Best Erin Kenner Podcasts (2024)

1
Episode Thirty: "Kids Today" Live from the 2024 Secular Student Alliance Conference 1:39:08

2h ago1:39:08

1:39:08

Last month, David and Christina attended the annual Secular Student Alliance conference, held this year in sweltering Little Rock, Arkansas. They presented our “So You Want To Be An Organizer” workshop and conducted as series of run-and-gun interviews, collaring speakers and student attendees. What you'll hear from the students may disturb you. The…

1
Episode Twenty-nine: "What in God's Name is Going On?" with Alison Gill 54:18

9d ago54:18

54:18

This was an especially nutty week in America. And none of it had to do with a particular televised debate or even the Supreme Court’s ruling on presidential immunity. This week the state of Louisiana mandated that The Ten Commandments be displayed in every one of its public school classrooms. In Oklahoma, in the wake of the state’s Supreme Court de…

1
Episode Twenty-eight: "Engaging the Politically Unengaged" with Kadida Kenner 1:01:27

23d ago1:01:27

1:01:27

Kadida Kenner and her organization The New Pennsylvania Project — modeled after Stacy Abrams’ New Georgia Project — is focused on engaging with and registering voters in communities whose doors are rarely knocked. NPP is doing a tremendous job across the Commonwealth, and her insights into the current mindset of voters, particular minority voters 3…

1
Episode Twenty-seven: "We Of Little Faith" with Kate Cohen and Guest Host Olivia Goudeau 33:58

1M ago33:58

33:58

In this special edition of Unreasonable, guest host Olivia Goudeau, national organizing manager of the Secular Student Alliance (SSA), talks to Washington Post columnist and author Kate Cohen about her new book, “We Of Little Faith: Why I Stopped Pretending to Believe (and Maybe You Should Too)." Neither fit the conservative invention of “angry ath…

1
Episode Twenty-six: "Disruptions" with Gabe and Liz Rutan-Ram 58:42

2M ago58:42

58:42

Elizabeth and Gabe Rutan-Ram had fostered numerous children before they decided to adopt one, a child from Florida identified with a disability. If they were a monied couple, they could have gone through a private adoption agency spending $30,000 or more. Instead, and more in keeping with their means, they opted to take their state’s mandatory fost…

1
Live From SRF: Attorneys Erica Coray and Zach Pekelis 29:24

2M ago29:24

29:24

Erica Coray and Zach Pekelis are attorneys working to limit the deleterious impacts from religious accommodations. Their SRF panel “Past, Present and Upcoming Battles Over Health Mandates and Religious Accommodations” examined the law governing religious exemptions from public health requirements and the impact these cases have on the future of rel…

1
Live From SRF: Rep. Jared Huffman 22:02

2M ago22:02

22:02

In the House of Representatives there are a handful of secular politicians (some more out than others) who work toward enacting laws uninspired by providence and more by simple reason and innate human morality. Jared Huffman is a congressman from California. A former Mormon preacher and now self-defined humanist, he co-founded and co-chairs (along …

1
Live From SRF: Erin Reed 32:10

2M ago32:10

32:10

Erin Reed is a transgender woman, public speaker, journalist and activist who tracks anti-LGBTQ+ legislation around the world, tirelessly reporting on issues concerning the trans community. Her immensely influential TikTok account has over 445,000 followers and her daily Substack, Erin In The Morning, has more than 54,000 subscribers. On twitter al…

1
Live From SRF: Brandon Wolf 21:20

2M ago21:20

21:20

On June 12, 2016, life changed for Brandon Wolf. He crouched in a bathroom while a gunman opened fire at Orlando’s Pulse Nightclub, killing his best friends, Drew Leinonen & Juan Guerrero, and 47 others. Rather than be swallowed by the anger and fear of tragedy, Brandon set out to honor the victims’ legacies with action. In the immediate aftermath …

