Stay ConnectedIf life is a mystery, whodunnit? Award winning Hollywood TV producer and playwright Scott Carter (HBO, PBS) discusses personal faith and ethics with a diverse roster of interfaith and non-faith celebrity guests to uncover what we believe and what we don’t. New episodes on Fridays for believers and doubters to follow religiously!
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Scott sits down with writer, actress, artist, tea merchant and daughter of Frank Zappa, Moon Unit Zappa to discuss her new memoir “Earth to Moon.” They touch onMoon’s unconventional household in 1970s Los Angeles, coming of age as part of the MTV generation in the 1980s as the “Valley Girl,” and her quest to find herself after losing her father. Moon also talks about how that search led her to discover that empathy for one’s self can heal the deepest wounds.
Earth to Moon was published on 8/20/24 by Dey Street Books and is available on Bookshop.com, Amazon and at your favorite bookstore. She will be appearing at Li Cinema Arts Theater in Huntington, NY on 10/27 and at the Miami Book Fair in Miami, FL on 11/23. You can check out her tea company tea-o-graphy here.
Guest: Moon Unit Zappa was born in 1967 to legendary musician Frank Vincent Zappa and his second wife, Gail Zappa. At the age of fourteen, Moon Zappa appeared in Frank Zappa’s career defining song, “Valley Girl,” which later helped jump-start Moon’s own career. Since then, Moon has firmly established herself as a writer, actress, comedian, artist, podcaster, and tea merchant. Learn more at MoonUnit.com.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Ye Gods welcomes our first guest from the Sikh faith: author, activist, and founder of The Revolutionary Love Project Valarie Kaur. Scott sat down with Valarie to discuss her new book Sage Warrior where she combines the retelling of Sikh legends with her family’s trip across Punjab, India. Valarie also recounts how a hate crime killing of a Sikh gas station owner in the wake of 9/11 sparked her decades long fight for safety. Valarie and Scott discuss the tenets and origins of Sikhism and how its focus on justice has informed her work as an anti-hate crime activist.
Valarie and her organization the Revolutionary Love Project are currently on a nationwide bus tour bringing the immersive experience of storytelling, music, song, ancestral wisdom, and community-building to our divided country. The tour lasts through Oct. 27. For more information on the Revolutionary Love tour visit revolutionarylove.org/tour
For more information on Valarie’s book Sage Warrior and its accompanying album by trumpeter Sonny Singh go to valariekaur.com/books
Valarie recommends the song Revolutionary Love by Ani DiFranco
Guest: VALARIE KAUR is a civil rights leader, lawyer, award-winning filmmaker, educator, and founder of the Revolutionary Love Project. Valarie became an activist when a Sikh father and family friend was the first person murdered in hate violence in the aftermath of 9/11. Since then, Valarie has led visionary campaigns to tell untold stories and change policy on issues ranging from hate crimes to digital freedom. Her work ignited a national movement to reclaim love as a force for justice. Today, the Revolutionary Love Project is seeding networked communities of practice across the country to build the beloved community. A daughter of Punjabi Sikh farmers in California, Valarie lifts up her vision for America in her acclaimed TED Talk and #1 LA Times Bestseller See No Stranger: A Memoir and Manifesto of Revolutionary Love. In Fall 2022, Valarie was honored at the White House in the first-ever Uniters Ceremony, recognizing her as a prophetic leader whose work is healing America. Valarie’s book new book Sage Warrior was released in September 2024 and can be purchased wherever books are sold.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by MegaPhone Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Armin Shimerman may be best known for his role as Quark in the Star Trek franchise Deep Space Nine. But we know him as a highly regarded Shakespearian professor not only at the University Of Southern California but has taught at many theaters around the country. He focuses on scene study and the understanding of the language through the study of Rhetoric and the cultural ethos of the Elizabethan and Jacobean times. He is a professional actor with over 100 roles on camera and nearly 100 on stage, including three Broadway shows: Joe Papp’s Three Penny Opera, Circle-in-the-Square’s St. Joan with Lynn Redgrave, and Richard Rodgers’ I Remember Mama. He has performed in about a third of Shakespeare’s canon, including San Diego’s Old Globe, the Vermont Shakespeare Festival, the Utah Shakespeare Festival, and the American Shakespeare Festival.
For two years, Armin performed as Count Tolstoy in Scott Carter’s Discord at the NoHo Arts Centre, the Geffen Theater in Los Angeles, and the Arizona Stage Company.
Armin was nominated for a daytime Emmy for his performance in the web series Red Bird. As a voice-over artist, his work with the Maltese Falcon and Zorro was nominated for separate Grammys. He is a published novelist with a recent trilogy entitled, “Illyria,” an Elizabethan political thriller commingling historical figures with Shakespearian characters. He has directed 5 stage plays and written 6 novels. He also served seven years as a National Board member for the Screen Actors Guild. He was the Associate Artistic Director for the Antaeus Theatre Company in Glendale. Among his many charitable endeavors, he is one of the three founders of Trek Against Pancreatic Cancer, which supports the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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One day in 2010, Steve Turner was on his way home from work when he ran into an old high school basketball rival, Lewis Brown. They reminisced about old games and how the LA Times once called Lewis “...the best basketball player in the history of the California Interscholastic Federation.” It was like no time had passed at all, except that Stephen was now a successful lawyer and Lewis was living on the street. The friendship that followed, Stephen says “was a miracle from God.”
Guest: Stephen Turner is a lawyer living in the Los Angeles area and an “OG” member of Thad’s Episcopal Church in Culver City.
Adam Nagourney‘s NY Times article on Lewis Brown.
New York Times obituary for Louis Brown.
Email Scott at YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE In part two of our interview with actor and Soul Boom author Rainn Wilson, we discuss his new show Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss, now streaming on Peacock. Rainn shares some of his favorite memories from filming around the world, which places he thinks find happiness best, and where he’d like to go in season two. Rainn also talks about how our culture’s aversion to death hurts our ability to appreciate life.
Rainn recommends this inspiring quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin the Jesuit priest: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Guest: Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor, writer and producer who has found himself in a variety of comedic and theatrical roles throughout his career. His first breakthrough role came when he played assistant mortician “Arthur Martin” on HBO’s Six Feet Under, winning him and the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Wilson is best known for playing the inimitable ‘Dwight Schrute’ for nine seasons on NBC’s Emmy award winning comedy, The Office, a role which garnered him three Emmy Award nominations. Wilson’s book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution released April 25, 2023. In this book, he explores the benefits spirituality gives us in creating solutions for an increasingly challenging world. Wilson can be seen in Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss a six-part travel docuseries in which he travels around the world to discover the happiest places on Earth. The series debuted on Peacock on May 18th.
In My Homily Opinion: Scott encourages Rainn to stay weird. The search for meaning cannot be done without our authentic selves.
Email us at yegodspodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE Julia Sweeney is a multi-hyphenate performer known for her hilarious characters on SNL and her comedy specials God Said Ha, Letting Go of God, and most recently Older and Wider. This week on Ye Gods!, Julia joins Scott to discuss her devout atheism as well as her feelings on religion, God, the saints and more! Julia explains cultural Catholicism sans a belief in God and how community is central to who we are as human beings.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s love of the Catholic ceremony, this week's IMHO Scott asks listeners to send in stories of how religious ritual has affected their lives and if experiencing them can reveal spiritual mysteries.
Email Scott at YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Julia Sweeney is an actress, comedian, writer and film director. She was born in the U.S. in Spokane, Washington in 1959. She’s appeared on numerous film and television shows and is well known for her years on SNL in the first half of the 1990s. She has created several comedic one-person shows. In 2014, she released her book “If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother”, a collection of essays on the complex blessings of motherhood. The latest TV series Julia has appeared in is Shrill and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE: Comedian, podcaster and documentarian Hari Kondabolu joins to discuss growing up as a second generation Indian-American and melding the cultural diversity of his hometown Queens, NY with the beautiful Hindu traditions taught to him by his mother while also absorbing through films and the iconic Amar Chitra Katha comic books. Hari and Scott discuss Indian films including the Oscar nominated RRR, and Hari leaves us with a recommendation to experience a classic film that elicits tears at the same scene every time he rewatches: The Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali. Hari's new Special "Vacation Baby" debuts on YouTube April 18th.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter delights in hearing the voice of his dear friend and future Ye Gods guest Salman Rushdie on Surviving the Fatwa on New Yorker Radio Hour.
