Friendly Atheist News Roundup 9/24/2026 (Hemant Mehta and Jessica Bluemke, The Friendly Atheist podcast #654)

0:00 Intro
0:20 Jehovah’s Witnesses just gutted their deadly blood transfusion policy.
18:32 Trump’s “Top 250 Victories for People of Faith” collapse under scrutiny.
36:50 An Alabama church says God made a paraplegic man walk again. There’s a better explanation.
52:00 Nearly half of people raised Mormon have left the LDS Church.
1:02:53 James Talarico’s pastor welcomes atheists. Conservatives think that’s a scandal.

Interview: 

• Video, with Jessica: https://youtu.be/JoitL7S8Kbg?si=SjvLNEghC7CqhNhC
• Video, without Jessica: https://www.youtube.com/live/Qg1-85lzNzM?si=9ILTzaupJ2DP3bzC
• Audio only, with Jessica: https://friendlyatheistpodcast.com/2026/09/23/jehovahs-witnesses-gut-their-blood-ban/

Still searching… Funny how it’s never there. (Jon Cohen, Unconvinced)

All believers seem to have their own ideas about which parts are metaphorical and which are to be taken literally. Of course, the book itself has nothing to say on the matter. 

Interview: 

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/MIbNqd67x4g?feature=share

  

'American Scoundrel' traces Roy Cohn's playbook from McCarthyism to Trump (Terry Gross, Fresh Air podcast)

In Kai Bird's biography of Cohn, he looks at how the lawyer taught Trump how to deny, delay, attack, sue and countersue, never admit defeat, side-step paying bills and avoid a paper trail.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/17/nx-s1-5965831/american-scoundrel-traces-roy-cohns-playbook-from-mccarthyism-to-trump

Inside a 'modern slavery situation' where cyber scammers are victims themselves (Terry Gross, Fresh Air podcast)

Wired's Andy Greenberg explains how a cybercrime operation in Southeast Asia trapped computer engineers into defrauding victims of billions of dollars. Plus, he discusses the scam involving Fresh Air.

Interview: 

https://www.npr.org/2026/09/22/nx-s1-5977731/inside-a-modern-slavery-situation-where-cyber-scammers-are-victims-themselves

White House claims pro-Trump ad it paid Fox to air was ‘public service announcement

Some Democrats say taxpayer-funded ad could be illegal government propaganda aimed at influencing voters…

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/25/white-house-pro-trump-ad-fox

Trump reportedly rejects Iran’s seven-day peace deal to reopen strait of Hormuz

Tehran awaits official response to plan, but US president is said to expect renewed strikes after midterms…

 https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/sep/26/trump-dismiss-iran-seven-day-peace-deal-hormuz

 

Paul's Spiritual Gifts Are Not a Tier List (Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher; Data Over Dogma podcast on YouTube)

Wisdom, healing, prophecy, tongues — the gifts of the spirit sometimes get treated like a skill tree you level up, but 1 Corinthians 12 isn't handing out superpowers. Instead, Paul is refereeing a squabble, and his point is that a body needs a hand as much as a head.

This week on Data Over Dogma: what the gifts actually are, why Paul counts celibacy among them, and how a spirit-led movement turned into an org chart with qualifications.

Chapters:

0:00 Welcome and Whence
0:49 A Listener's Suggestion
1:37 Gifts of the Spirit
1:47 Starting in 1 Corinthians 12
2:07 Where Else They Appear
3:03 Paul Writes to Corinth
3:45 Spirituals, Not Gifts
4:09 Paul's Actual Argument
4:42 Diversity Without Hierarchy
5:45 Edification and Order
6:12 The Skill-Tree Misconception
7:34 The Encanto Model
7:59 Celibacy as a Gift
8:53 The Magic Mike Detour
10:52 Not a Prize Catalog
11:17 Gifts or Roles
12:52 A Spirit-Led Church
13:19 The Pastoral Epistles
14:32 Romans 12's Gift List
15:26 Fledgling Movement, Then Institution
16:44 Tongues: Two Kinds
18:04 Tongues on a Mission
19:23 Tongues in the Early LDS Church
20:43 Ephesians 4 and the Body
22:08 Cool Gift, Now What
23:36 Join Us and Patreon

Interview: 

https://youtu.be/Nhx1IrH5ssM?si=eBn1UQLidVJI0D8e

Does God Change His Mind? (Bradley Onishi and Daniel Miller; Straight White American Jesus podcast) It's In the Code Ep. 207

Does God change his mind? 

CAN God change his mind? 

The traditional theological answer to both of these questions is “no.” 

But what if the answer is “yes”? Why would this represent such a threat to high-control religion and traditional Christian teaching? Check out this week’s episode to find out!

Interview: 

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/its-in-the-code-ep-207-does-god-change-his-mind/id1441649707?i=1000791464937

We're keeping public schools secular every day

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/-9A8Ixvlnaw.