1
Episode Twenty-five: "Live From SRF" with Todd Stiefel 1:01:26

2M ago1:01:26

1:01:26

By his own definition, Todd Stiefel is weathly. He just is. That’s not a judgment, just a fact. When his family business was sold and the non-compete clause kicked in, he was left financially secure and without a career. His years of preparation to lead the company were rendered unnecessary. One day he was Chief Strategy Officer of Stiefel Laborato…

1
Life From SRF: Dr. Anthea Butler 31:04

2M ago31:04

31:04

Dr. Anthea Butler is Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought, and chair of the department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. A historian of African American and American religion, her research and writing spans African American religion and history, Nationalism, race, politics, Evangelicalism, gender and sexuali…

1
Life From SRF: Tim Whitaker 27:31

3M ago27:31

27:31

Tim Whitaker is a true believer. The creator and facilitator of The New Evangelicals podcast, Tim advocates for the marginalized within the church, exploring the full depth and breadth of Christian faith traditions, and seeks to hold toxic churches and their leaders accountable. So if you’re appalled by watching the America you thought you knew vio…

1
Live From SRF: Rep. Jamie Raskin 26:10

3M ago26:10

26:10

We're going to assume that if you're listening to this, Jamie Raskin needs no introduction. He's an icon among progressives and the secular movement. He co-chairs the Congressional Freethought Caucus with Rep. Jared Huffman from California. Even if you're not especially politically engaged, you couldn't have missed him as a forceful and learned voi…

1
Live From SRF: Ani Zonneveld 35:48

3M ago35:48

35:48

Ani Zonneveld is a writer, singer/songwriter, and founder and president of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), an international human rights organization that advocates for social justice and equality for all, and supports freedom of expression and of conscience, women’s rights and, as an ally, LGBTQ rights. She spoke with Unreasonable about the …

1
Episode Twenty-four: "Field Team 6" with Jason Berlin 1:03:53

3M ago1:03:53

1:03:53

Like just about everyone we know, Jason Berlin woke up one morning in November 2016 and realized he had to change his life. Being a writer for a reality comedy TV show was all fun and games. But real life had taken a dark turn with the election of a new president who, let’s just say, was not Hillary Clinton. He became an activist. And now, his gras…

1
Live From SRF: Rachel Laser 31:27

3M ago31:27

31:27

LIVE FROM SRF is a new limited series from Unreasonable, recorded at the 2024 Summit for Religious Freedom in Washington, D.C., April 13-16. We kick off the series with the event's host, Rachel Laser, Americans United for Separation of Church and State’s formidable president and CEO. In this conversation she sets the tone for the amazing and illumi…

1
Episode Twenty-three: "Secular Ground Game, Part 1" with Wil Jeudy (TX) and Devon Graham (FL) 1:06:54

3M ago1:06:54

1:06:54

With this episode, we begin a four-part series focused on those individuals and groups around the country who are leading the secular ground game. Some are facing tsunamis of resistance. Others are making headway. But the brighter the light on their efforts the easier to find and join them. You can contribute to their work, get your hands dirty, hi…

1
Episode Twenty-two: "This Is Our Youth" with Jahnavi Rao 1:16:59

4M ago1:16:59

1:16:59

What if young people took their collective future into their own hands, cultivated and supported their own candidates, rather than relying on the elders who appear increasingly out-of-touch with their concerns and will inevitably disappoint them? That sounds promising, until you discover the incredibly low voter registration rates among high school…

1
Episode Twenty-one: "The Religion Clauses" with Dean Erwin Chemerinsky 57:34

4M ago57:34

57:34

David and Christina talk to one of the country’s leading lights in the area of American constitutional law and dean of Berkeley Law, about the various interpretations of the First Amendment’s two religion clauses; freedom of speech in the age of artificial intelligence and political deep-fakes; staying positive and vigilant even as an overreaching …

1
Unreasonable Coffee 3/9/24 1:06:22

4M ago1:06:22

1:06:22

To help us better understand our Christian brethren, and how to build alliances between people of faith and those who are perfectly good without a god, we invited into the studio someone whose name is mentioned frequently on the podcast, usually preceded by the phrase “devout Christian”: David’s wife Kaitlyn Waterson. Where do this couple, an athei…