దయచేసి ఆలోచనలు మరియు ఆశీర్వాదాలు పంపండి YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Hari Kondabolu is a comedian, writer and podcaster based in Brooklyn. The NY Times called him “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today” and described his 2018 Netflix special Warn Your Relatives as “an incisively funny and formally adventurous hour that reveals a comic in command of his powers.”
In 2017, his HBOMax documentary The Problem with Apu was released to critical acclaim and spurred a global conversation about race and representation. The Nation called it “a devastating critique of the ultimate comedic sacred cow: The Simpsons.” It is now used in high school, college and grad school curriculums around the US.
A regular on the public radio, Hari is a panelist on the NPR game show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. As a podcaster, he co-hosted the popular Politically Reactive with dear friend W. Kamau Bell. Additionally, he also co-hosts what he politely describes as a “pop up podcast,” The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast with his younger brother Ashok (“Dap” from HBO’s Chillin’ Island and defunct rap group Das Racist.)
Hari attended both Bowdoin College and Wesleyan University, graduating from the former institution with a B.A. in Comparative Politics. A former immigrant rights organizer in Seattle who worked under the leadership of now-Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Hari also earned a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics in 2008. He was the “Artist In Residence” at NYU’s APA Institute for the 2014-2015 Academic Year and at Shangri La Museum in Honolulu in 2018.
Email Scott at YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE conversation with Michael Render, aka Killer Mike: rapper, activist, and host of the PBS talk show Love & Respect with Killer Mike (Executive Produced by Scott Carter) as well as half of the rap duo Run The Jewels. He joins Scott to talk about the influence of his grandmother on his faith, how blackness informed his experience of church and why the teachings of Jesus Christ made him a radical in his time and today. Mike’s latest album “Michael” drops June 16th.
Michael’s recommendation is the 1791 book by Count Constantin-François Chassebœuf, The Ruins of Empires.
In My Homily Opinion: Scott tells the story of how he and Mike met and asks if we all could use more hugs.
Email us at yegodspodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Michael Render, aka Killer Mike, is a Grammy-award winning rapper, businessman and activist. He is one half of the hip hop duo, Run the Jewels, host of the PBS talk show “Love & Respect with Killer Mike,” and co-owner along with Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris of famed Atlanta restaurant, Bankhead Seafood. A native of Atlanta, Render has released five full-length albums as a solo artist and four albums for Run the Jewels. His latest solo album “Michael” releases on June 16, 2023. He began organizing at the age of 15 and made a name for himself as an activist well before he recorded a single song. In addition to advocating for the decriminalization of marijuana, and restorative justice programs for young people, Render has worked locally with the anti-violence organization, Black Teens for Advancement and the Atlanta/Fulton Commission on Children and Youth through its Kids 4 a Change program. Through his SWAG Shop barbershops, which he co-owns with his wife, he’s held back-to-school events offering free haircuts, braids, and school supplies for Atlanta children. He was named to NME's "The Ten People Who Defined 2020" list for his powerful lyrics and activism, his album, RTJ4, made Variety's "Best Albums of 2020" list alongside Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and he was named as the recipient of 2020's Billboard Change Maker Award. Of all his roles and responsibilities, recognition and celebration, Mike is most proud to be called “husband” to Shana, and “father” to two sons and two daughters.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE Political commentator and founder of The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes joins Scott to discuss judgment, the hereafter, and the state of American democracy. Charlie talks about converting to catholicism in his teens, the influence of his father on his life, and his hopes for his legacy. Charlie recommends The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
In My Homily Opinion:
Viktor Frankl was a Jewish-Austrian holocaust survivor and psychiatrist who wrote that we should decide what gives life meaning, then live life, so that on our deathbed, our memories may match our meaning. Scott doesn't think we need to wait for our death bed to look back. We can do it whenever we pass from one stage of life to another. Father’s Day was one of those moments for Scott.
Share your regrets and blessings. Email us at yegodspodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Charlie Sykes is a founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, host of The Bulwark Podcast, and an NBC/ MSNBC contributor. He is also the author of nine books, including his most recent book, How the Right Lost Its Mind, published by St. Martin’s Press, released in October 2017. An updated paperback edition was released in October, 2018. Sykes has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Commentary, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Time.com, USA Today, National Review, The New York Review of Books, the New York Daily News, and other national publications. He has appeared on Meet the Press, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, State of the Union with Jake Tapper, the Today Show, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, PBS, the BBC, and has been profiled on NPR. He has also spoken extensively on university campuses. He is a former contributing editor to the Weekly Standard; he also has served as editor of Milwaukee Magazine; editor of Wisconsin Interest Magazine; and founder and editor in chief of Right Wisconsin. Until he stepped down in December 2016 after 23 years, Sykes was one of Wisconsin’s top-rated and most influential conservative talk show hosts. In 2017, he was co-host of the national public radio show, “Indivisible,” which originated from WNYC. He lives in Mequon, Wisconsin with his wife and three dogs. He has three children, and two grandchildren.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE Known for his iconic roles on “The Office” and “Six Feet Under,” actor and author Rainn Wilson joins Scott to discuss his new book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. In part one of this two-part interview, Rainn explores his upbringing in the Baha’i faith, his frustration with modern spirituality, and why he believes we need spiritual community now more than ever. Join us next week to hear about Rainn’s new show “Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss, now streaming on Peacock.
Guest: Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor, writer and producer who has found himself in a variety of comedic and theatrical roles throughout his career. His first breakthrough role came when he played assistant mortician “Arthur Martin” on HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” winning him and the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Wilson is best known for playing the inimitable ‘Dwight Schrute’ for nine seasons on NBC’s Emmy award winning comedy, “The Office,” a role which garnered him three Emmy Award nominations. Wilson’s book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution released on April 25th. In this book, he explores the benefits spirituality gives us in creating solutions for an increasingly challenging world. Wilson can be seen in “Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss” a six-part travel docuseries in which he travels around the world to discover the happiest places on Earth. The series debuted on Peacock on May 18th.
Email us at yegodspodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Byron Katie, in her first book, Loving What Is, introduced to the world what she calls The Work, which, she claims, can bring an end to suffering. Katie's work uses four questions to examine what vexes us. Is it true? Can you really know that it's true? What happens when you believe that thought and who would you be without it? Then come turnarounds in which you consider your answers from alternate points of view. Then come turnarounds in which you consider your answers from alternate points of view.
Katie teaches that the ego, which she defines as our Perceived need to protect our identity causes our negative thought loops, and so by the truth of our thoughts and having compassion for others and ourselves, we may interrupt that flow of rationalization which the ego provides to justify our hurting others or torturing ourselves.
Katie's subsequent bestsellers, including A Thousand Names for Joy and I Need Your Love, Is That True?, as well as her global workshop, as well as her global workshops, have lightened life's burdens for millions. And I can say personally that her work helps Stoppard's phrase, to become stark raving sane.
In my homily opinion (IMHO): whatever we have to do to tamp down the devils within us and elevate the angels is a price well worth paying.
Guest: Byron Katie: In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, rage, and self-loathing, Byron Katie woke up one morning to a state of constant joy that has never left her. She realized that when she believed her thoughts she suffered, but when she questioned them, she didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being.
Since then, she has offered her simple yet powerful process of inquiry, called The Work, to millions of people at free public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, V. A. treatment centers, corporations, universities, and schools. As she guides people through The Work, they find that their stressful beliefs—about life, other people, or themselves—radically shift. Through this process, Katie gives people the tool to set themselves free. Participants at her nine-day School for The Work report profound experiences and lasting transformations. “Katie’s events are riveting to watch,” the Times of London reported. Eckhart Tolle calls The Work “a great blessing for our planet.” And Time magazine named Katie a “spiritual innovator for the new millennium.”
Katie’s books include the bestselling Loving What Is, I Need Your Love—Is That True?, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself.
On her website, www.thework.com, you’ll find basic information about Katie and The Work, Katie’s blog, free materials to download, audio and video clips, a schedule of events, and a free helpline with a network of facilitators.