AOC Meets MAHA (Conspirituality podcast #327)

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has been meeting with MAHA activists in an attempt to bring the coalition to the Democratic party. Recent reporting reveals that she’s been meeting (or trying to meet) with some close to RFK Jr, as well as those who have been critical of the HHS Secretary. It might be a sound political strategy, but what happens when you start courting conspiracy theorists? Derek looks into that first.

Julian then looks at where MAHA currently is based on two recent Kennedy appearances. Matthew returns to AOC to ask how the DSA might assess her MAHA pivot.
Interview: 

https://www.conspirituality.net/episodes/327-aoc-meets-maha

Sorry to interrupt family game night with the collapse of democracy

 https://www.youtube.com/shorts/dgCjavwPotI

How Paul Got Out of Jerusalem Alive (Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher; Data Over Dogma podcast on YouTube)

Paul is back in Jerusalem, and just about everyone wants a piece of him.

This week we're going chapter and verse through Acts 23-26: the hearing that turns into a brawl, the forty men who swore off food until they'd killed Paul (and then told everyone the plan out loud), the nephew who blew their cover, and the two long years Paul spent in Caesarea while a Roman governor waited around for a bribe.

Plus: what Paul actually gained by appealing to the emperor, and what it cost him.

Interview: 

https://youtu.be/MYoHAs6PpXY?si=MLUDy_gqmsAVTzOY

Chapters:

0:00 Intro
0:23 Paul's Infamous Incarceration
1:18 Who Was Paul, Anyway
3:47 Pharisee and Roman Citizen
4:31 What Is the Sanhedrin
5:38 "You Whitewashed Wall"
7:29 Resurrection Starts a Riot
9:47 A Vision of Rome
10:33 Forty Men, One Oath
12:04 Paul's Nephew Spoils It
13:46 Escort to Caesarea
15:22 Spotting a Pharisee
17:06 Herod's Headquarters
18:45 Tertullus Makes His Case
20:33 Who Were the Nazarenes
21:49 Paul's Defense
23:10 Before "Christian," the Way
24:26 Caesarea's Hidden Cells
26:23 Felix Stalls for Two Years
27:31 Appealing to the Emperor
28:59 Almost Persuaded
30:44 Shipwrecked on Malta
31:40 Thanks for Watching

The truth behind Donald Trump’s ‘biggest oil deal in world history’

The US’s oil deal with Venezuela faces multiple legal and logistical problems, including questions about whether it can be implemented…

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/sep/26/donald-trump-oil-deal-with-venezuela

 

Gaza: a week in the life of five ordinary Palestinians

As the war pushes deep into its third year, what does daily life look like for people living there and how has the conflict changed it?

 https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/ng-interactive/2026/sep/26/gaza-a-week-in-the-life-of-five-ordinary-palestinians

 

The REAL House of David (Dan McClellan and Dan Beecher; Data Over Dogma podcast on YouTube)

Thirty-some years ago, excavators at Tel Dan pulled three broken pieces of basalt out of the ground, and six of the letters carved into them spell out something no other inscription clearly does: the house of David.

This week, Dan M walks us through what the Tel Dan Stele actually says, why an Aramean king was bragging about killing two kings you can find in your Bible, and what it means that his version of events contradicts both biblical accounts.

Also: how one hunk of stone helps date the oldest historical prose in the Hebrew Bible, and no, Steely Dan was not named after it.

Chapters:

0:00 Steely Dan Jokes
1:18 What Is a Tel
2:06 Gates, Altars, Standing Stones
3:31 Three Fragments, One Inscription
4:19 Dating It to Hazael
5:00 The Chalk-Filled Letters
5:52 Dots Instead of Spaces
6:34 Bragstones and Royal Resumes
7:13 Reading the Inscription
9:04 Two Dead Kings
10:01 Kingdom Versus Dynasty
11:08 Evidence for a Historical David
12:30 Hazael in Second Kings
13:21 Jehu Drives Like a Maniac
13:53 Who Killed Ahaziah
16:22 Taking Credit for the Kill
17:53 Dating Kings and Chronicles
19:07 Who Really Killed Goliath
19:58 The Birth of Historical Prose
21:32 Poetry Came First
23:01 Story, Then Song
24:19 Steely Dan Came First
Interview: 

https://youtu.be/2nldu9Ox6qA?si=h_ayUNV6dNWTkLsG

Sisterhood Is Global (Dan Barker and Annie Laurie Gaylor, Freethought Radio podcast)

After reporting the good and the bad news about Christian nationalist antics, we remember the life and legacy of well-known feminist and atheist activist Robin Morgan, who died earlier this month.

Interview: 

https://ffrf.org/news/freethought-radio/freethought-today-september-24-2026/