ENCORE EPISODE Known for his iconic roles on “The Office” and “Six Feet Under,” actor and author Rainn Wilson joins Scott to discuss his new book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution. In part one of this two-part interview, Rainn explores his upbringing in the Baha’i faith, his frustration with modern spirituality, and why he believes we need spiritual community now more than ever. Join us next week to hear about Rainn’s new show “Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss, now streaming on Peacock.  Guest: Rainn Wilson is an Emmy nominated and SAG award-winning actor, writer and producer who has found himself in a variety of comedic and theatrical roles throughout his career. His first breakthrough role came when he played assistant mortician “Arthur Martin” on HBO’s “Six Feet Under,” winning him and the cast a Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series. Wilson is best known for playing the inimitable ‘Dwight Schrute’ for nine seasons on NBC’s Emmy award winning comedy, “The Office,” a role which garnered him three Emmy Award nominations. Wilson’s book, Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution released on April 25th. In this book, he explores the benefits spirituality gives us in creating solutions for an increasingly challenging world. Wilson can be seen in “Rainn Wilson and The Geography of Bliss” a six-part travel docuseries in which he travels around the world to discover the happiest places on Earth. The series debuted on Peacock on May 18th. Email us at yegodspodcast@gmail.com Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios in association with Dossie Media. Special thanks to Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services and other fun stuff provided by Podbean. Music licensed via Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Byron Katie, in her first book, Loving What Is, introduced to the world what she calls The Work, which, she claims, can bring an end to suffering. Katie's work uses four questions to examine what vexes us. Is it true? Can you really know that it's true? What happens when you believe that thought and who would you be without it? Then come turnarounds in which you consider your answers from alternate points of view. Then come turnarounds in which you consider your answers from alternate points of view. Katie teaches that the ego, which she defines as our Perceived need to protect our identity causes our negative thought loops, and so by  the truth of our thoughts and having compassion for others and ourselves, we may interrupt that flow of rationalization which the ego provides to justify our hurting others or torturing ourselves. Katie's subsequent bestsellers, including A Thousand Names for Joy and I Need Your Love, Is That True?, as well as her global workshop, as well as her global workshops, have lightened life's burdens for millions. And I can say personally that her work helps Stoppard's phrase, to become stark raving sane. In my homily opinion (IMHO): whatever we have to do to tamp down the devils within us and elevate the angels is a price well worth paying. Guest: Byron Katie: In 1986, at the bottom of a ten-year spiral into depression, rage, and self-loathing, Byron Katie woke up one morning to a state of constant joy that has never left her. She realized that when she believed her thoughts she suffered, but when she questioned them, she didn’t suffer, and that this is true for every human being. Since then, she has offered her simple yet powerful process of inquiry, called The Work, to millions of people at free public events, in prisons, hospitals, churches, V. A. treatment centers, corporations, universities, and schools. As she guides people through The Work, they find that their stressful beliefs—about life, other people, or themselves—radically shift. Through this process, Katie gives people the tool to set themselves free. Participants at her nine-day School for The Work report profound experiences and lasting transformations. “Katie’s events are riveting to watch,” the Times of London reported. Eckhart Tolle calls The Work “a great blessing for our planet.” And Time magazine named Katie a “spiritual innovator for the new millennium.” Katie’s books include the bestselling Loving What Is, I Need Your Love—Is That True?, A Thousand Names for Joy, and A Mind at Home with Itself. On her website, www.thework.com, you’ll find basic information about Katie and The Work, Katie’s blog, free materials to download, audio and video clips, a schedule of events, and a free helpline with a network of facilitators. Email Scott: YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com. Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ENCORE EPISODE. What Scott loves most about conversations with Paul F. Tompkins is that they can discuss the most serious of topics without either of them ever pulling a long face. And so this quote from playwright and screenwriter Ben Hecht seems apropos: “People who sweat when they think, and to whom an idea comes with all the impact of a toothache, refuse to believe that gaiety and not pain may be the mark of intellect.” Amen, Ben. All that's solemn isn't wise. All that's wise isn't solemn. Wisdom often sings and laughs and even giggles. Guest: Paul F. Tompkins is best known for voicing characters on The Simpsons, Netflix’s Bo Jack Horseman, for creating HBO’s Mr. Show with Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, hosting VH1’s Best Week Ever and myriad podcasts including Stay F. Homekins with Janine Haddad, Threedom with Scott Aukerman and Lauren Lapkus. Check out his live variety show Varietopia.  