Email Scott: YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE. What Scott loves most about conversations with Paul F. Tompkins is that they can discuss the most serious of topics without either of them ever pulling a long face. And so this quote from playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht seems apropos:
“People who sweat when they think, and to whom an idea comes with all the impact of a toothache, refuse to believe that gaiety and not pain may be the mark of intellect.”
Amen, Ben. All that's solemn isn't wise. All that's wise isn't solemn. Wisdom often sings and laughs and even giggles.
Guest: Paul F. Tompkins is best known for voicing characters on The Simpsons, Netflix’s Bo Jack Horseman, for creating HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, hosting VH1’s Best Week Ever and myriad podcasts including Stay F. Homekins with Janine Haddad, Threedom with Scott Aukerman and Lauren Lapkus. Check out his live variety show Varietopia.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter reflects on Paul’s broken-hearted mother who, after living her entire life as a devout lamb of the Catholic flock, questions God and flees the fold calling it all BS. She's now passed on, which raises the questions: If there is a God, who does God side with? A woman asking questions in good faith or His church in which she'd stopped believing? Does religion today fail many who come to it with broken hearts and just do not get healed?
Send your thoughts (and prayers) to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Scott met Nayyera Haq when he produced HBO's Real Time, and she was always a smart and insightful guest on a range of social and political topics. She is a highly accomplished professional (see below), a doting mother, a devoted wife and a proud Muslim American. Her parents – a physician and a public school teacher – immigrated from Pakistan to Staten Island, New York and instilled in her a commitment to public service. From an early age, Nayyera has sought to understand how the American Dream worked for her while others around the world struggle. She credits her upbringing and an application of principles from multiple faiths for the enriched life she leads today.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reflects on the shameful tolerance of child labor for some migrant children in the US today. He recalls the lessons of a 1973 short story, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, which describes a utopian paradise where everyone's permanent happiness is predicated on one child.
Guest: Nayyera Haq is an energetic and versatile broadcaster. She is a Producer on CommandZ, a social-impact series directed by Steven Soderbergh. She hosts talk radio on SiriusXM where she connects dots for listeners on local and global issues. A storyteller at heart, Nayyera uses her two decades of experience as a senior diplomat and government official to help people make sense of the world today. She launched and hosted the nightly newscast, The World Tonight and was Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the Black News Channel. Nayyera’s insights and personal appeal make her a regular television guest of hosts like Bill Maher, Joy Reid, and Jake Tapper. She publishes in outlets as varied as The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, Refinery 29, and The Root. Nayyera previously served as a Senior Director in the White House and Senior Advisor at the State Department, advising our nation’s top leaders on issues of international security and diplomacy.
Email Scott: yegodspodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE Author and Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Steve Leder joins Scott to discuss his book For You When I Am Gone; Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. Scott asks Rabbi Leder about his path to becoming a Rabbi, his personal struggles with mental health, and how he points people to the light when they are in the valley of shadows.
Listener advisory: this episode touches on topics that may be sensitive to some including attempted suicide. We can all help prevent suicide. Free and confidential emotional support is available from the National Suicide & Crisis website (988LifeLine.org), or simply dial 988 in the U.S.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Have you got regrets? Scott has a few. On this week’s IMHO Scott asks if we can bridge the gap between aspiration and action.
Email Scott at YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Steve Leder currently serves as the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a prestigious synagogue in Los Angeles with three campuses and 2,700 families. He is a regular contributor and guest on The Today Show, writes regularly for TIME, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Woman’s Day Magazine, contributed a chapter to Charles Barkley’s book Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?,and has published essays in Town and Country, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal where his Torah commentaries were read weekly by over 50,000 people. His sermon on capital punishment was included in an award winning episode of The West Wing. He regularly appears on the Today Show, CNN, NPR and weekly on Spectrum 1 News. Rabbi Leder received the Louis Rappaport Award for Excellence in Commentary from the American Jewish Press Association and the Kovler Award from the Religious Action Center in Washington D.C. for his work in African American/Jewish dialogue and in 2012 presented twice at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He is the author of four books including More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us and the recently published For You When I Am Gone; Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. Newsweek Magazine twice named him one of the ten most influential rabbis in America but most important to Steve is being Betsy’s husband and Aaron and Hannah’s dad. He is also a Jew who likes to fish. Go figure.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Today a conversation of biblical proportions with actress, comedian, author, and producer, Yvonne Orji. Her book, Bamboozled by Jesus: How God tricked me into the life of my dreams is now out in paperback. Scott is someone who's read a lot of celebrity memoirs, some written by friends. This book is different. Yvonne doesn't just recount the peaks and valleys in the upward trajectory of her career. She compares her challenges with the biblical stories and parables that inform her life choices.
Can God love you and still leave your prayers unanswered? yegodspodcast@gmail.com
More about BAMBOOZELD BY JESUS: How God Tricked Me Into the Life of My Dreams By Yvonne Orji
"Yvonne somehow found a way to brilliantly weave her humor, insight, courage, and faith into pages that feel like a weekend retreat hanging with your best, boldest, brightest and most blessed girlfriend. Bamboozled by Jesus is real talk about deep faith put in practice from a woman committed to living a life of vision, purpose, service and success."
―Kerry Washington, actress, producer, & director
Actress, comedienne and now author, Yvonne Orji, hilariously, and with tremendous wisdom, exposes the trials and victories she has experienced on the way to the life of her dreams, in her memoir, BAMBOOZLED BY JESUS. Whatever greatness, whatever joy we may hope for, Yvonne is here to tell us that God has something even bigger and better in store for us, if we can just trust Him and be open to having our minds blown by His goodness, His creativity, and His knack for surprises! Orji takes readers on a journey through twenty-five life lessons, gleaned from her own experiences and her favorite source of inspiration: the Bible. But this ain’t your mama’s Bible study!
Whether you're a college graduate coming up with your "next step" or a 30-something experiencing a sudden change in career or relationship status, Yvonne is here to remind you God has custom-designed your life to be magnificent, and by default, the magnificent is uncertain. Living your best life forces you beyond your capacity and demands reckless abandon of your comfort zone.
Yvonne infuses wit and heart in sharing pointers like why the way up is sometimes down, and how fear is synonymous to food poisoning. Her joyful, confident approach to God will inspire everyone to catapult themselves out of the mundane and into the magnificent. Yvonne's story will encourage you to believe that more is possible for your own life when you let go and embrace the adventure.
Along with her own captivating stories, Yvonne takes a thoughtful look into the lives of some of her favorite characters from the Bible, breathing new life and fresh perspective into familiar stories about bravery, resilience, and taking risks. If you're truly ready to live a life beyond your wildest dreams, hold on for the ride and be prepared to be bamboozled into a new way of thinking about embracing your unique destiny.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE: Journalist, co-author with Bob Woodward of “Peril”, and Chief Election & Campaign Correspondent for CBS News Robert Costa joins Scott to discuss his Catholic upbringing and how faith brings him a respite from dark times. He muses on his reluctance to talk about himself in his reporting and his dedication to facts and objectivity in every story. Scott and Robert also get into his reporting on the religious right and his understanding of the politics of the conservative Christians in the GOP.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Judge not, lest ye be judged. But sometimes we can’t help it. Scott discusses the final season of HBO’s Succession and how Logan Roy’s “suspicions” about the afterlife sparked comparisons to real life media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone.
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Guest: Robert Costa is the Chief Election & Campaign correspondent for CBS News, where he covers national politics and American democracy. Based in Washington D.C., he is a regular contributor to the "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell," "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," "CBS Mornings," and "Sunday Morning," as well as to CBS News Streaming programs such as "Red & Blue." Before joining CBS News in 2022, Costa and reporting legend Bob Woodward co-wrote "Peril," which was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2021. The book documented the tumultuous transition between the Trump presidency and the Biden presidency and was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It was also cited in congressional subpoenas issued by the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. From 2014 to 2021, Costa was a national political reporter at The Washington Post. Costa served as the moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" on PBS from 2017 to 2020.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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On each episode of YE GODS, Scott Carter starts with the same question: If life is a mystery, whodunit? No one knows what happens when we die, neither the devout believer nor the fervent atheist.
