speaker 2: people and to build a better world, That's what I'm
[35:18] Speaker 2: interested in.
[35:18] Speaker 4: I feel like there's a lot of different variations of
[35:22] Speaker 4: Christians right now, and I don't want to get too political,
[35:25] Speaker 4: because I know we're all just exhausted with it. But
[35:27] Speaker 4: all Christians are not equal anymore.
[35:30] Speaker 2: They're not remotely And I.
[35:32] Speaker 4: Feel like, you know, I was reading last night just
[35:35] Speaker 4: about somebody who would you know, claim to be a
[35:39] Speaker 4: Christian are now saying we're not Christians, we're followers of
[35:42] Speaker 4: Jesus because they want to separate themselves from what the
[35:46] Speaker 4: maga Christian, you know, that whole movement that's happening that's
[35:50] Speaker 4: bigoted and racist and judgmental. I think people, normal people.
[35:56] Speaker 4: I guess I'm hoping normal people are growing weary of
[36:00] Speaker 4: all of that hatred. And to me, it seems like
[36:04] Speaker 4: the Christian that we're talking about today is that narrow minded, hateful, judgmental,
[36:10] Speaker 4: you know, othering people who are not just like them.
[36:18] Speaker 2: It's like the fundamentalist Christians who use the Bible to
[36:23] Speaker 2: preach hate against gay people, right, those fundamentalist preachers that
[36:29] Speaker 2: say the government should round them up and execute them,
[36:31] Speaker 2: or that God will send them to hell. And then
[36:34] Speaker 2: you've got another swath of people that are like, my
[36:37] Speaker 2: Jesus loves everybody. My Jesus made homosexuals the way they
[36:41] Speaker 2: are and would never judge them. Now, granted, I think
[36:43] Speaker 2: those Christians are unaware of the scriptures, but they are
[36:46] Speaker 2: practicing a version of Christianity. So when people talk about
[36:51] Speaker 2: Christians as any one thing, that's a problem, right, because
[36:56] Speaker 2: I mean there is varied often as the people who
[36:59] Speaker 2: believe what they believe. So are you looking something up?
[37:02] Speaker 7: Yeah?
[37:03] Speaker 4: I was gonna. I saw something the other day where
[37:06] Speaker 4: people are asking them to verify if you're like the
[37:08] Speaker 4: Maga Christian or if you're like the old gangs, old
[37:12] Speaker 4: the og Christian, Like, how do you identify? Because now
[37:15] Speaker 4: you're going to have to explain to yourself.
[37:17] Speaker 2: No, well, if you identify as a Christian, I don't
[37:22] Speaker 2: think you how much latitude do we give?
[37:26] Speaker 4: It was classic Jesus or Republican Jesus's that's what you
[37:30] Speaker 4: have to.
[37:31] Speaker 2: Well, I mean the problem is And I narrated an
[37:34] Speaker 2: audiobook with doctor David Madison. He wrote the book. He's
[37:38] Speaker 2: an ex believer, next pastor in a theologian, and his
[37:41] Speaker 2: book is called ten Things Christians wish Jesus Hadn't taught.
[37:44] Speaker 2: And there's this thinking that everything that Jesus said and
[37:47] Speaker 2: did was light and love and come as you are
[37:49] Speaker 2: in Kumbai yah. And a more objective and honest examination
[37:55] Speaker 2: of Christ reveals some really problematic behaviors. Whorry, he likened
[38:01] Speaker 2: a woman to a dog and essentially said some very
[38:03] Speaker 2: racist things. We're talking about the same Jesus who was
[38:07] Speaker 2: one and the same with yahweh. We're talking about Jesus
[38:10] Speaker 2: who separated the sheep from the goats and sent the
[38:12] Speaker 2: unbelievers to burn, and hell depart from me, you who
[38:15] Speaker 2: are cursed into an everlasting fire, those types of things,
[38:18] Speaker 2: And so I think people then make a Jesus in
[38:21] Speaker 2: their own image, don't they. Like, there's the fire and brimstone.
[38:25] Speaker 2: Everybody I think is ick, he's going to hell Jesus
[38:28] Speaker 2: and those people hold onto that. And then the other
[38:30] Speaker 2: people that were like, well, I want to be a
[38:32] Speaker 2: Christian or I feel comfortable calling myself a Christian, but
[38:35] Speaker 2: I can't abide all the awfulness. So my Jesus is
[38:39] Speaker 2: going to love everybody unconditionally. That's fair, isn't it.
[38:43] Speaker 4: Yeah, that's fair.
[38:46] Speaker 2: I thought you were going to, like really, back me up,
[38:48] Speaker 2: just really.
[38:50] Speaker 4: It just makes me angry. We are surrounded by people
[38:53] Speaker 4: who are are not I mean, go ahead, no, let's
[38:59] Speaker 4: just change it. Yes, because I know they all have
[39:01] Speaker 4: it too.