In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott Carter reflects on Paul’s broken-hearted mother who, after living her entire life as a devout lamb of the Catholic flock, questions God and flees the fold calling it all BS. She's now passed on, which raises the questions: If there is a God, who does God side with? A woman asking questions in good faith or His church in which she'd stopped believing? Does religion today fail many who come to it with broken hearts and just do not get healed?  Send your thoughts (and prayers) to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com. Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Scott met Nayyera Haq when he produced HBO's Real Time, and she was always a smart and insightful guest on a range of social and political topics. She is a highly accomplished professional (see below), a doting mother, a devoted wife and a proud Muslim American. Her parents – a physician and a public school teacher – immigrated from Pakistan to Staten Island, New York and instilled in her a commitment to public service. From an early age, Nayyera has sought to understand how the American Dream worked for her while others around the world struggle. She credits her upbringing and an application of principles from multiple faiths for the enriched life she leads today.   In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Scott reflects on the shameful tolerance of child labor for some migrant children in the US today. He recalls the lessons of a 1973 short story, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas by Ursula K. Le Guin, which describes a utopian paradise where everyone's permanent happiness is predicated on one child. Guest: Nayyera Haq is an energetic and versatile broadcaster. She is a Producer on CommandZ, a social-impact series directed by Steven Soderbergh. She hosts talk radio on SiriusXM where she connects dots for listeners on local and global issues. A storyteller at heart, Nayyera uses her two decades of experience as a senior diplomat and government official to help people make sense of the world today. She launched and hosted the nightly newscast, The World Tonight and was Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent for the Black News Channel. Nayyera’s insights and personal appeal make her a regular television guest of hosts like Bill Maher, Joy Reid, and Jake Tapper. She publishes in outlets as varied as The Daily Beast, The Washington Post, Refinery 29, and The Root. Nayyera previously served as a Senior Director in the White House and Senior Advisor at the State Department, advising our nation’s top leaders on issues of international security and diplomacy. Email Scott:  yegodspodcast@gmail.com Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ENCORE EPISODE Author and Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles, Steve Leder joins Scott to discuss his book For You When I Am Gone; Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. Scott asks Rabbi Leder about his path to becoming a Rabbi, his personal struggles with mental health, and how he points people to the light when they are in the valley of shadows. Listener advisory: this episode touches on topics that may be sensitive to some including attempted suicide. We can all help prevent suicide. Free and confidential emotional support is available from the National Suicide & Crisis website (988LifeLine.org), or simply dial 988 in the U.S. In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Have you got regrets? Scott has a few. On this week’s IMHO Scott asks if we can bridge the gap between aspiration and action.  Email Scott at YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com Guest: Steve Leder currently serves as the Senior Rabbi of Wilshire Boulevard Temple, a prestigious synagogue in Los Angeles with three campuses and 2,700 families. He is a regular contributor and guest on The Today Show, writes regularly for TIME, Maria Shriver’s Sunday Paper, Woman’s Day Magazine, contributed a chapter to Charles Barkley’s book Who’s Afraid of a Large Black Man?, and has published essays in Town and Country, the Los Angeles Times, USA Today and the Los Angeles Jewish Journal where his Torah commentaries were read weekly by over 50,000 people.  His sermon on capital punishment was included in an award winning episode of The West Wing.  He regularly appears on the Today Show, CNN, NPR and weekly on Spectrum 1 News.  