The Scathing Atheist - 554: Im-Pius Edition

Episode Date: September 28, 2023

In this week’s episode, the Catholic Church will remind us that there is too an ‘even worse’, Heath Enwright finds a hungry otter in his suitcase, and you’ll hear the get ahead C segment we tricked him into last week. --- To make a per episode donation at Patreon.com, click here: http://www.patreon.com/ScathingAtheist To buy our book, click here: https://www.amazon.com/Outbreak-Crisis-Religion-Ruined-Pandemic/dp/B08L2HSVS8/ If you see a news story you think we might be interested in, you can send it here: [e-mail] To check out our sister show, The Skepticrat, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/the-skepticrat To check out our sister show’s hot friend, God Awful Movies, click here: https://audioboom.com/channel/god-awful-movies To check out our half-sister show, Citation Needed, click here: http://citationpod.com/ To check out our sister show’s sister show, D and D minus, click here: https://danddminus.libsyn.com/ To hear more from our intrepid audio engineer Morgan Clarke, click here: https://www.morganclarkemusic.com/ --- Headlines: Newly released letters underscore Vaticans complicity in the holocaust: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna105500 Halloween display featuring devil and beheaded Jesus sparks controversy https://www.nbc15.com/2023/09/21/halloween-display-featuring-devil-beheaded-jesus-sparks-controversy/ Southern Baptist leader sues SBC for revealing details about his sexual impropriety: https://www.friendlyatheist.com/p/former-southern-baptist-leader-my Physician Assistant Can Move Ahead with Challenges to Her Dismissal for Her Views on Gender Identity http://religionclause.blogspot.com/2023/09/physician-assistant-can-move-ahead-with.html Indonesian TikToker with more than 2 million followers jailed after saying Islamic phrase before eating pork https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-09-21/tiktoker-jailed-after-saying-islamic-phrase-before-eating-pork/102883182 Polish Priests’ gay orgy ends after viagra overdose sends attendee to the hospital: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12540717/Priest-investigated-Polish-police-gay-orgy-apartment-ends-clergyman-friend-overdosing-erectile-pills-male-prostitute-scandal.html New Orleans archbishop: local Catholic institutions must help with cost of clergy abuse claims https://amp.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/sep/09/new-orleans-archbishop-catholic-schools-churches-pay-clergy-abuse-claims --- This Week in Misogyny: Fights break out over gender segregated Yom Kippur celebrations in Israel: https://www.thejc.com/news/israel/fights-break-out-in-tel-aviv-over-gender-segregated-yom-kippur-service-2xMG05Rg4xevMEv4S495Sz MI finally gets around to outlawing child marriage: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/children-will-no-longer-be-able-to-marry-in-michigan/ar-AA1h6U6c Also this silly shit: https://www.mediamatters.org/michael-knowles/daily-wires-michael-knowles-every-single-abortion-clinic-united-states-has-satanic

Warning, the following podcast uses more foul language than Noah watching a Jaguars game. This week's episode of The Scathing Atheist is brought to you by MySheetsRock, Factor, and by the new whitening toothpaste for Catholics, Popesident. Popesident, because if you don't think Catholics can whiten, you've clearly never seen their Jesus paintings. And now, The Scathing Atheist. Hi, this is Jake from Chesterfield, Virginia. And as someone who just had to vote in a Republican primary

because the Democratic candidate is uncontested and Amanda Chase has got to fucking go, I can assure you, we did in fact devolve from filthy monkey people. I need a whiskey and it's only 7.30. It's Thursday! Nailed it! It's Thursday! Nailed it, it's September 28th. And it's Sea Otter Awareness Week! I knew there was a reason Heath was on vacation right now. I have no illusions.

I'm Eli Bosnick, and from jet-lagged New Jersey and just normally-lagged Waycross, Georgia, this is the Scathing Atheist. On this week's episode, the Catholic Church will remind us that there is, too, an even worse. Keith Enright finds a hungry otter in his suitcase. And you'll hear the get-ahead C-segment we tricked him into last week. But first, the diatribe. I know this seems like a weird thing to say after spending nearly 11 years making fun of it for a living but if it wasn't for all those Christian assholes treating it like the divinely inspired

word of God the Bible would be awesome now to clear, it's not a good book, right? It's definitely not the good book, but it's also just a bad book. It's boring and repetitive and contradictory and racist and sexist. And at times it's incomprehensible. The heroes are evil. The morals are ghastly. The genocides are glorified, right? There are at least 11 years of weekly episodes worth of bad things to say about it. And in terms of books to base your morals on, it would be hard to do any worse, but there are still several ways it could be really useful. I guess several is a bit of an exaggeration, but there are at least two. The first is, of course, as a historical document, right? I'm a

fucking history buff. I get shit for being interested in the Etruscans, which if you think about it, is the before it was cool version of thinking about the Roman Empire a lot. Now, in truth, the Etruscan thing is just something Tom started when I had the audacity to bring them up on one whole Citation Needed episode in a row. In truth, my first historical love was the Near East. So, as a dude who's been fascinated by Near Eastern history since my adolescence The bible is a fucking treasure trove, right? Because not only can you glean a lot of genuine history from it, but it gives you an unrivaled window into how people thought thousands of years ago Think about what an incredible book it is from that perspective, right?

Because it gives us a broad view of the culture at the time Now the old testament was written over a period of nearly 700 years with elements of it dating centuries further back than that. So to say of its time is misleading. But if you're trying to get your head around like how ancient people thought, that makes it all the cooler as a historical source. Not only do we get to see their philosophy, but we get to see how it evolved over time. And the breadth of the perspective allows us to get a sense of much more than that, right? We get to know about their mathematics, their sexual taboos, their judicial philosophy, their mythology, their prejudices, their fears. time reverse engineer the errors omissions and edits that the scribes made along the way so we can get ever closer to what that really meant and not only does that help us get a truer picture of the original wording but it also tells us a lot about the prejudice fears and taboos etc

of the people who made those omissions and edits right so it's invaluable as a source for history and for historiography of course the bible is useful as a historical text to precisely the same degree that we can collectively admit that it's not a divinely inspired infallible record of true events and abiding morality, right? Because the actual history described in the Bible is laughably incorrect and the morality is very unlaughably incorrect. Plus, the philosophy and shit changes dramatically over the course of the book. So pretending that it's all sending one singular message from one ultimate source necessarily blinds you to almost all the worthwhile shit that you could gain from the thing. But that's not the only advantage that biblical literalism robs us of.