[39:02] Speaker 2: So I think you're worried it's going to become a downer.
[39:06] Speaker 2: It might be in radio what we call or relate,
[39:08] Speaker 2: when you and I are speaking about something, even a
[39:10] Speaker 2: hard topic, and people are like, I feel that I
[39:14] Speaker 2: understand that frustration, and I think I'm going to start
[39:18] Speaker 2: and you don't have to finish, all right, So I'm
[39:20] Speaker 2: not making I'm not making the conversation go anywhere, but
[39:23] Speaker 2: I do want to speak to We are surrounded by
[39:26] Speaker 2: people who, it seems like most of the other aspects
[39:30] Speaker 2: of their lives would give you the shirt off their back,
[39:36] Speaker 2: and they love their families, and they work hard, and
[39:40] Speaker 2: they seem to be good people, and they have done
[39:44] Speaker 2: this weird game of twister in their brain where they
[39:48] Speaker 2: can turn around and support the current administration and the
[39:53] Speaker 2: assaults on decency and democracy. And I can't I go
[39:59] Speaker 2: back and is it because it's like I was in
[40:03] Speaker 2: It's tax season, right, So I'm in the accountant's office
[40:06] Speaker 2: and I'm like, you know, I'm that guy. Here's my papers,
[40:08] Speaker 2: just take it and fix it. And as Kathleen Madigan says,
[40:12] Speaker 2: I'm going to try not to break into tears whenever
[40:14] Speaker 2: you give me a number, right, So I give them.
[40:16] Speaker 2: But Fox News is on in one of the waiting
[40:18] Speaker 2: rooms in the lobby of the building, and I'm sitting
[40:20] Speaker 2: there for ten fifteen minutes waiting, and by the time
[40:24] Speaker 2: I left, I thought it is no wonder that the
[40:27] Speaker 2: people who are many of the people voting MAGA are
[40:31] Speaker 2: voting the way they are because we don't live in
[40:33] Speaker 2: a shared reality. The shit they were hearing on Fox
[40:36] Speaker 2: was this weird alternate universe. We don't exist in a
[40:43] Speaker 2: place where the facts are the same, the deeds and
[40:46] Speaker 2: the words spoken to the same, so we don't have
[40:49] Speaker 2: a Whenever you and I bring things up, they look
[40:51] Speaker 2: at us like, oh, I've never heard that. I've never
[40:54] Speaker 2: I don't know what you're talking about. So we then
[40:56] Speaker 2: we have to provide sourcing, chapter and verse. We have
[40:59] Speaker 2: to show them you're not going to go there, are you? Okay,
[41:02] Speaker 2: I won't make you. That's okay, Okay, but I know
[41:05] Speaker 2: she feels me. Yeah, And I've been trying to engage
[41:09] Speaker 2: a little more with people out there.
[41:12] Speaker 4: I will say Heather had posted what Heather Richardson had posted.
[41:16] Speaker 4: I'm sure a lot of your friends follow her. She's
[41:20] Speaker 4: a historian of politics, and she had posted about I
[41:25] Speaker 4: guess this. People that work for the state have a
[41:31] Speaker 4: notification to tattle on non Christian workers within the state,
[41:36] Speaker 4: and to the point where you know she's fearful and
[41:40] Speaker 4: she's put on a list as a professor, which oftentimes
[41:43] Speaker 4: professors are the first ones on the watch list because
[41:46] Speaker 4: she's posting, you know, chronicles about what is going on
[41:50] Speaker 4: on a day to day basis within this administration. But that,
[41:54] Speaker 4: you know, on a more serious note, whenever you think
[41:57] Speaker 4: about the atheist community, what you're doing in a public forum,
[42:02] Speaker 4: what's to say that, you know, you guys aren't next
[42:05] Speaker 4: on the list? So I think, you know, this, this community,
[42:08] Speaker 4: this website, what you're doing is probably going to be
[42:11] Speaker 4: even more important going forward.
[42:13] Speaker 2: To you think, So, I mean I do.
[42:16] Speaker 4: I do because I feel like, you know, as people
[42:19] Speaker 4: start being fearful that their coworkers are going to tattle
[42:22] Speaker 4: on them for you know, simply living their truth. I mean,
[42:26] Speaker 4: I think that would be normal for people to want
[42:29] Speaker 4: to retreat just a little bit, don't you.
[42:32] Speaker 2: Well. I think people will go, People will people will
[42:38] Speaker 2: rally to a point of community, and there will be
[42:40] Speaker 2: solidarity among those who are being marginalized. Atheists have been
[42:44] Speaker 2: a pretty easy target for a long time, and then
[42:46] Speaker 2: it became more and more normalized, and then Project twenty
[42:50] Speaker 2: twenty five ers got in there, and now they're looking
[42:53] Speaker 2: for quote unquote anti Christian bias in the halls of power,
[42:56] Speaker 2: and they're supposed to report that in the government. What's
[42:58] Speaker 2: that even freaking look like. Somebody says, I don't believe it.
