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Kelly Carlin is the only daughter of legendary comedian George Carlin and author of "A Carlin Home Companion." Kelly is an inspirational public speaker, a writer of books and screenplays, radio host, podcaster, and a declared asker of big questions, with a graduate degree in Jungian psychology and a refreshingly unique perspective on life and living. In this episode, we talk about personal healing in these pandemic times, secular spirituality, the role of comedy in the age of wokeness, her life as the daughter of a complex comedic icon, and her powerful new coaching initiative, Women on the Verge, among other things. Check it out.Check out Women on the Verge here: https://womenonthevergecoaching.com/Kelly Carlin's website: https://thekellycarlinsite.com/ 

Going through a divorce is always difficult and complicated, no matter what your circumstances. And when there are children involved, it can be even more fraught and heartbreaking. If you are a divorced dad who is fortunate enough to have shared or full custody of your child(ren), you might be surprised at the lack of resources available to help you navigate your new life as a single father. My guest today is trying to help change that.Elena Locker-Torres is a licensed master social worker and family counselor who works with divorced parents—especially fathers—and their children. She is also a clinical forensic specialist who works with children undergoing the most adverse of circumstances. She is the founder of Together Family Wellness, a counseling and support service for parents and families. Having grown up as an only child whose own parents divorced when she was little, she brings both her professional and personal insights to this important topic.For more on Elena and her work, check out https://www.togetherfamilywellness.com/ and follow her on Instagram @togetherfamilywellness

Suicide is an occupational hazard for physicians. It is the only cause of death that occurs with more frequency in physicians than non-physicians, at double the rate of the general population. For perspective, 400 physicians take their own lives every year in the US — that's more than one doctor a day. And a survey by the Canadian Medical Association showed that 1 in 3 physicians screened positive for symptoms of depression last year and at least 8% thought about killing themselves during the same time. Recent data shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the situation. What is going on? Dr. Anwar Khokhar is an internist and hospitalist who is now training in nephrology. He's going to join me to talk about this urgent topic, sharing both his professional and personal experiences. [If you are experiencing suicidal thoughts, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline — https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ — for 24/7, free, confidential support for people in distress, prevention and crisis resources for you or your loved ones, and best practices for professionals.]

Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook have banned the sitting President of the United States for directly inciting the unprecedented violent attack on the Capitol by his supporters on January 6. Filmmaker Jay Shapiro joined me to talk about censorship, free speech, the role of media in a post-Trump world, and a lot more — with a perspective you may not have heard before. This episode was recorded just before Trump was impeached, but as you'll see, we assumed it anyway.

Seth Andrews was a fundamentalist Christian radio host for ten years. Today he is a secular humanist and atheist activist based in Oklahoma. He is the author of the excellent book, "Confessions of a Former Fox News Christian" — more relevant than ever today — and joins me to talk about a lot of things that have been on both our minds: his first-hand insights into the mind of the Christian pro-Trump Fox News viewer; how to achieve unity and common purpose after the deep divisions, racism, and bigotry of the last four years; the future of secular liberalism as it stands today; and more.

It's OVER. Strategist Mookie Spitz and filmmaker Jay Shapiro join me again to talk about what happened. Yes, Trump lost. But he got 71 million votes. No, there was no voter fraud. But SCOTUS is 6-3 conservative. Trump's gone—but is Trumpism dead? And did he take pollsters down with him? Is it incumbent upon liberals now to reconcile with and reach out to Trump supporters? We talk about all of this and more in our autopsy episode of the 2020 election.

Are you confident Biden will win on November 3? Or are you terrified that it's 2016 all over again? Mookie Spitz — a strategist who consulted for the Andrew Yang campaign — thinks Trump will win. Jay Shapiro — filmmaker and director of "Islam and the Future of Tolerance" — is confident that Trump will lose. Both join me in this episode to duke it out. Let's do this!

With two weeks left to go before the election, Democrats are more anxious than ever about a repeat of 2016, despite polling and fundraising numbers that are dramatically more favorable to Joe Biden than Donald Trump. My friend Jay Shapiro—the extraordinarily talented director and producer behind documentaries like Islam and the Future of Tolerance and Opposite Field—joins me to talk about why 2020 will not be a repeat of 2016. Jay is also host of the philosophy podcast, Dilemma.Follow Jay on Twitter: @Jay_ShapiroDiscussed in this episode: Donald Trump and Vince McMahon's Battle of the Billionaires as a representation of the Trump presidency.

After his exposed tax returns, his first debate with Biden, and his diagnosis and hospitalization with COVID a month before the election, conventional wisdom would say that Donald Trump is on the trajectory to almost certain defeat. But 4 weeks is still a long time in US politics, and Mookie Spitz makes a persuasive case for why Trump STILL has a good shot — and why we should be cautious about polls. We'll talk about the state of the race now, and why (or whether) Trump can still pull this off.

Can Trump win again? Talking to strategist Mookie Spitz has seriously shaken me out of my complacency. Spitz is a marketing and PR strategy maestro who specializes in healthcare, non-profits, and politics. He is also a writer, rock guitar player (who can seriously SHRED), and was fired by Presidential candidate Andrew Yang (a story you'll definitely want to hear). We talked about the election, the polls, the pandemic, and got into the weeds on what Dems have to do to get it right this time. Spitz is my go-to guy when I want to cut through the noise and really understand what's happening in the wild world of American presidential politics. After you listen to this episode, I bet he'll be yours too.

You're lazy. You have little motivation. You don't want to go to the gym. And you're stuck at home in these COVID-19 times. But you want to be healthy and look good. Is that even possible? Armin Navabi — the controversial Iranian-Canadian atheist activist whose organization, Atheist Republic, has over 2 million followers and counting — describes himself as all of those things, but has also gotten totally jacked these last few months while the rest of us piled on the pounds. What's more, he did it with minimal to no equipment. No gym membership required. What you may not know about Armin is that his success is rooted in a unique strength: pushing the boundaries of what's possible, and always asking "Why not?" instead of "Why?"  The best news of all? He promises that you can do it too, and is ready to spill his secrets.

The subtitle says it all: "A Journey from Ivory Coast to America, from African to Black, and from Undocumented to Doctor." Habib Fanny is a US physician who grew up in the Ivory Coast. He is both an American African and an African-American. He was raised Muslim and is now an atheist. He is an outsider and an insider. He is a prolific writer, with almost 100,000 followers on Quora, where he is known for having fascinating perspectives on a range of issues, often supplemented with lots of charts and data. I was wondering who I could talk to about the recent pandemic, #BLM protests, and how the events of this strange year will play into the upcoming US election, and I immediately thought of Habib. And it was totally worth it. This was a fascinating conversation about the hottest topics of the day. Habib's book, "A Gazelle Ate My Homework," (you've already read the subtitle above) is out now.

The murder of George Floyd and the protests that followed have sparked passionate conversations within many marginalized communities about how insidious systems of oppression can be, especially in this day and age. I'm speak with Maryam Namazie — the British-Iranian secularist and human rights activist often credited for making the ex-Muslim movement the global phenomenon it is today — about systemic racism, parallels between Islamic and White supremacy, showing solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter protesters, and her own personal experience being beaten by the NYPD and thrown in jail during a peaceful protest in the early 1990s.Links discussed:Washington Post repository of research/data on systemic racism: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/opinions/systemic-racism-police-evidence-criminal-justice-system/Why it's impossible to calculate the percentage of legitimate police shootings (Radley Balko): https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2016/07/14/why-its-impossible-to-calculate-the-percentage-of-police-shootings-that-are-legitimate/Ali's LetterWiki exchange with Matt Thornton on systemic racism and police shootings: https://letter.wiki/conversation/766#letter_2412Maryam on Twitter: @MaryamNamazie

Back in medical school, Anwar and I used to have a lot of conversations about what success means, what intelligence means, and how much of a role intelligence plays in success. I eventually left clinical medicine to go into medical communications and writing. Anwar is still a practicing internist, and also an aspiring fiction writer and a member of Mensa. We go back and talk about how we defined success for ourselves back then, how (or whether) comprehensive intelligence can be assessed beyond just IQ, what we've learned in the decades since, and, well, the meaning of life.

Harris Sultan is a Pakistani-Australian atheist activist and author of "The Curse of God: Why I Left Islam." His YouTube channel, Pakistani Mulhid, promotes atheism and secularism in Urdu, the language spoken in Pakistan. With tens of thousands of subscribers and an even wider audience, he is able to reach countless atheists in one of the world's largest Muslim countries—in their language—with a message that would land him in jail or worse if he did it on the ground. While "armchair experts" and "slacktivists" were disparaged in the past, we're now seeing how internet connections and YouTube channels can be so much more powerful than pens and picket signs. With so many of us working from home during this COVID-19 era, Harris and I talk about how to be an effective and influential activist online. 

Dr. Rahman is a California pediatrician and dear friend of almost three decades. We went to medical school together. We’ll talk, among other things, about our personal and professional experiences with something that is on the minds of many in these COVID times: death. Join in and send us your questions.