This special episode presents excerpts from past interviews in which guests have described experiences of forces connecting them to unexplainable energy – some say the work of God, some say maybe something else. But each has an unshakable sense of connecting to a powerful...something. You'll hear from writer producer Larry Wilmore, Emmy winning actress Patricia Heaton, novelist and podcast host Jack Wilson, conservative radio host Eric Erickson, and journalist Ana Marie Cox.
Why limit the size of the miracle you are willing to accept? If you believe in miracles. Send your stories of miracles and close encounters with the supernatural to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE - Actress and comic Susie Essman from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm joins Scott to discuss praying to the humor gods, the connections between comedy and Judaism, why Larry David the creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm and co-creator of Seinfeld is a sort of Rabbi, plus remembrances of their mutual friend, the late comic genius Gilbert Gottfried.
Guest: Susie Essman has played the sassy Susie Greene for all eleven seasons of the critically-acclaimed HBO comedy series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Her hilarious bouts of withering sarcasm and uninhibited insults have become her character’s trademark. The Los Angeles Times calls Susie, “The most lyrical purveyor of profanity on television. She makes the entire cast of “The Sopranos” look like rank amateurs. It really is a gift.” Susie’s streetwise vernacular is perfectly suited for her life in Manhattan where she has been a veteran of the world of stand up comedy for thirty-nine years. She has appeared in her own half-hour HBO comedy special, made numerous appearances on Broad City, The View, Hacks and The Tonight Show, to name just a few of her many television credits. She has also acted in numerous films. Susie resides in New York with her husband and one-eyed Shih Tzu.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE with Comedian-writer-producer Larry Wilmore who has one of the most impressive resumes in TV from In Living Color, to The Bernie Mac Show, The Daily Show to Blackish and HBO’s Insecure. He now hosts the Larry Wilmore: Black on Air Podcast with The Ringer. He stops by to talk about his epiphany as a door-to-door salesman, his Catholic upbringing and his comedic love of The Marx Brothers and their 1930 classic vaudeville film Animal Crackers.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Do we all have a reason why we are here? Scott Carter honors his friend the late and great comedic genius Garry Shandling. Scott tells the story of how writer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin), while researching for the documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandlingdiscovered a note from Garry that only Scott could decipher about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Garry’s legacy as a mentor to Sarah Silverman and many others.
Guest: Emmy Award winner Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. He can currently be heard as host of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. The show, which premiered in 2017, features Wilmore’s unique mix of humor and wit as he weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond. He can also be seen in the Paramount+ film Jerry and Margo Go Large, alongside Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening. He also serves as executive producer alongside Kerry Washington, in the Hulu legal drama Reasonable Doubt for Hulu’s Onyx Collective. Larry is currently in development on the comedy series Lately for ABC, a behind-the-scenes look at the upstairs-downstairs dynamics of the people who work at a late-night talk show. Wilmore released his first book, “I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts”, in January 2009. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and host Scott Carter, Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer, Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE: Is there a there-there? A place within the mind separate from our thoughts? This week Scott talks to neuroscientist and founder of the Waking Up meditation app, Sam Harris. They discuss how meditation helps us to be happy in the most ordinary of moments and make the most of each moment, vs. the need to extract the greatest pleasure from our greatest moments.
And that there are things to discover about the nature of the mind that are liberating, with the potential to reduce suffering of emotional anguish and ultimately lead to improvements in wellbeing.
Regarding atheism, Sam remarks that, “it’s not so much a claim that the universe isn't much stranger than we realize, (but) in fact, maybe it’s stranger than we can possibly imagine.” And that there are propensities of the human mind that are universally available regardless of culture or geography, and one can find truths across beliefs in Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism,Islam and others, yet we need to have 21st century non-sectarian conversations.
Sam shares this quote from Tibetan Lama Kalu Rinpoche: 'What we live in is an illusion. There is a reality, you are that reality. When you understand this, you'll realize that you're nothing and being nothing, you are everything.' And a recommendation of literature from Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reads from Oscar Wilde’s “De Profundis” and discusses his belief that there is a need for ritual even in the lives of the irreligious. He asks the listeners if God hides himself from us or do we just not know where to look for him?
Guest: Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, and author of five New York Times best sellers. His work covers a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, political polarization, rationality—but generally focuses on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. His books include The End of Faith, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, and Waking Up. Sam hosts the popular Making Sense podcast and is the creator of the Waking Up app, which offers a modern approach to living a more examined life, through both in-depth mindfulness training and secular wisdom. Sam has practiced meditation for over 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers, both in the United States and abroad. He holds a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Photo credit: Christopher Patey
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Author and poet Stephen Mitchell has spent a career pursuing life's meaning as taught by history's great spiritual practices. His is a hero's journey, which ends with the presenting of an elixir, a blessing to the world. His gift to the world are his works, which distill his long sought and gained wisdom.
Guest: Stephen Mitchell was born in Brooklyn in 1943, educated at Amherst, the Sorbonne, and Yale, and de-educated through intensive Zen training. His many books include the bestselling Tao Te Ching, The Gospel According to Jesus, The Book of Job, Gilgamesh, The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, The Second Book of the Tao, Bhagavad Gita, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Beowulf, and Catullus: Selected Poems. He is also the co-author of three of his wife Byron Katie’s bestselling books: Loving What Is, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself. You can read extensive excerpts from all his books at www.stephenmitchellbooks.com.
Photo credit: Brie Childers.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reflects on the words of the sixth U. S. President, John Quincy Adams who once wrote (building on words his father had also written), “I am a warrior so that my son may be a merchant so that his son may be a poet.” With a volunteer army, few Americans are warriors. And the merchant class has been gobbled up by massive big box chains. Modern appliances and digital devices have relieved most of us from the back breaking labor that once consumed Americans' waking hours. We have more discretionary time than our ancestors. How many of us are poets? How do we use this gift of time? Time, once a luxury, is now a commodity. To pass, to kill. How could distracting ourselves be life's purpose?
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Today's encore conversation touches on topics that may be sensitive to some including attempted suicide. Life can be hard, but suicide is preventable and free and confidential support is available by dialing 988 or go to 988lifeline.org
Guest: Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist and culture critic whose writing has appeared in The New Republic, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and NBC.com. Through 2022, she wrote a “Sober Questioning” column at The Cut. She’s also a prolific podcast host including Space the Nation with Dan Drezner and With Friends Like These from Crooked Media. She’s a regular on the Stephen King podcast The Losers Club (a favorite episode is this one on recovery themes in King’s work). Her memoir, “Just Like Your Mother” — a reported account of addiction, recovery, and intergenerational trauma — will be published by Random House in 2024.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott is keeping the door ajar with a one-step-at-a-time willingness to consider new things and challenge old beliefs that do not work.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media, Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound: Song, There’s a New Day by Staffan Carlén.
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In the concluding episode of a two-part interview with Emmy and Golden Globe winning television writer-producer Michael Patrick King, we learn where he is today with the Catholic church and how he’s learned that faith, like art, is really about transitioning people out of where they are to someplace they need to be. He tells a moving story about visiting the Vatican with a friend and witnessing her being overcome while gazing at Michelangelo’s Madonna della Pietà sculpture, a first hand illustration of how “art can actualize emotion hundreds of years later in somebody unsuspecting –it came out of nowhere!”
In My Homily Opinion: A memorial to Oscar winning actor, Alan Arkin (1934-2023) whose work includes the films Glengarry Glen Ross, Little Miss Sunshine, Argo, The Kominsky Method and so much more goodness. May he rest in peace.
