An actual protest outside Liberty Mutual’s Boston headquarters gives Rabbi Dave a chance to explain his grudge against the emu. It also gives him and Friar Rod an unlikely opening for a serious conversation about infant baptism. Former Irish president Mary McAleese argues that baptism places religious obligations on a child too young to consent. Dave brings a Chabad Jewish perspective on covenant and religious upbringing, while Rod explains what baptism means in Orthodox Christianity. Their discussion turns on how far a church’s authority should extend when a child grows up and chooses a different path.

The two also weigh Gavin Newsom’s plan to commute California’s death sentences, asking what mercy demands of a governor and how victims’ families figure in that decision. Then it’s on to traces of blood chemistry in a dinosaur fossil and the inevitable Jurassic Park detour. AI-made Star Wars shorts, music videos, and a kung fu cat give Dave and Rod a chance to ask how much of what makes a video worth watching still comes down to the person making it.

Six years of What The Frock?, and Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod are celebrating by arguing about whether alligators or coconut crabs would make a worse final encounter. Amelia Earhart probably deserves a more dignified discussion, but she’s landed in this one.

The anniversary episode wanders from the Earhart mystery and a disturbing church accident into AI girlfriends, copyright battles, and the outrage surrounding Shane Gillis’s Saturday Night Live comedy. Beneath the sarcasm is a serious question: what happens to free expression when offending someone becomes grounds for demanding silence?

Dave and Rod also take on Senator Elissa Slotkin’s remarks about Trump administration accountability and the boundary between prosecuting wrongdoing and intimidating political opponents. Along the way, faith, football, and Papa Zimm’s Honey provide opportunities for questionable transitions and increasingly sticky situations.

Join Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod for an anniversary helping of irreverent humor, political skepticism, and an argument about crabs that neither man intends to lose.

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The world ends November 13, 2026. At least, that's what a mathematical prediction from 1960 has everyone talking about. Which raises an important question: Why do we keep listening to people who are spectacularly wrong?

This week on What The Frock?, Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod take on the curious relationship between confidence, competence, faith, and the remarkable human ability to believe almost anything, provided the person telling us sounds sufficiently authoritative.

From self-proclaimed AI experts who recognize people who don't exist to a Washington pastor accused of a $13 million fraud scheme, the conversation turns toward an uncomfortable question: When does faith become an excuse to stop thinking?

Then there's the money. Millions in taxpayer dollars flowing through religious charities, refugee resettlement programs, and social services. Where does compassion end and institutional self-interest begin? Drawing on his own experiences operating a homeless shelter, Rabbi Dave challenges some deeply held assumptions about charity, government funding, and accountability.

Along the way, there's Wisconsin honey, questionable predictions, theological disagreements, and a timely reminder about why you should never, ever taunt a tiger.

It's religion, politics, skepticism, and the occasional complete abandonment of good judgment.

Two men of faith. Plenty of opinions. Absolutely no guarantee of agreement.

Join Rabbi Dave and Friar Rod for another irreverent edition of What The Frock?

Visit WhatTheFrock.org and join the conversation.

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