Monthly Archives

July 2016

Tracey Moody’s Visit to Ark Encounter

Tracey Moody, a frequent contributor to FriendlyAtheist.com and co-moderator of the Friendly Atheist Facebook page, went to Ark Encounter (the Noah’s Ark theme park) in Kentucky on opening day to find out what a $100 million attraction looks like.

We spoke about the atheist protest outside the Ark, the exhibits inside of it (including one about how they removed all the excrement), and whether it’s worth visiting just for the sake of curiosity.

Notes:

We referred to several posts and videos Tracey made while she was there. Here’s a brief list:

  • Scenes from Ark Encounter’s Opening Day (Outside the Ark) (Link)
  • Scenes from Ark Encounter’s Opening Day (Inside the Ark) (Link)
  • Ken Ham: If Students Visit Ark Encounter As Part of a Field Trip, I’ll Only Charge Them $1 (Link)
  • Ark Encounter’s Official Attendance Numbers Are Far Below What Creationists Expected (Link)
  • Ken Ham Isn’t a Big Bad Ogre: Why I Feel Bad About Ark Encounter (Link)

And here, at long last, is the picture of Tracey and the dog:

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Leighann Lord, Comedian

Leighann Lord is a comedian and co-host of the StarTalk podcast with Neil deGrasse Tyson.

She has performed stand-up on Comedy Central and HBO, has won several awards for her work, and written books including Dict Jokes and Real Women Do It Standing Up.

At the recent American Humanist Association conference in Chicago, I spoke with her about how she went from a corporate job to a comedy stage, why performing at colleges has become tougher for comedians, and why unique outreach to African American atheists is worthwhile.

David Diskin, President of Camp Quest West

David Diskin is the President of Camp Quest West. Camp Quest is a summer camp for children that embraces science, natural wonder, and humanist values.

David has worked with the group since 2010. He has been a long-time activist in California, co-founding the Stockton Area Atheists and Freethinkers and Sunday Assembly Sacramento. He also serves on the boards of California Freethought Day, the Secular Coalition for California, and the national Reason Rally Coalition.

At the recent American Humanist Association conference in Chicago, we spoke with David about whether children of religious parents ever attend the camp, how the camp’s curriculum has changed over the years, and what he hopes Camp Quest achieves in the next few years.

If you’d like to make a donation to Camp Quest, you can do so here.

John de Lancie, Star Trek‘s “Q”

John de Lancie is an actor best known for his portrayal of “Q” on Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, and Star Trek: Voyager. He’s also appeared on Breaking Bad and The West Wing. In September, he filmed a video for the Openly Secular campaign.

So what happens when two people who have never watched Star Trek get a chance to interview him on extremely short notice? We talk about the current golden age of television, what defines a great actor, and whether we need to use labels like “Humanist” at all.

We spoke at the recent American Humanist Association conference in Chicago, where he was receiving the Humanist Arts Award.