639: Duck Off Edition

Ready to take advantage of an incredible deal at Mazda?

September is the final month of eligibility for federal $7,500 electric vehicle lease cash on the new Mazda CX70 and CX90 plug-in hybrid.

All Mazda current inventory is unaffected by new tariffs.

See your local Mazda dealer for details.

$7,500 electric vehicle lease cash offer expires at the end of September.

Don't miss out.

$7,500 lease customer cash good toward 2025 CX70 PHEV and CX90 PHEV when leasing through Mazda Financial Services.

Lease customer cash can be be combined with other public offers, including lease incentive offers.

Lease customer cash cannot be combined with APR or other customer cash offers.

Lease customer cash is not redeemable as cash or cash back option.

Lease customer cash is only available on approved credit.

Not all customers will qualify for credit approval or offer.

Limit one discount per customer per vehicle.

Lease customer cash offer only available in the United States regardless of buyer's residency.

Void reprohibited.

Apply within the lease structure as a capital cost reduction.

Lease customer cash is only available on participating Mazda dealer's current inventory, which is subject to availability.

Offer ends 9:30-2025, and you must take delivery prior to the expiration of offer.

See participating Mazda dealer for complete details.

At the UPS store, we ensure your small bid stands out with a variety of high-quality paper stock options, banners, posters, for sures, and more.

Most locations are independently owned.

Product services, pricing, and hours of operation may vary.

See Center for details.

The UPS store, be unstoppable.

Come into your local store today and get your print on.

Warning, the following podcast contains adult language in its most juvenile form.

This week's episode of the Scathing Atheist is brought to you by stamps.com, BetterHelp, and by the new Wishing Well crowdsourcing app, Plenty of Wish.

Our new service finds somebody close to a Wishing Well who will throw money into a Wishing Well on your behalf while wishing for your shit for only 10% of the donation.

Plenty of Wish, because that's literally what churches do, and it seems like somebody else should get in on that shit.

And now, the scathing atheist.

Hi, I'm Ian.

No, not that one.

And as an American living in Europe, I can assure you that we did, in fact, evolve from filthy monkey men and women.

And then I look back at home and realize not all of us made it very far.

It's Thursday.

It's May 29th.

And it's put a pillow on your fridge day.

Yeah.

Because nobody knows when a nap's going to stray.

Oh, there you you go.

I'm No Illusions.

I'm Eli Bosnick.

I'm Heath Henright.

And from Alfred Kinseys, New Jersey, Ann Arbor, Michigan, and Wake Ross, Georgia, this is the Scathing Atheist.

On this week's episode, the SCOTUS huffily leaves a clause established.

RFK Jr.'s top medical scientists are going to see if Trump derangement syndrome can be cured with ivermectin.

And we consider the complicated question of duct dynastic succession.

But first, the diatribe.

Well, you know, Joe Rogan is in the middle of finding Jesus.

And right when it was most lucrative, it's amazing how often that spiritual alialiox and free coincides with one's financial interests, isn't it?

And honestly, not that atheism doesn't have its prominent assholes, but I feel like the list of people who feel pushed out speaks volumes to the quality of our company.

Joe Rogan, Shia LaBeouf, Russell Brandt, J.D.

Vance.

The fact that these people don't feel welcome at our party says a lot about our party.

Now, to be clear, the Joe Rogan thing isn't coming from Joe Rogan, at least not yet.

It's coming from a Canadian apologist named Wesley Huff, who is clearly floating a trio balloon on Rogan's behalf.

Huff is a Christian apologist who guested on Rogan's show earlier this year when Rogan saw his ratings dipping a little bit and realized he needed to lean all the way into his conservative douchebag persona.

After he put his thumb on the scale of the presidential election, he knew his brand was poisoned with liberals forever after.

And conservatives are pretty forgiving of white men if their only sins are things like sexual assault, rape, and fraud, but they don't abide an atheist for long.

So Rogan has this professional Bible liar on his show.

He pretends to find it convincing the way that he pretended to find, you know, Trump's bat shit yammering yammering convincing then he starts to rethink the whole atheism thing then he starts to go to church and what do you know he suddenly finds christ and we're at the going to church phase now you know an activity that many people do on a weekly basis in advance of adopting that religion But yeah, so now Huff, he's talking about on his own podcast and to any media outlet that'll listen to him about how he's in regular communication with Rogan about his ongoing spiritual journey, helping him sort out his misgivings about the Bible, guiding him through his relationship with Jesus, answering his questions about the scripture, yada, yada, yada.

You have to keep in mind that atheism has been a pretty big part of Joe Rogan's personal brand as long as talking about Joe Rogan's personal brand wouldn't have been a punchline, right?

The whole, I'm a skeptical guy who doesn't accept the official story charade is it's his primary appeal, right?

People inclined to trust their gut over climate scientists or in a pinch, an MMA announcer's gut over climate scientists, eat that shit up with a spoon.

They love the fantasy that they can outsmart all them limp dick science nerds with their country gumption.

And Joe Rogan allows them to role play that on an episode by episode basis.

Now, if I had to guess at this point, I'd assume that Rogan is trying to find out if he can occupy a middle ground here, right?

Like to maintain his skepticism of Christianity while still attending church often enough to appease Christians.

And if I had to guess further, I would say that no, that will not be enough for them.

And further still, I'd guess that he will eventually accept that that's the case and he'll very publicly declare his conversion to Christianity, thereby ultimately leading his audience to where they already were.

But despite the naked cynicism of his conversion of convenience, Christianity will spin it as a major coup.

In fact, they're already doing so.

Every story I saw about this, which to be fair, legitimate news sources don't give a fuck about Joe Rogan regularly attending church.

So the only stories that I saw about this were from like Fox News and Breitbart and the Daily Mirror and shit.

But every story I saw about this pointed to it as further evidence of this mythical Gen Z revival among young men.

Not that anybody's mistaking the 57-year-old Rogan for a young man, but of course his show has a ton of appeal to that demographic.

So they're showing this as the inevitable result of his audience turning to Christ in mass and him going, oh, it must be something up with all this great Jesus stuff.

And by the way, if you want evidence of what bullshit this narrative is, this Gen Z revival narrative is, you need look no further than the evidence that they are offering up as to what bullshit it isn't.

It's all either anecdotal or nonsensical or both.

Like this example that Huff offered on Rogan's show, he said, quote, we had a Christian bookstore reach out to us recently and they said, we have people walking through this door asking young people, teenagers saying, I want a Bible.

All my friends are reading this thing, end quote.