Rabbi Leder received the Louis Rappaport Award for Excellence in Commentary from the American Jewish Press Association and the Kovler Award from the Religious Action Center in Washington D.C. for his work in African American/Jewish dialogue and in 2012 presented twice at the Aspen Ideas Festival. He is the author of four books including More Beautiful Than Before; How Suffering Transforms Us and the recently published For You When I Am Gone; Twelve Essential Questions to Tell a Life Story. Newsweek Magazine twice named him one of the ten most influential rabbis in America but most important to Steve is being Betsy’s husband and Aaron and Hannah’s dad.  He is also a Jew who likes to fish. Go figure. Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw; Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today a conversation of biblical proportions with actress, comedian, author, and producer, Yvonne Orji. Her book, Bamboozled by Jesus: How God tricked me into the life of my dreams is now out in paperback. Scott is someone who's read a lot of celebrity memoirs, some written by friends. This book is different. Yvonne doesn't just recount the peaks and valleys in the upward trajectory of her career. She compares her challenges with the biblical stories and parables that inform her life choices. Can God love you and still leave your prayers unanswered?  yegodspodcast@gmail.com More about BAMBOOZELD BY JESUS: How God Tricked Me Into the Life of My Dreams By Yvonne Orji  "Yvonne somehow found a way to brilliantly weave her humor, insight, courage, and faith into pages that feel like a weekend retreat hanging with your best, boldest, brightest and most blessed girlfriend. Bamboozled by Jesus is real talk about deep faith put in practice from a woman committed to living a life of vision, purpose, service and success."  ―Kerry Washington, actress, producer, & director  Actress, comedienne and now author, Yvonne Orji, hilariously, and with tremendous wisdom, exposes the trials and victories she has experienced on the way to the life of her dreams, in her memoir, BAMBOOZLED BY JESUS. Whatever greatness, whatever joy we may hope for, Yvonne is here to tell us that God has something even bigger and better in store for us, if we can just trust Him and be open to having our minds blown by His goodness, His creativity, and His knack for surprises! Orji takes readers on a journey through twenty-five life lessons, gleaned from her own experiences and her favorite source of inspiration: the Bible. But this ain’t your mama’s Bible study!  Whether you're a college graduate coming up with your "next step" or a 30-something experiencing a sudden change in career or relationship status, Yvonne is here to remind you God has custom-designed your life to be magnificent, and by default, the magnificent is uncertain. Living your best life forces you beyond your capacity and demands reckless abandon of your comfort zone.  Yvonne infuses wit and heart in sharing pointers like why the way up is sometimes down, and how fear is synonymous to food poisoning. Her joyful, confident approach to God will inspire everyone to catapult themselves out of the mundane and into the magnificent. Yvonne's story will encourage you to believe that more is possible for your own life when you let go and embrace the adventure.  Along with her own captivating stories, Yvonne takes a thoughtful look into the lives of some of her favorite characters from the Bible, breathing new life and fresh perspective into familiar stories about bravery, resilience, and taking risks. If you're truly ready to live a life beyond your wildest dreams, hold on for the ride and be prepared to be bamboozled into a new way of thinking about embracing your unique destiny. Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer, Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer, Selena Lauterer; Associate Producer, Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ENCORE EPISODE: Journalist, co-author with Bob Woodward of “Peril”, and Chief Election & Campaign Correspondent for CBS News Robert Costa joins Scott to discuss his Catholic upbringing and how faith brings him a respite from dark times. He muses on his reluctance to talk about himself in his reporting and his dedication to facts and objectivity in every story. Scott and Robert also get into his reporting on the religious right and his understanding of the politics of the conservative Christians in the GOP.  In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Judge not, lest ye be judged. But sometimes we can’t help it. Scott discusses the final season of HBO’s Succession and how Logan Roy’s “suspicions” about the afterlife sparked comparisons to real life media moguls Rupert Murdoch and Sumner Redstone. Email your suspicions to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com   Guest: Robert Costa is the Chief Election & Campaign correspondent for CBS News, where he covers national politics and American democracy. Based in Washington D.C., he is a regular contributor to the "CBS Evening News with Norah O'Donnell," "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," "CBS Mornings," and "Sunday Morning," as well as to CBS News Streaming programs such as "Red & Blue." Before joining CBS News in 2022, Costa and reporting legend Bob Woodward co-wrote "Peril," which was published by Simon & Schuster in September 2021. The book documented the tumultuous transition between the Trump presidency and the Biden presidency and was a No. 1 New York Times bestseller. It was also cited in congressional subpoenas issued by the House committee investigating the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol. From 2014 to 2021, Costa was a national political reporter at The Washington Post. Costa served as the moderator and managing editor of "Washington Week" on PBS from 2017 to 2020.  Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

