David Smalley is a former Christian musician who became an atheist after studying psychology, sociology, world religions, and his own faith. He soon turned into a secular activist.

He was the editor-in-chief of Secular World and American Atheist magazines, the author of Baptized Atheist, and co-founder of AtheistAudiobooks.com. His Secular Media Group will soon release a children’s book titled Tiny Thinkers: Charlie and the Tortoise.

You may know him best, however, from his incredibly popular podcast Dogma Debate which has tens of thousands of weekly subscribers.

We spoke with David about why it’s so important not to be an angry atheist (if you can help it), what it takes to be a successful podcaster, and why he’s so passionate about atheist activism.

Notes:

Here’s the link to Dogma Debate’s #Iam4th campaign. You can also become a member of Dogma Debate and support the work David is doing.

We also spoke about a special episode of his podcast in which he spoke about death with his daughter. You can listen to that episode here.

Shawna Leneé is an openly atheist adult film star who has appeared on the cover of Penthouse and won an AVN award for “Unsung Starlet of the Year.” She left the adult industry temporarily, at which point she attended college began a couple of small businesses, but she’s back making movies now. (You should assume everything in this interview is NSFW.)

We spoke with Shawna about why she believes her atheism is the most controversial thing about her, whether she meets a lot of religious people on set, and what she plans to tell her kids about her career.

John W. Loftus should be a Christian. He attended and graduated from Great Lakes Christian College, Lincoln Christian University, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School where he learned under apologist William Lane Craig.

But he’s spent the last several years debunking the faith.

His books include Why I Rejected Christianity, Why I Became an Atheist, and The Outsider Test for Faith. His latest book is strangely called How to Defend the Christian Faith.

I spoke with John about the worst argument Christian apologists use, how learning the Bible caused him to leave the faith, and whether rejecting Christianity is the same thing as becoming an atheist.

David Williamson is the founder and President of the Central Florida Freethought Community. His group has been leading the way when it comes to getting atheists to give invocations at local government meetings.

I spoke with David about why secular invocations are so valuable, step by step instructions on what local activists can do to get on these invocation lists, and what atheists should say if they get the opportunity to speak in front of government officials.

Notes:

You can connect with CFFC on Facebook. The group is keeping track of secular invocations in central Florida at InvocationsOnline.com.

We chatted during the show about Christian chaplains on public high school and college sports teams, and there’s a lengthy compilation of where that’s happening at TeamChaplains.wordpress.com.

If you’d like to learn more about delivering secular invocations in your area, Americans United has a wonderful guide as part of their Operation Inclusion.