The Family Skeptical: Recent Episodes

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We begin with a story about our new car trip media consumption. Then we talk about how hard it can be to be intentional in parenting. And finally discuss some of the things that we think it's important to bring up with your kids - even if they don't broach the subject first. Other things on that list for me - the dangers of the manosphere, how common suicide is and how it's incredibly important to not be afraid to ask for help if you're struggling with depression, consent, what's it's like for women in the world (especially for young men), how differently sized bodies aren't just okay but also beautiful, how hard it is to exist in capitalist systems and how the amount of money you have or can earn has no bearing on your worth as a human being - the list goes on and on.

Now the links:

• The Allegedly Ian YouTube Channel
• In Vox Machina they find the Deck of Many Things
• News on Nolan Wells
• Mr. Williams PreK post on Nolan Wells.

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (10), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin with a few stories about how fun it's been seeing Reader really get into their interests. Then we return patriotism and how religion gets in the way of the wackiness that makes America great. And we finish up digging into a topic inspired by an awful take on gentle parenting. But are people bad or good? I don't know if you can tell from the tone, but I don't know if Pops and I have ever disagreed more on a single topic.

Now the links:

• The clay artist Reader has been following is North of the Border.
• Our previous episode about patriotism: This Land Is Your Land.
• Alisa Childers Podcast: The Dark Side of Gentle Parenting (Don't listen unless you want to be very mad.)
• Dear Old Dads Podcast
• Sword swinging sermon.
• Ward of the State: A Memoir of Foster Care
• For Crying Out Loud

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (10), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about the decision on whether Jaeger will skip fifth grade. And then we run through our feelings on secular traditions and how we feel about adapting religious traditions in a secular way. And finally, we check in with Jaeger himself.

Now the links:

• Data Over Dogma's episode with Jeremy Steele talking about his book, Rituals for Heretics
• Institute for Secular Leadership
• Relax, It's Just God
• Your Career Homecoming
• Sunday Assembly
• Oasis
• Care and Feeding
• One Line a Day Journal

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (10!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We interviewed Steve Ghikadis about his book, Humanism from the Heart. We talked a lot about humanism, curiosity, reaching out to have conversations with people who don't agree with you, and so much more. And then we finished up with a little story about Jaeger and humanism.

Now the links:

• Steve Ghikadis
• Humanism from the Heart
• Steve on Facebook
• Recovering From Religion
• Sunday Assembly
• Oasis

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (10!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about some big decisions for Jaeger. Then we answer a listener's question about Patriotism. Or do we? I ended that discussion with so much more to say. And I forgot to mention the National Parks! And then we included a little more with Alastair Lichten, a humanist activist and community organiser, about when kids want to speak up about politics and other sensitive issues.

Now the links:

• A Humanist Dad
• A Humanist Dad on Facebook
• Under the Influence with Jo Piazza's episode: Gen Z Men Are Getting More Conservative. What the Hell Happened?
• Janelle Hanchett's Substack
• Fred Smith's Concrete Park

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about the Artemis II launch. And then we speak again with Alastair Lichten, a humanist activist and community organiser. The real question is what don't we cover? LEGOS, YouTube, intentional parenting, Camp Quest UK (yay!), protests, LEGOS.

Now the links:

• A Humanist Dad
• A Humanist Dad on Facebook
• Camp Quest UK
• I couldn't find the book I got my friend, but this graphic novel about city planning looks amazing: No Small Plans
• For All Mankind
• Alastair's Post: 10 tips for neurodiversity inclusion in humanist communities

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Our Spring Break travels threw off my schedule so it's going to be a bit longer than normal before the next full-length episode. We recorded this short segment about games and then didn't have room for it, so I'm posting it now.

Now the links:

• Qwirkle
• A Normal Card Game
• I feel gross posting an Amazon link, but this seemed like the most direct route to the Pacific Rim Extinction game.

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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This episode is all interview, and it's a special one. If you've spent any time in Atheist spaces online, you've probably heard of Recovering From Religion, but you might not be aware of all they do. We spoke with Rachel Hunt, their Helpline Director, about the helpline, the support groups, the Secular Therapy Project, and so much more. If you want some lovely encouragement on your secular parenting, listen all the way to the end. And if you'd like to skip the short discussion that includes the mention of suicide, avoid 20:50 - 22:30.

Now the links:

• Recovering From Religion with the Helpline phone numbers
• Recovering From Religion Support Group Calendar - It looks like the next Parents' group is March 22nd.
• The Secular Therapy Project
• Our Episode: Interfaith Couples And Should Your Kid Be Able To Pick Jesus Out Of A Lineup?

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start out the episode with a story about Moms' quest for an appropriate insult. Then we talk about how to handle mental health days with the kids. And we finish up discussing what responsibility influencers have to take a stance on current events.

Now the links:

• Our episode, Talking Grief with Betsy Deville
• Heavyweight's episode Minneapolis

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about a change we made to the kids' screen time, and then we speak with Sarah Tulien, Executive Director of the Creator Accountability Network.

I know there are a million places that need our support right now, but think about adding the Creator Accountability Network to your list. Even small donations make a huge difference to newer, growing organizations. CAN represents something we need to see more of in the world right now - efforts to take responsibility and repair harm instead of covering it up or sweeping it under the rug.

Here how to connect with CAN:

• The Creator Accountability Network
• Follow CAN on Instagram

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start out talking about the kids experiencing their first religious service. Then we delve into Candace Owens' Erika Kirk conspiracies. And we finish up with the discussion about body size that has emerged around the stars of Wicked. How do we want to talk to the kids about body size? How do we think about it in the first place?

In the Candace Owens segment, we did a terrible job giving context around some of the people we brought up, so I included links for them.

And here they are:

• Candace Owens
• Alisa Childers
• Frank Turek
• Mommastrong
• The Burnt Toast Podcast
• The Maintenance Phase Podcast

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and 61.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start the episode with an announcement from Go, and then we talk about 2025. How do we feel? At sea, I would say. And we finish up with some thoughts from the kids.