On each episode of YE GODS, Scott Carter starts with the same question: If life is a mystery, whodunit?  No one knows what happens when we die, neither the devout believer nor the fervent atheist.  This special episode presents excerpts from past interviews in which guests have described experiences of forces connecting them to unexplainable energy – some say the work of God, some say maybe something else. But each has an unshakable sense of connecting to a powerful...something. You'll hear from writer producer Larry Wilmore, Emmy winning actress Patricia Heaton, novelist and podcast host Jack Wilson, conservative radio host Eric Erickson,  and journalist Ana Marie Cox. Why limit the size of the miracle you are willing to accept? If you believe in miracles.  Send your stories of miracles and close encounters with the supernatural to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ENCORE - Actress and comic Susie Essman from HBO's Curb Your Enthusiasm joins Scott to discuss praying to the humor gods, the connections between comedy and Judaism, why Larry David the creator of Curb Your Enthusiasm and co-creator of Seinfeld is a sort of Rabbi, plus remembrances of their mutual friend, the late comic genius Gilbert Gottfried.   Guest: Susie Essman has played the sassy Susie Greene for all eleven seasons of the critically-acclaimed HBO comedy series, Curb Your Enthusiasm. Her hilarious bouts of withering sarcasm and uninhibited insults have become her character’s trademark. The Los Angeles Times calls Susie, “The most lyrical purveyor of profanity on television.  She makes the entire cast of  “The Sopranos” look like rank amateurs.  It really is a gift.”  Susie’s streetwise vernacular is perfectly suited for her life in Manhattan where she has been a veteran of the world of stand up comedy for thirty-nine years.  She has appeared in her own half-hour HBO comedy special, made numerous appearances on Broad City, The View, Hacks and The Tonight Show, to name just a few of her many television credits.  She has also acted in numerous films. Susie resides in New York with her husband and one-eyed Shih Tzu. Send your thoughts (and prayers) to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and Host, Scott Carter; Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer and Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ENCORE with Comedian-writer-producer Larry Wilmore who has one of the most impressive resumes in TV from In Living Color, to The Bernie Mac Show, The Daily Show to Blackish and HBO’s Insecure. He now hosts the Larry Wilmore: Black on Air Podcast with The Ringer. He stops by to talk about his epiphany as a door-to-door salesman, his Catholic upbringing and his comedic love of The Marx Brothers and their 1930 classic vaudeville film Animal Crackers. In My Homily Opinion (IMHO): Do we all have a reason why we are here? Scott Carter honors his friend the late and great comedic genius Garry Shandling. Scott tells the story of how writer/director Judd Apatow (Knocked Up, 40 Year Old Virgin), while researching for the documentary The Zen Diaries of Garry Shandling discovered a note from Garry that only Scott could decipher about Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys, and Garry’s legacy as a mentor to Sarah Silverman and many others. Guest: Emmy Award winner Larry Wilmore has been a television producer, actor, comedian, and writer for more than 25 years. He can currently be heard as host of Larry Wilmore: Black on the Air on The Ringer Podcast Network. The show, which premiered in 2017, features Wilmore’s unique mix of humor and wit as he weighs in on the issues of the week and interviews guests in the worlds of politics, entertainment, culture, sports, and beyond. He can also be seen in the Paramount+ film Jerry and Margo Go Large, alongside Bryan Cranston and Annette Bening. He also serves as executive producer alongside Kerry Washington, in the Hulu legal drama Reasonable Doubt for Hulu’s Onyx Collective. Larry is currently in development on the comedy series Lately for ABC, a behind-the-scenes look at the upstairs-downstairs dynamics of the people who work at a late-night talk show. Wilmore released his first book, “I'd Rather We Got Casinos and Other Black Thoughts”, in January 2009. He lives in Los Angeles. Send your thoughts (and prayers) to YeGodsPodcast@gmail.com Ye Gods is produced by Efficiency Studios: Creator and host Scott Carter, Executive Producer Dossie McCraw, Co-Executive Producer Selena Lauterer, Associate Producer Robyn Rose Valentine. Hosting services provided by Podbean. Music licensed by Epidemic Sound. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices