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Trevor McKendrick, Atheist Who Created Popular Spanish-Language Bible App

A few weeks ago, I was listening to Alex Blumberg’s popular podcast StartUp which is all about his journey beginning his own podcasting company.

In one episode, he aired a conversation with Trevor McKendrick, an atheist who was making quite a bit of money selling a Spanish-language Bible app for your phone. So you know we had to talk to him ourselves.

We spoke with Trevor about the overwhelmingly positive reaction to the story, how it publicized his atheism more than he expected (especially as an ex-Mormon), and what Bible-buying trends look like online.

Daniel Genis, Former Atheist Prisoner

Daniel Genis (rhymes with “tennis”) grew up in New York City, where he attended Stuyvesant High School and New York University, graduating with a degree in history and French. In 2003, however, he committed five armed robberies, which led to a decade behind bars. During that time, he wrote a novel called Narcotica. Now that he’s out, he’s been writing about the intersection of religion and incarceration for publications like Vice, Deadspin, the Washington Post. New York Daily News, and Newsweek.

We spoke with Daniel about the soul exchange that got him in trouble, why we should feel any sympathy for him, and what he hopes to do now that he’s a free man.

(Image credit: Petra Szabo)

Ross Blocher, Co-host of Oh No, Ross and Carrie!

Ross Blocher is the co-host of the Oh No, Ross and Carrie! podcast, in which the hosts don’t simply talk about the paranormal, but “dive right in by joining religions, attending spiritual events, undergoing “alternative” treatments, partaking in paranormal investigations, and more.”

Jessica caught up with him during a recent trip to Los Angeles and they spoke about how the podcast began, along with some of his favorite investigations.

Peter Boghossian, Author of A Manual for Creating Atheists

Peter Boghossian is a philosophy professor at Portland State University and the author of A Manual for Creating Atheists, a book in which he talks about “street epistemology” — essentially how to talk people out of their faith. He’s currently working on a phone app that’ll guide people through that process.

We spoke with Peter about why his approach isn’t just “atheist evangelism,” why smart people can believe silly things, and whether his techniques work on his own children in other areas of life.

You can see his upcoming speaking engagements here.