[43:01] Speaker 2: I think it's horseshit. Oh he's got anti Christian bias.
[43:05] Speaker 2: Now he's on the list, Maybe loses his job.
[43:07] Speaker 4: I mean, that's where we are, that's where we're going,
[43:10] Speaker 4: that's where we're heading. If something doesn't change.
[43:12] Speaker 2: I wonder if some of my stuff and other things
[43:15] Speaker 2: in the atheist space are being shadow band the algorithms
[43:19] Speaker 2: are just starting to push that content down or back
[43:22] Speaker 2: a little bit. I don't know, but I don't think
[43:25] Speaker 2: it's unreasonable to worry about it. One last break stand by.
[43:30] Speaker 2: We'll do our last section of the broadcast with comments, questions,
[43:34] Speaker 2: and your calls as my wife Natalie helps us mark
[43:38] Speaker 2: show eight hundred. Thanks for supporting me and the Thinking
[43:49] Speaker 2: Atheist podcast through all these years, and if you would
[43:53] Speaker 2: like to be a part of supporting me and the
[43:55] Speaker 2: show in the future, become a patron at patreon dot
[43:59] Speaker 2: com slash seth Andrews. You can decide how much you
[44:03] Speaker 2: want to support, how many episodes, how often, you set
[44:06] Speaker 2: all the rules, all the amounts, and it really does
[44:09] Speaker 2: make a difference. Patreon dot com slash Seth Andrews continuing
[44:16] Speaker 2: show number eight hundred. My special guest is my life partner,
[44:21] Speaker 2: my bride, and my love Natalie as she feels your questions,
[44:26] Speaker 2: comments and whatever you want to say. The super chat
[44:30] Speaker 2: in from Troy. Like all news broadcasters, we must know,
[44:33] Speaker 2: does Seth wear pants during broadcast?
[44:38] Speaker 4: He says, skivs right now, I.
[44:40] Speaker 2: Am not wearing underwear, or I'm not just in underwear.
[44:44] Speaker 2: I am, but I am wearing shorts. I'm wearing my
[44:48] Speaker 2: tennis shorts. So I've got a collar dress shirt and
[44:50] Speaker 2: I am in great tennis shorts. So there's a glimpse
[44:53] Speaker 2: behind the scenes. Gimpi Gaming ghosts aren't real. My proof
[44:57] Speaker 2: when you're a quadriplegic at the plint removes on the
[45:00] Speaker 2: Ouiji board coincidence, So I don't think so now. Gimpi
[45:04] Speaker 2: Gaming is hysterical. Is kind of a comedian who calls
[45:08] Speaker 2: in with some amazing one liners and has a tremendous
[45:11] Speaker 2: sense of humor. I've got a web call without a name.
[45:14] Speaker 2: Oh wait a minute, I think I see it at
[45:15] Speaker 2: the beginning? Is it? Aj Hi? Are you with me?
[45:19] Speaker 7: Hey?
[45:20] Speaker 2: Yes? I am welcome. AJ. Let's talk. What's on your mind?
[45:25] Speaker 4: How you doing well?
[45:28] Speaker 5: Yeah?
[45:28] Speaker 2: I know you, AJ. I think I saw you an
[45:31] Speaker 2: attendance at Objectively Dan's wedding in San Antonio, Texas a
[45:36] Speaker 2: few weeks ago. I was, yeah, yeah, it's good to
[45:42] Speaker 2: see you. Go for it.
[45:44] Speaker 7: What wat conversation? Not only is so nice to meet you,
[45:51] Speaker 7: do you have.
[45:51] Speaker 2: A commoner question?
[45:54] Speaker 1: Yeah?
[45:54] Speaker 2: I did.
[45:55] Speaker 7: Firstly, I wanted to say that I think that even
[45:58] Speaker 7: though you both have a different God belief, it's amazing
[46:02] Speaker 7: to see that you both share so many, amazing more
[46:06] Speaker 7: of the values. I think that's that's something inspiring and
[46:11] Speaker 7: to look look up to, especially like in this environment
[46:16] Speaker 7: that we're on living in right now, that is really
[46:19] Speaker 7: really scary. You know. I recently went to my citizenship interview,
[46:24] Speaker 7: and after that, I was I was really scared to
[46:28] Speaker 7: even go to protest because I was like, what if
[46:30] Speaker 7: they find something to like, you know, did I before
[46:34] Speaker 7: or to be like say, you know, like we're gonna
[46:36] Speaker 7: think you want to tell over something like that. So yeah,
[46:40] Speaker 7: I appreciate you both standing up for things that are right.
