Losing Our Religion

Fellow Loser Austin writes in while he’s sitting in church. The Pastor is talking about homosexuality and Austin, shaking, wonders if he’ll ever be accepted. Is he crazy? How can he cope? SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: Will I Ever Be Accepted? How Can I Cope?: Zac Gandara "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott LOSER DEALS: Save 50% on QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to Support It? Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podca

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. A Fellow Loser sends in a Big Think video featuring Kurt Andersen talking about how the Christian Right has seriously harmed the perception of science American politics. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire: A 500-Year History by Kurt Andersen THIS EPISODES SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: How Religion Turned American Politics against Science: Zac Gandara: Kurt Andersen Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to tell us what to think, but has anyone taught us how to think? Examining the worlds greatest thinkers is a great place to start. Send us thinkers you'd like us to feature. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-Mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us

An empath is described in SciFi as a person with the paranormal ability to apprehend the mental or emotional state of another individual. Strangely, psychologists use this term as well. I think therapy happens when they talk, let's find out. Jess is an empath, mom, and band manager. She grew up and survived hardcore domestic abuse and came out of it functioning, healthy, happy, and successful. CONTACT THE GUESTS: Jess McMahon - MatrixFlex Management MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff FULL SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 196: When Empaths Talk, Therapy Happens: Jess McMahon DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. FOLLOW US: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL CONTENT:

Fellow Loser Nick, calls in to talk about his new position at work, wondering if it’s possible to work alongside difficult people and lead them while not being difficult himself. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Dealing with Difficult People (HBR Emotional Intelligence Series) by Harvard Business Review,Tony Schwartz, Mark Gerzon. SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: Dealing with Difficult People and Leading Without Being a Dick: Zac Gandara "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott LOSER DEALS: Save 50% on QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Self-Employed Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want t

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. I once was told that the only things we have control over are our thoughts and energy/effort. I have since added our focus, and time to the list. What do you think? Do you agree that we have control over these things? Let’s talk about it! MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: First Things First Paperback by Stephen R. Covey THIS EPISODES SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: Do We Have Control Over Anything?: Zac Gandara Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to tell us what to think, but has anyone taught us how to think? Examining the worlds greatest thinkers is a great place to start. Send us thinkers you'd like us to feature. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-Mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to Support It? Support the podcast by l

Jess is an empath, mom, and band manager. She grew up and survived hardcore domestic abuse and came out of it functioning, healthy, happy, and successful. CONTACT THE GUESTS: Jess McMahon - MatrixFlex Management MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: The Empath's Survival Guide: Life Strategies for Sensitive People by Judith Orloff FULL SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 195: Success as An Empath After Growing Up Around Abuse: Jess McMahon DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. FOLLOW US: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL CONTENT: Join our email list. Music Featured in this Episode: LOR Theme Song by Rat Queen and Manager by Digi G'Alessio. This podcast is made possible by the producers of the CounterCulture Society and created and hosted by @ZacGanda

We get emails or messages from fellow Losers every week sharing with us what the show means to them and how it’s helping them. It’s past time that we hear those emails on the show. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Confessions of a Funeral Director: How the Business of Death Saved My Life by Caleb Wilde SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: The Mail Bag: Thoughts and Questions: Zac Gandara "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to Support It? Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping thro

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. In life, transitions are inevitable. We can’t avoid change. It comes for us no matter what. Change often happens when we decide to heal our traumas when we learn how to care for and love ourselves — taking on the task of finding ourselves and giving ourselves control of our lives again. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Zac's Post on Transition. “In the process of letting go, you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.” - @deepakchopra “Finding yourself and lead to confusion, because who you are is always changing. It is to our greater benefit to focus our efforts on freeing ourselves for. The burdens of past pain and patterns that do not serve our happiness.” - Yung Pueblo THIS EPISODES SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: Transitions and Finding Yourself Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to

Chris and Christina Sellers married at a young age were both raised in American Christianity. Their sexualities oppressed and suppressed by the dogma of religion; now they're both finding healing after infidelity and vaginismus. This is their therapeutic story. CONTACT THE GUESTS: Contact Christina Sellers Contact Chris Sellers MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Sex Afflictions & Porn Addictions: 3 Labels Better Than “Sex Addiction" FULL SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 194: How To Heal Your Suppressed Sexuality: Chris and Christina Sellers DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. FOLLOW US: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL CONTENT: Join our email list. Music Featured in this Episode: LOR Theme Song by Rat Queen and Manager by Digi G'Alessio.