Guest: Michael Patrick King has won numerous Emmy and Golden Globe awards as well as numerous nominations from the Writer’s, Directors and Producers Guilds for his writing, directing and producing work on the HBO phenomenon “Sex And The City. “ King piloted the hit series through all six seasons on television then continued on as the writer, director and producer of both blockbuster “Sex and The City” movies. In addition to his ”Sex” life, he is also known for creating, executive producing and directing another HBO series: “The Comeback” with Lisa Kudrow. Michael started his television writing career when he was hired by Diane English to join the staff of the CBS series “Murphy Brown” during their “infamous” Dan Quayle year. His work on “Murphy Brown” garnered him his first Emmy nomination as well as the first of his many Writers Guild Award nominations. Post “Murphy Brown”, he worked as a writer/producer on other popular sit-coms including “Cybil” and “Will & Grace”. Before writing for television, Mr. King was a New York playwright and had his plays produced in New York City, Los Angeles and at the Aspen Comedy Festival. In 2011, he created the hit CBS sitcom, “2 Broke Girls” with Whitney Cummings. It ran for six seasons and is now in syndication. His first streaming series: “AJ And The Queen”, created with and starring RuPaul Charles, can be found on Netflix. His most recent series “AND JUST LIKE THAT…” a new chapter of SEX & THE CITY was Max’s most watched series ever. His latest feature, “The Back Nine” which he wrote with Jhoni Marchinko and Krista Smith, is being produced by MRC and is currently casting. His production company, Michael Patrick King Productions develops projects for film, television and theater.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine and Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.Email us at yegodspodcast@gmail.com
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In part one of this two-part interview with Emmy and Golden Globe winning television writer Michael Patrick King, we learn how to be the holiest altar boy. The “Sex and The City” and “2 Broke Girls” showrunner sits down with Scott to discuss how attending Catholic Church made him love performance and influenced his own spiritual play Thorn & Bloom, how standup made him realize he wasn't telling his truth, and the spiritual gift his mother left him in a letter after her passing. Come back next week for more from the “And Just Like That…” creator Michael Patrick King!
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Guest: Michael Patrick King has won numerous Emmy and Golden Globe awards as well as numerous nominations from the Writer’s, Directors and Producers Guilds for his writing, directing and producing work on the HBO phenomenon “Sex And The City. “ King piloted the hit series through all six seasons on television then continued on as the writer, director and producer of both blockbuster “Sex and The City” movies. In addition to his ”Sex” life, he is also known for creating, executive producing and directing another HBO series: “The Comeback” with Lisa Kudrow. Michael started his television writing career when he was hired by Diane English to join the staff of the CBS series “Murphy Brown” during their “infamous” Dan Quayle year. His work on “Murphy Brown” garnered him his first Emmy nomination as well as the first of his many Writers Guild Award nominations. Post “Murphy Brown”, he worked as a writer/producer on other popular sit-coms including “Cybil” and “Will & Grace”. Before writing for television, Mr. King was a New York playwright and had his plays produced in New York City, Los Angeles and at the Aspen Comedy Festival. In 2011, he created the hit CBS sitcom, “2 Broke Girls” with Whitney Cummings. It ran for six seasons and is now in syndication. His first streaming series: “AJ And The Queen”, created with and starring RuPaul Charles, can be found on Netflix. His most recent series “AND JUST LIKE THAT…” a new chapter of SEX & THE CITY was Max’s most watched series ever. His latest feature, “The Back Nine” which he wrote with Jhoni Marchinko and Krista Smith, is being produced by MRC and is currently casting. His production company, Michael Patrick King Productions develops projects for film, television and theater.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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ENCORE EPISODE Tim Gunn stars on the hit Amazon series, "Making The Cut," and served as co-host for 16 seasons of the revolutionary fashion competition series, "Project Runway," and he has written best sellers like Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible. But when people respond to his expertise and energy, they are reacting to – in an age of moral relativism – his affirmation of actual values: work hard, be decent. In this episode we learn more about Tim’s upbringing in the Episcopal church and how it shaped his ability to be a critical thinker. About his reverence for great masterworks of art as evidence of a higher power. About his epiphanies in the classroom, both learning from and being inspired by the students he teaches, while imparting on them the values of craft, curiosity and compassion. And the wisdom matriculated in the school of life through the dogma of perseverance – or simply stated, “make it work.”
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter asks is teaching the humanities dead?
Article: The New Yorker, The End of the English Major by Nathan Heller
Book: In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria
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Photo credit: Scott McDermott
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better watch Ken Burns films. His body of work is a moving picture portrait gallery of who we've been as a nation and who we are. No contemporary artist has ever succeeded more by trusting so much in the American public's curiosity and attention span. To paraphrase Ken from his conversation with Scott, history changes but human nature doesn’t necessarily change. Ken references Ecclesiastes 1:9 from the Bible as one summation of that paradox: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is no new thing under the sun.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reflects on the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as a lesson in choice - Should you answer the belligerent or conciliatory message?
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Guest: Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; and, most recently, The U.S. and the Holocaust. Future film projects include The American Buffalo, Leonardo da Vinci, The American Revolution, Emancipation to Exodus, and LBJ & the Great Society, among others. Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, Ken was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Photo credit: Alvin Kean Wong
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Political commentator and founder of The Bulwark, Charlie Sykes joins Scott to discuss judgment, the hereafter, and the state of American democracy. Charlie talks about converting to catholicism in his teens, the influence of his father on his life, and his hopes for his legacy. Charlie recommends The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
In My Homily Opinion:
Viktor Frankl was a Jewish-Austrian holocaust survivor and psychiatrist who wrote that we should decide what gives life meaning, then live life, so that on our deathbed, our memories may match our meaning. Scott doesn't think we need to wait for our death bed to look back. We can do it whenever we pass from one stage of life to another. Father’s Day was one of those moments for Scott.
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Guest: Charlie Sykes is a founder and editor-at-large of The Bulwark, host of The Bulwark Podcast, and an NBC/ MSNBC contributor. He is also the author of nine books, including his most recent book, How the Right Lost Its Mind, published by St. Martin’s Press, released in October 2017. An updated paperback edition was released in October, 2018. Sykes has written for The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Weekly Standard, The Washington Post, Commentary, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Los Angeles Times, Newsweek, Time.com, USA Today, National Review, The New York Review of Books, the New York Daily News, and other national publications. He has appeared on Meet the Press, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, State of the Union with Jake Tapper, the Today Show, ABC, NBC, Fox News, CNN, PBS, the BBC, and has been profiled on NPR. He has also spoken extensively on university campuses. He is a former contributing editor to the Weekly Standard; he also has served as editor of Milwaukee Magazine; editor of Wisconsin Interest Magazine; and founder and editor in chief of Right Wisconsin. Until he stepped down in December 2016 after 23 years, Sykes was one of Wisconsin’s top-rated and most influential conservative talk show hosts. In 2017, he was co-host of the national public radio show, “Indivisible,” which originated from WNYC. He lives in Mequon, Wisconsin with his wife and three dogs. He has three children, and two grandchildren.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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This week Michael Render, aka Killer Mike: rapper, activist, and host of the PBS talk show Love & Respect with Killer Mike (Executive Produced by Scott Carter) as well as half of the rap duo Run The Jewels. He joins Scott to talk about the influence of his grandmother on his faith, how blackness informed his experience of church and why the teachings of Jesus Christ made him a radical in his time and today. Mike’s latest album “Michael” drops June 16th.
Michael’s recommendation is the 1791 book by Count Constantin-François Chassebœuf, The Ruins of Empires.
In My Homily Opinion: Scott tells the story of how he and Mike met and asks if we all could use more hugs.
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Guest: Michael Render, aka Killer Mike, is a Grammy-award winning rapper, businessman and activist. He is one half of the hip hop duo, Run the Jewels, host of the PBS talk show “Love & Respect with Killer Mike,” and co-owner along with Tip ‘T.I.’ Harris of famed Atlanta restaurant, Bankhead Seafood. A native of Atlanta, Render has released five full-length albums as a solo artist and four albums for Run the Jewels. His latest solo album “Michael” releases on June 16, 2023. He began organizing at the age of 15 and made a name for himself as an activist well before he recorded a single song. In addition to advocating for the decriminalization of marijuana, and restorative justice programs for young people, Render has worked locally with the anti-violence organization, Black Teens for Advancement and the Atlanta/Fulton Commission on Children and Youth through its Kids 4 a Change program. Through his SWAG Shop barbershops, which he co-owns with his wife, he’s held back-to-school events offering free haircuts, braids, and school supplies for Atlanta children. He was named to NME's "The Ten People Who Defined 2020" list for his powerful lyrics and activism, his album, RTJ4, made Variety's "Best Albums of 2020" list alongside Taylor Swift, The Weeknd, and he was named as the recipient of 2020's Billboard Change Maker Award. Of all his roles and responsibilities, recognition and celebration, Mike is most proud to be called “husband” to Shana, and “father” to two sons and two daughters.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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In part two of our interview with actor and Soul Boom author Rainn Wilson, we discuss his new show Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss, now streaming on Peacock. Rainn shares some of his favorite memories from filming around the world, which places he thinks find happiness best, and where he’d like to go in season two. Rainn also talks about how our culture’s aversion to death hurts our ability to appreciate life.
