Cristin Padgett is a Democrat hoping to win a seat in the Texas State House. She’s doing that in a heavily gerrymandered district in a very red part of the state. What makes her candidacy so unique, though, is that she has made public the fact that she’s an atheist, making her one of the only openly non-theistic candidates this election cycle in any part of the country. Not exactly part of anyone’s playbook in Texas politics.

We spoke with Padgett about how she can convince Texans in her district to support her, what she could accomplish with a Republican majority in the House, and what she learned from the failed gubernatorial campaign of Wendy Davis.

Notes:

You can check out Padgett’s social media pages on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

You can donate to her campaign here.

During the interview, we also brought up the campaign of Daniel Moran (another atheist who ran for the Texas House) and an NPR interview in which Padgett spoke about her atheism.

Susan Gerbic is a photographer and skeptical activist from California. She contributes to the Skepticality podcast and Skeptical Inquirer magazine. In addition to co-founding the Monterey County Skeptics, she leads a group called Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia.

Her goal in that last group is to improve the content of skeptic-related content on Wikipedia.

We spoke about why editing Wikipedia is so important, how she avoids charges of bias in the articles, and how you can join her cause.

Notes:

You can learn more about the Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project here and here.

If you think you have the dedication to be part of Susan’s team, you can express your interest by contacting GSoWteam@gmail.com.

Eric is a writer currently living in Chicago. He was raised in California in the Worldwide Church of God, a Christian organization that is now known as Grace Communion International and has been considered by many to be a cult.

Jessica spoke with him about his upbringing in the church, how it affected his childhood, and how he ultimately left it all behind.

…

We apologize for the sound quality in this episode! The audio equipment wasn’t working properly so we had to resort to alternate means.

Also, Eric requested some anonymity, which is why we did not include his last name for this episode.

Dr. Ken Miller is a Professor of Biology at Brown University and the co-author of a Biology textbook used in schools across the country. He’s also the author of Finding Darwin’s God and Only a Theory.

I’m talking to him now because it’s the tenth anniversary of the Kitzmiller v. Dover case which gutted the Intelligent Design movement. Miller was an expert witness for the science side.

I spoke with him about whether evolution advocates can finally relax, how a Roman Catholic like himself reconciles science and faith, and the effect of Creationist propaganda on science literacy.

Notes:

Dr. Miller wrote a wonderful summary of his involvement with the case for the National Center for Science Education.

Be sure to watch the excellent NOVA documentary about the trial.

The Pew study about how young people overwhelmingly accept evolution these days can be found here.

Finally, Dr. Miller recommended a book called God’s Mechanics: How Scientists and Engineers Make Sense of Religion by Guy Consolmagno.