[46:46] Speaker 7: But anyways, let's get to it. To lighten up the mood.
[46:51] Speaker 7: I have a quick question. I almost broke set with
[46:55] Speaker 7: this question in the past. Okay, so I wanted to
[46:57] Speaker 7: ask natally the same question and know if Seth has
[47:00] Speaker 7: asked it to you. Okay, but how do you think?
[47:04] Speaker 7: How do you think like in your head? Like, let's say,
[47:08] Speaker 7: if you ask what you want for dinner? Does the
[47:13] Speaker 7: thinking process in your head go just words like you
[47:17] Speaker 7: hear yourself think, oh I want to have this or
[47:20] Speaker 7: is it a visual thing like you suddenly imagine like
[47:24] Speaker 7: see what you want to eat for dinners? Like I
[47:26] Speaker 7: s Are you a visual thinker? Are you a verbal thinker?
[47:29] Speaker 7: Just people that don't have any It's kind of it's
[47:32] Speaker 7: called a fantasia. What they don't see or hear anything
[47:36] Speaker 7: in their in their mind. It just kind of like
[47:39] Speaker 7: I suppose they use like feelings.
[47:43] Speaker 4: That's a really interesting question. I've never I've never thought
[47:47] Speaker 4: about that. I don't think I'm a visual thinker because
[47:52] Speaker 4: I don't really see the dinner. I think I'm more
[47:55] Speaker 4: practical minded. It's like, what do I have in the
[47:57] Speaker 4: kitchen that I can throw together that everybody wants? We
[48:01] Speaker 4: cook most of our food at home. So yeah, when
[48:06] Speaker 4: he says what's for dinner? Unless I'm like craving something
[48:09] Speaker 4: like if I think about, you know, this is what
[48:12] Speaker 4: sounds good. But if there's nothing that sounds good, I
[48:15] Speaker 4: think I'll go back to just being more practical minded
[48:17] Speaker 4: of what can I throw together without having to go
[48:19] Speaker 4: to the grocery store or your dash.
[48:21] Speaker 2: And spend twenty five dollars for a hamburger because we're
[48:24] Speaker 2: desperately minded good. But I mean, as far as do
[48:27] Speaker 2: you do you like? Is it words? Do you see
[48:30] Speaker 2: pictures when you go through a process? Do you hear sounds?
[48:33] Speaker 3: So?
[48:33] Speaker 2: Are you cognizant of any of that?
[48:35] Speaker 4: No, I'm not. I don't. I don't feel like I
[48:37] Speaker 4: hear sounds, I don't see pictures. I think I'm just
[48:40] Speaker 4: more analytical of what is true that I can put
[48:44] Speaker 4: my hands on and then try to, you know, solve
[48:48] Speaker 4: whatever the problem is. Now, if it's something that's difficult,
[48:52] Speaker 4: like feelings, you know, something that maybe makes you feel emotional,
[48:58] Speaker 4: I will just block it off. I'll just wall it down.
[49:01] Speaker 4: So obviously I have things to work through, but ill
[49:06] Speaker 4: it down.
[49:07] Speaker 2: You know what happens then is that pressure bills.
[49:10] Speaker 4: I honestly think like if I don't have the power,
[49:13] Speaker 4: if I don't feel like I have the power to
[49:15] Speaker 4: fix it, then then I'm going to spin my wills
[49:20] Speaker 4: and work myself up. Really, don't you feel like that?
[49:22] Speaker 4: Like I can work myself up pretty Like when you
[49:25] Speaker 4: feel helpless and you feel overwhelming, sometimes you have to
[49:29] Speaker 4: go back and focus on the things that you can control.
[49:32] Speaker 4: And you know, going back to politics, in a sea
[49:35] Speaker 4: of maga people, the only thing I can control are
[49:39] Speaker 4: the people that will engage in conversation and try to
[49:43] Speaker 4: get them, which I know such things is they're incapable of.
[49:47] Speaker 2: You know, I don't know if that's fair, but I
[49:49] Speaker 2: I have fought, I do fight cynicism when I see
[49:55] Speaker 2: what I what I consider to be a cult.