Rainn recommends this inspiring quote from Pierre Teilhard de Chardin the Jesuit priest: “We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.”
Guest: Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor, writer and producer who has found himself in a variety of comedic and theatrical roles throughout his career. His first
breakthrough role came when he played assistant mortician “Arthur Martin” on HBO’s Six Feet Under, winning him and the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Wilson is best known for playing the inimitable ‘Dwight Schrute’ for nine seasons on NBC’s Emmy award winning comedy, The Office, a role which
garnered him three Emmy Award nominations. Wilson’s book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution released on April 25th. In this book, he explores the benefits spirituality gives us in creating solutions for an increasingly challenging world. Wilson can be seen in Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss a six-part travel docuseries in which he travels around the world to discover the happiest places on Earth. The series debuted on Peacock on May 18th.
In My Homily Opinion:
Scott encourages Rainn to stay weird. The search for meaning cannot be done without our authentic selves.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Known for his iconic roles on “The Office” and “Six Feet Under,” actor and author Rainn Wilson joins Scott to discuss his new book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. In part one of this two-part interview, Rainn explores his upbringing in the Baha’i faith, his frustration with modern spirituality, and why he believes we need spiritual community now more than ever. Join us next week to hear about Rainn’s new show “Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss, now streaming on Peacock.
Guest: Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor, writer and producer who has found himself in a variety of comedic and theatrical roles throughout his career. His first breakthrough role came when he played assistant mortician “Arthur Martin” on HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” winning him and the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Wilson is best known for playing the inimitable ‘Dwight Schrute’ for nine seasons on NBC’s Emmy award winning comedy, “The Office,” a role which garnered him three Emmy Award nominations. Wilson’s book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution released on April 25th. In this book, he explores the benefits spirituality gives us in creating solutions for an increasingly challenging world. Wilson can be seen in “Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss” a six-part travel docuseries in which he travels around the world to discover the happiest places on Earth. The series debuted on Peacock on May 18th.
In My Homily Opinion will return next week.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Scott Carter is joined by nationally syndicated conservative radio host Erick Erickson to set their political differences aside and talk about tests of faith, the usefulness of rituals in the passages and celebrations of life, plus the “welfare of your community” and service to its members.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): For this Memorial Day weekend, Scott remembers those who serve in our military forces and veterans living or dead, including his father Captain John Henry Carter, who spent four and a half years in the US Navy in the Pacific during World War II.
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Guest: Erick Erickson is host of the nationally syndicated Erick Erickson Show from Atlanta. In 2015, The Atlantic named Erick Erickson the most influential conservative in the United States. He writes a daily email read by numerous members of Congress, governors, and policy makers across the nation. Erickson practiced law for six years; served as a campaign consultant for federal, state, and local races; ran RedState.com for a decade turning it into the most widely read center-right blog on Capitol Hill; ran for office and served as a city councilman; and served as a political contributor for both CNN and Fox. Erickson makes regular appearances on various CNN and Fox News programs, NBC’s Meet the Press, and HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher. He is also a nationally syndicated columnist. Erick Erickson is a native of Louisiana, grew up in the United Arab Emirates, and currently lives in Macon, GA with his wife and children. He is a graduate of Mercer University and its Walter F. George School of Law. He is presently attending Reformed Theological Seminary working on a masters in theology.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Julia Sweeney is a multi-hyphenate performer known for her hilarious characters on SNL and her comedy specials God Said Ha, Letting Go of God, and most recently Older and Wider. This week on Ye Gods!, Julia joins Scott to discuss her devout atheism as well as her feelings on religion, God, the saints and more! Julia explains cultural Catholicism sans a belief in God and how community is central to who we are as human beings.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s love of the Catholic ceremony, this week's IMHO Scott asks listeners to send in stories of how religious ritual has affected their lives and if experiencing them can reveal spiritual mysteries.
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Guest: Julia Sweeney is an actress, comedian, writer and film director. She was born in the U.S. in Spokane, Washington in 1959. She’s appeared on numerous film and television shows and is well known for her years on SNL in the first half of the 1990s. She has created several comedic one-person shows. In 2014, she released her book “If It’s Not One Thing, It’s Your Mother”, a collection of essays on the complex blessings of motherhood. The latest TV series Julia has appeared in is Shrill and Brooklyn Nine-Nine.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Two-time Emmy winner, and two-time Ye Gods guest Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle shares laughs and tears with Scott in a sort of movie review and personal revelation sparked by the HBO Academy Award nominated documentary God is the Bigger Elvis, a film that tells the true story of a rising Hollywood starlet who traded fame, fortune and fiance for God, and became a nun.
Watch the full movie God is the Bigger Elvis on HBO.
Send your movie recommendations to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Patricia Heaton is an actress, author and producer perhaps best known for her role on the beloved and critically acclaimed CBS series “Everybody Loves Raymond” for 9 seasons. She followed that up with another 9 season run, starring on the ABC cornerstone, single camera comedy “The Middle.” She is co-founder of FourBoys Films which recently released Unexpected.
In addition to her acting and producing credits, Heaton is a bestselling author whose debut book, the autobiographical Motherhood and Hollywood -- How to Get A Job Like Mine appeared on The New York Times best-sellers list.
A committed philanthropist, Heaton is the founding member of World Vision’s Celebrity Ambassador Network. She has traveled to Rwanda, Zambia and Syria with the humanitarian organization which focuses on conducting relief, development, and advocacy activities in its work with children, families, and their communities in nearly 100 countries.
Heaton is a mother to four sons and lives in Nashville with her husband actor-producer David Hunt.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Author and Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Steve Leder joins Scott to discuss his book For You When I Am Gone; Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. Scott asks Rabbi Leder about his path to becoming a Rabbi, his personal struggles with mental health, and how he points people to the light when they are in the valley of shadows.
Listener advisory: this episode touches on topics that may be sensitive to some including attempted suicide. We can all help prevent suicide. Free and confidential emotional support is available from the National Suicide & Crisis website (988LifeLine.org), or simply dial 988 in the U.S.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO):
Have you got regrets? Scott has a few. On this week’s IMHO Scott asks if we can bridge the gap between aspiration and action.
Email Scott at YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Guest:
Steve Leder currently serves as the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a prestigious synagogue in Los Angeles with three campuses and 2,700 families. He is a regular contributor and guest on The Today Show, writes regularly for TIME, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Woman’s Day Magazine, contributed a chapter to Charles Barkley’s book Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?,and has published essays in Town and Country, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal where his Torah commentaries were read weekly by over 50,000 people. His sermon on capital punishment was included in an award winning episode of The West Wing. He regularly appears on the Today Show, CNN, NPR and weekly on Spectrum 1 News. Rabbi Leder received the Louis Rappaport Award for Excellence in Commentary from the American Jewish Press Association and the Kovler Award from the Religious Action Center in Washington D.C. for his work in African American/Jewish dialogue and in 2012 presented twice at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He is the author of four books including More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us and the recently published For You When I Am Gone; Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. Newsweek Magazine twice named him one of the ten most influential rabbis in America but most important to Steve is being Betsy’s husband and Aaron and Hannah’s dad. He is also a Jew who likes to fish. Go figure.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound.
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Journalist, co-author with Bob Woodward of “Peril”, and Chief Election & Campaign Correspondent for CBS News, Robert Costa joins Scott to discuss his Catholic upbringing and how faith brings him a respite from dark times. He muses on his reluctance to talk about himself in his reporting and his dedication to facts and objectivity in every story. Scott and Robert also get into his reporting on former President Donald Trump, the religious right and his understanding of the politics of the conservative Christians in the GOP.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Judge not, lest ye be judged. But sometimes we can’t help it. Scott discusses the final season of HBO’s Succession and how Logan Roy’s “suspicions” about the afterlife sparked comparisons to real life media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone.