And this is one way that's easy to underestimate. of. And this is one way that's easy to underestimate, but the Bible could also be really useful as a corpus of familiar texts that could bind us together culturally. And look, I get that's a weird thing to say from a dude whose whole job is trying to pry the fucking Bible out of our shared culture, but that's only because it's religious. If it wasn't for that, it could actually be a source of social unity instead of the exact opposite of that. I mean, think about how many familiar references rise from the Bible that we all know. If I talk about a good Samaritan, or I say he was the David to their Goliath, or I reference the plank in someone's eyes,

that's a great social shortcut to understanding, as long as it's not infused with a bunch of religious connotations. And beyond those specific references from a storytelling perspective, it's awesome to have a stable of familiar characters. That's why we still spend so much time on Greek and Norse mythology. That's why comic book movies work so well, right? We already know who Batman and Spider-Man are. We already know how they're supposed to act. Their familiarity is a cultural touchstone that can launch you into a story. But you can't exactly have Moses or Jesus show up in the middle of an action movie which sucks because i can imagine moses doing some awesome rod shit

right and then turning it into a snake and jesus can wield a sword with his fucking mouth so that's cool but no we're cheated out of all the truly incredible scenes that we could have had of moses raining down frogs to slow down thanos Elisha rode in on an army of bears because of fucking religion. And this matters for more than just Act III final battles. It's healthy for a society to have certain shared mythologies. And look, yes, Christianity has destroyed a lot of way more important shit.

They've destroyed families and marriages and whole classes of human rights. Hell, they've destroyed whole empires in the past. So it may seem like a small thing to emphasize the fact that they've also destroyed the utility of the Bible, but it's worth reflecting on the fact that their faith is so destructive it can even ruin the things they revere the most. They're talking about you, Jesus. We interrupt this broadcast and bring you a special news bulletin.

Joining me for headlines tonight is the cup to my cake, Eli Bosnick. Eli, happy belated. Oh, all I want for Christmas is you, no illusions. All right, well, it's not Christmas, it's your birthday, but that's fine, though, that'll work. And while Eli blows out his candles and checks the calendar, we're going to pause for a word from this week's first sponsor, MySheetsRock. Dude, you didn't have to bring me anything back from Manchester. No, no, I knew you felt bad missing QED,

so this is the least that I could do. Um, is this paper? No, silly. It's the sheets from the beds at the QED hotel. This is very clearly stapled together. Yeah, they call them the Mercure Mystery Pokes.

I bet they do. But Eli, I don't need these. I have the regulator sheets from MySheetsRock. What are the regulator sheets from MySheetsRock? MySheetsRock created the regulator sheets, which are designed specifically to keep hot sleepers cool and cold sleepers comfortable. They regulate temperature, wick moisture, stay breathable, and they're so soft,

you'll sleep comfortably every night. That's because these sheets are made from best-in-class bamboo rayon, the holy grail of sheeting. This miracle material transfers body heat two times more effectively than regular sheets and reduces humidity by 50% so you can experience your best night's sleep yet. It's true. My Sheets Rock sent us a set to try when they became a sponsor, and we loved them so much that me and Anna bought two more sets of sheets. Yeah, sounds like you

probably should have brought those with you. Some of this has printing on it, Eli. It sure does, Noah. It sure does. Is this a police report? What if you don't believe me? I mean, I don't believe you. Don't believe me? Their five-star customer reviews speak for themselves. Plus, they offer a 90-day risk-free trial and free shipping and returns. Check out MySheetsRock at MySheetsRock.com slash scathing and enter our code scathing

for 10% off and free shipping. Nice. MySheetsRock. Not stapled together police reports. We promise. I mean, we do. We do. Yeah, we do. And now, back to the headlines. In our lead story

tonight, two things really stand out when you start looking into the history of the Catholic Church. The first is that they were involved in way more atrocities than you'd have guessed even if you thought you were guessing high. The second is that every bad thing you know that they did turns out to be way worse than you thought even if you thought you were guessing high. The second is that every bad thing you know that they did turns out to be way worse than you thought,

even if you thought it was really bad. Like, for realsies, unless you've made an in-depth study of it, I am willing to bet that the Spanish Inquisition is worse than you thought. Yeah, and nobody ever expects that. I don't know if you know. Yeah, so given those two facts, it should surprise nobody that newly discovered correspondence proves the Vatican knew way more about the Holocaust that they weren't condemning in 1942 than their post-atrocity PR would have you believe. Right. And keep in mind that what we already knew was that the Catholic Church publicly signed a no sending the Catholics wherever you're sending the jews truce in 1933 33 yeah exactly so

a quick history refresher first here always an entree to comedy gold get ready especially when it's holocaust history yeah so so during the holocaust the vatican very conspicuously failed to condemn the nazi regime and didn't finally get around to doing that until way after the war was over. Of course, Catholics have more excuses for this than they have for why God lets bad things happen to good people, but the fact is that Pope Pius XII, who was in charge during most of the Holocaust, was an anti-Semite who legitimized the Nazi regime in an effort to further centralize papal power. None of that's really disputed by any serious historian, but his actual level of complicity has been debated ever since. So much so that in 2020, the Vatican bowed to pressure

from Jewish historians to open up a whole bunch of Pius XII's archives, and literally everything that's come out of that has bolstered the he was Nazi light side of the argument. Yeah. I mean, naming himself Pope pious should have set off alarm bells in the same way as like naming your country the democratic republic of blank does right still yeah so the latest news comes from a letter recently published in an italian newspaper that proves trusted vatican sources were sending detailed reports of the ongoing holocaust as early as december of 1942 and now to be clear nobody is claiming pious didn't know about the holocaust by then he'd received dozens of diplomatic notes

and envoys telling him exactly what was happening in detail as early as august of 1942 the claim from his apologists is only that he couldn't verify those claims through vatican sources and this letter disproves even that tepid defense i mean we can't i guess we can't prove he actually saw the letter but regardless the existence of the letter proves that he could verify the claims if he was trying you know especially if he'd gone as far as to tell his secretary hey make sure i see anything about millions of jewish people being exterminated right put that at the top of the inbox yeah right, right. No, if he didn't verify it, it could only have been

in a sort of technical I had my fingers in my ears and yelled I can't hear you the whole time you told me about it kind of way. Yeah, Pope Pius's

innocence is slowly but surely slipping itself right next to the Catholic God of the gaps, isn't it? Just like, right. A little snug in here.