1
Unreasonable Coffee 3/2/24 40:00

5M ago40:00

40:00

This week's Unreasonable Coffee is served steaming hot! Christina is so pissed off she needs a dose of David's hopium to cool her off. Her ire is focused on the Supreme Court’s brazen disingenuousness over their backtracking on whether to hear the case for and against presidential immunity. At first, they punted to the Circuit Court. When that ruli…

1
Unreasonable Coffee 2/24/24 43:14

5M ago43:14

43:14

On this week's Unreasonable Coffee, David and Christina bring their hot takes to the extra-uterine children of Alabama, Tom Suozzi's winning strategy, eau de Trump, and why we brewed this Coffee just too damn early in the day. Thanks for listening! Now follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. And please consider becoming a Patreon sup…

1
Unreasonable Coffee 2/17/24 44:07

5M ago44:07

44:07

This time, David and Christina review the week’s special elections in New York and Pennsylvania; coming of age in the age of internet disinformation; Chris Ullery’s reporting on the Central Bucks school board member; David’s UUism and progressive allies in faith; religious and political Super Bowl ads. Thanks for listening! Now follow us on Twitter…

1
Unreasonable Coffee 2/10/24 41:22

5M ago41:22

41:22

Over this week’s cuppa, David and Christina discuss the Independent State Legislature Theory in light of the just-concluded SCOTUS arguments regarding Colorado’s assertion that the 14th Amendment empowers the state to remove certain individuals from its primary ballot; Breaching the Mainstream project by the Institute for Research and Education on …

1
Unreasonable Coffee 2/3/24 47:14

6M ago47:14

47:14

This week on Unreasonable Coffee, David and Christina wonk out on political fatigue, the endorsement process, the problem of judicial retention, as well as Turning Point USA crazy talk, a win for The Satanic Temple, and whether Taylor and Travis are psyops. Thanks for listening! Now follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. And please …

1
Unreasonable Coffee 1/27/24 46:34

6M ago46:34

46:34

During our hiatus, David and Christina engage in a series of mid-season one-on-one conversations analyzing the latest news, offering tools for engagement and serving up reasons for optimism. This week, they discuss a bill allowing the National Prayer Breakfast to be held in the Capital Rotunda, making faith-nonfaith marriages work, candidate vettin…

1
Unreasonable Coffee 1/19/24 41:05

6M ago41:05

41:05

During our hiatus, Unreasonable is gearing up for what will be an extremely active year. But between now and March 15, David and Christina will engage in a series of mid-season one-on-one conversations analyzing the latest news, issue calls to action and, as is their wont, share reasons for optimism. This week, they consider the results of the Iowa…

1
Episode Twenty: "Courting Disaster" with Andrew Seidel 1:28:11

7M ago1:28:11

1:28:11

As a constitutional lawyer, Andrew Seidel has fought on the front lines in the battle to protect and preserve the separation of church and state. He’s written two books on the scourge of Christian Nationalism: “The Founding Myth” provides a detailed history of the false notion that America was founded as a Christian nation, how the myth began and w…

1
Episode Nineteen: "Secular Public Service" with Rep. Chris Rabb 34:26

8M ago34:26

34:26

Pennsylvania State Representative Chris Rabb represents the 200th district of Philadelphia County, which includes, as he calls it, The People's Republic of Mount Airy. He is also non-religious and is proudly open about it. We talked to RepRabb about politics, religion, and why the twain should never meet. This one is fast and furious and 100% on po…

1
Episode Eighteen: "Inside The Family" with Jonathan Larsen 1:08:45

8M ago1:08:45

1:08:45

Since Eisenhower, every American president has attended something called the National Prayer Breakfast, hosted by a mysterious and amorphous group called the Fellowship Foundation, or more familiarly, The Family. The Family’s focus, according to our guest, journalist Jonathan Larsen, is to “pursue relationships with people in power and use those re…