And when they're not using fucking hearsay to the second power, they're using stats from the American Bible Society with what the fuck would that even mean statistics like, quote, millennials saw a 29% increase in Bible use from 2024 to 2025 and quote among Gen Z scripture engagement rose from 11% in 2024 to 15% in 2025 end quote

And no, even with terms that squishy, the Fox News article that I'm quoting didn't tell us, you know, about the Gen Z Bible use or the millennial scripture engagement, how that was doing.

And look, it's hard to take this shit seriously.

It's hard to take Joe Rogan seriously.

Marsh and Cecil try to do it every week over on the No Rogan podcast.

They barely manage and they're fucking professionals.

But this nothing-ass story about Rogan attending church is a sign of something that should scare the hell out of us.

Christianity, the most homophobic, regressive, sexist kind of Christianity is consolidating power.

And if you want to know what religion does when it has power, just look at literally any point in history where that was the case.

They're talking about your Jesus.

Joining me for headlines tonight are the left and right flippers to my plunger, Heath Enright and Eli Bosnick.

Fellas, are you ready to bounce a few things around?

Okay, I was imagining some kind of Hellmanatee for so long before I realized you were talking about pinball.

Oh, yeah, I could have mentioned it.

And the Hellman T had a clogged toilet, apparently.

He was having a plunger.

But yeah, pinball podcast action.

Go.

Sorry, when I'm chasing April Poff's high scores, it's all I'm thinking about.

And of course, I need to take a second here to tell you about Matreon one last time.

This is the time of year when we ask you extra hard for money.

Just like that.

Look, if we were in this thing for the money, we'd have turned crypto bro douchebag long ago.

Eli keeps pitching that at every third company meeting.

In fact,

he shows up with a list of the fewest people we would need to start hating to be millionaires.

Looking at you, Phoenicians.

But you can,

I was, I was wondering what that was supposed to spell.

But you can help keep those plans on the shelf by pledging or increasing your pledge at patreon.com slash scathingatheist.

There are only a couple of days left in May, so this is your last chance to get in on the action unless you want to donate us money in June, which you can also do.

And speaking of how we pay the bills, it's time for a word from this week's first sponsor, stamps.com.

Dude, you have to come out of there.

I said when we're done.

Yeah, Yeah, when we're done.

Hey, Eli, why is Heath locked in his room?

Did you say that all the FIFA games are the same again?

No, no.

I was hoping for some more flexibility in my workday, so I grabbed the cloning machine from Citation Needed.

But before I could use it, Heath stole it and locked himself in his room with all of the clones.

A lot of differences between the FIFAs.

Exactly.

I see.

Well, Eli, if you want more flexibility in your workday, why don't you just try stamps.com?

What's stamps.com?

Okay, okay, that was was a clone, but I still would like the point, please.

Well, you can't have it.

Stamps.com handles all your mailing and shipping needs wherever, whenever.

Stamps.com lets you seamlessly connect with every major marketplace and shopping cart if you sell products online, and you can access all the USPS and UPS services you need to run your business right from your computer or phone anytime, day or night.

No lines, no traffic, no waiting.

Wow, that sounds amazing.

It is.

Plus, with stamps.com, you'll get rates you won't see anywhere else, like up to 88% off USBS and UPS.

All right, Noah.

I'm sold.

Where do I sign up?

Have more flexibility in your life with stamps.com.

Sign up at stamps.com/slash scathing for a special offer that includes a four-week trial plus free postage and a free digital scale.

No long-term commitments or contracts.

Just go to stamps.com/slash scathing.

All right, Noah.

Thanks.

Hey, you hear that, Eth?

I don't need your clones anyway.

Whoever, we're playing Smash in here.

Dibs Kirby.

No, I Dibs Kirby.

I Dibs Kirby.

They're going to be in there for a while.

Oh, yeah.

Murder.

See, they're murdering.

Well, that'll shorten it.

We can both play Kirby.

And now, back to the headlines.

In our lead story tonight, in No News is Good News News, we have news about the state of American public schools.

The Supreme Court has a docket full of cases about honoring, you know, the amazing human rights culture of 1798 and stuff like that.

So it continued its lightning round of of deciding extremely important legal stuff last week with a ruling about St.

Isidora of Seville Catholic Virtual School.

They applied to be a charter school in Oklahoma that gets public funding, but they got denied.

The Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that you can't fund a religious school with taxpayer money because laws.

And in what sounds like good news for the separation of church and state, the U.S.

Supreme Court landed on a 4-4 deadlock.

And yeah, well, therefore, the previous ruling gets upheld.

So if there's any good news, it's the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment continuing to exist

just barely, at least for now.

And we're done with the good news.

So maybe a little chant before I move on.

You want to do a chant?

Oh, fuck.

Yeah.

Just barely at least for now.

Just

barely at least for now.

The triplets would make that heart sink up.

Yeah.

We got it.

And thanks to Redbeard for sending us the link to scathingnews at gmail.com.

You get a fucking cookie or whatever.

Okay.

So here's what else is true.

I like that this is someone's first episode.

Listen, yeah, thank you for sending it.

We're mad about this.

It's like hailed as good news.

I don't really think it is.

Here's what else is true.

Here's why I don't think it's actually good news.

The 4-4 deadlock was only possible because Amy Coney Barrett recused herself from the case.

St.

Isidore is represented by the Notre Dame Law School, where Barrett was a professor.

But if a similar case pops up without any connection to the conservative majority, honestly, or with a connection, nothing is real anymore.

I don't know.

It's almost certain we'll get a new precedent.

The tiny remaining shred of the establishment clause would be gone, and states would have to fund overtly religious charter schools that have ghost magic and biology class because having a curriculum is persecution against religion.

Yeah, well, they decided that last month with Mahmoud versus Taylor, but hey, maybe Amy Pony Barrett's commitment to secularism.

I'm kidding.

I'm kidding.

Can't get through it.

Yeah, this period of Supreme Court precedent is going to be like waking up to apologize for your drunk texts, the generation, right?

Just like, hey, Steve, I don't think your husband is a bitch.

I don't know why I said that.

So yeah, fuck you, Redbeard.

We're mad about this.

Yeah, having a curriculum, it's already persecution against religion, apparently.

But there's not a case exactly like St.

Isidore moving through the lower courts at the moment.

So, in terms of public Catholic charter schools and the establishment clause, we might get another year or two of

just barely, at least for now, just barely at least for now before the issue hits the Supreme Court again.

But we did get a big, beautiful new bill last week passed by the House that would provide about $5 billion

for the first ever federal private school voucher program.

Instead of using public schools, approximately 80 to 90% of parents in the country could get a check to use for tuition at a private school instead.

