If I’m Really Honest

What changes when you read the Bible closely as literature? Robert Alter joins Jamin Coller to discuss translating the Hebrew Bible, the artistry of its narratives, contradictions within its books, and what English translations can obscure.

We explore word choice, biblical poetry, Ecclesiastes, the two creation accounts, and familiar Psalms that sound different in the original Hebrew.

Guest resources: Robert Alter at UC Berkeley | ...

What happens when a minister stops believing, but religion has become his career, community, and identity?

Former Pentecostal minister Duane Grady joins Jamin Coller for a conversation about changing beliefs, leaving ministry, and the human cost of being honest about doubt. Duane is president of The Clergy Project, which supports current and former religious professionals who no longer hold supernatural beliefs.

Guest resource: The...

Dan Barker is a former evangelical minister, author, musician, and co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

In this conversation, Dan reflects on leaving the ministry, changing deeply held beliefs, building a meaningful life without faith, and defending the separation of church and state.

DAN BARKER: Freedom From Religion Foundation: https://ffrf.org/about/ffrf-board/dan-barker/ Books by Dan Barker: https://www.amazon....

Dr. Kipp Davis is a biblical scholar specializing in the Dead Sea Scrolls, early Jewish literature, and the history and transmission of biblical texts.

In this conversation, we examine what the Dead Sea Scrolls actually tell us, how scholars evaluate ancient manuscripts, and where popular claims about the Bible can outrun the evidence.

KIPP DAVIS: Research: https://independent.academia.edu/KippDavis YouTube: https://www.youtube.com...

Will Gervais is a cultural and evolutionary psychologist who studies religious belief, disbelief, morality, and how human minds make sense of gods.

In this conversation, we explore why some people believe while others do not, what psychology reveals about atheism and religion, and the assumptions both believers and nonbelievers often get wrong.

WILL GERVAIS: Official website: https://willgervais.com/ Research: https://willgervais.c...

Rolf Potts is a travel writer, essayist, and the bestselling author of Vagabonding and The Vagabond’s Way.

In this conversation, we explore what meaningful travel can teach us about attention, freedom, identity, and building a life on purpose.

ROLF POTTS: Official website: https://rolfpotts.com/ Books and essays: https://rolfpotts.com/books/ Vagabonding on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Vagabonding+Rolf+Potts&tag=leap...

Peter Boghossian is a philosopher, educator, former Portland State University professor, pioneer of street epistemology, author of A Manual for Creating Atheists, and coauthor of How to Have Impossible Conversations.

We discuss intellectual honesty, why changing your mind should be considered a virtue, friendship across ideological lines, the difference between virtue-based relationships and tribal loyalty, and why deliberately cho...

Bryan Caplan is a New York Times bestselling author, Professor of Economics at George Mason University, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center, and one of the world's most influential libertarian economists. He's the author of The Myth of the Rational Voter, The Case Against Education, Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids, Open Borders, Build, Baby, Build, and several other bestselling books. His next major work, Unbeatable: Th...

Phil Halper is a science communicator, astrophotographer, creator of the Before the Big Bang series, co-author of the acclaimed book Before the Big Bang, interviewer of many of the world's leading cosmologists, and co-author of one of the largest surveys ever conducted of physicists' views on cosmology.

In this conversation we discuss what physicists actually mean by "the Big Bang," why many scientists reject the popular idea that ...

Ali Lapper is an internationally acclaimed artist, disability rights advocate, author, television presenter, and former subject of one of Britain's most iconic public sculptures. Her monumental portrait, "Alison Lapper Pregnant," stood on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, making her one of the most recognizable disability advocates in the world.

In this conversation, Ali and I discuss disability, beauty, self-acceptance, grief...

Unabridged, FULL episode: https://youtu.be/rlCFKSxoOp0

Jeran Campanella was one of the most recognizable voices in the modern Flat Earth movement, creator of the Jeranism YouTube channel, speaker at Flat Earth conferences around the world, featured participant in Netflix's Behind the Curve, and one of the Flat Earth representatives selected to travel to Antarctica for "The Final Experiment."

In this conversation, Jeran walks throug...

Marine biologist Hal Whitehead has spent more than four decades studying whales, pioneered research on sperm whale culture, helped transform how scientists understand whale societies, and authored groundbreaking work on animal culture and cultural evolution.

In this conversation, we explore whether whales have culture, how sperm whales pass knowledge between generations, why some scientists resist applying the word "culture" to ani...

Gary Noesner spent more than 30 years with the FBI, served as Chief of the FBI's Crisis Negotiation Unit, led negotiations during the Waco siege, helped reshape modern hostage negotiation training, and authored the influential book Stalling for Time.

In this conversation, Gary and I explore what actually works when people are at their worst. We discuss the lessons of Waco, why negotiation should almost always take precedence over f...

Joel Salatin (@FarmLikeALunatic) is one of the world's most influential voices in regenerative agriculture. He is the co-owner of Polyface Farm, author of more than a dozen books, featured prominently in The Omnivore's Dilemma, Food, Inc., and numerous documentaries, and has spent decades challenging conventional assumptions about food, farming, government regulation, and sustainability.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@farmlikeal...

Nicholas Christakis is a physician, sociologist, bestselling author, Yale professor, director of the Human Nature Lab, pioneer of social network science, and author of Blueprint, Connected, and Apollo's Arrow. His research has transformed how we understand friendship, cooperation, social contagion, tribalism, and the evolutionary origins of human society.

For the Love of Science (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@NAChristakis

Huma...

Sean B. Carroll is one of the world's leading evolutionary biologists, a bestselling science author, former Vice President for Science Education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, recipient of the National Academy of Sciences Stephen Jay Gould Prize, and a pioneer of evolutionary developmental biology ("evo devo").

In this conversation, we explore Darwin's life and character, the evidence for evolution, why evolutionary biolog...

Brad Duchaine is one of the world’s leading researchers on face perception. He’s a Professor and Chair of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Dartmouth College, co-founder of Faceblind.org, and one of the foremost experts on prosopagnosia (face blindness) and prosopometamorphopsia (PMO)—the rare condition where faces appear visually distorted.

PMO: https://prosopometamorphopsia.faceblind.org/ Prosopagnosia: https:...

"Flat Earth Dave" Weiss of @flatearthdave is one of the foremost voices in the flat earth community. We talk about: * The emotional cost of changing your mind * Losing friends and family over beliefs * Distrust of institutions and authority * Why Dave walked away from a successful career * Whether truth-seeking becomes isolating * The psychology of conspiracy thinking * Why he believes Flat Earth changes everything

https://www.Flat...

"Professor Dave" Farina of @ProfessorDaveExplains is one of the internet’s largest science education and debunking channels.

In this episode, I sit down with Dave Farina (Professor Dave Explains) to talk about conspiracy theories, anti-science thinking, Joe Rogan, flat earth, the psychology of belief, and why intelligent people can still fall for ideas that don’t hold up under scrutiny.

We also discuss:

* Why misinforma...