A fellow Loser sent me to the new Adam Conover podcast Factually! On it he chats with the founder of Invisible People, Mark Horvath conducts intimate, groundbreaking interviews with people experiencing homelessness. With these interviews, he is educating the less empathetic in hopes of us having a better future together. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: FACTUALLY! with Adam Conover: Homelessness, Building Empathy and the Lizard Man of Hollywood Blvd with Mark Horvath. SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: Fixing Homelessness, Empathy, Helping Others: Zac Gandara: Mark Horvath "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. We dive into five philosophies to get an overview of some schools of thought to add to our critical thinking toolbox — Nihilism, Existentialism, Stoicism, Hedonism, and Marxism. Also, fellow Loser Jennifer calls into to encourage us all in our growth and healing from the traumas of narcissism. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: 10 schools of philosophy and why you should know them... THINKING THURSDAY: The Second Sex: Men and Women are Equal: Simone de Beauvoir THINKING THURSDAY: Valuing Life, This Shared Existence: Albert Camus THINKING THURSDAY: Questioning Western Philosophy: Martin Heidegger THINKING THURSDAY: Life is Short, and We Killed God: Friedrich Nietzsche THIS EPIOSDES SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: 5 Schools of Philosophical Thought We Should Know: Zac Gandara Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to tel

Chris and Tina fell in love as teenagers in a Christian Mega Church. As they’ve deconstructed their past faith together, they realized how much the suppression of sex through purity culture in Christianity not only stifled their sex life but almost ruined their relationship. In this episode, we talk about how to recover your sex life after religion. FULL SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 193: Recovering Your Sex Life After Religion: Chris and Christina Sellers DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. FOLLOW US: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL CONTENT: Join our email list. Music Featured in this Episode: LOR Theme Song by Rat Queen and Manager by Digi G'Alessio. This podcast is made possible by the producers of the CounterCulture Society a

Former show guest Lillith Starr posted this article “How the concept of forgiveness is used to gaslight women.” It’s a perfect meltdown for those of us who have been silenced and been gaslighted because we were hurt. SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: How the Concept of Forgiveness is Used to Gaslight: Zac Gandara: Sophia King "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to Support It? Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCu

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. A fellow Loser wrote to tell me about Esther Perel on Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard. I loved it. Then my therapist mentions Esther Perel to me, encouraging me to watch her TED Talk. Here is an excerpt from her episode; let's talk about it. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Armchair Expert with Dax Shepard Episode 101: Esther Perel Esther Perel - TED Talk SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: Guilt and Shame in Relationships are a Sign of Toxicity: Zac Gandara: Esther Perel Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to tell us what to think, but has anyone taught us how to think? Examining the worlds greatest thinkers is a great place to start. Send us thinkers you'd like us to feature. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-Mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love

We're back with our Atheist friends Colleen and Rebecca. We get into a conversation around communal liturgies, having community, the connection of all things, the benefits of religion, and what fills the void of religion when we leave. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Richard Rohr - Franciscan Monk on a Universal Christ with Pete Holmes Trekonomics: The Economics of Star Trek by Manu Saadia The Universal Christ: How a Forgotten Reality Can Change Everything We See, Hope For, and Believe by Richard Rohr FULL SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 192: Labeling, Dabbling, Connecting: Aspects of Our Humanity: Colleen Sullivan and Rebecca Comegys DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. FOLLOW US: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL CONTENT: Join our email l