Yeah, exactly. Getting tight. I should also note here, by the way, that the letter in question is part of an upcoming book from an archivist that got to see even more of the damning shit than the rest of the world saw. So I'm guessing we'll have a follow-up on this story in the next few months.

We always do, No Illusions. We always do. And in decrapitated news, while it feels like pumpkin spice Has been creeping into our food for months now We are barely a week Into the official fall season here in the United States That's right

Spirit Halloween stores are beginning to sprout In abandoned malls And Home Depot is breaking out the giant skeletons In other words Brace yourself folks Because suburban front lawns are about to become a psychosexual horror matched only by when Heath and Noah started letting me write the ads. And while neighbors usually take an inflatable witch and a few styrofoam tombstones in stride, some Louisiana residents have taken umbrage with the Halloween display set up on Mick

Moriana's front lawn, specifically the decapitated and crucified jesus christ what whose head is being held aloft by satan so you know what that means what are the guys talking about it's the newest the greatest christian freak out yeah how dare he make the reverent depiction of iron age torture violent i mean come on guys yeah exactly so first off big thanks to danielle who was the first to send us this story over at scathing news at gmail.com as a way of saying thanks i stalked you on facebook downloaded your picture and reported you to 60 minutes as my missing daughter anyways morana is known for his elaborate holiday displays every year, and it appears he kicked off this Halloween season hard and early with this entry,

which, as I said, features a headless Jesus Christ on a cross and the devil above him holding up his blood-soaked head in victory, all surrounded by figures dressed as nuns and priests, level above him, holding up his blood-soaked head in victory. All surrounded by figures dressed as nuns and priests, which makes it almost as gory as the Christian haunted houses depicting the horrors of abortion and premarital sex. So, you know, it's a lot. Yeah, yeah. Which still refuse to include bobbing for fetuses,

no matter how many emails I write them. I know, I know. I think it's a great idea. But seriously, looking at the display and given the evangelical approach to scare tactics, you would have no idea if these decorations were celebrating Christianity or condemning it. Moriana, for his part, claims it's neither. It's just a big goof. According to him, quote, this is just decorations for fun. It's not real Jesus. Adding, these are foam props that I made.

I'm very sorry if this hurt anyone or if this caused anyone to feel sad, end quote. I love that he felt the need to clarify that it wasn't the real savior, right? Because I've been around Louisiana Christians. I get it. That would be the first thing I'd want to clarify as well. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But apology or no,

Moriana said the headless Christ has led to a flood of harassment against him and his ex-girlfriend. Vic told reporters her job was at risk due to the amount of threats she received at work. And when he refused to take them down, as a result, they broke up. When asked if that meant he had any plans to take down the display, Vic responded, quote, absolutely not.

So moral of the story, I mean, it takes a lot to be a bigger asshole than a guy who won't take down his Halloween decorations to save his girlfriend's job. But the Christians are always up for that task. The Christians did it, everybody. They did it. Aren't they amazing? And in Hunt High and Low news.

Fantastic. Former president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Johnny Hunt, signatory to the Nashville Statement that declares gay marriage and trans people to be non-existent, signatory to the SBC's Statement on Marriage that declares gay marriage to be a sign of cultural doom,

and preacher who made sexual purity and marital fidelity a cornerstone of his message throughout a five-decade career in his ministry, wants to make it clear that his sex life is no damn body's business but his own. Which is why he has now sued the Southern Baptist Convention

for making accusations of sexual impropriety against him public more than a decade after they happened. To be fair to Hunt, SBC's standard operating procedure is to make statements about fake sexual predators. Right. He's never agreed to doing any real ones.

You know, that's a real change of branding. So, yeah. So now, to be clear, Johnny Hunt's sex stuff is actually evil right like unlike him we're not condemning harmless sexual encounters between consenting adults hunt is accused of sexually assaulting a female pastor that he'd spent years grooming and while he's never publicly admitted to it his denials are pretty much confessions with an added side of but i think she was into it though right. Mm-hmm. Right? So this happened in 2010, right after his tenure as the SBC president ended.

His victim, who also ran an SBC-affiliated ministry, reported his behavior up the chain of command, where Hunt was allowed to go through a quiet restoration process with nothing ever being made public. You know, like, can, but in secret. Yeah, can't, if you will. Yeah, exactly, right? So anyway, fast forward to 2022 when the sbc's

mishandling of sexual abuse complaints got so bad the justice department had to step in at that time the sbc put out a behemoth report in an effort to get ahead of justice department revelations and try to put some distance between the current leadership and the people who are about to be accused of criminal behavior and included in that report was the first public disclosure of this allegation against johnny hunt so now hunt is suing the sbc for defamation despite the fact that the allegations are true right and and had to be legally pried from their coffers right the catholic church is reading this over their morning paper and being like, hey, can you check if we can sue us? Can we sue us? Right. I might be onto

something. For the record here, by the way, Hunt has served no kind of penalty for an assault that, based on the allegation, at least should have been criminally charged. The whole thing was swept under the rug and he was allowed to go on preaching. The motherfucker is still preaching. It also appears mentioned that we're watching virtually

the same story play out between Jerry Falwell Jr. and Liberty University, except for all the shit Jerry did was consensual, except for falling down the stairs drunk. But he was the victim

on that one, too, so I don't care. Yeah, I mean, if anything, he should be commended for throwing Jerry Falwell Jr. down some stairs, right? Yeah, now that you mention it.

And look, my point is that whenever the Athe atheist podcasts are having to choose between which Christian leader sues former employer for publicly admitting how horrible they were story to run with, it's a good day for atheism. It truly is. It truly is. And in hypocritic oath news, one of the first things you hear drilled into the heads of medical students is, first, do no harm. But with the state of American healthcare in 2023, it's become more of a suggestion than an axiom.

Kind of like, satisfaction guaranteed, or Miranda rights, or health insurance. I mean, yeah, you signed something, but no one really expects you to adhere to it. And such is the case, literally, for physician assistant Valerie Kluesterman, who is suing the University of Michigan Health after she was fired for refusing drugs and procedures to gender transitioning patients on religious grounds, even denying the use of preferred pronouns around patients. Oh, for fuck's sake. Because bigoted malpractice is best served with a screeching eagle profile picture, I guess. And that, though, look, I agree with her that bigotry and religion are synonyms. I just, I don't see why so many Christians want that to be a matter of public record. For real.

