A Jesuit priest called Joe Gerstein lazy in 1989 and accidentally launched a global sobriety movement in 38 countries and 16 languages. Joe is a retired Harvard Medical School professor, a man who can't quite pronounce the thing he invented, a mango gardener in Miami, and the person responsible for sobering up the entire Scottish prison system — none of which was the plan.

Also there were toes. Diabetic ones. They matter. So does the Australian wife he met in the Bronx, the Irish guy who was unconscious in the foyer, and the Pope's throne room ceiling, which apparently explains everything about addiction if you know where to look. Dr. Joe Gerstein is pushing 90, running two meetings a week, and has absolutely no intention of stopping.

ABOUT DR. JOE GERSTEIN

Founding President of SMART Recovery [Self-Management Addiction Recovery Training], a non-profit, secular mutual aid group program now available in 38 countries and in 16 languages. Retired Harvard Medical School Professor who has facilitated over 4,000 SMART meetings, 800 in prisons.

SMART Recovery: https://smartrecovery.org

LEARN MORE:

American Empathy Project: https://americanempathyproject.org
For more on humanism: https://linktr.ee/americanhumanist

When Charlie Kirk died, Shay had feelings about her feelings. Specifically, the feeling that humanism was standing in the driveway blocking the parade float.

That spiral led us straight to Elisa Rosoff — a humanist chaplain who spends her days inside the place we send the people we've decided are bad, asking the one question nobody outside those walls wants to sit with: what actually makes somebody bad? Turns out it's a lot more complicated than the mug shot, and a lot less satisfying than a clean answer. Elisa talks about delivering three death notifications before lunch, feeling safer inside the prison than at the gas station, and why curiosity might be the most radical thing you can bring into a room.

Also: the Second Look Act in North Carolina, which you should absolutely look up after this. (link below)

ABOUT ELISA ROSOFF

Elisa Rosoff is the Chaplaincy Training and Education Coordinator for the North Carolina Department of Adult Correction and the first humanist chaplain to work in the North Carolina prison system. Drawing from her master of divinity in psychology and religion, she specializes in reentry chaplaincy — walking alongside incarcerated people and supporting them as they transition back into society.

RESOURCES MENTIONED

2nd Look Act: https://bit.ly/2ndlooklaw
The New Jim Crowe: https://bit.ly/newjimcrowbook

LEARN MORE

For legal support: https://americanhumanist.org/legal
For more on humanism: https://linktr.ee/americanhumanist

Hear us out... what if Allah was an aspiring hairdresser who flunked out of beauty school, and rather than dealing with that loss in therapy like a normal god, he spent the next 1,400 years making women cover their hair? We're not saying it's confirmed. We're just saying it explains a lot. Enter Sammy of Haram Doodles, who was told as a child that drawing living beings was sinful — so she threw out all her art supplies and tried to become a better Muslim instead. Oops. So much for that plan.

In this episode, Sammy and Shay get into why "Islamophobia" is actually a word you should stop using, why hijab is and isn't a choice depending on who you're asking, and God's deeply suspicious relationship with women's hair. Is it a fetish? Is he balding? We can't say for sure. What we can say is that Sammy's been hard at work creating resources for Ex-Muslims around the world, so we'll list all those resources down below.

Oh, and please visit FreeBetty.org. Sammy's friend Betty is sitting in a Moroccan prison right now for wearing a t-shirt.

ABOUT SAMMY OF HARAM DOODLES

Sammy is an ExMuslim atheist, activist and artist behind Haram Doodles, a collection of forbidden (haram) doodles, comics, stories and content created with and for courageous ExMuslims.

Official Site: https://haramdoodles.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/haramdoodles

MORE RESOURCES MENTIONED

Free Betty Lachbar: https://FreeBetty.org
Share your ExMuslim Story: https://exmuslim.me/

LEARN MORE

American Empathy Project: https://americanempathyproject.org
For more on humanism: https://linktr.ee/americanhumanist