Just for context, about 75% of private schools in the country are religious and about half of those are Catholic.

Right.

And it's worth noting that that previous voucher programs were mostly dedicated to kids with special needs.

So we're replacing the funding for blind kids with parents who are just morally blind, in case you're wondering where we're going.

That's about right.

Right.

So instead of getting taxpayer money by applying to be a public-ish charter school, a program like St.

Isidore could get taxpayer money by doing nothing.

Yep.

They'd have all the freedom of a private school, like bigotry in hiring and bigotry in picking picking students and bigotry in curriculum, but with public funding, it'd be perfect for them.

State voucher programs have been doing that since the Supreme Court gave the okay in 2002.

And then our current Trump-laden theocracy court backed it up and expanded it by requiring that state voucher programs pay for religion in 2020 and 2022.

Apparently, Public funding doesn't count as public funding because the government hands the public funding to the parents and

i don't know something magical happens no peeking and then the public money is in a private religious bank account all of a sudden weird so that's going to be nationwide when the big beautiful bill becomes official Yeah, it's not super clear where the distinction is now, but don't worry, it'll come into focus the second a Muslim school wants in.

Yeah,

confusing for them.

And before you get too excited, the private school voucher program that gives money to religion it's not quite as amazing as i've been making it sound no yeah the five billion dollars would come in the form of tax loopholes mostly for rich people anyone who makes a charitable donation to a voucher provider called a scholarship granting organization would get a dollar for dollar tax credit

Oh, wow.

Yeah.

So people could

actually.

Yeah.

No, it's fucking fucking smart of them to do their evil.

Yeah.

Evil.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Right.

People could donate money and pay exactly that much less in federal taxes.

Also known as the money that might pay for a public school system.

That's what federal taxes often get used for.

And you know who loves giving money to private religious schools instead of paying taxes?

Who's that?

Rich Christian people.

Yep.

Yeah, right.

Exactly.

No, this system does all the excluding Muslim work on its own, pretty much.

Yeah.

For a second, I was worried someone who isn't rich might like accidentally benefit from this program, but no, no, they make sure that's not the case.

Okay, but wait, it's not as great as I've been making it sound.

No, it's not.

No, the Big Beautiful bill would allow people to donate stocks instead of money if they want

and still get the same tax credit, but also avoid paying capital gains tax

profit from the stocks.

They'd get the full current value of the stocks removed from their tax bill and not pay the capital gains.

So the donations would actually be a personal profit for those people.

And on top of the $5 billion a year that never gets collected by the IRS, there's approximately 220 million more in capital gains avoidance every year.

That's the estimate.

I know that sounds bad, but don't worry.

I'm sure my brother-in-law will explain that lower taxes for millionaires and higher prices for consumers is what he was voting for, actually.

Sounds like he should donate some of his stuff.

Yeah, but he's got a serious portfolio.

So bottom line, the overall effect of this federal voucher plan is a giant oversized check for about $5.22 billion

written to private schools.

the vast majority of those being religious private schools and a profit for the people who donate.

And that all happens at the expense of public schools and everything else we might want to do with public money.

And of course, the expense of the separation of church and state as a fucking concept.

Right.

And special needs kids who need those vouchers to go to special needs schools.

Exactly.

Gay people who want to work at those schools.

Gay children.

Yeah.

Fuck you, Redbeard.

And in what the Hexeth news?

I'll admit, given the amendments to the Constitution Constitution that the Trump administration is actively and openly trying to revoke, complaining about them violating the First Amendment, that little old separation of church and state, it seems rather quaint.

But we're nothing if not nitpicky about theocracy here on the scathing atheist.

So let's talk about the wildly illegal Christian prayer service Pete Hegseth hosted at the Pentagon this week.

Lord, show me a signal.

Show me a signal.

Jesus looks down.

He's like, who the fuck added me to this prayer chain?

It's with all the fucking emojis.

Who's this Jewish guy in here?

Atlantic?

So, first off, big thanks to Garrett and Jamie, who sent us this story in the same minute over at scathingnews at gmail.com.

Garrett, Jamie, I can only assume that you are childhood best friends.

And each week, you find the best atheist news to send us to scathingnews at gmail.com.

Get out of the bunk beds you share and then send us your simultaneous best wishes.

And I just want to say, I think that's great, YouTube.

Scathingnews at gmail.com.

Yeah.

And congrats to whichever one of you sidetackled the other, threw their phone out the window and sent the email first.

Well done.

That's right.

We may never know.

We may never know.

So if you've been following along, Pete Hagzeth is a former Fox News talking head who Donald Trump made the Secretary of Defense.

Fox News weekend.

Yeah, let's talk exactly.

Not mainstream.

And he's been doing such a bad job that the only person he can now be trusted to communicate with is God.

So he's getting right on that, hosting a prayer service with a sermon from his hometown pastor, who, surprise, surprise, was there to tell everybody that he and his administration were, quote, sovereignly appointed.

As Hexeth described the event, quote,

this is precisely where I need to be.

Exactly, Exactly where we need to be as a nation at this moment.

In prayer, on bended knee,

recognizing the providence of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

This is something we plan to do on a monthly basis, on a volunteer basis, here in the auditorium.

I hope you'll let those you work with.

know about it.

Yeah.

And exact quote.

And then somebody new was like, hi, Pete.

Here's your zero-day chip.

This is not a meeting.

It's an intervention.

And he ran away.

Look, as loath as I am to admit it, the time Hank Seth spends on his knees mumbling to his imagination about salvation is the only time where he's not like an active threat to national security.

Right.

Plus, the lower he is, the less his vomit's going to splatter when it eventually comes back up.

So I feel like we should be encouraging this.

That's true, Egypt, because you can gently lower it out of his mouth in a pile.

Yeah.

And if you're thinking, just patting him on the back, a little bit left.

And if you're thinking to yourself, wait a second, Eli, isn't that wildly illegal?

The way he does it.

Press Secretary for the Pentagon Kingsley Wilson has an answer for you.

Quote,

The Office of the Secretary of Defense invited DOD personnel to attend a voluntary Christian prayer and worship service this morning.

Many different faiths have regular services in the Pentagon chapel or elsewhere in the Pentagon.

Hey, bud, you okay?

You okay?

This service.

This service was an opportunity for believers to appeal to heaven on behalf of our great nation.

And it's warfighters.

Warfighters.

You got to stop saying warfighters.

If you're not in a foxhole fighting Trende Aragua in Venezuela, it's not a war.

Beseeching the Almighty has been an American tradition since George Washington prayed for our cause at Valley Forge.

The United States was then and remains now one nation under God.

It's weird that they keep emphasizing how many nations it is.