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (12!) and Jaeger (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1 and this one apparently.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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It's beginning to look a lot like Atheist Christmas. We start the episode with a story about the Tooth Fairy, and then we talk with Betsy DeVille about her book, Christmas for Atheists, and what to think about when celebrating as a secular family. Listen to the end for some amazing gingerbread house tips.

Now to links:

• Betsy DeVille (https://www.betsydeville.com/)
• Betsy DeVille on Etsy
• Christmas for Atheists
• Christmas Tree Memories by Aliki
• Santa Claus and His Elves by Mauri Kunnas (the Korvatunturi book!)

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start out talking about our new Halloween tradition. Then we get into Trump's latest anti-atheist activity and end up talking about him more generally. If you'd rather skip it and ignore his existence for a bit, honestly, I get it. That segment runs from 14:55 - 37:50. Then we talk about forgiveness. Are we forgiving? Does religion help to be forgiving? I think I needed this conversation more than I knew.

Now the links:

• American Atheists (get on their email lists for news updates)
• Thank God I'm An Atheists's Episode: When Faith and Cruelty Collide with the story of the Mormon fundraiser
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds' Episode: The Sehlat Who Ate Its Tail (And why is this season getting so much hate? We're really enjoying it.)

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode discussing Alex Jones's epic facial hair fail. Then we discuss Ryan Walters's exit from Oklahoma schools. And we finish up talking about weirdos, and how to think about what to do when your kid is trending weird.

Now the links:

• Our episode, Battle of the O States

• Professor Neil's Video

• Of Montreal

The Family Skeptical: We're a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you're any stripe of non-believer who's involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can't figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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This episode became one big family update somehow. We start out discussing our new pronoun situation. Then we get into Moms’s current mental health or lack thereof. And we finish off with a discussion about Go’s thoughts on death and how we’ve discussed death more generally. (And if you want to see the picture we discuss at the end, check out our social media.)

Now the links:

• I Will Die On This Hill: Autistic Adults, Autism Parents, and the Children Who Deserve a Better World

• Subculture Vulture

• Our episode on the move: I’ll Take My Coping Mechanisms From Skepticism Not Religion, Thank You Very Much
• Our episode, How To Get Over a Fear of Hell
• The Handsome Podcast: Ilana Glazer Asks About God

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Oh brains are fun. This was a bit of a hodge podge. We started out the episode discussing the great time the kids had at Camp Quest and how it’s led into a family Dungeons & Dragons game. Then we talked about the new Catholic AI chatbot, Catholic Answers. And we finished up with a discussion of how we did and did not teach the kids about religion.

Now the links (so many links):

• Camp Quest

• The episode about my disastrous religious camp experience

• An Atheist Debates Catholic Answers
• Our episode about whether or not your kids should be able to pick Jesus out of a lineup
• The Scathing Atheist
• Atheist Bible Study
• Data / Dogma
• Dan McClellan on Instagram
• Good Omens - I totally get it if you’re avoiding Neil Gaiman properties right now.
• Exploding Kittens

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start out talking about the kids being away at Camp Quest. Then we discuss the new Superman film. And we finish up observing how complex it can be leaving the house.

Now the links:

• Camp Quest

• The Speech Prof on Superman

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Moms begins the episode talking about her mental health, and a question she has about communicating with Reader’s therapist. Then we dive into a particularly bad argument made on Alisa Childer’s podcast, and finish up discussing a response in Slate’s Dear Prudence that might have missed some big questions about a kid attending his friend’s church.

Now the links:

• Calling Out False Teachers: What Does the Bible Say? with Christopher Yuan

• Dear Prudence: Help! My Son Wants to Go to Church. Uh, I’m Not Sure I Can Support This. He’s going to be the odd one out. (Apologies if this is behind a paywall. But also, Slate is great, and if you can, it’s worth supporting them for the extra segments on Care and Feeding alone.)

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We start out talking about everything that has happened in the last few weeks. Then Pops gives an update on his evolving thoughts on guns. Moms talks about a time when her skepticism briefly abandoned her. And we finish up discussing how saying that secular parenting is “hard” might not be the best description. If you want to skip the discussion of We’re Here, go to 46:48.

Now the links:

• Everytown for Gun Safety: “Research shows that having access to a firearm triples one’s risk of death by suicide.”
• Alastair Lichten: A Humanist Dad
• Nikki McClure
• Ian’s YouTube Channel
• Ian vs Jordan Peterson
• Jordan Peterson vs 20 Atheists (the whole video)
• American Humanist Association: Fostering Healthy Masculinity In Our Kids
• Our episode about how heaven falls short: Heaven for Climate?
• We’re Here

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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In our first conversation we learn that we might have very different feelings about the boys and guns. Then we discuss why the manosphere may have done a better job than other media at reaching young men. And we finish up talking about Netflix’s Adolescence. If you want to skip the discussion of Thunderbolts, go to 24:30.

Now the links:

• Support for Christian Nationalism in All 50 States: Findings from PRRI’s 2023 American Values Atlas
• Dear Old Dads Episode: Does Society Tell Boys They’re Bad?
• Queer Black Canon Podcast
• The Speech Prof
• Professor Neil
• More Perfect Union
• Adolescence
• Alastair Lichten: A Humanist Dad

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start by discussing the fact that Go feels like he’s been stalked by Christianity. Then we try to define Christian Nationalism. And we finish talking about why we call ourselves atheists and are even talking about this topic.

