The Scathing Atheist

by Noah Lugeons

I decided to start this podcast more than a year ago, but because of my own technical inexpertise and a lot of procrastination, we weren’t really able to get it on its feet. I’ve listened to too many poorly-produced podcast full of tinny voices and frustrating hisses to subject the world to yet another. And while I’ll make no claim that the present incarnation of the podcast offers professional sound quality, you can trust me that it’s a vast improvement over the first go-round.

The inspiration to start it was simple. I was looking for a very particular podcast and couldn’t find it. While there were plenty of atheist podcasts out there (and many of them were really good), I couldn’t find the tightly scripted combination of news and humor I wanted. In fact, despite finding several podcasts I became a fast fan of, it seemed that far too many of them were strikingly similar: Two or more hosts doing a loosely bullet-pointed, conversational “stream of consciousness” show where they dug into common apologetics, discussed atheist news items and maybe took a few calls or responded to a few emails.

I don’t want to dismiss these types of show as I actually listen to several of them “religiously”, including The Imaginary Friends Show, The Good Atheist, An American Atheist, The Atheist Experience, Cognitive Dissonance and, my personal favorite, Reasonable Doubts. They’re all solid shows with a lot to add to the community dialogue. And as much as I enjoyed them, I was still constantly searching for another podcast, which I eventually decided to simply make myself.

I have to admit that I wasn’t really sure if anyone would be listening to it. I figured one reason why so many atheist podcasts shared similar formulas was probably because that formula was successful. Still, I wanted to try something a bit different. I’m a big fan of learning new skills, so I figured that the experience would be valuable even if nobody listened to it. But to my delightful surprise, people did listen. Thousands of them, no less.

It seemed the least I could do was offer a sincere “Thank you” to all the people that have listened so far. I appreciate you giving me 30 minutes of your time and I hope that I’ve earned a shot at another 30 minutes of your life next week. The reaction the show is getting is both flattering and humbling, as are all the emails and reviews (so far).

So thanks to everyone who took the time to download and listen. Also, an additional seventeen thanks to everyone who took the additional time to toss a review up on iTunes. No doubt the plethora of reviews is the reason the show has managed to find such a fast audience. If you’ll forgive a moment of pride, I was astonished when I checked earlier today and saw that we were the 3rd most downloaded atheist podcast in iTunes (down from 2nd yesterday, but who’s counting?) and we were showing up prominently in the “New & Noteworthy” section for religion.

A thousand times thank you. I commit that I’ll do everything I can to continue to earn your time. I’ve invested in some equipment upgrades and I’m working hard to produce the best podcast I can offer you, and to be honest, I don’t think I’m even close yet. And if you enjoy the show and want to offer a “your welcome”, there’s an easy way to help. The reviews on iTunes have been instrumental in getting the show in front of so many people, so if you enjoy it and have a few minutes to spare, please help us spread the word.

Oh, and did I mention “thank you”?