Guest: Robert Costa is the Chief Election & Campaign correspondent for CBS News, where he covers national politics and American democracy. Based in Washington D.C., he is a regular contributor to the "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell," "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," "CBS Mornings," and "Sunday Morning," as well as to CBS News Streaming programs such as "Red & Blue." Before joining CBS News in 2022, Costa and reporting legend Bob Woodward co-wrote "Peril," which was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2021. The book documented the tumultuous transition between the Trump presidency and the Biden presidency and was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It was also cited in congressional subpoenas issued by the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. From 2014 to 2021, Costa was a national political reporter at The Washington Post. Costa served as the moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" on PBS from 2017 to 2020.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Comedian-writer-producer Larry Wilmore has one of the most impressive resumes in TV from In Living Color, to The Bernie Mac Show, The Daily Show to Blackish and HBO’s Insecure. He now hosts the Larry Wilmore: Black on Air Podcast with The Ringer. He stops by to talk about his epiphany as a door-to-door salesman, his Catholic upbringing and his comedic love of The Marx Brothers and their 1930 classic vaudeville film Animal Crackers.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Do we all have a reason why we are here? Scott Carter honors his friend the late and great comedic genius Garry Shandling. Scott tells the story of how writer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin), while researching for the documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandlingdiscovered a note from Garry that only Scott could decipher about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Garry’s legacy as a mentor to Sarah Silverman and many others.
Guest: Emmy Award winner Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. He can currently be heard as host of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. The show, which premiered in 2017, features Wilmore’s unique mix of humor and wit as he weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond. He can also be seen in the Paramount+ film Jerry and Margo Go Large, alongside Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening. He also serves as executive producer alongside Kerry Washington, in the Hulu legal drama Reasonable Doubt for Hulu’s Onyx Collective. Larry is currently in development on the comedy series Lately for ABC, a behind-the-scenes look at the upstairs-downstairs dynamics of the people who work at a late-night talk show. Wilmore released his first book, “I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts”, in January 2009. He lives in Los Angeles.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Is there a there-there? A place within the mind separate from our thoughts? This week Scott talks to neuroscientist and founder of the Waking Up meditation app, Sam Harris. They discuss how meditation helps us to be happy in the most ordinary of moments and make the most of each moment, vs. the need to extract the greatest pleasure from our greatest moments.
And that there are things to discover about the nature of the mind that are liberating, with the potential to reduce suffering of emotional anguish and ultimately lead to improvements in wellbeing.
Regarding atheism, Sam remarks that, “it’s not so much a claim that the universe isn't much stranger than we realize, (but) in fact, maybe it’s stranger than we can possibly imagine.” And that there are propensities of the human mind that are universally available regardless of culture or geography, and one can find truths across beliefs in Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Judaism,Islam and others, yet we need to have 21st century non-sectarian conversations.
Sam shares this quote from Tibetan Lama Kalu Rinpoche: 'What we live in is an illusion. There is a reality, you are that reality. When you understand this, you'll realize that you're nothing and being nothing, you are everything.' And a recommendation of literature from Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilyich
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reads from Oscar Wilde’s “De Profundis” and discusses his belief that there is a need for ritual even in the lives of the irreligious. He asks the listeners if God hides himself from us or do we just not know where to look for him?
Guest: Sam Harris is a neuroscientist, philosopher, and author of five New York Times best sellers. His work covers a wide range of topics—neuroscience, moral philosophy, religion, meditation practice, political polarization, rationality—but generally focuses on how a growing understanding of ourselves and the world is changing our sense of how we should live. His books include The End of Faith, The Moral Landscape, Free Will, Lying, and Waking Up. Sam hosts the popular Making Sense podcast and is the creator of the Waking Up app, which offers a modern approach to living a more examined life, through both in-depth mindfulness training and secular wisdom. Sam has practiced meditation for over 30 years and has studied with many Tibetan, Indian, Burmese, and Western meditation teachers, both in the United States and abroad. He holds a degree in philosophy from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in neuroscience from UCLA.
Photo credit: Christopher Patey
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Actress and comic Susie Essman from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm joins Scott to discuss praying to the humor gods, the connections between comedy and Judaism, why Larry David the creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm and co-creator of Seinfeld is a sort of Rabbi, plus remembrances of their mutual friend, the late comic genius Gilbert Gottfried.
In honor of Gilbert Gottfried, this episode is being released near the first anniversary of his passing. In the Jewish tradition, the first anniversary of a death is called Yahrzeit. Sacred readings, candle lighting, charitable giving, and fasting are done in memoriam.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott replies to listener Kathleen Valley Stein's email on the Rubicon moment her family faced, and the subsequent book she wrote Loving Choices, Peaceful Passing Why My Family Chose Hospice
Guest: Susie Essman has played the sassy Susie Greene for all eleven seasons of the critically-acclaimed HBO comedy series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Her hilarious bouts of withering sarcasm and uninhibited insults have become her character’s trademark.
The Los Angeles Times calls Susie, “The most lyrical purveyor of profanity on television. She makes the entire cast of “The Sopranos” look like rank amateurs. It really is a gift.”
Susie’s streetwise vernacular is perfectly suited for her life in Manhattan where she has been a veteran of the world of stand up comedy for thirty-nine years. She has appeared in her own half-hour HBO comedy special, made numerous appearances on Broad City, The View, Hacks and The Tonight Show, to name just a few of her many television credits. She has also acted in numerous films.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
Send your thoughts (and prayers) to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
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Today's conversation touches on topics that may be sensitive to some including attempted suicide. Life can be hard, but suicide is preventable and free and confidential support is available by dialing 988 or go to 988lifeline.org
Guest: Ana Marie Cox is a political columnist and culture critic whose writing has appeared in The New Republic, Sports Illustrated, the New York Times, and NBC.com. Through 2022, she wrote a “Sober Questioning” column at The Cut. She’s also a prolific podcast host including Space the Nation with Dan Drezner and With Friends Like These from Crooked Media. She’s a regular on the Stephen King podcast The Losers Club (a favorite episode is this one on recovery themes in King’s work). Her memoir, “Just Like Your Mother” — a reported account of addiction, recovery, and intergenerational trauma — will be published by Random House in 2024.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): It’s the week of Passover and Easter. So in the spirit of renewal and rebirth, Scott Carter is keeping the door ajar with a one-step-at-a-time willingness to consider new things and challenge old beliefs that do not work.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Tim Gunn stars on the hit Amazon series, "Making The Cut," and served as co-host for 16 seasons of the revolutionary fashion competition series, "Project Runway," and he has written best sellers like Tim Gunn's Fashion Bible. But when people respond to his expertise and energy, they are reacting to – in an age of moral relativism – his affirmation of actual values: work hard, be decent. In this episode we learn more about Tim’s upbringing in the Episcopal church and how it shaped his ability to be a critical thinker. About his reverence for great masterworks of art as evidence of a higher power. About his epiphanies in the classroom, both learning from and being inspired by the students he teaches, while imparting on them the values of craft, curiosity and compassion. And the wisdom matriculated in the school of life through the dogma of perseverance – or simply stated, “make it work.”
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter asks is teaching the humanities dead?
Article: The New Yorker, The End of the English Major by Nathan Heller
Book: In Defense of a Liberal Education by Fareed Zakaria
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Photo credit: Scott McDermott
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound.
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Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better watch Ken Burns films. His body of work is a moving picture portrait gallery of who we've been as a nation and who we are. No contemporary artist has ever succeeded more by trusting so much in the American public's curiosity and attention span. To paraphrase Ken from his conversation with Scott, history changes but human nature doesn’t necessarily change. Ken references Ecclesiastes 1:9 from the Bible as one summation of that paradox: What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is no new thing under the sun.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reflects on the Cold War and Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 as a lesson in choice - Should you answer the belligerent or conciliatory message?
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Guest: Ken Burns has been making documentary films for over forty years. Since the Academy Award nominated Brooklyn Bridge in 1981, Ken has gone on to direct and produce some of the most acclaimed historical documentaries ever made, including The Civil War; Baseball; Jazz; The War; The National Parks: America’s Best Idea; Prohibition; The Roosevelts: An Intimate History; The Vietnam War; Country Music; and, most recently, The U.S. and the Holocaust. Future film projects include The American Buffalo, Leonardo da Vinci, The American Revolution, Emancipation to Exodus, and LBJ & the Great Society, among others. Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations. In September of 2008, at the News & Documentary Emmy Awards, Ken was honored by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences with a Lifetime Achievement Award. In November of 2022, Ken was inducted into the Television Academy Hall of Fame.
