Unreasonable

• Finale: Postmortem For A Country...And A Podcast

  What did you do on inauguration day? If you’re like us, you were seeking shelter from the impending storm, some sort of diversion to preserve your mental health before the inevitable onslaught to come. At Unreasonable, we went into the studio as a team to discuss the sunsetting of the podcast, what we all plan to do now, and to vent.And we all have very different responses to our current situation; one of them might align with yours, whether it’s disillusion, rage, nihilism, or a holding on to some semblance of hope. We’ll all continue our activism, but along very different lines.Join us one last time. And thank you for listening.Support the show

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• "The End (Is Only The Beginning)" with Andrew Seidel

  As Unreasonable's production comes to a close, and American democratic norms shift towards theocracy, we sought perspective, a calmer voice that might, while acknowledging the darkness, also offer a glimmer of hope.Andrew Seidel is no stranger to Unreasonable listeners. He is Vice President of Strategic Communications for Americans United for Separation of Church and State and a constitutional attorney who’s defended the First Amendment for more than a decade. He is the author of two books: The Founding Myth: Why Christian Nationalism Is Un-American (2019) and American Crusade: How the Supreme Court is Weaponizing Religious Freedom (2022). In December, 2023 he closed out our first season. This episode bookends that one. This time David and Christina talk to Andrew about the cases AU is gearing up for in a second Trump administration, the practical implementation of Project 2025, the future complexion of the Supreme Court, AU's recent legal victories and what clues they might hold for future success as we enter America's darkest period.Support the show

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  54:04
• "Secularism Without Cynicism" with Sasha Sagan

  As we enter what promises to be an era of American-style Christo-fascism, it's hard for secular people -- people of reason, of science, who believe that faith is earned by evidence -- to not be cynical of those whose deeply held yet unproveable (indeed, improbable) beliefs will soon be determining our laws and dictating our behaviors.Yet, without hope there is only despair. So as we turn the page on 2024, a year of frustration followed by cautious optimism followed by grief for some/surrender for others, we at Unreasonable are like moths seeking the light. Our flame? Sasha Sagan. Sasha is a television producer, filmmaker, writer, and speaker on the ways science can inform our celebrations and how we mark the passage of time, inspired in part by the work of her parents, Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan.Her podcast “Strange Customs” explores why we practice the rites of our ancestors, act them out, teach them to the next generation, often without questioning them. "When we take a step back, however, what can seem bizarre, arbitrary…can also be, sometimes, profoundly beautiful.”Our holiday gift to you: a ray of reason-based sunshine for these gloomy times. Support the show

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• "Is Israel A Theocracy?" with Bernard Avishai

  Whatever your position is on Israel, on Zionism, on Hamas' attacks on October 7, 2023 or Netanyahu’s prosecution of the war in Gaza, it's undeniable that Israel had an outsized influence on our recent presidential election.And it's ironic that our greatest ally in the Middle East, that tiny state described as the only functioning democracy in the region, may well have been a major contributor to the undoing of American democracy. How did the promise of Israel become the problem of Israel? Unreasonable executive producer and this episode's guest host, Bennett Windheim, spoke with political economist, educator and author Bernard Avishai and asked: Is Israel a theocracy, and are there cautionary lessons for America to learn?Avishai is the Visiting Professor of Government at Dartmouth and former adjunct Professor of Business at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. He’s taught at MIT and Duke. A Guggenheim fellow, he is the author of several books including 'The Tragedy of Zionism,’ 'A New Israel,' and 'The Hebrew Republic.' He is a former editor of the Harvard Business Review and contributes regularly on matters of political economy and Israeli affairs to the New Yorker, The New York Review, The Nation, the New York Times Magazine, and Harper's, for which he wrote last year’s captivating report entitled “Israel’s War Within: On the Ruinous History of Religious Zionism.” Support the show

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  1:05:37
• "How Religious Organizations Game The IRS" with Prof. Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer

  Despite the New Testament’s recording of its main character making a clear distinction between what man owes his government (taxes) and his lord (devotion), in real life it’s never quite worked out that way. Churches have been tax-exempt since time immemorial. Today, the very idea of asking houses of worship to pay their fair share is a non-starter. Much like asking this country to elect a woman president.At a time when the IRS is stretched thin and overwhelmed by its own complexity, religious organizations are leveraging loopholes to take advantage of the tax code and pastors are increasingly, and egregiously, flouting electioneering from the pulpit (an activity restricted by the Johnson Amendment). Further, the incoming administration has already made clear its intent to declare nonprofits that oppose its policies terrorist organizations, thereby stripping them of their nonprofit status and thus their ability to collect tax-deductible donations, their very lifeblood.Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, professor of nonprofit law at Notre Dame University, is our Virgil, guiding us with wisdom and humor through this holy hellscape of taxes and religion.Support the show

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