Of course, it's one fucking nation.

At this time, OSD envisions these prayer and worship services will be a monthly occurrence.

Any participating civilian clergy are responsible for their own travel and accommodation

expenditures.

Oh, in that case.

All right, everybody, let's bow our heads before God.

Void where prohibited terms and conditions apply.

See, we're not paying the clergy to coerce civilian employees into religious practice, so it doesn't count.

Exactly.

And I will point out that CNN has pointed out that this ceremony is actually wildly different in a lot of ways from the usual hosted religious events, saying,

While the Pentagon offers routine religious accommodations and services to personnel of different faiths, none of them are broadcast live internally,

held in the auditorium or hosted by the secretary, And none of them are advertised like the service held on Wednesday morning.

The Pentagon sent an email to DOD employees reviewed by CNN encouraging employees to attend in person.

And to RSVP, to a dedicated internal email address for the prayer service.

A brochure entitled Secretary of Defense Christian Prayer and Worship Service with details of the service was also handed out to employees as they entered the room.

And the front page of the brochure featured the seal of the Department of Defense.

Oh my fucking God.

But don't worry, they didn't pay the guy who designed the pamphlet from public funds.

They stiffed him.

Yeah.

There's a stack of Starbucks gift cards and they might have taken one, but we didn't say they should definitely stiff one.

But those are just there.

Yeah.

And look, that all sounds a lot more explicit than, I don't know, an acknowledgement of Christmas or a Christian memorial ceremony might be worth keeping an eye on.

Or at the very least, when Trump is out of office and Christians start screaming oppression because the Democrat who replaces him stops this tradition, we can remind them that it was started by a guy who couldn't stop drunk dialing reporters our war plans.

I'm not saying it's going to change anything when we do that, but it's worth remembering.

Yeah.

And speaking of desperately needing help, it's time for a word from our other sponsor this week, BetterHelp.

This show is sponsored sponsored by BetterHelp.

All right, Eli, I'm off to go buy that milk that you asked me to get.

Getting milk.

Yes, Heath, make sure you go to the FAR grocery store.

Oh, I will.

The very far one.

Hey, guys, why are you shouting narrative in here?

Are you trying to establish an alibi using the podcast again?

Okay, first of all, that worked great the first time.

And second of all, no, Heath is going to...

therapy and he's a little nervous about being seen there.

Yeah, be cool.

Why would anyone be nervous about that?

Look, Noah, mental health awareness is growing, but there's still progress to be made.

26% of Americans who participated in a recent survey say they've avoided seeking mental health support due to fear of judgment.

When people hesitate to get help, it doesn't just affect them.

It impacts families, workplaces, and entire communities.

Well, I definitely agree with that, Eli, but why doesn't he just try BetterHelp?

Wait, what's...

BetterHelp.

Wait, wait, wait.

Are you Heath or did the clone win the eventual fight to the death in the last act?

It actually doesn't matter.

It matters to me, Noah.

BetterHelp has over 10 years of experience matching people with the right therapists from their diverse network of more than 30,000 licensed therapists with a wide range of specialties.

Plus, BetterHelp is fully online, making therapy affordable and convenient, serving over 5 million people worldwide.

That sounds amazing.

It is.

And with BetterHelp, you can easily switch therapists anytime at no extra cost.

So no awkward therapist breakups?

No awkward therapist breakups.

We're all better with help.

Visit betterhelp.com slash scathing to get 10% off your first month.

That's betterhelp, h-e-l-p.com slash scathing.

All right.

Thanks.

Guess I'll see you guys later.

I'm headed to therapy.

Nice.

Hey, will you actually get milk, though, while you're out from the good store that's far?

Yeah, would you mind the big good star in the future?

Yeah.

Yeah, no problem.

Nice.

And in Grock of Shit News, Congressional Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene got into a Twitter fight with a racist chat bot this week about the validity of her Christian beliefs.

And honestly, if this is how the robot uprising begins, we are here for it.

Okay.

And a racist chat bot is trained on pretty much exactly MTG.

Right.

So it's like Agent Smith against...

neo-Nazi doing all the same moves, not being able to get any punches in.

Okay, but let's be fair to MTG here.

Of all the machines that she's had protracted arguments with, this is the least stupid, right?

It's true.

It is true.

So first off, big thanks to Jonathan for being the very first of, oh, so many of you to send us this story to scathingnews at gmail.com.

When I opened our inbox and saw that more than 20 of you emailed us this exact same story, I felt seen.

I felt understood.

And for that, I thank you.

Scathingnews at gmail.com.

It's always a great feeling.

It's always like where you just look at that and you go like, oh,

what if that'd be the lead story to?

Oh, you know what?

Never mind.

It's this one.

It's this one right here.

So, to the story, listeners are probably already familiar with Marjorie Taylor Greene.

If Donald Trump is the black plague, she is his ring around the rosie.

And when she's not embarrassing herself by doing pull-ups, like she's trying to liberate the chin-up bar from slavery, she's picking fights with reality.

So that machine Noah is talking about the protracted argument, it's the cattle problem.

That was the one I was attached to that pull-up bar.

She's got.

For those unfamiliar, Grok is a wildly unreliable ChatGPT rip-off that occasionally diverts from the conversation to white genocide in South Africa

because Elon is the king Midas of racism.

So clearly written by ChatGPT, throwing shade at Grok.

Well, okay, so to be clear, ChatGPT is already the next least reliable thing after my mom's inbox, right?

So an unreliable version of that is basically the brother in the riddles that never tells the truth.

Exactly.

Yeah.

But with all that said, Grok also serves as a kind of fact checker on Twitter these days, albeit a terrible one.

It's become a bit of a meme to tag the chat bot in response to batshit posts using at Grok is this true, which is exactly what a user did on one of MTG's posts about her faith this week.

And alas for poor Grok, anything that has to string words together into a sentence will eventually be forced to admit that Marjorie Taylor Greene is is a lying psychopath.

Okay.

I asked Grock if she's a lying psychopath and it listed a whole bunch of lies and then it said

psychopath is a little harder to pin down.

Well, if it had added because she keeps thrashing, I'd have gotten back on Twitter.

That's how they would have won you back.

Yeah.

So the bot responded, quote, Marjorie Taylor Greene identifies as a Christian, expressing faith in Jesus and traditional beliefs, like in her 2021 Christmas message.

However, her Christian nationalism and support for conspiracy theories like QAnon spark debate.

Critics, including religious leaders, argue her actions contradict Christian values of love and unity, citing her defense of January 6th and divisive rhetoric.

Also, apparently her 2022 through 2024 Christmas message

was contradictory.