Now the links:

• Our Interview on Under the Influence: Raising Good Humans Without God: A Secular Parenting Survival Guide
• The Satanic Temple’s Seven Tenets
• Data / Dogma
• God Makes Dog Breeds
• God creating animals
• The Tim & April Show from The New Evangelicals: Exposing the Christian Nationalist Network Fueling Trump
• Our episode on How to Get Over a Fear of Hell
• Humanists UK’s article on What Kind of Atheist Are You that does a good job defining some of the terms we used.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (9!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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This is a short one. We discuss an issue at Go’s school that made him feel singled out as a secular kid. And then we talk about how we’d both like to be more involved in our community, but we’re tired. But maybe we won’t be soon. I think this is the great myth of adulthood - that there will be some time when we’re not exhausted and stretched thin. So you just have to do the things anyway.

Now the links:

• The 5 Calls App
• Chop Wood, Carry Water
• The Save Act

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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First things first, join Pops on CAN’s first fundraiser! April 25th at 7pm ET. https://m.twitch.tv/dissonancepod/home

We start the episode talking about our Spring Break at Colonial Williamsburg. And then we hear a bit more from Alastair Lichten, a humanist activist and community organiser. He writes about political and social issues, parenting, family, relationships and life from the perspective of a progressive humanist parent, on his blog: A Humanist Dad. Alongside various voluntary roles, Alastair has led on education campaigns for the UK's National Secular Society, and local groups for Humanists UK, and in this discussion, I ask more about what he’s learned about the effects of religious education. We finish up talking about two episodes of Dear Old Dads and how we feel about sleepovers and trusting other people with our kids. And the answer is…. I know this is going to be shocking… Complex.

Now the links:

• A Humanist Dad
• A Humanist Dad on Facebook
• Search Engine’s episode on AI: Playboi Farti and His AI Homework Machine
• Dear Old Dads’ episode: Who Can Fix the Men?
• Dear Old Dads’ episode: Sleepovers!

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about a school project that inspired Go. And then we speak with Alastair Lichten, a humanist activist and community organiser. He writes about political and social issues, parenting, family, relationships and life from the perspective of a progressive humanist parent, on his blog: A Humanist Dad. Alongside various voluntary roles, Alastair has led on education campaigns for the UK's National Secular Society, and local groups for Humanists UK. The blog always makes me think about topics we could cover, and I love his advice at the end of the interview about not standing up to bullies alone.

Now the links:

• A Humanist Dad
• A Humanist Dad on Facebook

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about finding camps for the boys. And then we speak with Katie from Camp Quest about secular fostering. And we finish up with a discussion about the expectations we have for our relationships in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Now the links:

• Katie talking about her background and family on the Queer Family Podcast
• Camp Quest
• Camp Quest Instagram
• Our episode about resolutions: New Year’s… Well Not Resolutions
• Karlos Dillard
• Karlos Dillard on Instagram
• Laura Foster Parent Partner on Instagram
• Brittany Collins - Foster the Teens on Instagram (another amazing person talking about fostering)
• The Burnt Toast: Why America is Scared of Single Women (I think this is the episode I reference? Why do I never write these down as I’m listening?)
• Savage Love (I can’t find the episode I referenced on the show.)

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe, leave a rating and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about the LA fires and our inability to cover current events. And then we speak with Katie about Camp Quest, a summer camp founded on the conviction that all kids deserve fun, friends, and freethought. Not only does Katie give great advice about knowing when kids are ready for sleepaway camp, but the whole mission and vibe of Camp Quest is a lesson in treating children with respect and care. It’s a reminder of how much work and thought it takes to create amazing spaces for kids, but also the magic that can come out of that effort.

Now the links:

• Camp Quest
• Camp Quest Instagram
• Katie talking about her background and family on the Queer Family Podcast
• The Scathing Atheist
• Thank God I’m an Atheist (also great for more current secular news)
• YMCA LA
• Pasadena Humane Society
• Atheists United
• Starts With One Today
• The Animal Rescue Mission
• United Friends of the Children

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

We were included on a list of the Top 70 Atheist Podcasts. Check it out to find other great creators.

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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***Heads up - This was recorded before the LA fires. Pops and I lived in LA longer than anywhere else and we’ve been watching friends evacuate and places we loved destroyed. We’ll be posting where we’re donating soon, and we’ll share if we have anything useful to say other than that this is horrible in ways we truly couldn’t imagine.

We started the episode talking about a bit of our holiday travels. Then we discussed New Year’s Resolutions - how they don’t work, how we still aren’t consistent, and how we might plan better and with a little more wiggle room for the weirdness life can bring. And finally we ran through some things that are on our minds for 2025.

Now the links (we were reasonable for once):

• We’ve Got Issues - The Where’s My Village Episode
• Care and Feeding - The Making (and Keeping) Parent Friends Episode
• Laura Simms - Your Career Homecoming

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

We were included on a list of the Top 70 Atheist Podcasts. Check it out to find other great creators.

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Merry Christmas! Happy Hanukkah! Good job making it through the end of 2024!

We began talking about the kids’ adventures in basketball and swimming. And then we spoke a little more with Paul Golin, Executive Director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism about my secular Judaism crisis. And finally, we discussed our interview on One Bad Mother, Biz asking if we have any fun, and all the things we think are super enjoyable about skeptical parenting - including storytelling, and how this all relates to Christmas and The Christmas Carol…and snails. I swear it hangs together a bit more than it seems in the description.

And did you catch the Scrooged quote at the end? I swear I did not manufacture that moment. We quote that film all the time, all year long.

Now the links:

• Paul Golin
• The Society for Humanistic Judaism
• SHJ Congregations, Communities and Havurot
• Care and Feeding Podcast - How Do I Raise Jewish Kids Right Now?
• Our Interview on One Bad Mother
• Forrest Valkai
• Volcano Snails
• Wings of Fire
• Albert Finney Scrooge
• Scrooged
• How The Christmas Carol changed Christmas

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11!) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We began with some musings about our Thanksgiving trip and what the boys thought of our last topic. And then we spoke with Paul Golin, Executive Director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism. We talked about having an expansive definition of what it means to be Jewish, secular Judaism, Pops’s interest in igtheism, and so much more. I found his notes about the challenges of building community and how to do it anyway particularly useful during this time.

