Used to love this podcast when it was about religion, spirituality, and dogma. Many former hosts are no longer on the podcast and the quality has suffered in my opinion. Lately it seems to be a mix of discussing religion and spirituality with a lot of talk about sex and gender. I thought there was another ACA show dedicated specifically to the topics of sex and gender. However it seems to come up a lot on this podcast and when a caller doesn’t agree with the hosts it seems that the hosts get defensive, cut the caller off, and often times end the call. The hosts seem to push their own ideas on the subjects of sex and gender as though their opinion is the only acceptable opinion. Those that hold a different opinion are met with hostility. The hosts often chastise believers and label them as “closed minded” but on the matter of gender and sexuality the hosts often respond in ways that seem very close minded. I still listen but not nearly as often.

The random, middle of a sentence ads make the show almost unlistenable. I get that ads are impor”do you need a new roof call us now at 999-999-9999” tant but it really interr”hurt in an accident? Workers compensation claim we can help” upts the flow of the show.

Nothing cannot make everything. Ya’ll need to checkout a guy named Ray Comfort. I’m not pushing but just one video on YouTube wouldn’t hurt🖥

Virtually every host of this brilliant show brings something to the table. I’ve been an atheist for over 55 years now and greatly appreciate how the Atheist Experience uses such amazing logic and reason to expose all religions and their holy books for the nonsense and harm they foist upon the world. I’ve added this podcast to my list of game changers a year ago and can’t get enough.

The current hosts could learn a few things by going back and listening to Matt and Tracie.

I wish everyone was as smart and curious as these guys. It makes me feel sorry for the callers. They are like fish getting shot in a barrel.

Not sure what’s going on now but they need a reboot.

Lost a great host when Matt left. I grew bored after. Other things more interesting to listen to now.

Cant thank yall enough for the time and effort yall put into these shows! Everyone is amazing to listen to…thank you! Oh and…I miss Matt terribly…its jus not the same without him 😩

I’ve not listened for a super long time, but it’s also not surprising to me that the hosts eventually get a bit tired of hearing the same bad arguments repeatedly. If you wish to learn how to make a persuasive argument, you should listen. However, if you may be offended by someone saying you haven’t yet convinced them to your side of some argument, perhaps you should avoid this show. That being said… I claim that honest humans can learn from listening to these discussions.

Now that a certain permanently angry and prosecutorial host is off the scene, the quality of the show has increased dramatically. It’s so much better to see hosts treat people compassionately rather than as enemies of all that is good in the world.

The quality of hosts has drastically declined over the past ten years I hope the new ones are better

Good show, but the talent level for all the ACA show hosts has declined in recent years.

The show just isn’t as fun without Matt.

One of my favorite podcasts.

Matt is seriously unhinged. Now that he’s gone the show is much better. Hopefully he left to get some therapy/anger management.

Wow. The hosts are unbelievably dismissive, arrogant and disrespectful of any real and true conversation or debate. Hostile and unlistenable - disappointing.

👏🏼

I am a former evangelical Christian turned agnostic. This show has been instrumental in breaking down the things I have faith in and whether or not I have good reason for believing those things. It gracefully handles ignorance, false info & unsupported “facts” & “arguments”. I’ve been delighted to hear several callers bring up arguments I once held to be “evidence” for my beliefs. The hosts have carefully & intelligently made mincemeat of them all. I want to shout out Jenna Belk. I recently listened to an older episode that she cohosted. A gentleman called in with some absolutely revolting things to say about LGBTQ+ people being dangerous to society & that they were taking away the rights of Christians. Jenna handled this call with class, grace & love. She didn’t yell, she didn’t insult the caller or become angry. Instead she asked more questions & asked the caller to question his problematic views & whether they comported with reality. I applaud her. I’m LGBTQ+ and I don’t know that I would have been able to hold my cool. If your approach to this show is to stick to your guns no matter what evidence is presented, this show will make you angry. If you approach this show with a willingness to be wrong, to say “I don’t know” & to be challenged this show could change your life for the better as it did mine. Thank you to everyone for your diligence, hard work, patience to keep having these conversations & continued fight to bring logic & critical thinking skills to the world.

This is gold - I love how common biases are demolished in an instant ❤️

Listened to the recent episode with Forrest and really enjoyed his insight, background, and approach. Please have him on again!!