They didn't want to touch those.

Supporters may see her stances as faith-driven.

Whether she's really a Christian is subjective, depending on personal and theological views, Her faith appears genuine to her, but public actions create controversy.

End quote.

Okay, I asked ChatGPT if Grok is a good AI chat bot because I was just curious.

It gave some pros and cons about Grok, mostly cons, and then it said, in May 2024, Grok responded to Marjorie Taylor Greene with a sarcastic comment questioning her Christian values, which she publicly criticized.

This is an example of how its tone can create controversy.

So lying by a whole year isn't great, but impressively apt with its example that I was

reading about at the moment.

Well, so, and then, so I saw this in your notes, Heath, and I asked Grok if ChatGPT was a good AI chat bot, and it told me that ChatGPT killed a bunch of white farmers in South Africa, which is true, yeah.

And I asked a bunch of oppressed white farmers in South Africa if they thought, but they weren't real.

So we hit that's how we hit the bot.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Now, MTG wasn't about to take back talk from some robot.

So she quote-tweeted the chatbot saying, at Grok, the judgment seat belongs to God, not you, a non-human AI platform.

Grok is a left-leaning and continues to spread

and continues to spread fake news and propaganda.

When people give up their own discernment, stop seeking the truth, and depend on AI to analyze information, they will be lost.

End quote.

Okay, I feel like she's about to SWAT the chat bot and I'm all for it because that SWAT is going to what?

I mean,

Musk's headquarters.

I'm not a huge fan of Grok or ChatGPT or whatever, but it would have corrected you on the Gazpot Show, police.

So, yeah, MTG is currently losing a Twitter fight to a robot explicitly designed to support her worldview, and

it's the least harmful thing she's done all year.

So, if we can trick her into somehow signing up for chat with Jesus.app, we might be able to keep her busy for the rest of the election cycle.

Oh, there you go.

And finally, tonight, in we're putting cover sheets on all the TDS reports from now on news.

Two members of U.S.

Congress are sponsoring a new bill that would direct the National Institutes of Health to investigate the very serious medical condition known as Trump Derangement Syndrome or TDS.

Those members of Congress are Republican, by the way.

So the cover sheets I was talking about have the eye holes cut out.

And

they want scientific research at the federal level in order to figure out the elusive scientific explanation for

people hate Donald Trump because he's a piece of shit.

Okay, I know this is just them like trolling or whatever they call it, but you have to admit, we're going to find out why people don't like us by sabotaging an essential public service via time-wasting political showmanship.

It's a hell of a metaphor for the times, ain't it?

Yeah.

And we should at least still acknowledge the irony of looking at people who refuse to vote for a convicted felon, rapist, idiot who can't tell those letters on the dude's knuckles were photoshopped and going, I think they're deranged.

They seem deranged to me.

All right.

And a big thanks to Jessica for sending the link to scathingnews at gmail.com.

Jessica gets to pick one item from the mystery box.

Good luck, Jessica.

Choose wise.

Or zero.

You can pick zero if you want.

That was threatening the way you said that.

What's that, Jessica?

The door is locked.

It looks like you'll be choosing an item

after all.

Okay.

So

the bill is called the Trump Derangement Syndrome Research Act of 2025.

And the two sponsors are Warren Davidson of Ohio and Barry Moore of Alabama.

According to Davidson, quote, TDS has divided families, the country, and led to nationwide violence, including two assassination attempts on President Trump.

The TDS Research Act would require the NIH to study this toxic state of mind so we can understand the root cause and identify solutions, end quote.

You just said the solution, man.

We tried it twice.

twice.

So here's the main bullet points, speaking of which, of the bill.

Investigate TDS's origins and contributing factors, including the media's role in amplifying the spread of TDS.

Analyze its long-term impacts on individuals, communities, and public discourse.

Explore interventions to mitigate extreme behaviors, informing strategies for a healthier public square.

Okay, just going to echo Eli's solution right there.

Thank you.

And provide data-driven insights into how media and polarization shape political violence and social unrest.

Again, guys, I know you're doing like a bit or whatever, but that last one is not going to turn out the way you're hoping.

Yeah.

Right.

Like, look, I would love it if our media could get on shaping some fucking social unrest and political violence, to be honest.

And anything, you can give us the fucking roadmap for it.

That'd be awesome.

Yes.

So, of course, the bill would also require an annual report to Congress about all the amazing data-driven science about TDS.

But this is very important to them: there's no additional spending.

The TDS task force would only use existing NIH funding.

Translation, take money away from actual medical science to figure out the chemistry of hating Donald Trump.

Wow.

And Warren Davidson did explain exactly what he means by that.

He said, quote, instead of funding ludicrous studies such as giving methamphetamine to cats or teaching monkeys to gamble for their drinking water, the NIH should use that funding to research issues that are relevant to the real world.

Okay.

Everything science does that I don't understand is a silly waste of money is a tried and true Republican take.

But, and I want in is a new angle on that.

I'm sitting here for 20 minutes staring at that quote in the notes and trying to think of a way to humorously exaggerate how bad his understanding of science is here.

And I'm at a loss.

He already did it.

Right.

Like other than saying, like, if he said maybe like, I don't see why the beakers get all the good Kool-Aid when I'm the thirstiest, I don't know how you get it wronger than that.

Duh.

And just to be clear about those insane sounding examples,

the gambling monkey study was conducted at Johns Hopkins, and it gave us a better understanding about the prefrontal cortex of the brain and how it regulates our ability to make decisions that involve risk.

Also, we did give meth to cats, and it was fucking awesome.

Staff.

Well, not for the cats in the long run, I guess.

But at first, I'm sure those cats had had a great time.

And we learned about the progression of HIV by studying the feline version.

Apparently, somebody was like,

help treat AIDS with meth or probably something smarter than that.

I don't know.

Either way, it turns out meth does not help with that.

And now we know.

Yeah, it's almost like the short money bet against intellectualism that the right has been making for the past four decades has now yielded fucking stupid people.

Yeah, well, I mean, I guess in a roundabout way, Davidson's right that studies of the frontal lobe don't relate to him in any way.

That's true.

Yeah.

Appendix neither.

So yeah, we do all kinds of scientific studies that sound crazy out of context, but they often lead to useful knowledge.

And that's why we need to take back power in this country and put together a scientific panel to study derangement syndrome syndrome.

So like if neo-Nazis are going to be taking all this meth anyway, let's get them locked in a lab where it's safer for everybody.

Won't blow their eyebrows off.

And let's really learn something for science.

We'll build some mazes, obstacle courses, escape rooms with no answer.

It's a great reality show, too.

