Unholier Than Thou

Join Josie Totah, Alycia Pascual Peña, and Yasmine Hamady – three young actresses, disruptors, and best friends as they navigate the issues that affect our lives; from hookup culture and social media to structural racism and LGBTQ+ rights. They won’t shy away from diving deep into controversial topics, even turning to their elders – actors, activists, comedians, experts, politicians, 26 year olds – to try to understand the world th...

Happy holidays! To celebrate the ~festive season~, we thought we'd release a fan-favorite: Phill's conversation with Brittany Packnett Cunningham about Jesus. Yes, that Jesus!

As appealing as hunky blondes can be, Phill isn’t interested in worshipping one (well, at least not as the son of God). There's a whole lot of myths about Jesus—and then there's who the Bible ACTUALLY says he was. And turns out, he's kind of a great guy! To he...

On the final episode of this season of Unholier Than Thou, we end where it all began. On the first episode, Phill sat down with his fiancé, Darien, about being a healthcare worker during the first wave of covid. Darien is back, covid is still here, and the world is much changed. He and Phill discuss how being on the frontline worker has changed, and their newly long distance relationship, and how they remain committed to each other...

Alcohol consumption increased 23% during the pandemic, particularly among women and those who live alone. People are cut off from their support systems, and many have lost their income. Without social and financial resources, staying in recovery is hard and entering it can be even harder. This week, we have two stories about recovery. First, we have Odette. Odette is part of an online recovery group called Cafe RE, and over the cou...

This week, Phill is joined by author Reza Aslan to revisit the early aughts in the American imagination. In the wake of America's withdrawal from Afghanistan, how do notions of American exceptionalism hold up? Reza and Phill discuss how Christian imperialism has crept its way into allegedly secular politics, look critically at America's outmoded hero complex, and question to legitimacy of the liberator theology that we carry with u...

And now for something a little different. This week, Phill is joined by a panel of great thinkers, writers, and theologians to tackle a big question: What role does Christianity have in an increasingly secular America? Do we need it? Does it leave room for those of marginalized identities? Does it welcome those who might have left and want to come back? Can it eschew its imperial past and embrace those it has harmed? It sounds heav...

Content warning: This episode contains discussions of suicide

Have you heard the one where the atheist walks into the divinity school? Oh, it’s not a joke, it’s the lived experience of humanist chaplain Chris Stedman. Phill and Chris talk about the pros and cons of organized religion, cultivating community and ritual outside of religious contexts, using the internet to heal after personal tragedy, and finding the divine in pop divas...

Welcome to covid’s Groundhog Day. Every day’s the same and we constantly have six weeks to go before it’s over. But school’s open, traffic is back, and it’s time to start thinking about what the world looks like on the other side. Here to talk to Phill about reentering a very changed and very similar world are writers Michael Arcenaux and Aminatou Sow. They chat about the challenges of creating through disaster, seeing old injustic...

In the inaugural episode of our resurrected show, Phill talks to one of his favorite people in the world: Samhita Mukhopadhyay. Samhita made some big changes during covid (like a lot of us). As Editor in Chief of Teen Vogue, she was at the height of her career: she had the high profile, the platform, the influence. And then? She stepped away. She and Phill dive in to betting on yourself, the lessons of grief, and rebuilding relatio...

Someone must have moved a boulder out of the way, because Unholier Than Thou is back from the dead, baby! And we’re celebrating our resurrection with stories about yours. New jobs, new loves, new mistakes, new realizations, new challenges, new gay people talking about Catholic guilt (not all new — Phill’s still here). Join Phill and a stable of stars, friends, colleagues, and strangers as they try to glean answers from a year full ...

As appealing as hunky blondes can be, Phill isn’t interested in worshipping one (well, at least not as the son of God). There's a whole lot of myths about Jesus—and then there's who the Bible ACTUALLY says he was. And turns out, he's kind of a great guy! To help him dissect the activist Jesus was in his own life, Brittany Packnett Cunningham joins to play a fun Bible game. (The grand prize is kind of a bummer, though.)

Listen to Bri...

It's Hanukkah, listeners, and you're going to plotz when you see this week's guests. First, Phill shmoozes with author, icon, and national treasure Alice Hoffman about the role of Jewish folklore in her work, the resilience of women, and the power of the word (and Practical Magic). Then, Crooked Media founder and all-around mensch Jon Lovett confronts his sins for a (very personal) Am I Going To Hell For This?

For a transcript of th...

The Pope wants you to stay home, but Amy Coney Barrett wants to see your ass in church. We check in with Dan Mach, director of the ACLU Program on Freedom of Religion and Belief, on what the most recent SCOTUS hearing really means about "religious freedom." Then, after an explosive report detailing how the US military is buying the location data of millions of Muslim people, Phill welcomes Joseph Cox, the journalist who broke the s...