Now the links:

• Paul Golin
• The Society for Humanistic Judaism
• Humanistic Judaism Discussion on Facebook (Pops joined before me which is very on-brand)
• SHJ Congregations, Communities and Havurot

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (11!) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Heads up - this was recorded before the election, but we only discuss it very briefly at the end in a way that hopefully won’t make you feel more awful than you already do. That being said, we began with a story about watching Tig Notaro specials with the boys and what an amazing role model she is. Then Moms explains how she thinks the atheist community could have done better. We went after the wrong Christian mom influencer. (Another heads-up that this involves discussion of miscarriage.) Finally, we think about how we’d talk to our kids if we lived in a community where our non-belief might bring discrimination. Lie altogether about our atheism? Teach them to lie? Do something else? It’s so hard this even needs to be a discussion and our hearts go out to all the families in this position.

Now the links (buckle up):

• Haminations
• Tig Notaro’s Drawn Special
• Tig Notaro’s Boyish Girl Interrupted
• Tig Notaro’s Hello Again
• The Handsome Podcast
• Good One’s Tig Notaro Episode
• GrowingGoodings on Instagram
• EveWasFramed on Instagram
• Hemant Mehta on Instagram
• Donate to American Atheists!
• Or volunteer!

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We started out talking about our visit to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame - the big feelings it created in us as parents about the hopes and dreams we have for our kids and ourselves. And what does success really mean anyway? Then I included a bit more of our interview with Betsy Deville about her book, Grief for Atheists: A Compassionate Guide with Evidence-Based Strategies to Navigate Your Loss. Pops and Betsy got into a super interesting discussion on video games in times of grief. And we finish out discussing something I’ve wanted to talk about for a long time: indoctrination. Just how worried do we need to be about indoctrinating our kids to be atheists?

And if you’d like to respond to Betsy’s survey from our last episode and be entered to win a prize, go here: https://forms.gle/7rHqGEsGov5ppcxi7

Now to links:

• Betsy Deville (https://www.betsydeville.com/)
• Betsy Deville on Etsy (www.etsy.com/shop/betsydeville)
• Betsy’s Survey (https://forms.gle/7rHqGEsGov5ppcxi7)
• Stardew Valley
• The Article in Free Inquiry by Robert F. Allen: My Children, the Atheists
• Seth Andrews on Instagram - I respond to too many of his questions with overly long answers

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Squeee! First interview in the books. We started out talking about seeing The Wild Robot with the boys. And then we spoke with Betsy Deville about her book, Grief for Atheists: A Compassionate Guide with Evidence-Based Strategies to Navigate Your Loss. Grief may not sound like a fun topic, but discussing ways to handle grief for kids and parents with an incredibly thoughtful woman was a blast. Should atheists have their own grieving ritual? How do we make a safe space for children to grieve? Does Pops read any of our social media posts?

And if you’d like to respond to Betsy’s survey and be entered to win a prize, go here: https://forms.gle/7rHqGEsGov5ppcxi7

Now to links:

• Betsy Deville - https://www.betsydeville.com
• Betsy Deville on Etsy - www.etsy.com/shop/betsydeville
• Betsy’s Survey - https://forms.gle/7rHqGEsGov5ppcxi7
• Greif for Atheists - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CX22LZCZ?
• Creator Accountability Network
• The Secular Therapy Project
• Dad Tired’s episode, Shepherding a Grieving Child

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Do one topic I thought. Make it short and easy I thought. Annnndddd… cue the Divine Mocker (who definitely doesn’t exist, but when things go off the rails it makes me happy to think about someone getting joy from my situation). We started out talking about how our move has shown us just how adaptable the kids can be while at the same time being perfectly themselves. And then we discuss an episode of the Truth. Love. Parent. Podcast that talks about the “lies” of the developmental stages. I don’t think I’ve ever spent so long editing a segment. But there was a lot to discuss. And I had to phone a friend just to get a good read on why someone deeply religious would even care about the developmental stages one way or another.

Now to links:

• Creator Accountability Network
• Truth. Love. Parent. - The Truth and Lies of Developmental Stages
• And I think these are the two The Thinking Atheist episodes that discuss if the human eye is actually well designed - I Was the Intelligent Designer: Part One and Part Two. (And if they aren’t - it’s Seth Andrews and it’s going to be great regardless.)
• Here is Dan McClellan’s video on the study about how much people read the bible.
• Here’s more on Erikson’s theory of development.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We have been in the thick of moving, and it has been… at time. We didn’t even think to mention the weird AirBnBs and hotels we had to stay at. (If you’re going to categorize something as a bedroom, it should have a door, right?) But we’ve been coping, and we discuss how much skepticism has played into handling these kinds of situations better. We also talk about working to be credentialed by the Creator Accountability Network.

Now to links:

• Creator Accountability Network
• This is the Dad Tired podcast’s episode Be Wary Of Good Times.
• And I was really off, because the podcast that did the episode about critical thinking is Truth. Love. Parent. And we are going to be talking about them more because they have gotten confusing in a way that I think religion can sometimes cause. But I think the episode I was talking about was Do Your Kids Know What It Is To Think? Though it also could have been Anti-Intellectualism and Your Child.
• And if you want to hear the sad meow that Clea does when she’s about to york up a hairball, go to 37:20.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

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

See a list of our episodes here.

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We’re back - again with questionable audio issues. If my computer noises are too much for you, skip to the 31:00 mark because they basically resolve in the last topic. We begin by talking about how we choose movies for the boys and use Common Sense Media - probably not as it’s intended. Then we briefly return to the topic of posting the 10 Commandments in public schools. And we finish up discussing Oklahoma and Ohio who are both trying to get in on the “let’s-shoehorn-religion-into-the-public-schools” bandwagon. Guess what - it’s all gross.