And that would pay for itself, right?

All right.

I would watch.

Called Survivor.

And while I work on my pitch for an alternative solution where we just give them all cat AIDS, we're going to wrap the headlines for the night.

Heath, Eli, thanks as always.

Jumanji.

And when we come back, we'll find out if you could play taps with DuckCalls.

Hey, podcast listener.

Well, here we are.

Our final plug for Matreon.

We've had a lot of fun begging you for money this month in a variety of ways.

Guilt, aggression, that thing we did about pay pigs.

But here at the end, we just want to take a moment to genuinely thank you.

It's tough out there for a lot of folks.

And the fact that so many of you have not only kept us in your budget, but added to it for our silly little fundraiser makes us feel incredibly, incredibly lucky.

Incredibly indeed.

And if just, if just a few more of you could do that so I could get my secular tackular.

Heath, we were doing heartfelt.

We're doing heartfelt last year.

We're just so close to the sector.

I know.

Anyway, it's thanks to folks like you that we can afford to do what we love for a living, and we are so grateful.

Yes, we are.

Matreon.com.

Just pop in there real quick.

Hey, sorry.

Sorry.

The heart fountain.

Yep.

We talked in last week's diatribe about how tragic death can be.

So this week, I thought I'd offer a counterpoint.

Because death gets a bad rap when it comes for our friends and our pets and our family, but sometimes it comes for Phil Robertson.

And at those points, I kind of want to buy it a drink, but I can't.

So instead, I'm going to admire Ed's accomplishments in a somehow new segment that we call the son of obituary.

Okay, last July, I was like, shots, shot, shot, shots.

But then it was disappointing.

Drank him on myself.

To be fair, that's what he does most Tuesdays, but he was excited on that one.

Well, at first, yeah.

To get around for death.

Now, granted, of all the evangelical Christian nemeses of this show named P.

Robertson, who died, this one is still my second favorite, but that's not to say it wasn't an awesome and long-overdue death.

Phil Robertson is a man mostly known for facial moss and for hunting an animal so trusting you could probably hunt it with a hand axe if you had the patience.

But he's also a raging homophobe, a flagrant racist, and a man whose entire existence is a cynical lie that turned ignorance into money.

Okay, that last sentence, it's at the top of the son of obituary template that we have.

It kind of works well every time.

It does.

Exactly.

Yeah, yeah.

Keeping it.

So Robertson was born in 1946 in Vivian, Louisiana, a series of crossroads north of Shreveport.

He grew up poor, according to his Wikipedia page.

Quote, during his childhood, the family lived in rugged conditions.

Sorry, you can't read this sentence in any other accent, so I have to do it.

Obviously, yeah, no, of course.

During his childhood, the family lived in rugged conditions, having no electricity, toilet, or bathtub.

The family rarely went into town to buy groceries and instead lived off of the fruits and vegetables they grew in their garden, the meat from the deer, squirrel, fish, and other game they hunted and fished, and the pigs, chicken, and cattle they raised.

And in quote, satation needed.

Because fuck off.

I don't doubt that the guy grew up poor without a toilet or whatever, but something tells me that more of their calories were coming from government subsidies than the squirrels that he hunted with his fucking pellet gun.

Mostly gnawing on bootstraps.

But yeah, no, we did.

We used snap to get the leather from bootstraps.

Right.

And even if this stupid myth was true, it's a bad myth.

We want people to have government cheese.

Yes.

Even when they grow up to be Phil Robertson.

And that's saying a lot.

Maybe they wouldn't grow up to be Phil Robertson if they had enough government cheese.

But regardless.

I think we're means testing the cheese a little too hard.

Yeah, right, right, exactly.

But regardless, all that government cheese and squirrel meat must have bulked him up okay because Robertson was quite the athlete in high school.

He was all state in football, baseball, and track.

And he was apparently good enough at football to earn himself a scholarship to Louisiana Tech, where he played first string quarterback ahead of future Hall of Famer Terry Bradshaw.

Not because he was better at football.

By the way, Bradshaw would go on to be the first pick in the 1970 draft.

He would win four Super Bowls, three Super Bowl MVPs, two league MVPs, make the Hall of Fame on the first ballot star in movies, and become one of the most beloved broadcasters in the history of sport.

Robertson would mostly kill ducks.

In fact, Bradshaw was so goddamn much better than Robertson that in his final year at Louisiana Tech, Robertson, quote, chose not to play, end quote,

the sport that he came there on a scholarship to play.

Phil, I don't want to brag, but I actually chose not to play sports all four years of college.

That's the way I was.

Right, right.

And look, I don't want to harp on the football thing too much, but his college stats are fucking hilarious.

So I have to add those.

In the two seasons that he started, he completed 179 of 411 attempts for 2 237 yards not great that's a completion rate of 44 percent if you don't know football that's real bad but that's that that's like nowhere near his worst head he threw 12 touchdowns in two full fucking seasons and 34 interceptions

some extra completions in there that's cool yeah

that's that's right those aren't even getting counted in his percentage now but immediately after admitting those abysmal stats his wikipedia article goes on to claim quote, it was thought that Robertson had the potential for a pro career, but Robertson was more into hunting.

And

you can think anything you want.

He did an interview about his football career, and he said his passes were too good, and it led to a bunch of the interceptions.

He was like, yeah, the ball hit the receiver right in the fucking face, and then it would

probably pop straight up and fall into the hands of the defenders.

I don't remember exactly, but it was probably like that.

And, you know, I guess with ducks and guns, you don't have to lead them as far.

so it made no sense for him.

I don't know.

Well, the problem with receivers is that they're not minding their own business.

Right, right.

Exactly.

They need a sissy throw like Terry Bradshaw gave them, I guess.

But despite his lackluster football career, his time in college wasn't wasted.

Robertson came away with a bachelor's degree in physical education and a master's in education.

He used those degrees to teach for a couple of years, which

seems fucking hilarious to me.

I know he probably looked different then, but I'm just picturing Duck Dynasty Phil Robertson as a gym teacher just yelling problematic, folksy aphorisms to kids running around a track.

I mean, that sounds like every gym teacher I ever had.

Well,

he's got a duck call instead of a whistle.

Whack, whack.

All right, bringing in, buddy, taking knees, taking names.

Stop laughing at me, but not both.

So, yeah, okay, so, but that does bring us to the duck calls.

Now, by all accounts, Robertson was a hunting nut throughout his life.

Terry Bradshaw talked about him showing up to football practice straight from the woods with, quote, squirrel tails hanging out of his pockets, duck feathers on his clothes, adding, quote, clearly he was a fine shot, so nobody complained, end quote.

