PODCAST · comedy
The Comical Heathen Podcast
by comicalheathen
One man's odyssey into the weird world of religious satire
Episodes
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Comical Heathen S3 E10: Jay Whitecotton
In early December, I had a scintillating (yes, I said SCINTILLATING) conversation with the amazing Jay Whitecotton. We cover a lot of ground here, but our launching-off point is, as always, satire. Originally livestreamed on December 17, 2025, this episode has been slightly edited for your...
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Comical Heathen S3 E9: Steve Sabo and Rob Coleman
Last May I had the honor of running a livestream with two comedians who mean a lot to me--my comedy brother Rob Coleman and my mentor and good friend Steve Sabo. Then, technical difficulties prevented Steve from joining us, so I wound up interviewing him separately. The result was a podcast…
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Comical Heathen S3 E8: Talking New Zealand Comedy w/ Jeremy Elwood
In this episode, my guest is Jeremy Elwood, one of New Zealand's leading comedians. During the years I lived there, I met Jeremy, seen him perform comedy as well as act--just one of my favorite parts of being there, for sure. My guest co-host is John Hensler, one of my partners in…
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Comical Heathen S3 E7: Talking Comedy Clubs w/ Mark and Jesse
In this episode, my guest is Mark Riccadonna (one of my personal favorite comedians) and my guest co-host is Jesse Pimpinelle (who puts the comedy "pimp" into comedy). We discuss the qualities of good comedy clubs as well as topics from listeners, such as "what is punching down?" Originally a...
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S3 E7: Talking Religion in the news with John Armstrong and Steve Mers
Originally a livestream from June 23 (2024), in this episode Jerry is joined by Steve Mers and John Armstrong. In June of 2024 there was suddenly a bunch of stories in the news about religion and we decided to dissect them and also make fun of them. Some of the stories covered included Louisiana...
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S3 E6: Comedy in Iceland with Thor and Eggert
Show notes: In early May of 2024, I spent a week in the beautiful country of Iceland! I had the opportunity to wrangle myself on to some local stand-up comedy shows there, where I met a bunch of people from the local scene. After one show I sat down in a pub with two of the country’s leading...
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S3 E5: Talking anti-science conspiracy theories with Brian Malow
In October of 2023, I had the pleasure of doing a livestream about anti-science conspiracy theories with science commuicator AND comedian Brian Malow. We were joined by Lake Erie College Professor of Biology Dr. Zane Johnson. On a personal note, let me add that Dr. Johnson is a colleague of mine,...
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Comical Heathen S3 E4: Talking conspiracy theories with Ben Radford and Bobby Borgia
In September of 2023, I had the pleasure of doing a livestream about Conspiracy theories with professional skeptic and author Ben Radford and professional magician and comedy club owner Bobby Borgia. Here is the slightly edited version for your enjoyment. Ben's website…
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The Comical Heathen S3 E3: talking Jewish humor w/ Jeremy Dauber
Originally recorded in August or 2023, my interview with Prof Jeremy Dauber. Prof Dauber is the Atran Professor of Yiddish Language at Columbia University, specializing in Yiddish and Jewish literature, American Jewish culture, and American studies Find Jeremy's books on his website:...
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The Comical Heathen S3 E2: Live Q&A ”The 2022 Elections” w/Marv Connor & Dan Crowder
Show Notes Welcome to our most recent Live Q&A episode! With special guests Marv Connor and Dan Crowder, and guest co-host John Hensler, we tackle fan and social media comments and questions. This episode originally broadcast one week after the Nov 8 2022 US elections, so we focus on fall out and...
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The Comical Heathen S3 E1: Live Q&A ”SCOTUS, flopping, and other irritants” w/ Bill Boronkay
Show Notes Welcome to our most recent Live Q&A episode! With special guest Bill Boronkay and guest co-host Jim Hagan, we tackle fan and social media comments and questions. Included topics are recent SCOTUS decisions, flopping in sports, and "is cheating at board games ever justified?" We receive…
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Heathen Highlights#6: horror movies w/ Ben Radford
Heathen Highlights is a new feature here at The Comical Heathen. We share some of our favorite clips from the past 2 seasons. Today's episode features a previously unpublished outtake from my Season 2 episode with Ben Radford. Along with guest co-host Aaron Kozbial, we talk horror movies! Full...