Now to links:

• Common Sense Media.
• Some Kind of Wonderful is the John Hughes movie that you probably haven’t seen but should. Two words: Elias Koteas.
• And if you haven’t dug into David Cronenberg’s back catalog - what are you doing with your life?
• Code of Hammurabi.
• Oklahoma’s plan to make all schools teach the bible might not be working out as planned actually.
• And here’s the law that Ohio is trying to pass to allow children to leave school for religious education during the school day.
• And to end on something happy: Camp Quest.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin with a long discussion of the boys’ feelings about their martial arts classes and Pops’ changing perspective on them. Then we review our different feelings about clutter. And we finish up talking about Louisiana’s awful new law requiring that the ten commandments be posted in classrooms…twice. This one ran a bit long, but we may need to do a few short ones during the move, so hopefully it evens out.

Now to links:

• Marie Kondo.
• Queer Eye.
• NPR article about Louisiana’s law requiring the ten commandments be in all classrooms.
• BAHACON 2024.
• Forrest Valkai.
• Seth Andrews.
• Kate Cohen.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start out talking once again about how this whole parenting thing can be rough - this time during a picnic at the kids’ new school. Then we review things we might want to discuss with Reader and Go about the Trump verdict. And we finish with book bans (they suck) and a whole lot of librarian love. A little behind-the-scenes: Pops had a bit of a panic attack halfway through recording the episode and you can thank me now for editing out about 20 minutes of me droning on wondering why he had stopped saying anything. Moving is hard y’all.

Now to links:

• Opening Arguments.
• A More Perfect Union.
• Maus.
• Tommy.
• An article by Dan Kois about kids reading.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We begin the episode with a big update on Pops’ neurodivergence, get derailed on an X-Men tangent, and finish up with a discussion of Trigger Warnings. What is the best way to think about them? (As a heads-up, the section on Trigger Warnings includes some discussion of things that might need a trigger warning, so skip it if you’re not in the place to listen.)

And finally, I had to dub a few lines and I am clearly both not good at it or mixing that kind of audio, so sorry in advance if it's jarring.

Now to links:

• Caitlin Moran.
• Search Engine - What do trigger warnings actually do?
• Dr. Jessica Zucker - I Had a Miscarriage.
• A New Republic article on Twin Peaks and the trope of the dead girl.
• For All Mankind.
• An Express article about fan anger at all the deaths at the end of Vikings.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (8!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We start the episode with a discussion of just how hard parenting has been. Then we delve into the topic of whether or not parents should feel proud when their kid doesn’t know who Jesus is, and finish up talking about interfaith couples. Could we handle it?

Now to links:

• The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart.
• Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious by Wendy Thomas Russell.
• Parenting Beyond Belief by Dale McGowan.
• Jamilah Lemieux and Care and Feeding.
• Red Lip Theology by Candice Marie Benbow.
• 24HRS WITH Bethany Beal (GirlDefined) by Paul and Morgan.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We open the episode talking about going to the American Atheists Convention. It was great. We…are not. Then we dive into important things we learned at the conference and finish up discussing the concept of “You’re doing a good job” from the One Bad Mother podcast.

While the conference was a blast, this episode is about some serious stuff, so just take note depending on how you’re doing and who you’re listening with (i.e. kids).

***If you want to skip the discussion of abuse, go to 23:30 and there’s another minute at the end between 56:30 and 57:30 that you might want to hop over too.

Now so so many links:

• Kavin Senapathy was the parenting speaker and her upcoming book is The Progressive Parent: Harnessing the Power of Science and Social Justice to Raise Awesome Kids.
• Paul Golin was the other speaker and is executive director of the Society for Humanistic Judaism.
• We can’t link to Recovering From Religion enough. Their parenting resources are here.
• Definitely check out the American Humanist Association.
• Dan Beecher does both the Thank God I’m Atheist and Data Over Dogma podcasts.
• Eli Bosnick does all the podcasts including The Scathing Atheist, God Awful Movies, and Dear Old Dads which is one of two podcasts that I listen to immediately on release no matter how many other podcasts I have in my backlog.
• This is the Misfit Amish podcast by Mary Byler.
• And this is the Plain People’s Podcast by Jasper Hoffman.
• This is the episode of The Line’s Sunday Show that we reference. The caller we discuss is Dinah.
• Definitely give One Bad Mother a listen.
• Read Stefanie Wilder-Taylor's Drunk-ish: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving Alcohol.
• And finally, since Recovering From Religion is just so cool, I’ll link to them again for their secular recovery resources.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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Hi hi hi! I hope we have a few new folks joining us from the American Atheists National Convention, and in classic, I-don’t-know-how-calendars-work fashion, we are dropping an episode pretty uncharacteristic of our show. So if you choose to start here, we usually don’t go over an hour and throw in two extra mini topics just for funsies. But here we are. We start discussing Readers issues with…reading. Or really, it’s more about Moms’ issues with Reader’s reading. Then we follow up on our last episode about sex ed with a few extra thoughts. And we finish up talking about moments that we feel people have ignored or misrepresented atheists.

Now Links:

• This is the series, Reader liked. Trapped in a Video Game.
• The series that the librarian found for Go is Space Runners.
• This is the season of The Heart Podcast about consent that was so amazing. As parents, her recent season called Dad is also pretty fascinating.
• If you want more discussions of purity culture from someone who knows a lot more about it than us, check out Eve was Framed’s new show Chewed Gum.
• This is the video with religious vs atheist views of marriage.
• Here’s an article on another absurd comment Oprah made about atheists.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We’re headed to the American Atheists National Convention. Definitely look for us if you’re there. Then we talk about things we want to make sure the boys know about porn. And we finish up discussing sex ed. (And just like we mention on this episode, the best advice we’ve ever heard is that the sex talk isn’t one talk. So we’re going to be following up in the next episode with a few more thoughts, and we’ll hopefully return to the topic again, because there’s just so much to discuss.)

