Jessica and I sat down to talk about several stories from the past week involving religious and politics.

They included:

– Why does Vice President Mike Pence have to eat alone?

– Why can’t ultra-Orthodox Jews handle looking at a picture of Smurfette?

– Who fears death more: Atheists or the devoutly religious?

– Why did a Texas Republican use the Bible to justify taking food stamps away from poor people?

– Was it fair to criticize an elderly woman who thanked God for the wrong reasons?

– What did we make of the Netflix movie The Most Hated Woman In America?

(Image via Shutterstock)

Anne Bouleanu is a freelance journalist from Chicago. She has worked in digital media and television covering a range of topics including U.S. politics, women’s rights, conflicts in the Middle East and North Africa, political tensions in South America, and police brutality and race relations in the United States. She covered the primaries during the 2016 U.S. presidential race, focusing on policy issues and increasing divisions among the American electorate.

During her time at Al Jazeera America, Anne produced breaking news segments as well as packages on underreported global issues. Prior to this, Anne worked at Bloomberg TV focusing on global and domestic financial news.

Jessica spoke with Anne about her experience in South America over the summer, their experiences as women in a largely male workplace, and what the media will look like under Donald Trump. (Full disclosure: They’ve been friends and coworkers for years… in case that’s not abundantly clear!)

Bart Campolo is the Humanist Chaplain at the Univ. of Southern California, the host of a fantastic podcast called “Humanize Me,” and the author of a new book written with his evangelical father Tony Campolo called Why I Left, Why I Stayed.

Bart, if you haven’t figured it out already, is the one who left Christianity. The book is all about that conflict, and their love for each other, and how they can both advocate for beliefs that are in direct competition with each other without losing their own bond.

I spoke with him about how his parents were devastated by his apparent apostasy, what atheists don’t get about Christians, and why hot dogs aren’t the key to a happier life.

In Louis Theroux‘s new film, My Scientology Movie, the Church of Scientology doesn’t give him access to the key leaders or buildings themselves… That sounds like quite the obstacle for a documentarian, so Theroux does the next best thing: He hires actors to recreate well-documented scenes in Scientology’s history. All the while, the actual Church seems to be keeping tabs on him.

Theroux has worked with Michael Moore, and his projects have often focused on interesting subcultures — everything from the KKK to Westboro Baptist Church.

I spoke with him about Scientology’s version of “turn the other cheek,” the harassment that one key defector of the Church still has to put up with, and what one thing could hurt the Church the most.