Daniel Dennett is a philosopher/professor at Tufts University and the author of Breaking the Spell.
Jessica spoke with him about the term “atheist” and its alternatives, his project “Caught in the Pulpit” about preachers who no longer believe what they preach, and the culture of Americans who prefer to stay put instead of travel abroad.
Tyler Measom and Justin Weinstein are the producers and directors of An Honest Liar, a documentary about James “The Amazing” Randi.
Jessica spoke with them about the movie, the archival footage they found, and Randi “victims” psychic Uri Geller and televangelist Peter Popoff.
James Randi is the legendary investigator of paranormal and pseudoscientific claims and the namesake of the James Randi Educational Foundation. Banachek is the mentalist who created the “bullet catch” trick made famous by Penn & Teller and the director of JREF’s One Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge.
Jessica spoke with them about the difficulties of testing so-called supernatural powers, performing mentalism and fooling people, and what they still love about watching magic shows.
Billy Hallowell is the faith editor for TheBlaze.com, perhaps better known as Glenn Beck’s website. He has also written pieces for The Washington Post, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, and several other websites, and he is a frequent guest on Fox News Channel. His interest in politics and social issues goes far back, though. He used to be the CEO of VoterWatch, a non-partisan nonprofit focusing on government transparency, and even began a website in high school encouraging students to make a difference in their communities.
We spoke with Billy about what he’s learned from working under Glenn Beck, what conservatives do poorly, and how we share a surprising bond involving actor Nicolas Cage.