So, first of all, big thanks to Stormy D for the story at scathingnews at gmail.com. Anyway, Kloosterman was fired in August of 2021 when she refused to participate in a training program that required her to participate in gender affirming surgeries and perform basic pronoun etiquette. And because the basic tenets of medical care can all be thrown out the window with the simple phrase, God said I can't,

Klusterman claims Michigan Health violated her constitutional rights and that she's the victim of religious discrimination. In other words, her right to deny the rights of others was infringed. Right, no, it seems more and more like the only solution is for us to start a religion where

it's against our religion, like, to be discriminated against, right? Let the fucking Supreme Court go all supercomputer at the end of war games with that shit. Yeah, for sure. So, yeah, next time someone regales you with advice about just finding a different

non-homophobic wedding cake maker, remind them that cases like this always have been and always will be the point of those test cases. Yep. Right? To eventually deny children life-saving health care because someone who got their degree next to a Quiznos thinks they're icky. Yes. And yet another depressing addition to our told you so chorus, we're going to take a break for a word from this week's second sponsor, Factor. Hi, I'm Dermot O'Leary and welcome back to the X Factor. Our next contestant is podcaster No Illusions. Let's see what the judges think of what he's got.

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already in just two minutes. So, you know, all you have to do is heat and enjoy. Mr. Illusions, I'm Simon Cowell. These are amazing. But what are you doing cooking for us here on the X Factor? Oh, I thought this was Factor, America's number one ready-to-eat meal kit.

They can help you fuel up fast with chef-prepared, dietitian-approved, ready-to-eat meals delivered straight to your door. No, I'm Mel B, and this is X Factor, a singing competition, I think. It's been five years. So I'm guessing it doesn't matter that you can choose from 34 plus weekly flavor packed fresh never frozen meals, huh? Not on this show. I'm Shannon Osborne, apparently. But is it just meals? No way. Round out your meal and replenish your snack supply with an assortment of 45 plus add-ons, including breakfast items like delicious apple cinnamon pancakes, bacon and cheddar egg bites, and potato, bacon, and egg breakfast skillet. Or for an easy wellness boost, try refreshing beverage options

like cold-pressed juices, shakes, and smoothies. All right, mate. I'm someone who's literally just named Cheryl. You're going to Hollywood. I think you're going to the next round. That. You're going there. How do I sign up for Factor? Head to factormeals.com slash scathing50

and use the code scathing50 to get 50% off. That's code scathing50 at factormeals.com slash scathing50 to get 50% off. I'm Dermot O'Leary. Yeah, who is that even? I have no idea. I think Cheryl has a last name, too. Nick Grimshaw.

A man wrote the Bible? A whore is what she wants. If it's a legitimate race. Then it's a slut, right? Cooking can be fun. Hey, I'm proud of a man. This Week in Massage. Jews celebrated Yom Kippur last weekend, which is considered the holiest of days on the Jewish calendar.

It is, of course, a day of atonement, in which Jewish believers ask for forgiveness for their sins of the previous year. And perhaps feeling that they didn't have enough sins to fill up a whole atonement, or maybe just eager to get a few more forgivable sins in under the wire, a bunch of misogynistic fucksticks in Tel Aviv decided to celebrate the holiday by starting fistfights with women over the city's refusal to keep celebrations gender segregated. Now, if you listen to this show regularly, you'll know that this is a huge problem in Israel right now. A lot of conservative Jewish sects demand strict segregation of genders, and they cause no end of trouble for airlines, restaurants,

and city planners as a result. And of course, entitled fucks that they are, when the larger society refuses to accommodate them, they just accommodate themselves. Or at least they try to, which is what led to the violence last Sunday. Now, to be clear, the city and the nation's Supreme Court have banned gender-segregated public celebrations. These assholes can, of course, go to their synagogues or their private events and celebrate in whatever way they see fit. But when it comes to state-funded shit on state-owned property, all genders are welcome as a matter of law.

But that didn't stop activists from the Orthodox group Rosh Yehudi from trying to erect a makeshift barrier between men and women during one such event, presumably physically separating like husbands and wives and shit. But it's not all bad news for this week. I have a story that's technically good news,

though in that haven't we already done this kind of way we're so used to on TWIN. So congratulations to the state of Michigan for finally doing away with child marriage. That's right. Up until now, it's been legal for 16 and 17-year-old kids to get married with parental consent because, you know, they still belong to their parents at that age. And with the approval of parents and a judge, they could get married even younger. Of course, these laws are vestiges of the perverse idea that the correct solution to teen pregnancy is two lifelong commitments rather than one or an abortion.

So it really is a pretty important victory whenever we manage to excise one from the law books. And even if we can't actually get the laws overturned, it's probably a good thing to force conservative Christians to defend them in public. You know, in between charges that Democrats are groomers. Anyway, I do have one last story for you, and it's an important one. Because on an episode last week of the Daily Wire's Michael Knowles Show, host Michael Knowles told listeners that, quote,

every single abortion clinic in the United States has a satanic coven attached to it, end quote. So, you know, they're on to us. Just be on the lookout for true patriots at the next black mass and with that warning imparted i suppose i can hand things back over to noah and eli thank you lucinda and in oscar meyer streamer news tonight well done thank you thank you when i say the phrase jailed tikt, one naturally assumes they're about to hear a tale of manslaughter, sexual assault or giving away a PlayStation in lower Manhattan. But this week, a TikToker in Indonesia with over two million followers was sentenced to two years in jail for the crime of eating pork. Oh, God damn it.

Yep. Because if anything can be more silly and dangerous than TikTok celebrities, it's Islamic theocracy. Yeah. No, I've been saying for years that the main thing of the Islamic theocracy was missing was viral dances. I called this. Yeah.

So first off, big thanks to Kevin, who sent us this story first to scathingnews at gmail.com. Anyway, the 33-year-old Lina Luftwati posted the offending TikTok in March, where she samples crispy skin pork on camera. Before taking a bite, the streamer says bismala, which is an Arabic phrase meaning in the name of God that many, but not all, Muslims use kind of like grace. And it's safe to assume that that, like the saying of the prayer, was the clincher for the busybody cleric to report her to the Indonesian police for, and I'm not making this up, consciously eating pork skin as a Muslim.