[49:58] Speaker 4: Yeah, I just want people to go on their Like,
[50:00] Speaker 4: if they make a claim, I want them to go
[50:03] Speaker 4: on their cell phone and search for proof so they
[50:06] Speaker 4: can back it up and send it to me. And
[50:08] Speaker 4: nine times out of ten they can't. They're like, well,
[50:10] Speaker 4: I can't find proof, but I know the algorithms on
[50:13] Speaker 4: their phone are going to change when they when they
[50:15] Speaker 4: google things like that, and so I'm just trying to
[50:18] Speaker 4: engage in conversation, you know, at a friend level. These
[50:21] Speaker 4: are people that I know in the tennis community and
[50:24] Speaker 4: try to get them to mindfully think about some of
[50:27] Speaker 4: the things that are happening. For example, Fox News is
[50:31] Speaker 4: telling you all these people that they're rounding up and
[50:35] Speaker 4: you know, shipping off shore are hardened criminals, but nobody
[50:38] Speaker 4: has had due process, so we really don't know if
[50:43] Speaker 4: that's the case. And so they I think they're hearing
[50:46] Speaker 4: the one liners and they take it as truth instead
[50:49] Speaker 4: of really kind of critically thinking about, you know, what
[50:53] Speaker 4: are the odds that all of these people are hardened criminals?
[50:56] Speaker 2: Well some of that too, doesn't it speak too kind
[51:00] Speaker 2: of an embedded xenophobia with some people. I mean they
[51:03] Speaker 2: hear the immigrant, the foreigner, maybe the brown person, and
[51:09] Speaker 2: that speaks to something that was already there inside them,
[51:12] Speaker 2: so they need jerk and say aha. They're may be
[51:14] Speaker 2: more prone to believe that. I think there's some white
[51:17] Speaker 2: privilege in play. I think there's some tribalism and othering
[51:20] Speaker 2: in play. I think a lot of people it's funny.
[51:25] Speaker 2: The Trump phenomenon has in some ways been a black
[51:27] Speaker 2: light at the crime scene. It's revealed things about people
[51:31] Speaker 2: that we did not realize were there, and it hurts
[51:34] Speaker 2: the heart. She and I've been like, I don't even
[51:37] Speaker 2: think I can answer the phone with this person, or
[51:39] Speaker 2: I don't want to spend time over the dinner table
[51:41] Speaker 2: with this person. I feel like they are maybe we
[51:46] Speaker 2: didn't really know them, or we didn't know them in
[51:48] Speaker 2: the way, and I don't know. I wrestle with it too.
[51:51] Speaker 4: I don't understand it.
[51:52] Speaker 2: And then you're like, well, maybe there's a way to
[51:56] Speaker 2: create the crack that lets in the light. And I
[51:59] Speaker 2: go back. I tend to go a little harder. So
[52:01] Speaker 2: she's being really diplomatic, and I will jump in and
[52:05] Speaker 2: post a link to Donald Trump's five hundred dollars tennis
[52:08] Speaker 2: shoes and say, hey, check this out, and then I'll
[52:10] Speaker 2: have something's narky to say. And I've been trying to
[52:13] Speaker 2: work on it, but it's hard. It's hard. It's hard
[52:16] Speaker 2: for people to tell me we need austerity, we must
[52:19] Speaker 2: trim the fat, and then they're like, yay, an eight
[52:21] Speaker 2: hundred dollars Trump inauguration watch, and let's pay one hundred
[52:25] Speaker 2: million for a military parade for the five time draft dodger. Yeah.
[52:30] Speaker 2: I tend to get a little snarky, and then she
[52:32] Speaker 2: has to talk me off. The ledge couple more Darcy
[52:35] Speaker 2: calling in at six point nine.
[52:37] Speaker 3: Hi, Hi by Natalie.
[52:41] Speaker 2: Oh shit, I didn't say goodbye to aj Aj. I'm
[52:44] Speaker 2: so sorry. I saw the next call forgive my rudeness.
[52:48] Speaker 2: I throw myself at your mercy. I will now segue
[52:51] Speaker 2: to Darcy. Thanks for your patience. You're on with Seth
[52:53] Speaker 2: and Natalie. What do you want to talk about?
[52:56] Speaker 5: Hi?
[52:56] Speaker 3: Guys, good to see you Natalie for the first time. Hello.
[53:02] Speaker 3: You're lovely and Seth is very lucky to have you.
[53:08] Speaker 2: People always look at her. They look at her and
[53:11] Speaker 2: they look at me, and they look at her and
[53:13] Speaker 2: they look at me, and they're like, Natalie, did you
[53:14] Speaker 2: lose a bad like? What happened? Did he follow you
[53:18] Speaker 2: home and you fed him? Did you feel sorry? What happened?
[53:21] Speaker 5: So?
[53:22] Speaker 2: No, I know what I got. I know what I got. Darcy,
[53:24] Speaker 2: go ahead, what was your question?
[53:27] Speaker 5: Good for you?
[53:27] Speaker 1: So?