Now Links:

• My amazing career coach at Your Career Homecoming.
• Savage Love. Again.
• Lost Girls - sexy comics from the master, Alan Moore.
• Cory Silverberg. We didn’t talk about sex ed references, but you can’t go wrong starting with Cory Silverberg who has a book for every age group out there.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We begin by discussing a few interesting moments in parenting, including Go’s take on Jesus and the problem of evil. Then, in honor of Valentine’s Day, we delve into our relationship - what has made it work, how we still don’t have it figured out, and just how exhausting polyamory sounds. We finish by talking about the concept of a “soft life” - which seems to be everywhere in religious and secular discourse alike.

Now Links:

• Under the Influence with Jo Piazza. Jo is becoming my new parasocial crush.
• The episode of On Mission about whether a soft life fits with Christian theology.
• MommaStrong. Courtney and Jya are my original parasocial crushes.
• Savage Love. My mom took me to hear Dan Savage speak when I was in high school? Middle school? Regardless, she really did a lot of parenting things right.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We open the episode discussing our many, many, many, many, many Christmases. And then we get into parenting advice and how we try to think about it skeptically. Instead of introducing a true second topic, we instead introduced a subplot of Pop’s incredible work coming to grips with his neurodivergence and the criminal lack of psychological services in most places.

Links:

• Under the Influence with Jo Piazza’s mini episode on parenting advice.
• Jo Piazza’s parenting advice.
• Oh Crap Potty Training. Come for the pants-less potty training, but maybe skip the heavy dose of shame and doomsaying.
• All Creatures Great and Small.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10!) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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This isn’t a real episode - just a compilation of random things. A short check-in. The only part of the segment that the Goblin’s ate that was worth fighting for and grabbing back from their grimy fingers. A little chat with Reader and Go - including Go’s big Santa revelation. And random musings on our unprofessionality. We are so excited for 2024 and have some really fun topics coming up.

The day I was able to get this posted is our Fifthmas (gifts from my best friend, Christmas with my mom, then my dad, then my dad’s family, and now Pops’ folks), so I wasn’t able to re-listen to everything before posting, but I think the only shout out is to the Bored AF podcast.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10!) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We had so much fun talking about trad wives and church last week, that we’re doing it again! We begin by discussing Reader’s tonsillectomy. Then Moms has some expanded thoughts on trad wives and where they could be damaging for their followers. But she's still really likes one of the moms she's following. And then we discuss what to do when teens are interested in going to church.

Now the links:

• Here is Sarah at Wild Motherhood
• And here is Alex at growinggoodings
• And finally Morgan Olliges
• And this is the episode of Dear Old Dads that we discuss. Seriously - just go follow and support this show. It's the best.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (10!) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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This was a really fun recording, and we may have gotten a little loopy at the end of it. We begin discussing our epic week and the complexity of happiness. Then Moms dives into her thoughts on trad wives. And we finish up discussing whether or not we think secular parents should bring their kids to church when their kids express interest.

Now the links:

• Here is the episode of Under the Influence with Jo Piazza that talks about trad wives.
• This is Daniel Sloss’s instagram account.
• And I am very consciously not linking to any of the women lumped in as trad wives that we discussed. It’s not an issue of not wanting to give them more attention. But, since I’ve only been following them a short time, and am clearly working through my thoughts, it doesn’t feel right to specifically call out or praise any single person when I don’t feel like I have a grasp on any of them yet. (This will likely change in the next episode.)

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Ooooooohhhhh. It’s almost Halloween. And apparently the spooky season is also where spooky things happen to this podcast. (See the description for our last Halloween episode: MMMmmmm. Logic.) We actually don’t discuss anything about the holiday because we still don’t know how to calendar episodes apparently. But we do give an update on our How To Get Over a Fear of Hell episode, since I was able to talk to my mom and get some details on why she sent me to Christian camp. And then we discuss how we decide on when to walk away from celebrities that have caused harm or down other problematic things. (And when we don’t.) And also how it gets even more complex as an atheist. Basically it’s our bad version of Fanti - and we recorded this before Fanti announced that they’re ending the podcast so it’s an inadvertent farewell to that great great show.

And then, if you just listen to the episode, it sounds like we were reasonable, knew we had gone way too long, and stopped recording. That did not happen. We recorded a whole other segment that… just didn’t quite work. And Goblins took pity on me and ate it. I might see if I can get them to barf up the one amusing part of it for an extra at some point.

Now the links (I am almost 100% certain I’m forgetting some this week):

• Good One: A Podcast About Jokes
• And this is the original article that came out about Hasan Minhaj by Clare Malone. In all honesty, I haven't read it yet.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Spoiler alert - we don’t know! We start discussing the death of our beloved cat and the weird things that come up at these time as atheists. Then we talk about our own experiences with a fear of hell and what helped us start to escape from that fear. We know everyone is different and none of what worked for us may work for you, but at the very least, we hope you know that if you are dealing with a fear of hell, that shit is hard, and you’re not alone.

And the links:

• Forest Valkai to brighten your day.
• And then we mention that we listen to a lot of atheist call-in shows. Here’s the full list brought to you by The Atheist Community of Austin and The Line.
• The Atheist Experience
• Talk Heathen
• The Hang Up
• The Sunday Show
• Skeptalk

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Pops opens the show by surprising Moms with a discussion of our dear dying cat, and then Moms tells two stories from BAHACON, one about Atheist community. And we finish the show discussing how violence against women plays into the conversation about masculinity, ending on a story of who Reader and Go say they want to marry.

And so so many links:

• This is the group that runs BAHACON.
• Gretta Vosper is the BAHACON speaker that Moms referenced.
• The episode of Thank God I’m an Atheist that references Burning man is Episode 612 A Burning Sensation.
• The episode of Scathing Atheist that talks about how we shouldn’t form new Atheist groups is Episode 550 Dragon My Heart Around Edition.
• Mommastrong is the workout program that Moms does that features the “The Revolution Will Have Childcare” t-shirt.
• Seth Andrews is posted the whole speech he gave at BAHACON to his podcast.
• This is the article we discussed by Christine Emba, Men Are Lost.
• And finally (phew), the book Parenting: Getting It Right by Andy and Sandra Stanley.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

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We start out by discussing an octopus mishap, and then Moms has some advice for religions who want to gain members. (We’re looking at you Mormons.) We finish up by trying to create a modern definition of masculinity, and it definitely includes nail polish.