Jesus, I feel like that crime's official description in the law book says, and this isn't a euphemism for anything, by the way, we just mean eating pork skin. It's gotten wild. It's crazy. We printed this on a computer. And look, as dangerous as apostasy is under Muslim theocracy, this story is actually weirder than that because Lina Luftwaffe is a Muslim woman. And she said that this forbidden taste test was born out of curiosity, not blasphemy. This was her venturing outside of her faith to partake in an experience many others enjoy. Kind of like Amish 18-year-old Rumspringa, but with less gambling and syphilis. Right.

So I'm sorry, wait. Her literal excuse was just the tip? Yeah, in Indonesia, no less. And look, whereas Rumspringa inspired a hit reality series, all Lufwani's actions garnered her was a $25,000 fine and jail time as part of Indonesia's

draconian blasphemy laws. The official charges, according to authorities, were spreading information that was intended to incite hate which i mean have you been on tiktok i'm excited to hate five times before the home screen finishes loading people but and i wrote that joke before i ended up on love search talk so like i really mean it well, the fact that they're putting her in jail for this shit incites me to hate them. So how is that different from an eye for an eye leaving the whole world blind?

Right, exactly. So yeah, obviously this is horrible and may yet get worse, seeing the precedent we've seen of theocratic governments murdering people for these crimes while they're in prison. And look, she doesn't deserve the punishment in the first place, because you should be able to eat whatever food you want, regardless of what you say before or

after. Unless, of course, you pour the milk in the bowl before the cereal. Then we can all agree those people should be removed from society by whatever means necessary. Well, okay, unless, of course, you still have milk left over after you finish the cereal and you're just pouring more cereal in to soak up that milk.

Obviously, that's fine. Yes, that's fine. There's an exception in the law as the whole subcode. Just making sure. And in more than four hours news, we have the kind of story that reminds us of what we're even fucking doing here. Oh, boy, this is a big one. Now, I should state up front that I was not able to verify this story through a reputable source. We got it from Peter through scathingnews at gmail.com. Thanks, Peter. I'm not saying you're

not reputable, but Peter got it through the Daily Mail. And I was able to find other sources, but they were somehow even sketchier than the Daily Mail. And as near as I can tell, the original source is a publication called Fact with a K, as though they were trying to avoid a legally protected term. Now granted, fact is a Polish publication and that's just how they spell that word there. But based on what I can find out about fact, my instinct might be right for

the wrong reasons. Exactly. Anti-Polish hatred no illusions. That's what it is. So anyway, point is huge rain assault on this one. But the story is about a priest's gay orgy getting broken up when one guy had to be rushed to the hospital for a near fatal Viagra overdose. So I will be damned if we're going to let tabloid sourcing keep it out of the show. Hell yeah.

Citation Needed might not be officially a puzzle in a thunderstorm podcast, but I like to think that my influence over there is spreading to our other shows. Yeah, please, please no. So yeah, so this story comes from a region in Poland that has a diacritical mark. I can't even name, so I'm not going to bother trying to pronounce it. And it began on the evening of August 30th of this year when Father Tomasz Marsli invited two men to his apartment in the parish of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Angels, one of whom is rumored to be a sex worker and neither of whom are rumored to be blessed virgins. And when one of them started overdosing and said he needed to call an ambulance,

the dude just kicked him out of the apartment naked. So like the sex worker followed him out and he called Polish 911 and he says1 and he says hey there's an unconscious naked guy with a pulsating erection in the hallway lying in a puddle of his own vomit so paramedics arrived and then the priest dude wouldn't let him in so the cops had to show up and break in and now father zmarsly is under criminal investigation for failing to help the dude okay first things first i was promised a gay orgy, no illusions. This is a threesome at best. Okay. And leave it to the Catholics

to even do that wrong. Well, but they think that three guys is one guy and one guy is three guys. We're lucky this isn't classified as masturbation. Yeah, that might be how they get us. That might be how they get us. So, and I should add here, by the way, that the church insists that they're doing their own investigation and they claim that, like, so far

from what they know, their facts conflict with the media reports on the incident. So no doubt there's going to be an official statement in the near future insisting that there was nothing at all sexual about the naked guy in the hallway overdosing on ED medication.

The statement we have so far, though, says that upon conclusion of the investigation, quote, the bishop will take appropriate measures provided for by canon law end quote oh good i was worried about the canon law he's gonna follow apparently they have contingency plans for this kind of shit all written up and to be honest like we shouldn't be surprised by that at this point i was gonna say we've only been doing this podcast for seven years and if we were going to build a Catholic church from the ground up,

we'd be like, well, we're going to need some canon laws about passing out on erectile dysfunction medication. It's 10 years. And also maybe a Bible.

Almost 11. And finally tonight, you know, we've been a little hard on the Catholic church here on The Scathing Atheist this week. It's been all,

knew about the Holocaust this, and leaving your rent boy for dead that. And when we have a week like this, we get the occasional email reminding us of all the charity, all the collective good that the Catholic Church allegedly does. And that is just crazy untrue. Even if they didn't have a secret city made of Nazi gold, they spend so much more of their money on raping kids than they do soup kitchens.

And they have a secret city made of Nazi gold. That too. Yeah, right. But according to a New Orleans archdiocese, slammed with hundreds of sexual abuse claims costing millions in settlements, they are broke. And it's time for everybody to help pitch in yep yep all their money is tied up in perpetual cemetery maintenance nfts and if you could just sign on the dotted line yeah so nearly 25 years after burying retired priest lawrence

heckers written confession to multiple counts of, quote, overt sexual acts on teenagers throughout the 60s and 70s, the New Orleans Archdiocese is actually, after all these years, experiencing legal retribution in the form of an indictment and over $100 million in settlements. Conveniently, however, the Archdiocese declared bankruptcy in 2020. You might remember we reported on it in this podcast, and personally, I think our three-way harmony of Nanana Boo Boo was lovely. I have no idea why I doubted Heath could pull off the soprano. The laugh is a dead giveaway, I should have known. It's beautiful, like an angel, like an angel he was.