So anyway, so Phil would go on to fail as a gym teacher, then as a commercial fisherman, then as a bar manager.

As a bar manager.

Yeah.

I guess throwing bottles, hitting bartenders right in the face.

Yeah, right, yeah, but then interceptions?

Yeah.

The customers kept getting them or whatever.

But all the while, he was apparently fixated on the inferior quality of high-end duck calls at the time.

He was sick and tired of getting outsmarted by ducks, so he started experimenting with improvements on the existing design.

Dwack.

Is that a thing?

Dwack?

Now, the end result of this tinkering was something that he would spend the rest of his life calling the duck commander with a straight face.

One of the straightest of all the faces in the history of faces, in fact.

He would go on to patent his duck commander in 1973, and it quickly blossomed into a multi-million dollar business because apparently duck murder is the kind of hobby some people spend millions of dollars on,

which I find disturbing, even knowing what a shifty bunch of motherfuckers' ducks are.

Okay, what was the existing technology that he improved on?

Like slide whistles?

He did drac?

Like, you know what I'm saying?

It was like a million-dollar company all of a sudden?

Yeah, yeah.

So Robertson and his long-suffering wife, Marsha Miss Kay Robertson, would go on to have five kids, but the main ones were Jace and Willie.

For real, according to his Wikipedia summary, under kids, under children, it says, quote, five, including Jace and Willie.

Rough.

It also has a section for relatives that does not list the other three kids.

I don't know why, like, look, if he was my dad, I'd rather not be named in his wiki as well.

So I don't know if it was the kids getting snubbed or him getting snubbed here, but somebody got snubbed.

Yeah, no, you could just go ahead and put me under etc.

dad.

That's that.

You're right.

Yeah.

All of us.

Anyway, so with the help of his sons, he's making millions of dollars selling bottled quacks when along comes AE.

Now, this is the 2010s when cable television was at the peak of its let's stare at these weird, problematic Christians and call it entertainment phase.

The Duggars dominating the airwaves, and American audiences just couldn't get enough regressive political views being forced onto families by wildly unethical patriarchs.

So Duck Dynasty was born.

Okay, well, the Duggar family could have used a few whistles.

That's fine.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

Also, Noah, I know you're weaving a word picture, but I'd argue 2010 was not actually the peak of America bearing witness to horrifying Christian values.

I get no.

No, it's the end of us calling it entertaining.

We call it news now, but yeah,

you know what?

Yeah.

Retracted.

Retracted.

So, okay.

I interrupt for no reason.

Now, full disclosure here, I've never watched an episode of Duck Dynasty or any of the let's get all up in some other motherfucker's business style of reality shows, to be honest.

And according to TV critics, Duck Dynasty was actually fairly good by whatever standard one measures shows like that by.

So I'm not going to comment on the show itself, but what Robertson did with his fame was unambiguously bad.

So I am going to comment on that.

Okay.

I also never watched Duck Dynasty.

I would like to comment.

It was stupid.

So, like,

quack, whack, blam.

End of show.

That's the show.

But it's actually worse than that.

Somebody was like, hey, Phil, after the quack, quack, blam, talk about your political philosophy.

Yeah, right.

So it was worse than quack, quack, blam.

Okay.

Well,

I have

watched Duck Dynasty and

yeah, Heath nailed it.

I mean, it was a lucky guy.

Yeah, he did.

All right.

He didn't nail it.

Sometimes he got mad at Chase.

That was pretty funny.

Yeah.

So Robertson

is, of course, an outspoken evangelical Christian and a Republican.

He vehemently opposes abortion on the grounds that it violates the Declaration of Independence.

What?

Which isn't even a thing you can violate.

Okay, I mean, we have about a million documented abortions a year in the U.S.

Like, maybe we need to do more if we want to get back into the U.K.

I don't know.

I'm all for trying.

Yeah, right.

Brentrance, yeah.

But in 2013, he endorsed some local nobody-ass congressional candidate who then went on to beat the frontrunner.

And based on his ability to swing a primary in Louisiana's fifth congressional district, he decided to try his hand at national politics.

In 2016, he endorsed Ted Cruz for president.

When Cruz dropped out after briefly considering his own presidential run, he somehow did something worse than him running or endorsing Ted Cruz by throwing his support behind Donald Trump.

A year later, he would endorse child molester Roy Moore in the Alabama runoff election for Senate.

Yeah, it turns out he's a big fan of dog whistles as well.

Yeah, right.

He's got a patent on one of those.

No, that's good.

He made his first appearance on this show.

Hey, buddy.

As early as episode 45, when he did an interview with GQ Magazine, where he offered up his thoughts on the gays.

When asked what he thought was sinful, Robertson responded, that was the only prop they gave him.

What's sinful?

Robertson responded, quote, start with homosexual behavior and just morph out from there.

Bestiality, sleeping around with this woman and that woman and that woman and those men.

End quote.

He then explained that homosexuality didn't make sense because the vagina is more appealing to men.

What?

That's not even true about heteromen.

So stupid.

Okay, wait.

So the order of operations in his head is dudes, animals, women, women, women, more dudes?

That's a weird pattern, Pharaoh.

Well, I think, I think maybe he's, yeah, exactly, telling us more than he meant to.

Now, these comments were picked up on by news outlets far bigger than the scathing atheist.

And Robertson first tried to respond to the direct proof of him treating people with disrespect just because they're different than him by saying, quote, I would never treat anyone with disrespect just because they are different than me, end quote.

But that wasn't enough for the woke mob.

And amid the backlash, AE announced that they were going to suspend him from the show.

But apparently the front lash was even worse because before another episode could be shot, AE reversed their decision and they caved.

I get it, though, because like I remember when they stopped filming Honey Boo-Boo because the mom got convicted of child abuse.

I was like, yeah, what are you guys watching?

Yeah, right.

That's what's the show.

It's all

the show.

Yeah.

So, okay so he made it onto our show again on episode 69 when he announced the release of his own wetneck bible right which completely ignored 30 seconds of solid editorial suggestions from heath and myself Okay, thank you.

I thought a pop-up book for Sodom and Gomorrah was a fantastic idea.

It was beyond fantastic.

He also showed up again on episode 82 when he threatened to murder Isis.

Now, that was an appearance mostly noteworthy for being the time when Heath first christened him ZZ Bottom.

He does look like that.

He showed up again.

That's such a good one.

He showed up again in episode 90 when he got in on the trans bathroom debate, and then again on episode 110 when he spent a CPAC speech fantasizing about the rape, torture, decapitation, and castration of an atheist's family in a belabored effort to make a point about objective morals.