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Heathen Highlights #5: PZ Myers on Creationism
Heathen Highlights is a new feature here at The Comical Heathen. We share some of our favorite clips from the past 2 seasons. Today's episode features a clip from my Season 1 interview with PZ Myers. He explains what makes Creationism so objectionable. Full episode here:...
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Heathen Highlights #4: The Comical Heathen rants about nudity at religious sites
Heathen Highlights are a new feature here at The Comical Heathen. We share some of our favorite clips from the past 2 seasons. Today's feature features my Season 1 rant about the reaction from some Maori leaders towards Playboy model Jaylene Cook posing topless on a sacred mountain in New…
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Heathen Highlights #3: Steve Hofstetter on why satire is important
Heathen Highlights is a new feature here at The Comical Heathen. We share some of our favorite clips from the past 2 seasons. Today's feature is from our Season 1 interview with Steve Hofstetter. In this one, he answers my question, "Is religious satire important?". Full episode here:...
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Heathen Highlights #2: Lewis Black discusses satire in the age of Trump
Heathen Highlights are a new feature here at The Comical Heathen. We share some of our favorite clips from the past 2 seasons. Today's feature is from our Season 2 interview with Lewis Black. In this one, he discusses how September 11th affected him and his comedy. Full episode here:...
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Heathen Highlights#1: Lewis Black on September 11th
Heathen Highlights is a new feature here at The Comical Heathen. We share some of our favorite clips from the past 2 seasons. Today's feature is from our Season 2 interview with Lewis Black. In this one, he discusses how September 11th affected him and his comedy. Full episode here:...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E12: Live Q&A ”Religion vs Spirituality” w/ Myq Kaplan
Welcome to our most recent Live Q&A episode! With special guest Myq Kaplan and co-host Jeff Gedert, we tackle fan and social media comments and questions on the theme of "Religion vs Spirituality." Included topics are, what does this even mean, a second foray into Jedi-sim, and the role of…
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The Comical Heathen S2 E11: talking ghosts w/ Ben Radford
After coming across some recent "news" reports of ghost sightings during the ongoing pandemic, I realized it was time to bring back special guest Ben Radford, investigator of the extraordinary extraordinaire! Ben is a Research Fellow at the Center for Inquiry, having researched many topics in...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E10:John Poveromo
Season 2 Episode 10: John Poveromo Show Notes Featuring a conversation from February of 2021, shortly after John and I had just done our part to help set the record for longest live-streamed comedy show! Crazy stuff like running for city council and directing The Merry Wives of Windsor knocked…
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Season 2 Special Episode: Jerry runs for City Council
Show Notes Welcome back to the comical heathen podcast! We had a bit of a hiatus and there's a reason why: your host Dr. Jerry Jaffe just spent the past Fall 2021 running for City Council in Painesville, OH! In this special behind the scenes episode, Jerry sits down with two of closest comedy...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E9: Talking UFOs with Ben Radford
Show Notes On June 25 2021 the Office of the Director of National intelligence issued a report called "Preliminary Assessment: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena." This generated some media interest and some buzz around the topic of UFO's. So we here at The Comical Heathen thought this would be a good...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E8: Lewis Black
Show Notes This episode features my recent conversation with Lewis Black. From his many comedy specials and TV appearances, including The Daily Show, and his work as an actor as seen on The Big Bang Theory (2009), Inside Out (2015), The Last Laugh (2019) and many more, Lewis is known as one of…
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The Comical Heathen S2 E7 (bonus material): Nerding out w/Leighann Lord
Season 2 Episode 7 (Bonus material) Show Notes This episode is a supplement to my S2 E7 interview with Leighann Lord. Since her website bio describes her as a nerd AND she sites her favorite science fiction film as Terminator 2, I had to ask her about these things. And sure enough, a 20+ minute...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E7:Leighann Lord
Show Notes Nerd. Comedian. Science communicator. Star Trek fan. And a theatre kid?? Finally getting to interview Leighann Lord was a fantastic and fun moment for me. We discuss her background in theatre and her experiences in comedy. She has her recent Dry Bar special and, oh, not to mention, she...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E6:Brian Scott MacFadden
Season 2 Episode 6 Show Notes: I got on a Zoom call the way from Aruba Ray's Comedy Club in Aruba and spent some time talking comedy with Brian Scott MacFadden. From a show business family, Brian has a quick wit and a lot of deep thoughts about the art of comedy. Joining me is guest co-host Dan...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E5: Jim Bryan
A comedy club called CHURCH OF SATIRE? How did I not know about this! In this episode I interview club founder, owner, and touring headliner Jim Bryan. In addition to getting his take on satire, we go into his club, how he started it and why he called it CHURCH OF SATIRE! Along the way we...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E4: Live Q&A Faith and Other Paradoxes
Welcome to our most recent live Q&A episode, recorded live 11 April 2021. Join me and my guest co-host Jesse Pimpenella as we answer your questions and respond to your comments across the Comical Heathen social media landscape. We welcome special guest DJ Dangler into the madness. A lot of this...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E3: Dennis Blair
Show notes: This episode of the Comical Heathen features my interview with Dennis Blair. We discuss his early career opening for the likes of Rodney Dangerfield, Joan Rivers, and George Carlin as well as his thoughts on the dangers of doing satire while working the road. This episode includes my...