You might also remember that when they declared this bankruptcy, the diocese assured their parishioners at the time that this declaration would mean easier settlements for victims and less money from the church members' pockets to pay these fines. Basically, the whole spin they tried to put on their bankruptcy declaration was that it was about protecting victims and their membership's money. Well, according to The Guardian, New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Amond is now telling the area's churches,

schools, and other ministries they're also on the hook for the $100 million, and now they have to foot that bill? Or schools and churches are going to start being shut down? Or as he put it, almost exact quote

that I'm only kind of sort of exaggerating. Yeah, we really only declared bankruptcy to cheat those rape victims out of their money and it didn't work out. So what do you got? Right? Yeah. No, look, I've said this before, but I still think it's weird that, well, if you make us pay for all the kids we raped,

we won't be able to afford to keep our schools open is even an argument they're willing to say out loud. Yeah. we won't be able to afford to keep our schools open is even an argument they're willing to say out loud yeah so now the catholics of new orleans including as noah said thousands of school children are footing the child rape bill for the church for exactly the reason and in exactly the way the church promised them that they wouldn't and look i i feel bad for the families that go to those schools i feel bad for the church members go to those schools. I feel bad for the church members who were assured that their tithes were safe. But on the other hand, you're a frog. Why are you giving

scorpions ferry rides across the river? That's not your function. Honestly, exactly. And as we're once again reminded that Sinead was right, we're going to wrap up the headlines for the night. Eli, thanks as always. Jumanji. Yeah, you tried.

You tried. And when we come back, this cliffhanger will be resolved. Stay tuned. I think I added attention to it. Yeah, no, no, no. You did. You did. They were wondering.

They were wondering. Dynamic. Every good leader knows that their organization can only be as strong as their successor, which is why our surprisingly lickable nemesis, Ray Comfort, is busy building up the next generation of leadership at Living Water Ministries, ensuring that passersby won't go unharassed once he's gone. So we're going to revisit EZ's Wayne and Mark Spence, the good cop and bad cop of Ray Comfort's henchmen in this week's God Awful Mini.

So tell us, Heath, what will we be breaking down today? We watched pro-choice activists will hate this video dot dot dot end of title by living waters ministry it's the story of the pro-choice crowd us being uh an anti-smallness hate group yep apparently we're height supremacists and that's why we hate babies and want to kill them. Exactly. And Eli, how bad was this mini? Well, if the trick questions and bad faith arguments of anti-abortion activists are too clever

and honest for you, you will love this movie. This is, so you're saying a shrimp fried this rice, the anti-abortion argument. Right, yes. Alright, so is there anything you guys want to nominate this one for being the best or being the worst at? Yeah, I'm going to go

with best worst eagle versus turtle. Okay. So it's just a small moment where they show us a bald eagle taken off in their video just because they're excited about some point they're making and they make a similar point but a turtle is the animal in that second part of the point.

So right next to each other, they show us like, America, and then it's just like a turtle very slowly walking. And the contrast and letdown of the point they were making made me laugh a lot. I was going to say best, worst playing baseball by yourself. Boy, aren't they? And losing. That's the thing is, right? They're out there by themselves, just throwing't they man and and losing that's the thing

is right they're out there by themselves just throwing the ball up and swinging at it themselves but they keep missing so often that their ghost men have to steal bases yeah or they have to call fouls and shit they're playing t-ball against themselves and they're both losing it's great they're having to announce that the ghost men are all found to be steroids. Yeah, exactly. Stripped of their Hall of Fame records. Yeah, I'm going to take something on a similar route. I'm going to go with best worst effort.

Because look, as Noah said, Ray Comfort is not our highest effort Christian villain, right? He picks whatever the issue of the day is. He titles the video that he has easy, say seven sentences about it. And then he asked people if they're a good person, but this is the hardest he hasn't tried. I have ever. So what rate take a couple of weeks off, man.

Vacation's important. Self-care. You're better than this. Ray comfort of living waters ministry. You're better than this, Ray Comfort of Living Waters Ministry. You're better than this. We've come to expect more from you, damn it. So, okay. Yeah, we open on Ray Comfort's person of color friend,

EZ Zwayne, standing beneath a boardwalk like he's hiding from bullies that are going to pants him if he comes out or something, right? Fan theory. Fan theory. I think that's accurate. He tried to do this intro several times on the boardwalk and passerbys were just like, Hey,

I'm sorry. You establishing an insane and stupid rubric. And he was like, God, guys, we're going underneath. My thought was that his, his camera operator didn't realize that one o'clock and a California

afternoon wasn't a great time to film in the sun. And they were like, well, shit, we're going to have to go under something. So, yeah. So, but Easy's lane is going to explain to us that there are four differences between a pre-born baby, i.e. a fucking fetus. There's already a word for that.

And a newborn baby. And he's even got a clever little fucking mama bear-esque acronym for it. Yeah. SLED. So, yeah, good to have a mnemonic for this the differences between a fetus and a human yeah exactly and so those differences are size level of development environment and degree of dependency such a bad fucking acronym are those the only differences, EasyWin? Anyways, as I was saying. Those are all the differences. By the way, I love that there's a symbol for each of them on his

little graphic, right? For size, there's a tape measure for level of development. There's a brain for degree of development. There's a bottle. The one for environment is a Google Maps pin. As though Google Maps can take you to a specific uterus. Like that undercuts your point though.

Doesn't it? A little bit, a little bit. Yeah. Yeah. So he shows us that. And then he's like, so let's look at S L E D and decide if we are or are not killing newborn

babies right now. Yeah. That's the question for today. And I was like, I think it's okay to kill a newborn baby can i stop watching yeah right great uh-oh spoilers for the rest of the movie right well at least for the end yeah so so we're gonna start off this this video though by taking each of those in order we start with s for size and he says like now of course one of the big differences is that pre-borns

are typically smaller than newborns. I'm like, typically? Do you think some kids shrink in the womb? According to the documentary Stuart Little, sometimes they're mice. Just like a really thick blastocyst. First trimester. Versus a really small newborn. So he says he's got this series

of increasingly insane straw man questions that he's going to ask, right? He's like, I've heard a lot of pro-abortion people ask, how can you call something the size of a dot a human being? Now, notice he doesn't actually reference something that has a size. Like a dot can be, he doesn't say the size of a mustard seed, right?

Right. Also, I don't say the size of a mustard seed, right? Right. Also, I don't think anyone has ever made that argument. I just have to point it out that like if there is a thing that is less, I don't know, durable than straw, that's what kind of man this is because I can't imagine an abortion argument being like, ain't big enough to

be a people. Like why would that be relevant to our argument, man? Right. There's never like pro-choice rallies with like signs that are like fuck the small absolutely not well and as stupid as that is as much as that's never been anyone's argument he still argues against it poorly right because he's like are large people more human than small people and i'm like even for things defined by size that that's not how it works right like heath can't ride the roller coaster more than lucinda can

even if she just barely reaches donald duck's fin and he towers over it right right you fucking idiots right one of his examples is like men tend to be larger than women do men deserve more rights than women and i was like in your book according to your yes yes exactly your thing man i i wrote oh my god i'm already in all caps italics 50 seconds into this video well done easy and then we but that's done where we have sufficiently dunked on the size point so we're now we're going to move on to difference number two level of development. Even worse, Strawman, to start this one out, he says, I've heard people ask how can something that isn't fully

developed yet be a person? No, you haven't. No, you haven't. I also love that they couldn't use D for development here, so they had to do level of development for L because they were saving D for degree of dependency later. Yes, why wouldn't they just go dependence?