[53:28] Speaker 3: I wanted to bring up Fox News I had. I
[53:32] Speaker 3: have an uncle who's Republican Christian and we were never
[53:40] Speaker 3: close until after my mom died. He lives He's East coast,
[53:46] Speaker 3: I'm West coast, but we could reconnected a bit, but
[53:52] Speaker 3: he kept sending me this stuff and I would spend
[53:59] Speaker 3: we would have mail exchanges. He's hard of hearing, so
[54:02] Speaker 3: we don't talk much on the phone, but we would
[54:04] Speaker 3: have these linkedy email exchanges. I would spend hours going
[54:09] Speaker 3: and searching these claims that he was making in these emails,
[54:12] Speaker 3: so that he was forwarding me clearly from the right
[54:18] Speaker 3: wing news media. And it got to the point where
[54:23] Speaker 3: I just said, you got to stop sending me this
[54:25] Speaker 3: stuff because it's garbage. And I don't think I ever
[54:30] Speaker 3: convinced him of anything, but it was exhausting for me
[54:36] Speaker 3: to try to have to go through this stuff, and
[54:40] Speaker 3: it was bonkers.
[54:44] Speaker 4: Fell you.
[54:44] Speaker 2: Did you ever have some people send you Did you
[54:47] Speaker 2: have people sending you Fox News type stuff?
[54:49] Speaker 1: Now?
[54:49] Speaker 4: I had people sending me TikTok clips, and I'm just.
[54:53] Speaker 2: Like TikTok clips proving why Trump's awesome and why the
[54:58] Speaker 2: Libs are all Yeah, And so it wasn't even a
[55:01] Speaker 2: news source. It was some dude with a cell phone
[55:04] Speaker 2: camera on TikTok.
[55:05] Speaker 4: Yeah, that worked for the administration.
[55:10] Speaker 2: Darcy, I cut you off, so you are feeling the frustration.
[55:14] Speaker 2: Did you have anything else? You have a question or
[55:18] Speaker 2: further comment, take your time.
[55:21] Speaker 3: No, just that I read recently that when Rupert Murdoch
[55:27] Speaker 3: finally dies that his heirs will probably not continue Fox News,
[55:37] Speaker 3: which hallelujah now.
[55:40] Speaker 2: If I may, for those who may not be aware,
[55:42] Speaker 2: especially my international listeners, Rupert Murdoch is the owner of NewsCorp,
[55:48] Speaker 2: which owns Fox News and a bunch of other media outlets. Personally,
[55:54] Speaker 2: I think Fox News is an oxymoron, and so do
[55:57] Speaker 2: squillions of other people out there. Essentially right now, Fox
[56:00] Speaker 2: News is dear leader state run television. But Rupert Murdoch
[56:07] Speaker 2: is like nine thousand years old, and in his offspring
[56:13] Speaker 2: who will inherit NewsCorp. Some have been openly critical and
[56:19] Speaker 2: about this hyper right, sycophantic, fake news kind of propaganda
[56:25] Speaker 2: network that Fox has become. And so the speculation is
[56:28] Speaker 2: once the old man kicks off, and there will be
[56:31] Speaker 2: celebrations by many of us when it happens. What's that
[56:34] Speaker 2: line by Mark Twain? I have never wished a man dead,
[56:38] Speaker 2: but I have read many obituaries with great satisfaction. This
[56:42] Speaker 2: is true with Rupert Murdoch and a few others. When
[56:44] Speaker 2: he goes. Some are saying that the newer, the offspring,
[56:48] Speaker 2: the children and grandchildren whoever inherits NewsCorp will defoxify Fox
[56:54] Speaker 2: News and it may become something else. Is that what
[56:58] Speaker 2: you've heard, Darcy?
[57:01] Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean the fear is that there may be
[57:03] Speaker 3: something else that comes in.
[57:05] Speaker 4: To fill that void.
[57:05] Speaker 5: But boy, if it goes away, I will be happy.
[57:10] Speaker 2: Well, we did see any of the times that Fox
[57:13] Speaker 2: News reported something that was less than you know, adoration
[57:18] Speaker 2: for Tangerine Palpatine that the Fox News audience turned on
[57:23] Speaker 2: the network and they said, I'm done with you. It's
[57:25] Speaker 2: like when one of the anchors on Fox News validated
[57:30] Speaker 2: the Biden win back in twenty twenty, and Fox News
[57:34] Speaker 2: has flipped out and said, screw you, guys, this network
[57:37] Speaker 2: is not news. And then they spun off into Newsmax
[57:39] Speaker 2: and OA and who knows what they'll do, but I
[57:42] Speaker 2: would love to see a management change and maybe a
[57:45] Speaker 2: direction change. We'll watch and see what happens, Darcy. So
[57:49] Speaker 2: thanks for colin us today. Much appreciated.
[57:52] Speaker 5: All right, guys, all right, you guys be good.
[57:54] Speaker 4: Thank you.
[57:54] Speaker 2: A couple more minutes, real fast. I know NAT's got
[57:57] Speaker 2: a she's playing tennis twice today. We're going to play together.