1
Episode Seventeen: "Hopium Addiction" with Simon Rosenberg 1:12:09

8M ago1:12:09

1:12:09

In the lead-up to the 2022 midterms, pollsters uniformly predicted a red wave. This seemed a harmless prediction as our fickle American electorate often engages in buyer’s remorse a mere two years after a presidential election. But what actually happened was the exact opposite of that polling. While not exactly a blue wave, Democrats performed well…

1
Episode Sixteen: "Some Scary S**t" with Team Unreasonable 1:09:40

9M ago1:09:40

1:09:40

Since Unreasonable began, we’ve heard of horrifying tales, from the dark money fueling our far-right SCOTUS to the religious impositions on our personal healthcare choices, to the history, mobilization and impact of White Christian Nationalists literally praying for Armageddon. In observance of Halloween — Unreasonable’s highest and holiest of days…

1
Episode Fifteen: "Carlisle Indian Boarding School" with Gwen Leaffe Carr 1:02:00

9M ago1:02:00

1:02:00

“How do you expect this country to ever be anything but in turmoil?” This is the rhetorical question posed by our guest, Gwen Leaffe Carr, executive director of the Carlisle Indian School Project. A relatively unknown chapter in the ongoing tragedy of America’s Native people is the one about the boarding schools designed to erase them. Or, in the w…

1
Episode Fourteen: "The Assault on Public Education" Live from Widener University 1:08:31

10M ago1:08:31

1:08:31

When we give up on our students, especially those in public schools, we relinquish our collective responsibility as stewards of a thriving democracy. After all, knowledge is power. And in a democracy, knowledge is also a birthright. Defunding our public schools, demonizing public school teachers, diverting public funding to private and religious in…

1
Episode Thirteen: "The Conversion of the Jews" with Paul Golin 1:13:58

10M ago1:13:58

1:13:58

On the eve of Rosh Hashanah we talk with Paul Golin, executive director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism, an organization which promotes the concept of being Jewish absent a belief in God. But as with so much of Judaism, it's not that simple. Jews and their history are laden with baggage. For starters, is it a religion, a race, an ethnicity or…

1
Episode Twelve: "No Joke" with Pete Dominick 1:12:34

11M ago1:12:34

1:12:34

Sometimes you don't know whether to laugh or cry. On the one hand, a typical Donald Trump speech is comedy gold. No sentient human actually speaks like that, and the words, not to mention the syntax, are often a spew of laughable preposterousness. (Alec Baldwin was good, but nowhere near as hilarious as the original!) Still, he has an audience that…

1
Episode Eleven: "The Satanic Temple" with Lucien Greaves 1:25:18

11M ago1:25:18

1:25:18

While some politicians — who had never given a thought to God or Christianity or had ever committed an act of forgiveness or charity toward others that anyone could recall — were disingenuously embracing Jesus for their own craven ends, others were working across multiple, nonviolent, nontheistic, and legal approaches to protect children, fight on …

1
Episode Ten: "Charismatic Revival Fury" with Matthew D. Taylor 1:06:32

12M ago1:06:32

1:06:32

The New Apostolic Reformation is a loose network of independent congregations untethered by the dogmas of traditional denominations and many of their leaders, or self-anointed “apostles,” make claims so outlandish you wonder how anyone in their right mind would believe them. NAR was also a primary driver of J6. Never heard of NAR? You need to, beca…

1
Episode Nine: "Money for Humanists" with Ron Millar 1:08:36

1y ago1:08:36

1:08:36

How did the faux “grassroots” organization Moms For Liberty metastasize in just a few years to attract hundred of followers, as well as extremist presidential candidates, to their summit in Philadelphia last month? Money. Crazy money. We know about Barre Said, we know about Leonard Leo and the Federalist Society. There are plenty of deep-pocketed d…

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Episode Eight: "What Are They Thinking?" with Bradley Onishi 48:24