That's a categories two-pointer. Yeah, right. So we had to do level of development L. Of course. Yeah, and he's trying to do the like, well, you know, people are developing all the time. Should we be able to kill a six-year-old but that logic works in reverse so by your own logic come is a baby right dude like that's your

whole thing is that come is a baby this whole video he's just doing roundhouse kicks at scarecrows and missing them it's insane and also self in the ball right exactly and by the way why is his first example when it's when we're talking about level of development how you you can't fuck a six-year-old but you can fuck a 16-year-old it really is like why is that where he comes that's immediately where you i'm like easy i need you to run your examples past your parole officer from now on okay kids can't fuck or have a child. They're basically useless. That's why we're killing babies. I mean, he nailed me on that

one. I think they just already had footage of him yelling about that, and they were like, you know where this could go? Right, yeah, exactly. He also almost exactly makes our point for a second. He's like, should a six-year-old not have the same rights as an 18-year-old? And I'm like, you mean like the rights to vote, man?

And he's like, stupid. Fuck. Whoops, I forgot. Oh, damn, we do. We do that. That's the thing. That makes perfect sense. Fuck.

He tries to conclude. He goes, it's as developed as it should be at that time. And I wrote, okay, most useless sentence in case I'm looking for one. Right. Yeah, exactly. No, he says, what makes a baby in the womb any difference and i'm like the womb you fucking idiot you said it in your question so okay spoilers spoilers yeah right right so then but we're on to difference number three environment and i love he has to like specify what he means right he's he goes the third difference

is their environment or location he had to add location so his audience didn't think he was talking about global warming and they could have done the l for location earlier stupid honey that kid from the captain planet cartoons all grown up and is telling us about the fucking environment again turn this off until i see ray comfort's dog in some sunglasses i'm not ready to trust again okay when he starts this segment did it seem like he didn't believe that the fetus is in the world of the world because it's like i don't it's magically not somehow well he even his straw man question for us our question the one that the pro-abortionists always ask him is is the unborn really a person if it's not in the world yet what the fuck does that mean

where is it what is that no the vagina is a secret door to narnia we all are aware of that so that's not in the... Wait, hold on. The ladies in the world checkmate atheists? It's very confusing. It was so stupid that I wrote in my notes, yeah, that's why astronauts cease to be human when they get past 62 miles above sea level. And then he makes that fucking point.

He makes that point. He does. He thinks that's a good argument. He's like, well, we don't stop giving rights to astronauts when they get out of the world what are you who are you playing baseball against he says you go in different rooms but you don't change as a person when you do and i was like yeah man i personally have never walked into the womb of another person right he goes if personhood is determined by one's environment,

and I'm like, it's not. There's nobody that's ever said that it is. You can move on without finishing the fucking question. Jesus. I have to do sled.

Yeah, right. So now, yeah, now it's time for the final difference, even though we're not even halfway through the video at this point. Degree of dependency.

And I wrote in my notes right away. Let me guess. My wife needs me to change spark plugs for her. Does that mean I can kill her? And yes, that's exactly the argument here. But what I heard is we're all allowed to take his kidneys without consent and give them to other people, everybody. Just remember, you're entitled to other people's bodies. Yep. No, that's exactly the argument he's making.

And a person in a wheelchair is tied with a fetus. Yes. For personhood. Right. That's so fucked up. He has this long list where he's like, well, what about people in wheelchairs? Can we kill them? What about diabetics or people with pacemakers or people on dialysis? The list goes on so long that

you start wondering if he's honestly looking for the one type of invalid he's allowed to kill, right? Right. He also compares it to being on an airplane. He's like, and the passengers all depend on a pilot to survive. And I'm like, I feel like you don't know how airplanes work, man. Yeah, the pilot can't abort you just because you depend on him. You know he's not the plane right he also

accidentally trips himself up and like asks a question that was a reasonable thing and he but he doesn't hear it he's like so if a fetus is part of somebody's body how could that be a person oh two people inside of one people but his answer that he wants to land on eventually is like, if a cranksuit was a real person, then they would have to be a robot suit forever for the little thing on the inside of it. Yeah. Right.

No, he inadvertently says here at this point that he thinks pregnant people are the pilots of baby planes. Right? That's his fucking argument. So now we're done. We got through our acronym. We go back to easy under the boardwalk. He says, you know, it turns out that when you allow me

to set the parameters of the argument in a way that nobody who disagrees with me would approve and don't demand adherence to logic within my arguments against it, I win this debate pretty easily. Yeah. Yeah. This is when he realizes that they went through the letters of SLED a little too fast. So he's like, I'm going to need to vamp to hit that sweet nine minute video mark.

They're making that stretch. Let me repeat what SLED means again. Yeah, right. Webster's Dictionary. Citizen Kane had a sled, right? Rosebud. Anybody? Remember? Christmas story?

But luckily, we also have in this video, they're willing to be a bigger asshole friend. Right? Oh, yeah! Yeah. So they cut over to him. This is Mark Spence. We saw him in one of their things earlier doing the thing that was even too assholey for Ray Comfort to do. I don't remember what it was. But this time he's at Cal State. He's got a petition to legalize late term abortion as in after they're already born. Let's see how many lefties he can trick into signing it. Right? Yeah. Quick reminder, Penn and Teller got people to sign a petition to ban dihydrogen monoxide from the water in California. So not the argument he's hoping it is.

Well, and the way he does it is so disingenuous, right? Because he's like, hey, do you want to sign this petition to legalize late-term abortion in California? And most of the people are like, oh, yes, I do. And then as they're signing it and he's like, it's for babies that are already born. If they already have, they're breathing in their... You signed it, gotcha. That's the whole bit. Are you talking fine print at the

end of your question in an interview? People are like, are you mumbling something really next? I didn't catch the last part. Are you mumbling? But he didn't expect to run into Lady Heath Enright because one of the girls, he's like, so it's post the baby being born. That's my gotcha thing.