[58:01] Speaker 2: Some married couples cannot play tennis together because you you
[58:08] Speaker 2: might say things to a life partner on the tennis
[58:12] Speaker 2: court that you wouldn't say to somebody else. So when
[58:14] Speaker 2: when I miss a shot, what do you do?
[58:17] Speaker 4: Nothing, harder, harder?
[58:22] Speaker 2: What did you use it?
[58:23] Speaker 4: I think I like, take my rod. I don't realize
[58:25] Speaker 4: that I'm doing it, but I'm like, and it's.
[58:27] Speaker 2: Not the first It's like, here we go, but I've
[58:31] Speaker 2: done the same thing. Robbie, like one thing, step four,
[58:33] Speaker 2: step into your shop and before you know we're driving
[58:36] Speaker 2: home and there's black smoke coming out of our We're
[58:38] Speaker 2: going to do really good and then we you know,
[58:40] Speaker 2: and then we're like, we're not going to play with
[58:41] Speaker 2: each other anymore. And then the next day somebody's like, hey,
[58:45] Speaker 2: you guys want to play, and we're like, we'll be
[58:46] Speaker 2: right there. We just immediately reset. But but we've actually
[58:49] Speaker 2: worked that out. Lucas asked the question, Natalie, how much
[58:53] Speaker 2: time do you spend waiting on Seth when a fan
[58:55] Speaker 2: recognizes him in the real world.
[58:59] Speaker 4: Not a lot. I mean, they're pretty respectful of the time,
[59:03] Speaker 4: and it's always good to see people who appreciate the
[59:07] Speaker 4: hard work that he puts into everything. So I think
[59:10] Speaker 4: you know, some of Seth's people come from you know,
[59:14] Speaker 4: families or places where they feel alone and they feel
[59:20] Speaker 4: judged and they feel ostracized, and they find Seth's website
[59:23] Speaker 4: and then they feel, you know that it's okay, I'm
[59:26] Speaker 4: not broken, and I think he you know, genuinely gives that.
[59:31] Speaker 4: You know in his podcast, you guys know it too,
[59:33] Speaker 4: and so when they see him, you know, they're thankful,
[59:36] Speaker 4: and it lets Seth know. You know, sometimes he works
[59:40] Speaker 4: from home, he's not around a lot of people unless
[59:42] Speaker 4: he's traveling, and just that feedback to know that what
[59:46] Speaker 4: he's doing in the time and effort that he puts
[59:48] Speaker 4: into his podcast and his shows, you know, it matters
[59:52] Speaker 4: to somebody. And so I we're grateful when somebody comes up,
[59:56] Speaker 4: I think.
[59:57] Speaker 2: And that's you know, she's She's had to sacrifice a
[1:00:00] Speaker 2: lot of time of my time. You know, when I'm
[1:00:05] Speaker 2: one of the worst things is honey, this will just
[1:00:08] Speaker 2: take another half.
[1:00:09] Speaker 4: Hour, right football minute.
[1:00:10] Speaker 2: It's football minutes, and it just takes longer and longer
[1:00:13] Speaker 2: and longer. And you know, she has occasionally been it's
[1:00:17] Speaker 2: not easy being the partner of an activist. I think
[1:00:20] Speaker 2: even this coming weekend, you know, being gone for four
[1:00:23] Speaker 2: days and you know, I'm facetiming her as much as
[1:00:26] Speaker 2: I can and keeping her in the loop. But it's
[1:00:28] Speaker 2: a long time to be apart, and she's she's made
[1:00:31] Speaker 2: a lot of sacrifices. But she's also my number one cheerleader,
[1:00:34] Speaker 2: and she keeps me centered and grounded. You know when
[1:00:37] Speaker 2: people send me a message or an email that talk
[1:00:39] Speaker 2: about their journey, and it's amazing how heartfelt those emails are.
[1:00:43] Speaker 2: I came out of this. My family's rejected me. My
[1:00:46] Speaker 2: spouse said they're going to take the kids. I've been
[1:00:48] Speaker 2: in tears all night. I don't know what I'm going
[1:00:50] Speaker 2: to do. I feel lost, or maybe I did feel lost,
[1:00:53] Speaker 2: and now I found a community online, whether it's yours
[1:00:56] Speaker 2: or another. I know they're sharing a story. So we'll
[1:00:59] Speaker 2: be seeing on the bed and I'll pull it up
[1:01:02] Speaker 2: on my phone and I'll just read them aloud, and
[1:01:04] Speaker 2: I'll say, hey, check this out, and I'll read the
[1:01:07] Speaker 2: letters to her, and that gives use radio. I don't.
[1:01:11] Speaker 2: I don't use my radio voice. It's my real voice,
[1:01:14] Speaker 2: but I will give you want to. I want you
[1:01:16] Speaker 2: to hear yeah. And then she's good at saying because
[1:01:20] Speaker 2: it burnout's a thing for activists and it's also hard.