I’m an atheist who listens every week. I used to be Catholic, and this podcast is a great replacement to Catholic Answers Live. It’s nice to learn about reality rather than theology. I had to get used to Matt Dillahunty’s fiery nature, but his arguments are good.

These guys have some idea of how to argue, but people are looking not only for arguments but what kind of people make these arguments. Some of these guys are jerks to their callers and this stops them from getting into complex, really good arguments. I wonder if they can’t get into them because what argument can you have about having an anti-opinion? What I would like to see answered is the question of where did everything come from? What started the Big Bang? To say something could come from nothing is as big a mystery that God is it not? Also, with one caller, they didn’t understand the argument that there are other ways of knowing besides science. That would be awesome to address. There can be no conversation if people think there are different ways to get to truth and one party is not aware of this.

Pretty good show challenging believers in the supernatural to prove their positions. Spoiler alert: it’s impossible. The only issue I have is the religious dedication to woke themes and editorial.

Aggressive God haters who reject anything Christians say.

I used to be a huge fan of this show and watched every episode religiously. Over the past couple of years I’ve unsubscribed because it feels like they talk more about LGBTQ rights and veganism than atheism anymore. Such a shame they gone woke :(

Matt needs his own show. He is way to smart for these callers. He gets Way too triggered when they don’t answer his questions immediately…… changed for about 4 episodes, now he’s right back at it…. He’s like the atheist version of Darth Dawkins …. Darth Dillahunty

This is my favorite podcast and listen every week. I always learn so much and I wish I would have come across this podcast when I was still a pastor. It would have sped along my deconversion a bit. It is so honest and straight forward. I absolutely love it! I highly recommend. Matt is amazing and incredibly intelligent.

Matt has to keep people on topic over and over again. He can’t spend the entire time talking to the same person. I’m with him, get a pastor to call in and prove god exists. After all, they’re the experts. Matt would do to them what he does to all the ill informed. Listen to his debates if you want proof.

Matt is like my father. Willing to teach, but doesn’t tolerate shenanigans. I love listening to him and the whole team every week. Thanks!

Listened to one episode. The hosts kept assuming atheism to deny theism. Then they followed up by muting their caller, and refusing to let him talk or form an argument. The whole display was very childish. Just came here to hear good opposition, and two-sides arguments. Instead got an earful of cancerous nonsense and bullying. Audio quality is good, so that’s something, I guess.

This is my first time listening and I’m completely and totally in love!!! ❤️❤️

I myself question the religion complex of the world and I thought that this podcast would be a place where two opposites would have a reasonable debate on the topic.... that is no longer the case. The hosts of the show usually reject all religious claims and don’t really give the religious callers time to articulate and explain themselves without being rudely interrupted repeatedly. While the host are intelligent, I simply believe they do not have the patience nor ability to hold a reasonable debate without interruption of the caller and just ignoring much of what they say and writing it off. The worst part is that they believe they are having fair, reasonable debates. This is a good podcast for those that have a strong distain for the religious. I have unsubscribed because I can no longer listen to out of sync, suppressed, one sided debates.

I came to listen to intelligent debate and insight. Wrong podcast I guess. After only a few episodes, I’m out. I don’t have time to listen to a host and guests repeatedly over talk the callers. Matt reminds me of the abhorrent Bill O’reilly. Unlistenable.

Highlight of my Sunday! Keep it up

Ironically, the biggest issue this show has is that it's barely tolerable, amid the incessant virtue signalling and intolerant social justice warring. I get that the atheist community shares some similarities with other marginalized groups, but it doesn't mean all of those other groups' concerns are also directly relevant to theism and theistic edutainment. It's why the rich diversity of thought, personality, and talent abandoned the show in a 2019 mass exodus. It's why other shows like the once enjoyable Talk Heathen became unlistenable sjw tripe. Their varied hosts were the envy of every online show and reason behind the success of Axp. Now, we're left with a dollar and change of hosts; Matt being the full dollar, and the myriad others (to be generous) mere amateur Matt imitators adding their two cents each. Sadly, even the admittedly brilliant Matt is too omnipresent, and often seems to equivocate his many peripheral social views with the same irrefutable, immovable grounding of his theistic stances, to the point that should any caller step on (or even near) one those many sjw landmines and deviate from Matt's own views, the caller is immediately disqualified from participating in a discussion of theism; written off as some mentally unfit or ignorant fool incapable of or at least absent any reason. That, or callers are quickly dismissed because Matt already has a Patreon video on the topic somewhere else on the internet; again a one way conversation. Nearing my limit of tolerating the intolerance. What made this show great was diversity of host and guest. What once helped me was solid, consistent teaching of reason, not trendy identity politics or theatrical histrionics.