He looks at her like, oh, isn't it tricky? And she's like, no, yeah, sometimes you do have to kill a baby. I sign here. Is there like a name element or something? She's the best. Her and sweatpants guy. Both of them are like, yeah, let's give them like,

you know, parents need a 30 day return policy. I feel like that's solid. Yeah, I'm in. My favorite was the lady who's just like, I don't live in your stupid country. I don't want any part of your dumb shit. She's like, just visiting. He tries to save it. He's like, but she would have probably.

Yeah, right, right. So he's got all these signatures at a certain point. And I wanted so bad for somebody to just grab the petition. be like, I'm going to submit this to the California Senate. And they just run away. No! Thanks for doing the light work. The babies! And we should, by the way, we should point out that unlike most of the time when you see these Ray Comfort videos, these Living Waters Ministry videos, these people don't know they're being recorded.

Right? This time the camera is way off in the distance. They're blurring everybody's face and everything they're you know he's not looking at the camera that you know this is like even more deceptive and shitty than what ray comfort normally does i feel like we should point that out also it doesn't matter it like literally doesn't matter what the answer these people are giving to anything is right but that also means that there's cut footage somewhere of them trying to do this up close while shooting someone and being like yeah so do you think we should kill

babies and it's like oh you're one of those idiots he was like turn the camera off yeah i need to record another monologue under the dock right but now we should also point out that like almost everybody who actually listens to what he says that isn't like listening to their headphones while they sign his petition pushes back and says no man that's what are you even fucking talking about i'm a not particularly politically engaged lefty who supports abortion rights and immediately know that what you're talking about is nonsense so like he it's like a bizarre reverse gotcha at a certain point yeah why why do they show that part we see you just doing deceptive editing throughout the rest of the videos. Yeah.

Why do that? Why leave that in? Trying to hit that sweet nine minutes, I guess. I don't know. But eventually we cut to him under the boardwalk also hiding from being pants. And he explains the dire consequences of that.

Gotcha bit in terms of our like national viability. Yeah. He goes, we weep for kids at the border and i was like do you do you weep for kids at the border okay but like we us we want better treatment of immigrants at the border and we want to kill babies correct like i don't understand how those are right like at odds well and then of course he has to do the whole, and if you think about it, school shootings are because we allow abortion and we don't think that babies matter. It's certainly not guns. Don't do anything about that, pretty please.

Yeah. That's so fucked up. We want gun control and better funding for public education and to kill babies. I don't understand. Yeah. We're all on the same page here, man. Do you not go in our position,

which is very coherent? Right. He goes, you you know we live in a day and age where animals have more rights than humans and i'm like i eat animals dude what are you trying to say what the fuck are you do you think that cows get paid minimum wage but no he's saying that because it's a crime to destroy the egg of an eagle or a a endangered turtle but destroying a human egg is just fine yeah also it's not murder no exactly if humans become an endangered species i'll revisit abortion as a concept exactly i'll still have the same answer but yes we can talk about it again keith i've got some great news about the doomsday clock. You're about to take a real 180.

And then it just like this, the whole thing just abruptly ends and goes like, yeah, this is like a cereal or we'll smoosh it into a movie later or something. Fuck yeah, you will. It's already out. 57 minutes coming to a gam near you.

God damn it. All right. Well, I guess we're all out of video, but I'm sure the sidewalk in front of Living Waters isn't out of pedestrians, so there will always be more for the next God Awful Minute. Before we taper off tonight, I want to wish Lucinda Lusions a very happy birthday. Her birthday is the day this episode comes out, not the day we're recording. So don't worry, we didn't make her work on her birthday. And if you too would like to wish Lucinda a happy birthday, she'd love that. Check out the Scathing Atheist Facebook page.

Tim will have a post up where you can add your birthday wishes or congratulate her on another solar orbit, whatever it is that you prefer to do. And if you missed Eli's birthday, which was two days before Lucinda's, there's still a post where you can tack one on there as well. Anyway, that's all the blasphemy we've got for you tonight. We'll be back in 10,022 minutes with more. Can't wait that long. Be on the lookout for a brand new episode of our sister show's hot friend God awful movies. There'll be an assembly on Tuesday and an even newer episode of our half sister show citation needed debuting at noon Eastern on Wednesday. Obviously, I can't shut the fuck up until I thank Heath Enright for helping us get ahead for this post QED week.

I need to thank Eli Bosnick for working through the jet lag and post-birthday crash to be here today. I want to thank the lovely and talented Lucinda Lusions for working through the combination of pre-birthday excitement. And I can almost put up my Halloween decorations excitement to be here. I also want to thank Jake for providing this week's Farnsworth quote back in June. And hey, it looks like the strategy worked, by the way. The insurrectionist who had to sit in a plexiglass booth in the state Senate during the pandemic because she refused to wear a fucking mask did lose her primary this year so good on you and by the way 7 30 is a fine time to drink a whiskey i'd specify that i was talking about pm here but i don't want to attack heath when he's not here to defend himself but most of all of course i want to thank this week's

properest of nouns jacqueline tiago scott with one t scott with two t's robert marina and matt permanent alice and helen vince chris and terrence jeline, Tiago, Scott, and Scott, who are so badass they trim their nails with katanas. Robert, Marina, Annette, Permanal, and Allison were sharper than those katanas. And Helen, Vince, Chris, and Terrence, whose intellects are so vast they need fast travel points and load screens. Together, these 13 lucky ducks chucked us bucks. And if you, too, have chuckable bucks, you can make a per-episode donation at patreon.com slash scathingatheist, whereby you'll earn early access to an extended every version of every episode, or you can make a one-time donation by clicking on the donate button on the right side of

the homepage at scathingatheist.com. And if you'd like to help, but you can't money right now, you can also help a ton by leaving us a five-star review, telling a friend about the show and following us on social media. And speaking of social media, Tim Robertson handles that for us. Additional writing for this episode was provided by Mike Schuster. And I want to point out the WGA strike specifically exempts nonfiction podcast contracts and Puzzle in a Thunderstorm unequivocally stands with striking workers. Our audio engineer is Morgan Clark, who also wrote all the music that was used in this episode, which was used with permission.

If you have questions, comments, or death threats, you'll find all the contact info on the contact page at ScalingAdias.com. no no no the preceding podcast was a production of puzzle in a thunderstorm llc copyright 2023 all rights reserved