New Parenting Podcast: Podcast Beyond Belief

The skeptical dads over at Science-Based Parenting blog and I have teamed up with Elyse from Skepchick and Heidi from She Thought to create a new podcast. But wait, this one has a new twist: it focuses on parenting. Skeptical parenting. Secular, skeptical parenting!

Colin Thornton, who is heading up the effort, partnered with the Foundation Beyond Belief, to create a weekly podcast called Podcast Beyond Belief, which will feature news items and discussions about skepticism and secular humanism that are of interest to parents. Each week we’ll feature a questions submitted by parents like you, and we’ll have answers supplied by experts. Also, each week we’ll feature an interview with a special guest.

In his introductory blog post, Colin said:

Each episode will feature a round-table discussion of the latest parenting science news, in addition to interviews with well-known science advocates and secular humanists. We’ll also have a regular feature called “THE FAQ”, where we’ll forward on your toughest parenting questions to qualified experts and report back their up-to-date science-based answers.

Our first episode includes a discussion with Dale McGowan, the founder of our “parent” organization, Foundation Beyond Belief. You might also remember him as the editor and co-author of Parenting Beyond Belief and Raising Freethinkers. Dale spoke about secular humanism, and how those principles fit with the foundation’s ideals. We expect to have some listeners who may not understand what it means to be a secular humanist. It’ll be nice to have Dale’s explanation (and example) of humanist philosophy on our first episode to provide context for people new to the concept of freethought.

Be sure to also check out our second episode next week when we sit down with John Flansburgh from They Might Be Giants, the duo who created the new children’s album “Here Comes Science“. The interview went in unexpected directions, and before I knew it, Flans was talking about vaccines, Andrew Wakefield and 9/11 conspiracies.

If you have questions for the FAQ – please send them to podcastbeyondbelief at gmail dot com. We’ll pick our favorites to send to the experts for their answers.

We’re still in our infancy, but we’re all passionate about the subject matter, and we feel like this is an important effort. We’d like to use this podcast to help inform, educate, and entertain other parents. So, maybe next time you put the baby down for a nap, or put the kids on the bus, or get in your car to go to work, you can give us a listen!