Photo credit: Alvin Kean Wong
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Two-time Emmy winner Patricia Heaton of Everybody Loves Raymond and The Middle shares laughs with Scott while reflecting on newfound clarity in their lives, discussing sobriety, Jesus on the beach eating fish with his disciples among other observations of faith, and Father Barry’s (Karl Malden) inspirational monologue and the enduring poetic fable of the 1954 Academy Award Best Picture On the Waterfront with Marlon Brando and Eva Marie Saint.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott supposes that when a friend sends you something about someone else, they are in fact sending you something about themselves. It's a sacred offer to be honored.
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Guest: Patricia Heaton is an actress, author and producer perhaps best known for her role on the beloved and critically acclaimed CBS series “Everybody Loves Raymond” for 9 seasons. She followed that up with another 9 season run, starring on the ABC cornerstone, single camera comedy “The Middle.” She is co-founder of FourBoys Films which recently released Unexpected.
In addition to her acting and producing credits, Heaton is a bestselling author whose debut book, the autobiographical Motherhood and Hollywood -- How to Get A Job Like Mine appeared on The New York Times best-sellers list.
A committed philanthropist, Heaton is the founding member of World Vision’s Celebrity Ambassador Network. She has traveled to Rwanda, Zambia and Syria with the humanitarian organization which focuses on conducting relief, development, and advocacy activities in its work with children, families, and their communities in nearly 100 countries.
Heaton is a mother to four sons and lives in Nashville with her husband actor-producer David Hunt.
Photo credit: Kate Romero
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Comedian, podcaster and documentarian Hari Kondabolu joins to discuss growing up as a second generation Indian-American and melding the cultural diversity of his hometown Queens, NY with the beautiful Hindu traditions taught to him by his mother while also absorbing through films and the iconic Amar Chitra Katha comic books. Hari and Scott discuss Indian films including the Oscar nominated RRR, and Hari leaves us with a recommendation to experience a classic film that elicits tears at the same scene every time he rewatches: The Apu Trilogy: Pather Panchali. Hari's new Special "Vacation Baby" debuts on YouTube April 18th.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter delights in hearing the voice of his dear friend and future Ye Gods guest Salman Rushdie on Surviving the Fatwa on New Yorker Radio Hour.
దయచేసి ఆలోచనలు మరియు ఆశీర్వాదాలు పంపండి YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Guest: Hari Kondabolu is a comedian, writer and podcaster based in Brooklyn. The NY Times called him “one of the most exciting political comics in stand-up today” and described his 2018 Netflix special Warn Your Relatives as “an incisively funny and formally adventurous hour that reveals a comic in command of his powers.”
In 2017, his HBOMax documentary The Problem with Apu was released to critical acclaim and spurred a global conversation about race and representation. The Nation called it “a devastating critique of the ultimate comedic sacred cow: The Simpsons.” It is now used in high school, college and grad school curriculums around the US.
A regular on the public radio, Hari is a panelist on the NPR game show Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me. As a podcaster, he co-hosted the popular Politically Reactive with dear friend W. Kamau Bell. Additionally, he also co-hosts what he politely describes as a “pop up podcast,” The Untitled Kondabolu Brothers Podcast with his younger brother Ashok (“Dap” from HBO’s Chillin’ Island and defunct rap group Das Racist.)
Hari attended both Bowdoin College and Wesleyan University, graduating from the former institution with a B.A. in Comparative Politics. A former immigrant rights organizer in Seattle who worked under the leadership of now-Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, Hari also earned a Masters in Human Rights from the London School of Economics in 2008. He was the “Artist In Residence” at NYU’s APA Institute for the 2014-2015 Academic Year and at Shangri La Museum in Honolulu in 2018.
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Scott is joined by journalist and historian Jonathan Alter, the author of His Very Best, Jimmy Carter a Life, which is the result of numerous interviews with the most religious of U.S. Presidents and the gold standard for ex-Presidents.
(31:54) Afterwards, Scott gets a few thoughts on Jimmy Carter from documentary filmmaker and historian Ken Burns, who will be a guest on an upcoming episode of Ye Gods! Ken’s films have been honored with dozens of major awards, including sixteen Emmy Awards, two Grammy Awards and two Oscar nominations.
Guest: Jonathan Alter is an award-winning author, political analyst, documentary filmmaker, columnist, television producer and radio host. Alter’s most recent book is “His Very Best: Jimmy Carter, a Life.” (2020), which received uniformly favorable reviews. His earlier books include three New York Times bestsellers: “The Center Holds: Obama and His Enemies” (2013), “The Promise: President Obama, Year One” (2010) and “The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope” (2006), also one of the Times’ “Notable Books” of the year.
A former senior editor and columnist at Newsweek, Alter is a longtime political analyst for NBC News and MSNBC. He co-produced and co-directed the HBO documentary “Breslin and Hamill: Deadline Artists,” which won the 2020 Emmy for Outstanding Historical Documentary. In 2013-2014, he was an executive producer of “Alpha House,“ a comedy on Amazon.
Over the years, Alter has written for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Washington Monthly, the New Yorker, Bloomberg, the Daily Beast and other publications. In 2021, he launched a weekly Substack newsletter called “OLD GOATS, Ruminating with Friends,” which includes frequent columns and his conversations with accomplished people of wisdom and experience. Since 2016, he has hosted “Alter Family Politics“ each week on Sirius XM, 102 with his three adult children.
Email us and describe your indescribable vision: YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound: “Amazing Grace” performed by Sven Karlsson.
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Playwright-actress Anna Deavere Smith stops by on occasion of the 30th Anniversary of her groundbreaking play Twilight: Los Angeles 1992 on stage at The Mark Taper Forum beginning March 8 through April 9, 2023.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): The Academy Awards are Sunday, March 12th and Steven Spielberg is once again nominated, this time for The Fabelmans, which got Scott thinking of another Oscar-winning Spielberg film, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In that 1977 landmark film, Richard Dreyfuss plays one of the characters having visions sparked by, well, a close encounter with another kind. The Dreyfus character tries to sculpt his vision into mashed potatoes compelled, like any visionary, to express feelings he can't describe, even if it means eye rolls from the doubting kind.
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Author Jacke Wilson joins Scott to discuss love and hate cast into the universe…and affirmations of the soul in Prince’s Purple Rain! They also swap stories of life changing events that nudge you over from skepticism to qualified or even unqualified belief in something that cannot in this realm exactly be explained.
Guest: Jacke Wilson is the host of The History of LIterature podcast where he journeys through the ancients and classics from Aristotle, the Bible and Confucius, to Charles Dickens, Emily Dickinson and Shakespeare, to contemporary with Toni Morrison, Salman Rushdie and other great authors and books.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter asks if our good thoughts and prayers impact the universe, or are we like the tree falling in the forest that nobody hears?
Send your thoughts (and prayers) to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com
Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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On Ash Wednesday, writer-comedian Paul F. Tompkins joins to discuss his Catholic upbringing and faith, praying for the Pope, the Golden Rule, the Reckoning and the meaning of living a life full of joy and sorrow…even in Hollywood.
Guest: Paul F. Tompkins is best known for voicing characters on The Simpsons, Netflix’s Bo Jack Horseman, for creating HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, hosting VH1’s Best Week Ever and myriad podcasts including Stay F. Homekins with Janine Haddad, Threedom with Scott Aukerman and Lauren Lapkus. Check out his live variety show Varietopia.
In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter reflects on Paul’s broken-hearted mother who, after living her entire life as a devout lamb of the Catholic flock, questions God and flees the fold calling it all BS. She's now passed on, which raises the questions: If there is a God, who does God side with? A woman asking questions in good faith or His church in which she'd stopped believing? Does religion today fail many who come to it with broken hearts and just do not get healed?
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Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound.
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Is there a God, Holy Spirit or Force with us? Each Wednesday award winning Hollywood TV producer and playwright Scott Carter holds an open-minded discussion of personal faith and morals with a diverse roster of interfaith and non-faith celebrity guests. If life is a mystery, whodunit?
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