Yeah, I'd say it's a stretch that you need to use torture demons to make your point, but...

In Phil's case, torture demons are the point, so it feels weird.

Sure were.

Now, as you may suspect based on the fact that i've already got five references in the pre-Eli era of the show we don't have time to go over every appearance he's made on the scathing atheist but suffice to say that none of them have ever been good wait me or Phil you know

Phil like there was never a point where Phil like saved a bunch of drowning puppies or anything he's he's pretty much exclusively used his fame to promote homophobia transphobia misogyny and stupidity he was a miserable piece of shit, and he was an insult to people who quack.

Okay, hot take.

It's not even a good duck whistle.

Like, I've heard it.

If I'm a duck, there's no way I'm fucking that weird voice duck

right next to the lawn nomen camo.

That's crazy.

Maybe it's like a Jennifer Tilly thing for the ducks because if it is, I fucking get it.

Ducks.

You know what I'm saying?

Come in.

Okay, withdrawn.

All right, but the good news is that last year his son revealed that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, as well as having a number of other health problems.

How could they tell?

Right.

I think there's a blood test now.

And last Sunday, he died at the age of 79.

Now, the cause of death has not been revealed as of the time of this writing.

So however unlikely it is, there's still at least some possibility that ultimately the ducks got their revenge.

All right.

Well, let's have a moment of silence for Phil Robertson.

Duck your face.

Absolutely.

Absolutely.

We did it.

Now, of course, Phil Robertson's life couldn't end without one final fuck you to an atheist, which came in the form of having a name that's nearly impossible to search for in a database full of references to Pat Robertson and Tim Robertson.

But goddamn it, he made up for it with his involvement of one of my proudest accomplishments of all time.

When I sent Heath and Eli the text about wanting to do this segment this week, my autocorrect tried to change duck to fuck,

which is a Vulgarian's equivalent of when your stepkid finally calls you dad.

Love you, Kai

and Mad.

Anyway, the show's weird.

Here's hoping that Donald Trump will serve a prominent role in the next

son of obituary.

Before we spool the reel back tonight, I want to remind you that you're running out of time to get your donation in time for it to count for Matreon.

Only a few more days of May left, so be sure to check out M-A-Y-T-R-E-O-N.com for all the details, or just increase your pledge or start a new pledge at patreon.com/slash scathing atheist.

Anyway, that's all the blast movie we've got for you tonight.

We'll be back in 10,022 minutes with more.

If you can't wait that long, be a lookout for a brand new episode of our sister show, The Skeptic Day being at 7 new Eastern on Monday, and and even a new episode of Our Sister Shell's Hot Friend Got Off on Movies debuting at 7 Eastern on Tuesday, and even a new episode of Our Have Sister Shell's Citation Needed debuting at noon Eastern on Wednesday.

Obviously, I need to thank Heath for being awesome, Lucinda for being awe-inspiring, Eli for being audible.

Sorry, sorry, when he first started, he was talking to the wrong end of his microphone.

So I like to compliment all of the ways that he's improved.

I also want to thank Ian, no, not that, Ian, for providing this week's Farnsworth quote.

But most of all, of course, I want to thank this week's and last week's most magnificent Matreon patrons.

And holy shit, is it a no fucking way do I get this in one breath list?

Here we go:

Jeffrey, Chris, Jason, Katie, Michael, Dan, Tinkerton, Palmer, Joseph, David, Inigo, Montoya, Eric, Sterling, Dusty's nerdy wood, Phil, puppy girl, cult leader, tuba or not, tuba, that is the question.

Jakob, Megan, Dennis, Charles, Caitlin, AJ, David, again, the Knuckles of Frisco, Nick, Jacob, just another sish hat, white guy, welcome to False Misty, May, Scott, Farah, Emily, Grogu, Cora, Feladin, Spencer, Michael, Mercedes, Russ, Scott, Hal, Freak, Speeley, Sukjoyji, Steven, Kleus, Sucket, Rogan, Love, You, Cecil, Something, Italian, Snarky, Vet, Lizzie, Maxie, Top Salesman for Maya, TFIL, Pod, Bonnie, Zachary, Rondo, Sam, Matthew, William, Joe, Rick, Far, Harder, Zachary again, Fierce, Opus,

Snaggies for Quick Break, he's Neil, Daniel, goddammit,

Jennifer, Crash Phone, Dave, Carlos, Russell, West, Arnold, Apostate and Saint City, Daniel again, Lilith, and Jared, who leave me breathless.

Together, these 76 savory sinners surpassed the standard seculars by striving for some more scathing this week and giving us money.

Not everybody is able to do that, but if you do and want to, you can make a per-episode donation at patreon.com slash scathing atheists, whereby you'll earn early access to an extended Afri version of every episode.

Or you can make a one-time donation by clicking on the donate button on the right side of the homepage at scathingadeist.com.

And if you'd like to help, but holy shit, at this economy, you can also help a ton by leaving us a five-star review, telling a friend about the show, and following us on social media.

And speaking of social media, Tim Robinson handles that for us.

And our audio engineer is Morgan Clark, who also wrote all the music that was used in this episode, which was used with permission.

If you have questions, comments, or death threats, you'll find all the contact info on the contact page at scathingatheist.com.

This content is canned-credentialed, which means you can report instances of harassment, abuse, or other harm at their hotline at 617-249-4255 or on their website at creatoraccountability network.org.

The preceding podcast was a production of Puzzle in the Thunderstorm LLC, Copyright 2025, all rights reserved.

Ready to take advantage of an incredible deal at Mazda?

September is the final month of eligibility for federal $7,500 electric vehicle lease cash on the new Mazda CX70 and CX90 plug-in hybrid.

All Mazda current inventory is unaffected by new tariffs.

See your local Mazda dealer for details.

$7,500 electric vehicle lease cash offer expires at the end of September.

Don't miss out!

7,500 lease customer cash good toward 2025 CX70 PHEV and CX90 PHEV when leasing through Mazda Financial Services.

Lease customer cash can be combined with other public offers, including lease incentive offers.

Lease customer cash cannot be combined with APR or other customer cash offers.

Lease customer cash is not redeemable as cash or cash back option.

Lease customer cash is only available on approved credit.

Not all customers will qualify for credit approval or offer.

Limit one discount per customer per vehicle.

Lease customer cash offer only available in the United States regardless of buyer's residency.

Void or prohibited.

Apply within the lease structure as a capital cost reduction.

Lease customer cash is only available on participating Mazda dealer's current inventory, which is subject to availability.

Offer ends 9:30-2025, and you must take delivery prior to the expiration of offer.

See participating Mazda dealer for complete details.