Hemant Mehta is the founder and editor of FriendlyAtheist.com, a YouTube creator, and podcast co-host. He is a former National Board Certified math teacher in the suburbs of Chicago. He has appeared on CNN and FOX News and served on the board of directors for Foundation Beyond Belief and the Secular Student Alliance. He has written multiple books, including I Sold My Soul on eBay and The Young Atheist's Survival Guide. He also edited the book Queer Disbelief.
Filmmaker Louis Theroux premiered his latest documentary, My Scientology Movie, nearly a year ago to overwhelmingly positive reviews. Failing to get cooperation from the Church itself, the film is all about how Theroux tries to hire actors to recreate infamous scenes witnessed by former Scientologists, only to have the actual Church come after him for doing that. But good luck trying to see it in Ireland. Theroux’s team can’t find a single distributor to help release the film… and that may be because they’re all afraid of running afoul of the nation’s absurd blasphemy law. Read more
If you call yourself a critical thinker, then you’ll love John Oliver’s latest segment from Last Week Tonight. He compared Hillary Clinton’s scandals to those of Donald Trump. And by every meaningful metric, there’s absolutely no comparison. This wasn’t just a knee-jerk partisan response. His team dug into what she did and how problematic it was. Was she frustrating and foolish at times? Absolutely. Did she commit any crimes? No. Trump, on the other hand, seems to experience nothing but scandal and fraud — and anyone daring to criticize Clinton over her foundation or emails has to explain why his never-ending web of problems don’t carry the same weight with them. Read more
Our latest podcast guest is Frank Schaeffer, one of the architects — and now one of the chief critics — of the Religious Right. We spoke about his role in creating the Religious Right, why evangelicals are flocking to Donald Trump when he shares almost none of their values, and what he would say to anyone who might vote for Gary Johnson or Jill Stein. Read more