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The Comical Heathen S2 E2: Myq Kaplan
Show notes: This episode of the Comical Heathen features my interview with Myq Kaplan. We discuss his comedy beginnings, his thoughts on religion and hallucinogenics, and some of his ideas about satire. What a mensch! This episode includes my rant about Bill Maher's recent use of the made-up odds...
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Comical Heathen S2 E1 (Part II): Satire, Censorship, and Comedy w/ Sean Lynch
Part II Show notes: Following my interview with Peter Hinchliffe and Michael Nugent from Atheist Ireland (found in S2E1 Part I), guest co-host Sean Lynch and I discuss some of the issues raised in the interview. We are also visited by Ian Harris who calls in to get something off his chest…
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The Comical Heathen S2 E1 (Part I): Atheist Ireland
Part I Show notes: Features my interview with Peter Hinchliffe and Michael Nugent from Atheist Ireland. We discuss a controversial sketch about the arrest of God for rape by the Irish parody news group Waterford Whispers News. The sketch was part fo RTE's New Year's Eve programming and garnered...
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The Comical Heathen Q&A #3 — “Conspiracy stories (they're NOT theories!)”
Here is the published and slightly edited version of the live broadcast I did Oct 15 with friend and co-host Joh Hensler. We talk about conspiracy theories (or "stories" as they're not really theories in the proper sense of the word), climate change skeptics (or "deniers" as they are not really...
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The Comical Heathen Q&A #2 — “Does God Exist?”
In this special Q&A edition of the podcast, with the help of guest co-host John Hensler, I answer some of the questions we collected through social media, including: "Is there a god?", "If there is no afterlife, why not just go all MAD MAX?!", and "Who should be added to the list of gods, besides...
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The Comical Heathen Episode 21: John Fugelsang
This episode features my interview John Fugelsang! John is a Drama League nominated actor, comedian & broadcaster who hosts the acclaimed "Tell Me Everything" series on SiriusXM Insight. Bill Maher called him "One of my favorite comedians." As 1/3 of 'Stephanie Miller's Sexy Liberal Comedy Tour'...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Twenty: Alice Fraser
Had a great time Skyping with Alice Fraser, comedian and podcast. From Australia, but based in London, she is a regular panelist on The Bugle podcast, hosts her own daily news satire podcast called The Last Post, and just released a new special on Amazon Prime called Savage. In addition to...