1y ago48:24

48:24

What if there was a war on but you didn't know it? And what if you were the enemy? The White Christian Nationalist movement in America is weaponizing. And they're using scripture to justify violence in the service of Jesus. After all, when you believe that America was founded as a Christian nation and all who identify as anything but are criminal t…

1
BONUS: "Christina's World" 16:36

1y ago16:36

16:36

David talks to Christina about her Catholic upbringing, her mother's premature death, and her atheism. Thanks for listening! Now follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. And please consider becoming a Patreon supporter at www.patreon.com/podcastunreasonable. It's a small price to pay to help keep America from becoming a theocracy, don…

1
Episode Seven: "Dying While Atheist" with Dave Warnock 52:37

1y ago52:37

52:37

What would you do if you knew your days were numbered? In 2019 Dave Warnock, one-time charismatic evangelical preacher now-atheist, was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis. ALS is a fatal condition, and with his diagnosis Dave had a choice to make: live out the rest of his life quietly waiting to die, or “live out loud.” That meant speakin…

1
Episode Six: "Who Is Thomas Paine?" with Margaret Downey 50:07

1y ago50:07

50:07

Happy Thomas Paine Day! June 8, also known as Freethinkers Day, celebrates one of leading lights of the American Revolution that hardly anyone knows anything about. His writings ignited our independence; laid out the structure for a new democracy; articulated the rights of all men and women, young and old; envisioned the safety net we now call Soci…

1
Episode Five, Part Two: "The Gospel According to Naomi" with Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart 42:28

1y ago42:28

42:28

In Part Two of this frank, fearless and provocative conversation, Rev. Naomi addresses topics ranging from blind faith, literal readings of the gospel, and the falacy of religious unity, to the demise of Christian progressivism, advice for secular candidates seeking to appeal to traditional Black congregations, and what inspires her, despite everyt…

1
Episode Five, Part One: "The Gospel According to Naomi" with Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart 43:35

1y ago43:35

43:35

The Christian bible is filled with contradictions, its text contested even among adherents. With so much of “the gospel” in question, where does one’s faith come from? David and Christina explore the meaning of faith, the state of American Christianity, and the separation of church and state with Rev. Naomi Washington-Leapheart. This is the first o…

1
BONUS: "Secular Student Alliance" with Kevin Bolling 15:57

1y ago15:57

15:57

Calling All Secular High School and College Activists! For over two decades, the Secular Student Alliance has empowered secular students to proudly express their identity, build welcoming communities, promote secular values, and set a course for lifelong activism. The SSA provides scholarships and their national conference is coming up in June. Exe…

1
Episode Four: "So What's Our Strategy?" with Sarah Levin 50:33

1y ago50:33

50:33

So what do we do when the party that generally embraces secular values like bodily autonomy, democracy, and science, demonstrates an abject disinterest in its secular voters, despite representing a huge voting bloc? Could this be the biggest miscalculation in the Democratic party's strategy? Do we even have a strategy? Okay, that's a lot of questio…

1
Episode Three: "Tenacious" with Rob Boston 47:56

1y ago47:56

47:56

When you consider how many laws and exemptions accommodate Christian Nationalists, and the militancy with which they fight to impose their extremist vision of America – from White supremacy to homophobia to vicious attacks on women’s healthcare – it’s not a stretch to see the battle lost. Thankfully, we have organizations like Americans United for …

1
Episode Two: "A Constant Battle" with Mikey Weinstein 38:22

1+ y ago38:22

38:22

For nearly 20 years, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation has been on the front lines of calling out and litigating Christian Nationalism and religious indoctrination in the U.S. military. David and Christina talk to its founder, Mikey Weinstein, and his report from the field clearly illustrates America’s strong-armed bend towards theocracy. “…

1
Episode One: "Follow the Money" with Nina Burleigh 46:19

1+ y ago46:19

46:19

David and Christina go deep diving into the dark money world of Christian Nationalism and right-wing extremism, with journalist and best-selling author, Nina Burleigh. Thanks for listening! Now follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Threads. And please consider becoming a Patreon supporter at www.patreon.com/podcastunreasonable. It's a small…

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