And now for the links:

• Seth Andrews is wonderful both on his podcast, The Thinking Atheist, and Instagram.
• Somehow, last week we totally failed to link to the article we discussed by Christine Emba, Men Are Lost. Here it is.
• And What a Richard! #609 is I believe the episode of Thank God I’m An Atheist that we mention.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We start out discussing our recent trip to visit family and Go being extra brave. Then we talk about things we’ve read that have changed our view of the world and helped shape our morality (that did not come from the Bible). And we finish up just scraping the surface of the current discussion of masculinity by trying to come up with healthy examples of modern masculinity. More on this soon.

And now for the links:

• The progressive Christian parenting book that Moms is reading is Bless This Mess: A Modern Guide to Faith and Parenting in a Chaotic World.
• Pops recommended the Dune series, the Foundation series, and Snow Crash.
• Moms recommended a book of essays by Camille Paglia (Sex, Art, and American Culture) and The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series.
• And in our discussion of masculinity, Pops brings up Shaun T. Both Moms and Pops did his workouts for ages and we still sometimes pull out his funnier quotes.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical for more weird stories that Moms can’t figure out how to fit into episodes.

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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I mean, what really did we talk about? I feel like almost every one of our conversations went a bit off the rails this episode, but we started talking about our lax attitude to Reader and Go’s YouTube consumption, then we somehow got to our ghost/alien sightings (because we’re skeptics), and end up discussing whether children owe their parents anything and whether that changes as they get older…and end up diving deep into a Judge John Hodgman episode about creepy dolls. That all makes sense, right?

And now for the links:

• Here is the great Mom and Dad Are Fighting episode about telling your kids about your past abuse.
• He is the Hear Me Out episode with Gabrielle Blair.
• Here is the best Judge John Hodgman episode ever.
• Here is the Judge John Hodgman episode about the dolls on the piano.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We begin the episode talking about Moms’ disappointments with the books she’s been reading with Reader and Go. Then we discuss parenting in the Bible and have some serious notes for the authors. And we finish up with Heaven, which might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

And now for the links:

• Here are the Amulet graphic novels.
• And here is So Sorry For Your Loss by Dina Gachman.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We open the episode solving the mystery of “flippin” and introducing some weird audio that we can’t explain. But we swear no one was actually sharpening knives during the intro. That would be a weird vibe, even for us. Then we discuss Moms’ realization that we may be reading more into the Bible than we even realized. And we finish exploring the concept of innocence.

And now for the links:

• Here is Data Over Dogma’s episode Why Is She Salt?
• Here is the episode of Talk Heathen with the woman who believes Christianity has an explanation for the start of the universe. She’s the first caller.
• Moms was wrong to bring up Watchmen, but it’s still an amazing series worth a read.
• This is the book, Seveneves, by Neal Stephenson that Pops mentioned.
• And Moms found the children’s book she mentioned about how animals sleep. It’s called Snooze-O-Rama.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (7!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We open the episode with Moms justifying her misunderstood superstitions. Then we discuss Reader and Go swearing. And we finish up talking about sex in media, which devolves into a confused discussion of Witness and Bladerunner, that won’t make nearly enough sense if you aren’t familiar with Witness. In short, Harrison Ford is a cop who has to hide out with the Amish and falls in love with the Amish woman hiding him. Great movie. Strong recommendation. We would say it’s great for audiences 6 and up, though almost every other person in the world would likely disagree.

And just as a little tease for the next episode, we did discover the origins of “flippin.”

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (almost 7!), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com and tell us everything we got wrong.

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We talk with the kids about Easter. Go has some choice words about it. (And yes, we allow the kids to swear - just never at school or with people who would be offended.) Then Moms gets all conspiracy theory-esque about actresses playing moms. And we finish up discussing how we feel about violent media.

And for once, there aren’t really any links. Just go watch Atlanta.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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It’s a short one this time around. We discuss one topic: “Would you want only atheist coaches for your kid if that was somehow an option?”

And now for all the links:

• I think this is the episode of Pardon the Mess that our question comes from, but honestly, I’m not 100% sure.
• And this is the podcast For Crying Out Loud that mom references.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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It's lucky Episode 13, and honestly, getting this one finished before our Spring Break trip turned into a bit of a fever dream. In our first segment we discuss the comic book trope of refusing to sacrifice your child to save the universe. And then we discuss a Tik Tok about blasphemy. And our final segment will remain a mystery for the ages.

As promised, if you want to skip the first segment, you can go right to 24:30.

And now for all the links:

• Once again, here is What A Day’s great discussion of trans kids coming out at school but not at home.
• Since we’re now apparently contractually obligated to mention one great graphic novel per episode, you can find Alan Moore’s Watchmen here.
• The book that Moms tried and failed to accurately mention is Parenting Beyond Belief by Dale McGowan who we’ve mentioned before on the podcast.
• This is the Tik Tok we discuss.
• And finally, here’s a nice and bloody clip of Patrick Bateman - I had forgotten how wonderfully deranged Christian Bale is in American Psycho.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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In our first segment we discuss…shoot. We can’t remember any more. But then we go on to explore which fictional family we would have wanted to grow up in, and finish out discussing how much teachers should share with parents - and end up talking about how to make a home where kids feel comfortable opening up to their parents in the first place.

Moms is going to bring this up in the next episode, but we should have been more explicit about why teachers do not sometimes share with parents when trans students change their pronouns at school. Trans kids often face abuse and abandonment when they come out to their families. What A Day just had a great discussion on this very topic.