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The Comical Heathen Q&A #1 -- "Is 'Jedi' a religion"
In this special Q&A edition of the podcast, with the help of guest co-host Gaz Simmons, I answer some of the questions I've been hearing at my live shows (which includes a Q&A session). Some of the questions tackled include: 1) Is Jedi a religion? 2) What is the worst defense of believing in god...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Nineteen: Curtis Cook
Hanging with Curtis Cook while he headlined the 2019 Cleveland Comedy Fest. We started comedy at approximately the same time, 10 years ago in Cleveland. Since then, he has written for the Jim Jefferies Show and Crank Yankers, while appearing on Portlandia. We talk satire, writing, and I awkwardly...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Eighteen: Bill Squire
For today’s episode I travel to the WMMS 100.7 studios in Cleveland Ohio to interview Bill Squire. Bill is co-host of The Alan Cox Show and a popular stand up comedian. He appears regularly at Hilarities and The Funny Stop as well as touring all over headlining. In this interview we discuss him...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Seventeen: Dr. Peter McGraw
Today’s weird and wonderful odyssey takes me to meet Dr. Peter McGraw, author of The Humor Code and host of the podcast I’m Not Joking. Director of the Humor Research Lab, McGraw is very influential in the field of comedy studies, in particular for the theory of Benign Violation! All of this will...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Sixteen: P.Z. Myers
I have been a fan of the science blog Pharyngula for many years, so it is with great pleasure that I was able to interview its host P.Z. Myers. P.Z. is a biology professor at the University of Minnesota-Morris campus and he is also the author of the book The Happy Atheist. We chat about science...
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The Comical Heathen Episode 15: Brian Malow
Welcome to another episode of the Comical Heathen, one man's odyssey into the wild and weird world of religious satire. Today's guest interview is Brian Malow, Science Comedian. Almost sounds like a superhero, doesn't it! In addition to over 20 years experience as a stand up comedian, Brian has...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Fourteen: A.J. Jacobs
In this episode of the Comical Heathen your host Jerry interviews A.J. Jacobs. A.J. is the author of numerous New York Time's Bestsellers, including The Year of Living Biblically (which was the basis for the short-lived CBS sitcom of the same name). We discuss his motivations for writing the…
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The Comical Heathen Episode Thirteen: Ian Harris
Greetings from me, Kelvin and Newton! Our latest episode features my interview with Ian Harris, the Skeptic Comedian! A 25+ year pro, Ian has recently released his second comedy special, ExtraOrdinary. He also appeared at the second Reason Rally. We talk about both experiences as well as his...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Twelve: Dan O'Shannon
Greetings from me, Kelvin and Newton from our brief hiatus. We are excited to be back with this new interview and new rant! The interview is with Dan O'Shannon. Dan is an American television writer and producer who has worked on shows such as Newhart, Cheers, and Frasier. He was an executive...
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The Comical Heathen Episode Eleven: Marc Jaffe
Like all the kool shows kids like these days, this episode has a rare cold opening--my guest Marc Jaffe telling a joke! This is followed by my interview with Marc, an update from the rabbit hutch, and my rant about an article that attempts to defend politicians who evoke prayer in the face of…
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The Comical Heathen Episode Ten: Chili Challis
It has been a couple of months since our last episode, sorry for the delay. Lately I have been busy directing a play, and doing some other work. But, the holiday season should provide me with some time to get some more episodes in the can. And I am particularly excited about this episode, delay…
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The Comical Heathen Episode Nine: Chad Zumock
Kia ora! The Maori "hello"! This episode features my interview with comedian Chad Zumock. He discusses his opinions on satire, Amy Schumer, Doug Stanhope, and his ups and downs. This episode also includes an update about our pet rabbit Newton and also my rant on religious body shaming in the…
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The Comical Heathen Episode Eight: Mark Riccadonna
Welcome to episode 8 of THE COMICAL HEATHEN! This features my interview with Mark Riccadonna (recorded at the smoke shop in Akron!). We talk religion and comedy, Mark recounts his curiosity about religion and some of his favorite satirists. This episode includes an update form the Rabbit Hutch…
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The Comical Heathen Episode Seven: DJ Dangler
"Sometimes I'm such a hypocrite I'm surprised I'm not religious."--DJ Dangler I met DJ at the 2017 Indiana Comic Con, where he mounted a "fake" protest cos playing the Westeros Baptist Church! He and his friends did a comedy show, me and the Action Comedy Nerd Show did a show, and in the mean…
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
One man's odyssey into the weird world of religious satire
HOSTED BY
comicalheathen
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Comical Heathen Podcast have?
The Comical Heathen Podcast currently has 56 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Comical Heathen Podcast about?
One man's odyssey into the weird world of religious satire
How often does The Comical Heathen Podcast release new episodes?
The Comical Heathen Podcast has 56 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
Where can I listen to The Comical Heathen Podcast?
You can listen to The Comical Heathen Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Comical Heathen Podcast?
The Comical Heathen Podcast is created and hosted by comicalheathen.
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