[1:01:24] Speaker 2: After sixteen years and seeing the insanity of the world,
[1:01:26] Speaker 2: sometimes you've become a little maybe even self pity or whatever.
[1:01:30] Speaker 2: You lose perspective and you say, fuck, it doesn't matter.
[1:01:35] Speaker 2: Is it making a difference? Am I just in an
[1:01:37] Speaker 2: echo chamber? Am I just talking to myself? You know,
[1:01:39] Speaker 2: of all the thousands of hours, what's really coming? You
[1:01:41] Speaker 2: start to really spin into oblivion, especially when you're physically tired.
[1:01:45] Speaker 2: And she literally will take me and go literally and say, hey,
[1:01:49] Speaker 2: you know.
[1:01:50] Speaker 4: Time to hit the road, time to go see some people.
[1:01:53] Speaker 2: You need to get out of your office and you
[1:01:55] Speaker 2: need to socialize with people, and you need to remember that.
[1:01:59] Speaker 2: It kind she kind of sets me up. Michael from
[1:02:03] Speaker 2: Scotland has sent the super chat. I don't know what
[1:02:07] Speaker 2: denomination that is. I don't know how to say seek,
[1:02:10] Speaker 2: but one hundred sounds like a lot, and I am.
[1:02:13] Speaker 2: I'm so grateful for you. I think we'll probably go
[1:02:18] Speaker 2: ahead and call it. Oh, I've got a super chat
[1:02:21] Speaker 2: from s caval Chuck, Canada. Two dollars. We're going to
[1:02:26] Speaker 2: ban in Canada in a few days. We get to
[1:02:30] Speaker 2: travel together, which is rare. So I'm speaking at the
[1:02:34] Speaker 2: weekend Reason event in Calgary, Alberta, and I was told
[1:02:39] Speaker 2: that there was a lovely national park, a mountainous range, rivers, trees, wildlife,
[1:02:45] Speaker 2: and so I googled it. Holy Nikes, it's gorgeous. So
[1:02:52] Speaker 2: I go downstairs and I'm like, honey, look at this,
[1:02:54] Speaker 2: Look at where I'm going. Maybe we can tack on
[1:02:57] Speaker 2: a few days together. And so I got his tickets
[1:03:01] Speaker 2: and we're going to go and we're gonna I don't know,
[1:03:04] Speaker 2: frolic with the creatures and I'm guessing the water's too
[1:03:07] Speaker 2: cold to kayak or canoe or I don't know. We're
[1:03:10] Speaker 2: going to go be together and enjoy some Canada, and
[1:03:13] Speaker 2: I think we shouldn't have too much trouble getting back
[1:03:15] Speaker 2: over the border. I was talking to Bob Barnes at
[1:03:18] Speaker 2: the Baja Con event and he said that there are
[1:03:21] Speaker 2: a lot of Canadians who were showing solidarity with Americans.
[1:03:24] Speaker 2: They understand that many of us are trapped on here
[1:03:27] Speaker 2: at their southern border on the other side, and we're
[1:03:30] Speaker 2: just as traumatized or more than anybody, and they stand
[1:03:34] Speaker 2: with us. And we look at Canadians and say, you
[1:03:38] Speaker 2: know what if you pull our ship from your shelves
[1:03:41] Speaker 2: and you want nothing to do with America's business partners Partners,
[1:03:46] Speaker 2: we kind of understand, like we can't blame you, but
[1:03:50] Speaker 2: we do know that we have friends and family up north,
[1:03:53] Speaker 2: and so we're going to come up north and spend
[1:03:55] Speaker 2: a few days up in It is pronounced bamf right
[1:03:58] Speaker 2: b a nff bam fans.
[1:04:01] Speaker 4: Sounds good to me.
[1:04:03] Speaker 2: I just like saying. So we'll be out there in
[1:04:05] Speaker 2: just a few Thank you so much to my lovely
[1:04:07] Speaker 2: bride for a spending show number eight hundred.
[1:04:10] Speaker 4: Hey, congratulations you. That's a lot of a lot of
[1:04:14] Speaker 4: hot air coming out of you.
[1:04:15] Speaker 2: That's a lot of hot air coming out of me.
[1:04:18] Speaker 2: And we'll continue maybe head to ward nine hundred. Thanks
[1:04:21] Speaker 2: again for being part of this community in this show.
[1:04:24] Speaker 2: I'll see you next time.
[1:04:25] Speaker 4: Heybye.
[1:04:25] Speaker 1: Follow the Thinking Atheist on Facebook and Twitter for a
[1:04:29] Speaker 1: complete archive of podcasts and videos, products like mugs and
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[1:04:40] Speaker 1: and conventions. Log onto our website, The Thinkingatheist dot com.

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