But there is a ton of stuff that we do reference in the show, so get ready for all the links:

• Here is the Political Gabfest’s Conundrum show where we stole our question.
• This is the Saga comic book series that Pops mentions. It’s by Brian K. Vaughan with scrumptious art by Fiona Staples and you should buy all of them now, read them, cry your eyes out just like we do every time a new compilation is published, and then thank us later for introducing you to one of the best comic series in the past 10 years.
• Halt and Catch Fire was one of the most underrated TV shows of all time. Amazing characters and some of the best cinematography ever put to the small screen. Moms still doesn’t understand why Kerry Bishe and Scoot McNairy haven’t been cast in all the things because they're a revelation as Donna and Gordon. Though all the love for Lee Pace and Mackenzie Davis.
• This is the episode of Unshaken Faith that we discuss in our final segment.
• This is the American Girls book they discuss.
• And this is our current favorite drag TV show, We’re Here. It doesn’t get the attention that Drag Race does, but it’s really lovely.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

See a list of our episodes here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We’re back! In this episode we recount our Christmas trip, introduce a new segment and discuss when it’s appropriate to give unsolicited parenting advice, and finish out on the anecdotal fallacy.

Take a listen to Mom and Dad are Fighting to see if you agree with our read on their episode, Can I Tell Someone They’re Parenting Wrong?

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

See a list of our episode here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We’re working on a few interesting things for the new year. This is a bit of recording I did with Reader and Go about our holidays. (And just to be clear, their motorcycle ride was very slow and on a private road with no other traffic.)

We'll be back soon with a full episode.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (9) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

See a list of our episode here.

Follow us on Instagram @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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It’s the final episode in our series on education and of 2022. Though we weren’t kidding when we said we were a bit loopy. Moms did an inadvertent jump into the past and we had to cut a whole section because she kept referring to the year as 2020. Though maybe that’s appropriate for an episode about history.

We mention a few things in this episode that we definitely recommend you checking out:

• Here’s the episode of Thank God I’m an Atheist that we discuss.
• And we couldn’t recommend the graphic novel, I Know What I Am: The Life and Times of Artemisia Gentileschi more.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (now 9!) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

And we’re finally on Instagram. Follow us @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We’re taking a little break from talking about education to discuss a logical fallacy: The Appeal to Authority. And this goes a few places we weren’t expecting.

In this episode we reference a whole lot of stuff, some of it that we’ve certainly forgotten, but you can find several links here:

• Here’s a classic Skeptic Generation call with Xeno.
• Here’s the Atheist Experience call about atoms not really looking like solar systems.
• And here’s the Talk Heathen episode that includes the call about studying physics for 16 hours.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (8) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

And we’re finally on Instagram. Follow us @thefamilyskeptical

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We talk evolution! Why is it so scary to teach? Why are kids books about it so limited? Why does popular media get it sooo wrong?

In this episode we reference Forrest Valkai. And Seth Andrews, The Thinking Atheist, just recently had him on and introduced him as a Biologist, so maybe Moms was right about that?

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (8) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Happy Halloween! Go has decided he wants to celebrate Halloween all month again - so welcome to our Frankensode. We talk about the possibility of teaching formal logic in schools - in two parts - sewn together poorly.

You can find the two videos that we reference here:

Teach Formal Logic: TRICK OR TRUTH Game!

Trolly Problem Memes

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (8) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We introduce a new series we’re going to be starting about education and hear a little from Reader and Go.

You can find the three episodes of Raising Freethinkers that we reference here:

When Science Goes South - Part 1

The Word - Part 2 (This is the one we talk about the most)

The Conflict Avoiders - Part 3

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (8) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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It’s our last episode discussing Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious by Wendy Thomas Russell, and we spend the whole time on it. (Spoiler Alert - Moms is going to explain in the next episode that she totally disagrees with one of the points she made in this one. Can you guess which comment she’s thought about more?)

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Our kids are Reader (8) and Go (6), and if you want to find out how we arrived at these peculiar pseudonyms, go back to Episode 1.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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Trigger Warning! We start very briefly discussing the case of the 10-year-old in Ohio who needed an abortion and the prevalence of child sexual abuse (if want to skip this discussion, feel free to skip to 03:20), then talk about the New York Times’ article “How to Raise Kids Who Are Good at Getting Angry,” and finish out dissecting another chapter of Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious by Wendy Thomas Russell.

You can find the Super Mamas episode we referenced here.

And if you’d like to learn more about residential schools in Canada which we reference in this article, we highly recommend this podcast: Kuper Island.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We talk about the recent Dobbs decision by the Supreme Court (if you’ve had enough of podcasts about Dobbs at this point, feel free to skip to 21:40) and continue discussing the book Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious by Wendy Thomas Russell.

You can find The Atheist Experience call we referenced here.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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We talk about why we call ourselves atheists, and discuss the book Relax, It’s Just God: How and Why to Talk to Your Kids About Religion When You’re Not Religious by Wendy Thomas Russell.

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical Cover Photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.

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It’s our first episode! We discuss why we’re doing this podcast, and our TikTok Triumph seems like a very positive Christian response to doubt… but is there more under the surface? You can see the full TikTok here. (Also - we make mention of next week’s show. That was our slip. Initially we’ll be releasing every 2-3 weeks, so it might be a good idea to subscribe if you don’t want to miss it.)

The Family Skeptical: We’re a married atheist couple raising two wonderful, strange children. We ask big questions, dissect weird parenting moments, and examine how society ignores or misrepresents families like ours. If you’re any stripe of non-believer who’s involved in raising children, welcome! You are our people.

Please reach out to us at momsandpops@thefamilyskeptical.com

(We promise to have a website up soon.)

The Family Skeptical cover photo is by Jesse Valvasori Photography

Our theme music is by Jonathan Zalben and First Frame Music

Thanks for listening! If you want to support us, subscribe and tell a friend to check us out.