Used to love it, now not so much. I just find that I have a very low tolerance for virtue signaling type behavior, and I feel that the show used to teach people how to think. But now, they tell people what they’re allowed and not allowed to think, under the guise of “we’re teaching you how to think”. I think logic should be applied to all circumstances. And the world is grey. But I find that too much of what the ACA supports/speaks about now is just “accepting” things if they sound social justice-y. And I believe a lot of the things they claim are “scientific” or supported by evidence they’re going to find out later, is false.

If you’re new to the program and a Theist, I would suggest only listening to shows that do not feature Matt. He’s a childish, blowhard. He’s no better than any average Atheist sitting on their own couch spouting their opinion. Why people think he’s hot stuff is beyond me. Other then that, the rest of the hosts can sometimes be worth listening to. However, I would never suggest this show to any Theist who might be looking to delve deeper into Atheism. The show is elementary at best. This is my Atheist opinion.

More of a show about how to think and not what to think.

I found them on YouTube and can’t get enough. In a world lacking logic and reason, this is a huge breath of fresh air. Thank you for all you do.

Shannon and Matt didn’t even let some guy give his view on abortion at all. They let people give they’re views on religion but any liberal topic there is no alternate opinion allowed to even be expressed. These liberals have a freedom of speech issue. Obviously this is a private show that can do so but it’s a liberal problem and they are liberals. Shannon said that the guy should be willing to let EVERYONE have his blood and organs since he was advocating that a woman is responsible for the life that SHE started by having sex. The caller did not bring EVERYONE to life and is therefore not responsible for every life. How STUPID! I’m sure the caller WOULD give his blood and organs to his children that he is responsible for. Stop being so dishonest and stop silencing people that don’t agree with your POLITICAL views. Liberals use government like religion. They are just as bad as the religious conservatives.

This show used be great, but it seems like Matt has become increasingly unhinged lately. Gone are the days when Matt calmly and systematically dismantled fallacious arguments using philosophy, logic, reason and wit. Now, callers can hardly get a word in without being interrupted and yelled at. Don’t get me wrong, some people need to be hung up on - but Matt no longer has any patience for his callers. Maybe Covid has forced him to isolate himself for so long that he’s losing his mind, but the show is getting really hard to listen to.

The country has a lot to thank you all for, as well as thanks to the ACA.

Hard to listen to Matt. He’s so angry and disrespectful. If you like hearing conversation and not angry rants try David Smalley.

I love this podcast most of the time I listen. The hosts are highly effective in applying critical thinking and skepticism to the claims of various religious doctrines. It’s not just entertaining; it’s thought provoking and educational. My one reservation, and the reason for 4 stars, is that the hosts come off as pedantic in some of the calls, to the extent that they end up hacking down the outer edges of a premise, missing an opportunity to criticize the bigger and more interesting point that never makes it out of the callers mouth. This approach dismisses callers more for their plodding argumentative technique than the core failure of their reasoning. It seems like excessive rage over minutiae that could be easily corrected by restating the proposed argument with better wording or clarity, getting confirmation, and continuing forward.

I would love to see more hosts from all over the world if possible but best podcast ever.

Great conversations. Enlightening. Empathetic. Excellent demonstrations of critical thinking. Matt is especially good at using the calls to educate the audience but each of the other hosts also bring significant talents. Deserves a far wider audience.

Jenna not ready for prime time.

THANK YA‼️

I’m sad to say that after 13 years of listening to TAE, I’ve finally unsubscribed. In recent years Matt has becoming increasingly inpatient with his guests and resorts to yelling at them within about 2 minutes. This has always been the case to some extent, but has really seemed to worsen lately. The show is still a good primer to atheist thought, but the movement could use a much more measured leader than Matt.