Show producer, former guest, fellow Loser, and Gay Scientist friend of the podcast, Michael Schmitt comments on last weeks Meltdown regarding "Straight Pride." "Equality for me as a gay minority doesn’t mean that rights are being taken away from a straight white person. Equality isn’t a piece of pie." - Michael Schmitt "When us gays don’t have to reference an HRC site to figure out where a State stands on our humanity then there’s equality." - Michael Schmitt SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: Honoring Minorities: Gay Pride: Straight Pride: Zac Gandara: Michael Schmitt "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. Growing up, I was told, "Satan is the author of confusion," that "There is only one truth." Perhaps that was incorrect? What do you think? Maybe it's time to put those teachings through our critical thinking machine? "Oh, Lord, save us from the ones who have the answers! Save us from the righteous! Save us from the do-gooders! Confusion is our salvation. For the confused, there is still hope. Hang on to your confusion. In the end it is your best friend, your best defense against the deathliness of others’ answers, against being raped by their ideas. If you are confused, you are still free." - David R. Hawkins MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Letting Go: The Pathway of Surrender by David R. Hawkins M.D. Ph.D SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: How to find the truth. Stay confused?: Zac Gandara: David R. Hawkins Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live

Colleen and Rebecca grew up together in Fresno, California. Rebecca, attending an evangelical youth group, loved her Catholic friend Colleen and wanted to save her from the religiosity of Catholicism. Now they’re both proud atheists taking on the task of describing their atheism to others. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Richard Rohr - Franciscan Monk on a Universal Christ with Pete Holmes FULL SHOW NOTES: EPISODE 191: Label Me an Atheist: Colleen Sullivan and Rebecca Comegys DO YOU LOVE THE PODCAST? JOIN US WITH SUPPORT. Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate to the Podcast. Join the CounterCulture Society and become a Producer through our Patreon. FOLLOW US: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LosingOurReligionPodcast.com. RECEIVE WEEKLY EMAIL CONTENT: Join our email list. Music Featured in this Episode: LOR Theme Song by Rat Queen and Manager by Digi G'Alessio. This podcast is made possible by the producers of the

With the continual resurgence of a “straight pride month,” I’d like to talk about why gay pride is so crucial to straight people. What we can learn from it and why it should inspire all of us. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: Why Pride Month is Important by @CaseyJGiven SHOW NOTES: MONDAY MELTDOWN: Why Gay Pride is Important for Straight People: Zac Gandara "You own everything that happened to you. Tell your stories. If people wanted you to write warmly about them, they should have behaved better." - Anne Lamott Monday Meltdown is Our Weekly Chat with Each Other: Your Questions, Confessions, Comments and Meltdowns. Join the Monday Meltdown show with your questions, comments, meltdowns, or confessions. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to Support It? Support the podcast by leaving us a Rating & Review on iTunes or your podcast app. Do your Amazon shopping through our links. Donate t

Thinking Thursday’s are about critically thinking, breaking out of boxes, and discussing new ways we could live this life together. Former show guest John Criscitello posted an image about relationship mental health to kick off this June’s LGBT Pride Month. Originally posted by Jen Moff, we take a look at it and ask if it’s what we think healthy relationships are. MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE: LGBTQ PRIDE MONTH - RELATIONSHIP MENTAL HEALTH @john.criscitello.studio SHOW NOTES: THINKING THURSDAY: What Make’s a Healthy Relationship?: Zac Gandara: Jen Moff: John Criscitello Thinking Thursday: Thinking Thursday is about learning how to think. We live in a world where people like to tell us what to think, but has anyone taught us how to think? Examining the worlds greatest thinkers is a great place to start. Send us thinkers you'd like us to feature. Call 206-395-5608 and leave us a message. E-Mail us zacg@LosingOurReligion.org or message any of our social pages (links below). Do You Love the Podcast and Want to S